Question

Essay on Urbanization

Answer 1

Answer:

With urban growth and urbanisation process in India after 1951, sociolo­gists’ interest in urban themes has changed. They not only analyse change in urban organisation but also study stratification and mobility in urban communities and examine new emerging urban problems.

The change from 1951 till today (1999) indicates that the rate of urbanisation (move­ment of population from rural to urban areas and the resultant increasing proportion of population that resides in urban rather than rural areas) is low but the rate of urban growth (percentage increase in absolute size of the urban population) is high.

Whereas the percentage of urban popula­tion has increased by 1.5 times from 1951 to 1991 (from 17.3 to 25.73%), absolute size of the total population has increased by 2.6 times (from 356.9 million to about 940 million) during the same period. The urban growth has far-reaching implications. Not only rural urban development cannot take place in a balanced manner but also the problems of socio­economic adjustment would accentuate.

If the future of India is linked with rural development, it is equally linked with the growth of cities and metropolitan areas. Though increasing urbanisation has led to problems like pollution, overcrowding and slums, unemployment and poverty, crime and juvenile delinquency, communication and traffic control, violence and sexual harassment of women, tensions and strains, yet cities are centres of civilisation and culture. Before analysing rural-urban interactions, changes in urban social organisation, mobility, integration of ethnic communities, etc., it is neces­sary to understand the concepts of urban, urbanisation, and urbanism.

The term urban is used demographically and sociologically. In the former sense, it lays emphasis on the size of the population, density of population and nature of work of residents, while in the latter sense it fo­cuses on heterogeneity, impersonality, interdependence, and the quality of life. Thus, population of not less than 5,000, density of not less than 1,000 persons per square mile, and 75 per cent or more of working popu­lation engaged in non-agricultural activities (like manufacturing, trade and commerce, service, etc.) are said to be important characteristics of town/city or ‘urban’.

The 1991 census has defined urban place as any place with a minimum population of 5,000, 75 per cent of the male population being non-agricultural, population den­sity of at least 400 persons per square km (or 1,000 persons per square mile) and with a municipality/corporation/ cantonment/notified area.

These criteria have, however, been described as vague and conservative on several bases:

(1) Though the number of places with more than 5,000 populations is defined as ‘urban’ and there are 12,000 such places in India but the census recognizes only 3,245 places as urban.

(2) The density of population that qualifies a place as urban is unrealistically low.

(3) A place with more than 75 per cent of male working population engaged in non- agricultural activities is to be recognised as urban but according to 1981 and 1991 censuses, at least 25 per cent towns have agriculture as the domi­nant activity.

(4) Female workers are excluded from working population. On this basis, ‘urban community’ is defined as ‘a commu­nity characterised by a large heterogeneous population, predominance of nonagricultural occupations, complex division of labour, a high degree of specialisation in work, dependence on formal social controls, and a formal­ised system of local government’.

Urbanisation is the movement of population from rural to urban ar­eas. Anderson holds that urbanisation involves not only movement of population to cities but also change in the migrants’ atti­tudes, beliefs, values, and behaviour patterns.

to sum up

Urbanism is a way of life, characterised by transiency (short-time rela­tions), superficiality (impersonal and formal relations with limited number of people), anonymity (not knowing names and lacking intimacy), and in­dividualism (people giving more importance to one’s vested interests). Louis Wirth has given four characteristics of urban system or urbanism: heterogeneity of population, specialisation of function, ano­nymity and impersonality, and standardisation of behaviour.