.CENSUS OF INDIA, 1951 ( Madhya Pradesh) BALAGHAT District Census Handbook BY J. D. KERAWALLA, M.Sc. Of the Indian Administrative Service Superintendent of Census Operations, Madhya Pradesh PRINTED AT THE INDIAN PRESS, :LIMITED ALLAHABAD 1952 CONTENTS PAGES Introduction i-iii A.-General Population Tables- 1. Area, Houses and Pop'dlation 1 II. Variation in Population during fifty years 1 III. Towns and Villages c1assi'fied by Population 2 IV. Towns olassified by Population with variation since 1901 3 V. Towns arranged territorially with Population by Livelihood Classes 3 B.-Eeonomic Tables- I. Livelihood Classes and Sub-Classes 4-7 For Total Population 7-19 II. Secondary Means of Livelihood { For Displaced Peroons 19-29 III. Employers, Employees and Independent Workers by Industries and services, Divisions and Sub-divisions. 30-44 The District Index of Non.Agricultural Occupations 45-48 C.-Household and Age (Sample) Tables- I. Household (Size and Composition) 49 For Sample Population 50-55 Livelihood Classes by Age Groups . II. { , . For Displaced Persons 56-61 III. Age and Civil Condition 62-64 Iy,,~8~~Y 65-67 For Sample Population 68-71 V. Single Year Age Returns { For Displaced Persons 71-73 D.~ocial and Cultural Tables­ I. (i) Mother tongue 73-74 I. (ii) Bilingualism 75 II. Religion 76 III. Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Anglo·Indians 76 IV. Migrants 77-80 V. Displaced Persons by District of origin and year of arrival in India 81 VI. Non-Indian Nationals 81 VII. Livelihood Classes, by Educational Standards 82-87 . E.--Summary figures of the District and Tahsils 88-89 The Primary Censv.s Abstract (showing Distribution of thc General Population by Livelihood Class(lB and Literacy, and Number of occupied houses in Vi'llages or Wards). 90-149 Table showing Distribution of Displaced Persons in villages or wards by livelihood classes ]50 Census Abstracts of Small-scale Industries- I. Distribution of Small-scale Industrial Establishments in Villages ;sr. Wards 151-154 II. Employment in Textile Establishments for Census Tracts 155-156 III. Employment in Non.Textile Establishments for Census Tracts 157-158 Classifioation of Agricultural Holdings According to Size 159 "Calendar of Important Events in the District 160 INTRODUCTION In the past, village statir.,tics for each district used I. Cultivators of land wholly or mainly owned;. to be printed after the Census, giving the population of and their dependants. each village and showing the distribution of communities II. Cultivators of land wholly or mainly unowned; and of literate persons. In view of the importance of and their dependants. the 1951 Census, at which, in addition to the usual popu­ III. Cultivating labourers; and their dependants. lation data, valuable information was collected concern· IV. Non-cultivating owners of land; agricultural ing the social and economic life of the people, it was de· rent receivers; and their dependants. cided to publish II> District Census .Handbook containing There are similarly four non.agricultural classes de. the more important Census abstracts and tables. fined as persons including dependants who derive their There are five general population tables of the 'A' principal means of livelihood from- series, three economic tables of the 'B' series, five house­ V. Production other than cultivation. hold and age (sample) tables of the 'C' series, seven VI. Commerce. social and cultural tables of the 'D' series and one table VII. Transport. 'E' giving summary figures for the district and tahsils. VIII. Other services and miscellaneous sources. As far as possible, these tables furnish district data with The above eight elasses have been referred to as liveli- break.up for Census tracts within the district. hood classes. Certain statistics about individual villages in the Each of the above eight livelihood classes has been tahsils are contained in the Primary Census Abstract ' divided into three sub-classes with reference to the eeo- which gives the detailed distribution of the. population nomic status as below ;- in each village according to the economic classification . 'of the people. It also contains particulars about the (i) Self.supporting Persons; literates. A person who eould write a simple letter and (ii) Non-earning Dependants; and could read one in print or manuscript was regarded as (iii) Earning Dependants. a literate person for purposes of the Census. All non.earning dependants are economically passive. The Primary Census Abstract is followed by a simple They include persor,;s performing house·work or other domestic Qr personal services for other members of the table gi ving dist;}bU~l~l! ~L~~)~~d. persons and th~~~effKci~~c:fiferent VIllages of the Sa'tll.e family h01lllehold. But they do not inolude "unpaid district at the time of Census. family workers" or persons who take part along with the members of the family household in carrying on Census statistics of the urban and rural population cultivation or a home industry as a family enterprise. have a variety of important uses. They are of consider. able help in studying the economic conditions, social and All earning dependants are economically semi·active political changes and demographic trends as indicated only. Though they contribute to the carrying on. of by rates of population growth, family characteristics; economic activities, the magnitude of their individual mobility of population, age structure, size and composi. contribution is deemed to be too small to justify their tion of the economie~y active population, and the like. description as economically active. Their contribution The results of such studies in comparing tae conditions to economic activity is, however, taken into account in and characteristics of the urban and rural people in the the tabulation of data in economic table B-II which mMter of births, deaths, sex composition, sanitation. gives details of persons having secondary means ofliveli­ levels of living, etc., would be of great value in economio hood ineluding the details of the. earning dependants. planning and development of social welfare work in the A.H self-supporting persons are, ordinarily. economi­ State and its difterent parts. eanyactive. But there are certain classes and groupe~ EaClh district was, therefore, divided for purposes of th& whieh oonstitute an exception to this rule. These are; Census into a number of rural and urban traots acoording m.mtion~ below:- to the size of the popUlation. Thus, in the Balaghat (i) AU self-supporting persons of Agriculturaf district, as there is no city,' one urban' tract cODsisting Class IV. of all the towns of the district was oonstituted and is (ii) The following groups of self-supporting persons refeued to in the tables as "the Balathat district non­ whp are included in. Non-Agricultural Class VllI city w:ban tract". The rural areas of the tahsils of the 1 and derive their principal means of livelihood Balaghat dietrict form separate Census . tracts and .~~~ from miscellaneous sources (otherwise than < referred to as "Balaghat Tahsil rural", "Baihar Tahsil rural" tracts etc. "through economic activity) ;- (a) Non.working owners of non-agricultural pro­ ~t the 1951 Census, the economic classification was , perty, substituted for the classification based on religion. The (b) Pensioners and remittance holders people have been divided into two broad livelihood cate. t gories, namely, the agricultural classes and the non-agri. '(c) Persons living on charity and other persons (lllitural classes. There are four agricultural classes with unproductive occupations, b.nd , defl.ned as below:­ (d) Inmates of penal institu.tions and asylums. F. B. INTRODUCTION All activities of which the result is the production It will, therefore, be seen that the s~mple is not a of useful oommodities or the performance of useful ser­ f!a~ple of th: total population but is that of the popu­ vices are defined as economic activities. 1'his definition, latIOn exoludmg the displaced persons population. Sepa­ however, does not inolude the performance of domestic rate figures for the displaced persons are given in the or personal services by members of a family household District Census Handbook in all important tables. to one another. The most important amongst all eao·' In considering the Age (Sample) tables, it is to be nomic activities is the cultivation ofland and it has been noted that in the past it was customary to apply a smno­ treated as a category by itself. All other economic acti­ thing formula to the actual age rcturns. '!'he published vities are regarded as falling in another category referred tables contained only the smoothed figures. This was to as "Industries and Services". All these activities arc done in order to ofi"set the observed preference for parti­ classified with reference to the naturc of the commodity cular digits (especially 0) in aetual age returns. At this produced or serv-ioe performed. According to the Indian -Censu,s, no smoothing formu.la has been adopted and the CensUs Economic Classification. Scheme, all industrieA, and -principle followed is that the Census should publish the services are classified into ten divisions; and the'se divi­ information as actually furnished by the people. It will sions are sub-divided into 88 sub-divisions. be observed that certain decennial groups recommended Economically active persons engaged in cultivation by thE) United Nations Popu.lation Commiss.ion whioh are either cultivators or cultivating labourers, and they <include all the digits with the most favoured digit (0) at a,re persons shown under sub-clause (i) of Agric:ultural _the centre have been adopted in the age tables and are Classcs I to III in ecronomio table B-I which gives parti­ therefore, likely to be most free froni the effect of prefe: culars of the population olassified acoording to the eight rences for partioular digits. Single-year age return~ have livelihood classes and three sub-classes mentioned above.