CENSUS OF INDIA. 1951 VoluDle xv MADHYA BHARAY' & BHOPAL - P ART I-A Report BY RANG LAL, B. A., Census Commirstoner, ~Madhya Bharat & Bhopal PRINTED IN INDIA BY THE LA'v PU.BLISHING HOUSE, :\LLAHABAD IN 1957. PUBLISHED BY THE MANACER OF PtJBLICATIO.!'\S, DELliI. NOTE The Statements made, views expressed and conclusions drawn in this Report are wholly the writer's responsibility in his personal capacity and do not represent. the views of the Government concerned. CONTENTS Pag~ Introduction i-vr CHAPTER I General, Population SECTION I -Preliminary Remarks II-Distribution and Density 3 III-Growth of General Population .. (l,. IV~-Movement 14- V-Natural Increase-Births and Deaths 17 VI-Livelihood Pattern 17 VII-Concludirig Remarks IS; CHAPTER II Rural Population I-Preliminary Remarks 21' II-General distribution and distribution among Villages Classified by Size of Rural Population 21 III-Growth 23- IV -Movement 26>, V -:-Jatural Increase Births and Deaths 26> VI-Livelihood Pattern 2& VII -Concluding Remarks 271 CHAPTER III Urban Population I-Preliminary Remarks 29' II-General distribution and distribution among Towns classified by Size of Urban Population 291 III-Growth of Urban Population " 30' IV-Movement 33 V--Natural Increase--Births and Deaths 33. VI-Livelihood Pattern .. 3:t. VII-Concluding Remarks 34 CHAPTER IV Agricultural Classes I-Preliminary Remarks 35- II-Agricultural Population Ratios, Self-supporting Persons and Dependants, Secondary Means of Livelihood of Agricultural Classes 36, III-Relative Proportion of different Agricultural Classes Correlated to Distribution of Land in Agri- cultural Holdings of different Sizes 40, IV--Cuitivators of Land Wholly or Mainly Owned and their Dependants 40' V -Cultivators of Land Wholly or Mainly unowned and their Dependants 4(} VI-Cultivating Labourers and their dependants 41 VII-~on-cultivating Owners of Land, Agricultural Rent Receivers and their Dependants 41' VIII-Active and Semi-active Workers in Cultivation 42' IX-Progress of Cultivation, correlated to the Growth of Population 43, X·-Concluding Remarks 44- CHAPTER V Non-agricultural Classes ~SECTION Page I-Preliminary Remarks 47 II-Non-agricultural Population Ratios, Self-supporting Persons and dependants; Secondary Means of Livelihood of Non-agricultural Classes . 4-7 III-Employers, Employees and Independant Workers; and Employment in Factories and Small Scale Industries 51 IV-Primary Industries other than Cultivation.. 52 V-Mining and Quarrying 52 VI-Processing and Manufacture--Food stuffs, Textiles, Leather and Products thereof 53 VII-Processing and Manufacture-Metals, Chemicals and Products thereof 53 VIII-Processing and Manufacture-Not elsewhere specified 54 IX-Construction alld Utilities 54- X-Commerce 54 XI-Transport, Storage and Communications 55 XII-Health, Education and Pnblic Administration 55 -.xIII-Services not elsewhere specified and Miscellaneolls Means of Livelihood 56 XIV-Concluding Remarks 57 CHAPTER VI Families, Sexes and Principal Age-groups I-Preliminary Remarks 59 II-Territorial Distribution of Houses and Households 59 nI-Size and Composition of Family Households 60 IV-Sex-ratios 61 V-Marital Status Ratio 63 VI-Infants (Aged "0") .. 64- VII-Young Children (Aged 1--4-) 65 VIII-Boys and Girls (Aged 5-14) .. 65 IX-Young Men and Women (Aged 15-34-) 65 X-Middle-aged Persons (Aged 35-54) 66 XI-Elderly Persons (Aged 55 and o\'er) 66 XII-Concluding Remarks 66 CHAPTER VII Literacy I-Preliminary Remarks 69 II-Extent of Literacy in the Natural Divisions and Districts 69 Ill-Literacy in Agricultural and Non-agricultural Classes 70 IV-Educational Services and Research 70 CHAPTER VIII Language I-Preliminary Remarks 73 II-Mother-tongue 73 lI1-Bi-lingualism 74 INTRODuctiON THIS Report embodies the results of the Census of Madhya Bharat and Bhopal taken on the 1st. March, 1951. It forms a part of the XV of the All-India Series of Census Reports and consists of four separate parts of which this volume is the first. Part I-B contains Subsidiary Tables and Parts II-A and II-B contain the Main Census Tables. In addition, two separate Re­ ports have been prepared for departmental use, the first gives a detailed account of the method of enumeration and the second deals with the sorting, compilation and tabulation of the information collected by the Census. The present Census was taken under the provisions of the Indian Census Act, 1948 (Act No. XXXVII of 1948). This Act is a permanent measure and it applies to all the States. No im­ portant change was made in the organisation for the collection of the required information but ra­ dical alterations were effected in the plan of the Census and the scope of the inquiry was considera­ bly extended. The net result of these alterations and additions may be summarised as follows :- (1) The addition of an inquiry as to the head of the household and as to the relation of every individual in the household to the head of the household, (2) The substitution of Livelihood Classes for communities and castes for purposes of the presentation of statistics, (3) The additional requirement for every economically active individual to state whether he was a self-supporting person (that is, whether his earnings were sufficient for his own maintenance), • (4) The additional statement respecting all persons engaged in non-agricultural pursuits, distinguishing masters, those working for a rna stu and those wOlkir,g on their own account without paid assistance, and (5) The use of the sample method for the presentation of statistics relating to household, age, civil condition and literacy by age. A brief description may here be given of the manner in which the Census was taken. The actual work of the Census fell under two main heads :- (a) The collection of the data for which a large army of unpaid workers was improvised, and (b) The compilation and tabulation of results for which a temporary staff consisting of Sorters, Compiler-Checkers, Supervisors etc., was employed. The carrying out of these extensive operations, the delimitation of the area to be covered by each enumerator, the selection and appointment of Enumerators and Supervisors for enumeration work, the arrangements for the training of the enumeration and supervising staff, the printing and distribution of necessary forms, and the transformation of the raw material of the returns into the final tables involved considerable preparations and planning in advance. On this occasion preli­ minary arrangements for the taking of the Census were inititated by the Madhya Bharat Government in May, 1948. The initial step was the preparation of a village or town register in which was shown a com­ plete list of towns, villages and hamlets in each Tahsil, the number of houses and the number oi workers available in each locality. On the basis of this register the whole area of the State was parcelled out into sub-divisions. III doing this the procedure followed at previous Censuses was adopted. The system was again built up on the "House" and the general method was to find a local man to enumerate his neighbours, and to train him to do so. The houses were first grouped into "Blocks", a block containing from 150 to 250 houses each, in charge of an "Enumerator". This was the real Census unit and the enumerator was the individual on whom fell the bulk and brunt of the enumeration work. He it was who came into contact with the general public and who by personal enquiry at each house prepared the Census record of each person residing within his block. Above the block came the "Circle" comprising from 6 to 12 blocks under a "Supervisor" who was responsible for the work of all the enumerators in his circle. Circles were then grouped, ac­ cording to recognised administrative divisions, into "Charges" under "Charge 'Superintendents" who exercised general supervision over the operations and tested and checked the work of their subordinates. The Charge Superintendents whose charges completely cover the whole district area were directly under the District Census Officer. The district corresponded with the Revenue district and the charge was generally co-terminus with the Tahsil. The District Census Officer was the Collector of the District and the Charge Superintendents were, as a rule, Tahsildars. To this there were a few exceptions. First, the cities of Gwalior and Indore were treated as separate Cen. 11 sus Districts; secondly, the towns of Ujjain, Ratlam and Mhow Cantonment were treated as se­ parate charges and thirdly, the Census of Tahsils where settlement operations were in progress was entrusted to the Assistant Settlement Officers. The whole area of the State having thus been accounted for in terms of circles 'and blocks, the next step was the finding of personnel for these sub-divisions. This was done by the Charge Superintendents with the aid of the General Village Register. In point of fact the Supervisors. were appointed first and the Enumerators were selected later with their assistance. In rural tracts the Supervisors and the Enumerators were mostly village officials, school masters, etc. but in some places local men had to be roped in to 'assist. In towns the best possible use was made of the Gov­ ernment and Municipal Establishments, the educated public being called upon to 'help only aftei" these had been exhausted. After appointing the staff, but before finally allotting blocks to each Enumerator, every house in the State was marked with a number and entered up in a list. Spe­ dal importance was attached to the preparation of these lists and district officials had to make very careful inspections to ensure that the work was properly carried out. These lists showed separa­ tely the residential and non-residential buildings and also gave the number of the normal residents of each residential house. After the house-numbering had been completed, blocks were finally allotted to the Enumera­ tors.