HABITATIONS IN RURAL AND URBAN AREAS
A habitation is a distinct cluster of houses with a local name. It is a centre where people live in a compact and contiguous manner. As in the earlier surveys, habitations have been classified into rural and urban ones according to the definitions given in this report. In rural areas, a village (revenue village) may include one or more habitations, one of which may also be having the village name. There may be some villages without any inhabitants at all and such villages are called deserted or bechirag. Habitations with population less than 25 have not been identified separately. For hilly and other sparsely areas, this limit of 25 has been reduced to 10. There may be some isolated houses which could not be attached to any habitation because of the distance factor. A house which is not within a walking distance of 2 km from any habitation has been treated as an isolated house and its population has not been added to any habitation whatsoever. Habitation registers have been prepared in all rural areas at Block/Tehsil/Taluk level. A town or town group has been treated as urban habitation. The definition given by the Census of India for urban areas has been accepted in toto for identifying urban areas. More detailed information has been collected regarding rural habitations as compared to the urban ones. Regarding location of schools, consideration has been given to rural habitations because in urban areas schools do exist already, may be that the distance are not convenient. No urban habitation is left without school.
In the Third Survey, data have been collected from 21 States and 9 Union Territories. The State of Sikkim has not been included in the data that are presented in the succeeding paragraph's and pages. In all 9,53,734 rural habitations have been identified in the Third All- India Educational Survey. The population residing in these habitations is estimated to be 46,53,67,369 on 31.12.1973 (the date of reference). In addition 85.680 isolated houses have been reported in which 5,05,424 inhabitants reside.
According to the Census conducted by the Registrar General's Office, the population of the States and the Union Territories was 54,79,49,809 on 1.3.1971 This date is quite close to the date of reference of the Survey and the estimates are quite good for working out the percentages for rural population. At the time of the 1971 Census, 80.13% people lived in rural areas. At the time of the Third Survey, estimated population living in rural areas formed 80.14% of the total population at that time.
The classification of the rural habitations and their population according to population slabs is presented in Statement 1.
STATEMENT 1
Habitations and population in rural areas
according to population slabs
Population Habitation Population
slabs Number Percentage Population Percentage
1 2 3 4 5
5000 and above 3,838 0.4 2,79,60,686 6.0
2000 to 4999 30,188 3.2 8,30,79,372 18.0
1000 to 1999 82,728 8.7 10,94,82,596 23.4
500 to 999 1,74,142 18.2 11,59,92,919 24.9
400 to 499 73,354 7.7 3,14,58,821 6.8
300 to 399 93,714 9.8 3,19,55,926 6.9
200 to 299 1,25,167 13.1 2,98,95,117 6.4
100 to 199 1,77,923 18.7 2,47,64,924 5.3
Below 100 1,92,680 20.2 1,07,77,008 2.3
Total below
500 6,62,838 69.5 12,88,51,796 27.7
TOTAL 9,53,734 100.0 46,53,67,369 100.0
HABITATIONS IN RURAL AND URBAN AREAS 13
The number of rural habitations having a population 'less than 500' is 6,62,838 which forms 69.5% of the total number of rural habitations and these again have only 27.7% of the rural population residing in them. About one fifth (1/5) of the rural habitations are of the size 'below 100' and these account for only 2.3% of the rural inhabitants.
In the First All India Educational Survey, 8,40,033 rural habitations were identified. The Union Territory of Delhi was treated as partly urban and partly rural. Again, West Bengal, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Goa, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep Island and Pondicherry were not covered in that survey. In the Second Survey, the main report covered all areas except Nagaland, NEFA, A & N Island, Lahaul and Spiti district of Punjab and Mizo Hills district of Assam. At that time Sikkim was not a part of the country. In the Third Survey, data have been collected from all areas in the country except Sikkim for which a separate survey is being conducted. Within the limitations of areas covered, the number of rural habitations identified during the First, Second and Third Surveys is 8,40,033, 9,82,251 and 9,53,734 respectively. In the Second Survey, an increase in the number of habitations was reported and this increase was spread all over the population slabs according to which the habitations have been classified. In the Third Survey, the number of rural habitations reported has decreased from the number reported in the Second. In the upper slab, of course, the number of habitations has decreased as compared to the one in the Second Survey. The decline is there in the number of habitations in the population slab 'less than 500'. In the First Survey, habitations in the slab 'below 500' constituted 81.9% of the total rural habitations. This percentage declined to 76.67% in the Second Survey and 69.5% in the Third. This decline can be accounted for by the fact that with the growth of population, the habitations in the lower slabs have moved on to the higher ones.
Villages identified in the third survey The total number of villages, identified in the Third Survey is 5,81,641 on 31.12.1973. 1971 Census figure for villages is the same and thus there is no change in number of villages reported on two different dates.
Habitations per village In the First Survey, the number of habitations per village was 1.59. The highest number of habitations per village was 2.60 in Madras and the lowest was 1.05 in Assam. In the Second Survey, the number of habitations per village in the country was 1.66. Amongst the States, the highest number of habitations per village was 7.47 in Kerala and the lowest 1.22 in Madhya Pradesh. In the present Survey, the average number of habitations per village comes to 1.64 in the whole country excluding the State of Sikkim.
Urban habitations The total number of urban habitations, identified in the Second Survey was 2,802 and their population in 1961 was 8,19,74,624. As against this, the total number of urban habitations in the present survey is 3,370. The maximum number of urban habitations is 604 in Tamil Nadu. For urban habitations, no estimates for population figures for the date 31.12.1973 have been recorded. The number of persons living in urban areas was 10,90,94,309 on 1.3.1971.