URBANISATION IN INDIA BASED ON THE 2001, AND PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF THE 2011 CENSUS
Abstract
In our study we tried to focus on the grandiose Indian censuses and the preliminary population trends based on the 2011 census. After the independence in 1947 the increase ratio of the population decreased the most in the last decade (from 21.54% to 17.64%). In all the 6 member state with huge population – out of which Uttar Pradesh is the world’s greatest subnational administrative unit with 200 million inhabitants – the increase of the ratio of population growth has significantly decreased. Out of the age group of 6 and under, 3.08% less, so more than 5 million people, were listed compared to 2001. The ratio of the 0-6 year old age group related to the complete population decreased with 2.8% within 10 years.
With the help of the SENTIENT (spatial development indicator) index created by our research group we demonstrated a relationship between the urbanised spaces and the development rate. We detected that the investigations on the member state level are unable to provide exact results, so we worked with the data of 593 (2001) and 640 (2011) districts.
Illustrating the districts concentrating a higher that than national average urban population we assessed that so called “urbanisation axes” were formed in India mainly connecting the megacities. According to our observation, after the map illustration, the Indian urbanised areas can be exemplified by a drawn bow (Indian Drawn Bow) (Fig. 2. and Fig. 3.). According to our researches the most developed and the above average, districts, taking into consideration the urban population, mainly coincide with each other. This is also verified by our rank-correlation estimates since between the relative development level and the ratio of urban population we detected a strong, 0.7145 correlation.
A very remarkable development of the era of independence and the last few decades is the rapid increase of the 100 000 and million plus cities. While in 1951 45% of the urban population lived in these settlements, in 2001 this value was nearly two-third. At the same time their number grew by 6.5 fold. The registers could count 76 in 1951, and on the contrary 423 in 2001. The number of million plus cities grew by an astonishing measure. In the first independent census there were 5 registered, but by the beginning of the new millennium already 35 and in 2011 53!
In the last decade no new members were registered to the Indian megacities (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata) but the continuation of the present trends can maybe double their number by the access of Chennai, Bangalore (Bengaluru) and Hyderabad. In the period between the last two censuses the number of million plus cities’ inhabitants grew by a measure never seen before but the number of the lowest margin increased as well, so their mean population decreased. It is interesting that in the shore regions of Kerala the million plus cities demonstrated a spatial concentration reaching a tremendous population growth. However this has nothing to do with natural urban development reasons but with administrational causes.
