HABITATIONS IN RURAL AREAS
3.1 In all the All-India Educational (AIE) Surveys, the habitation has been the unit for which the availability of educational facilities for various school stages has been considered and discussed. Habitation, as defined in the AIE Surveys, is a distinct cluster of houses existing in a compact and contiguous manner with a local name. A revenue village which is the smallest administrative unit, has been defined in the census as a parcel of land the boundaries of which are defined. A revenue village may have none, one or more than one cluster of houses on its land. Accordingly, the village will have none, one or more than one habitation. In this survey, as in the previous surveys, a habitation with a population below 10 in hilly/desert/sparsely populated areas or with a population below 25 in the plains has not been identified as an independent habitation and its population has been included in the nearest habitation of the same village. When a village has only one habitation, the population criterion is not applied.
3.2 In the Fifth Survey, 9,81,864 rural habitations have been identified as against 9,64,664 identified in the Fourth AIE Survey (1978). There has been an increase of 17,200 (1.78%) habitations over those in the Fourth Survey. These 9,81,864 rural habitations have an estimated population of 59,35,60,310.
Among the States, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number (2,28,690) of habitations, followed by Madhya Pradesh (1,06,291) and Bihar (1,02,137). These three States have in them 4,37,118 (42.52%) habitations. Lakshadweep has the smallest number (seven) of habitations; next to it are Chandigarh (23) and Daman and Diu (64). Two States, viz. Mizoram (616) and Nagaland (997) have fewer than 1000 habitations each.
Of the 9,81,864 rural habitations in the country, 1,61,098 (16.41%) habitations have a population of 1000 or more; 6,23,377 (63.49%) habitations have a population below 500; 3,21,205 (32.71%) habitations including 1,50,705 (15.35%) habitations with a population below 100, have a population below 200. There is preponderance of small-sized habitations in the country.
STATEMENT 3.1
Habitations and Population in Rural Areas In Various Population Slabs
Population No. of Percentage Population Percentage
Slab Habitations with respect to with respect to
Total Habitations Total Population
5000 and above 6407 0.66 48736794 8.21
2000-4999 44072 4.48 125035849 21.06
1000-1999 110619 11.27 150688462 25.39
500-999 197389 20.10 138285986 23.30
Below 500 623377 63.49 130813219 22.04
400-999 72843 7.42 32346781 5.45
300-399 98580 10.04 33758498 5.69
200-299 130749 13.32 31664978 5.33
100-199 170500 17.36 24481476 4.12
Below 100 150705 15.35 8561486 4.45
TOTAL 981864 100.00 593560310 100.00
Habitations with a population of 1,000 or more, which constitute 16.41% of the habitations, account for 54.66% population in the rural areas. Against this, habitations with a population below 200 which constitute one-third (32.71%) habitations account for only 5.57% of the rural population.
With the overall increase in the population of the country, the percentage of habitations in the higher population slabs has gone up. Some habitations might have moved from lower population slabs to higher ones. The percentage of habitations with population 1,000 or more in the Fifth Survey is 16.41 as against 13.62 in the Fourth Survey. The percentage of habitations in the population slab 500-999 has gone up from 18.01 in the Fourth Survey to 20. 10 in the Fifth Survey; the percentage of habitations in the slab 400499 has gone up from 7.10 in the Fourth Survey to 7.42 in the Fifth
HABITATIONS IN RURAL AREAS 11
Survey, and the percentage of habitations in the slab 300-399 has gone up from 9.67 in the Fourth Survey to 10.04 in the Fifth Survey. Against his, the percentage of habitations in the lower population slabs, viz. 200-299, 100-199, and below 100, has gone down.
The population size of the habitations varies from State to State. In some States, there is preponderance of large-sized habitations while in others there is preponderance of small-sized habitations. Gujarat (38.15%), Haryana (50.81%), Kerala (86.33%), Punjab (35.41%), Chandigarh (69.57%), Delhi (86.50%) and Lakshadweep (85.71%) have more than one-third of the total number of habitations having a population of 1,000 or more. As against this, in Arunachal Pradesh (70.81%), Goa (41.10%) Jammu and Kashmir (43.71%), Madhya Pradesh (36.65%), Meghalaya (51.88%), Orissa (42.69%), Sikkim (51.49)%, Tripura (47.49%), Uttar Pradesh (39.66%), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (57.34%), and Dadra and Nagar Haveli (51.15%), more than one-third of the habitations have a population below 200.
3.3 Habitations per Village The country has 9,81,864 rural habitations located in 5,79,148 inhabited villages. On an average, each village has 1.70 habitations. Among the States, Tripura has the highest number of habitations (7.33) per village, followed by Goa (6.15), and Kerala (4.42). Nagaland has one habitation per village. Mizoram, Meghalaya, and Arunachal Pradesh have almost one habitation per village. The States having, on an average, two habitations or more per village are Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, and Uttar Pradesh. Among the Union Territories, Dadra and Nagar Haveli has, on an average, 6.38 habitations per village, Lakshadweep has one habitation per village, Delhi has almost one habitation per village. Daman and Diu has more than two habitations per village.
3.4 Habitations Predominantly Inhabited by Scheduled Caste
Population All habitations which have 50% or more of the Scheduled Caste population, have been termed as habitations predominantly populated by Scheduled Castes (S.C. habitations). There are 7,77,80 (7.92%) S.C. habitations. Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Andaman and Nicobar Island, and Lakshadweep have no habitation. Andhra Pradesh (8.82%), Himachal Pradesh (18.23%), Punjab (12.02%), Tamil Nadu (11.49%), Tripura (12.37%), Uttar Pradesh (10.72%), West Bengal (17.26%), Chandigarh (8.70%) and Pondicherry (23.91%) have a higher percentage of S.C. habitations than the national average.
3.5 Habitations Predominantly Inhabited by Scheduled Tribe
Population All habitations which have 50% or moire of the Scheduled Tribe population, have been termed as habitations predominantly populated by Scheduled Tribes (S.T. habitation). The country has 1,64,129 (16.72%) habitations predominantly inhabited by Scheduled Tribe population. In other words, the country has 1,64,129 S.T. habitations. The States of Goa, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, and Punjab and the Union Territories of Chandigarh, Delhi, and Pondicherry have no such habitations whereas all the habitations in Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and the Union Territory of Lakshadweep are predominantly populated by Scheduled Tribes. Among other States, Andhra Pradesh (19.63%), Arunachal Pradesh (91.87%), Assam (19.10%), Bihar (20.72%), Gujarat (25.87%), Madhya Pradesh (42.21%), Maharashtra (16.77%), Manipur (53.40%), Orissa (40.09%), Rajasthan (18.45%), Sikkim (28.03%), Tripura (62.94%), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (27.26%), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (96.54%), and Daman and Diu (18.75%) have a percentage of these habitations higher than that at the national level.
STATEMENT 3.2
Habitations Predominantly Populated by Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
Population All Habitations Habitations Predominantly Populated by
Slab S.C. S.T.
Number %* Number %* Number %*
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
5000 and above 6407 0.66 91 0.11 71 0.04
2000-4999 44072 4.48 1360 1.75 1007 0.61
1000-1999 110619 11.27 5311 6.83 5317 3.24
500-999 197389 20.10 13088 16.76 19965 12.16
Below 500 623377 63.49 57980 74.54 137769 83.94
400-999 72843 7.42 5742 7.38 10999 6.70
300-399 98580 10.04 8334 10.71 17775 10.83
200-299 130749 13.32 11991 15.42 27794 16.93
100-199 170500 17.36 16364 21.04 41504 25.29
Below 100 150705 15.36 15549 19.99 39697 24.19
Total 981864 100.00 77780 100.00 164129 100.00
* Percentage with respect to the total in the preceding column
12 FIFTH ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY
Habitations predominantly inhabited by the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribe population are generally smaller in size as compared with other habitations. In the "all habitations" category 16.41% habitations have population of 1,000 or more as against it 8.69% S.C. habitations and 3.89% S.T. habitations belong to this category. For the population slab 500-599 also, the percentage of habitations in the category "all habitations" is higher than the corresponding percentages of the other two categories. The percentage of habitations "Below 500" is the highest for the S.T. habitations, followed by the S.C. habitations and "all habitations". For the lower population slabs viz. 300-399, 200-299, 100-199, and below 100 the percentage of the S.C. habitations and the S.T. habitations in each of the population slab is higher than the corresponding percentage for the category "all habitations". This clearly shows that the S.C. habitations and the S.T. habitations are smaller in size than the other habitations.
On comparing the S.C. habitations and S.T. habitations, it is observed that the S.T. habitations are smaller in size than the S.C. habitations. 74.54% S.C. habitations have population below 500 as against this 83.94% S.T. habitations belong to this category. 24.19% S.T. habitations have population below 100 whereas 19.99% S.C. habitations belong to this category. Keeping in view the population size of the S.C. and S.T. habitations, it might be difficult to make provision of regular schools in these habitations in the near future.