‘Census Town’ definition is outdated: Ministry to panel, Pg12

Key Highlights:

• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) informed a parliamentary committee that the four-decade-old definition of Census Towns is outdated.
• The current criteria, unchanged since 1981, are deemed inadequate to accurately reflect India's urbanization scale.
• The Registrar General of India (RGI) has decided to retain the existing definition for the upcoming Census 2027, despite MoHUA's objections.
• The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) estimated India's urbanization level could have been 63% in 2015, significantly higher than the 31.2% recorded in Census 2011.

Detailed Insights:

• The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs discussed a draft report on "Census Criteria for Defining Urban Areas".
• A Census Town is currently defined by a minimum population of 5,000, at least 75% of the male working population in non-agricultural pursuits, and a population density of 400 persons per sq. km.
• MoHUA highlighted issues with uniform national thresholds, arguing they disadvantage hilly and northeastern states.
• The Ministry also questioned the "male bias" in the definition, advocating for the inclusion of female workforce participation.
• MoHUA proposed using satellite imagery and introducing a "transitional areas" category to better capture rapidly urbanizing regions.
• The Ministry argued that the binary rural-urban classification overlooks peri-urban settlements and growth corridors that function as urban areas.
• The RGI cited logistical challenges, such as finalization of enumeration blocks and training, as reasons for not altering the framework for Census 2027.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Census Town: A settlement that meets specific demographic and economic criteria but is not statutorily notified as an urban area.
• Urbanization: The process of population shift from rural to urban areas, leading to the growth of cities and towns.
• Peri-urban settlements: Areas located at the fringes of urban centers, exhibiting characteristics of both rural and urban environments.