Trend of urbanisation in india (1961-2011
Answers
The Office of the Registrar General and
Census Commissioner of India projected
the urban population for the year 2011 to
358 million, and estimated that urban
population growth rates would decline
from 2.75% per annum observed during
1991-2001 to 2.23 during 2001-2011 (Regis
-
trar General and Census Commissioner
2006). Urban experts also believed that
India’s urbanisation would slow down be
-
cause of its exclusionary nature and its in
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ability to spur rural-to-urban migration
(Kundu 2007, 2011). However, the 2011
Census shows some unexpected results.
According to the 2011 Census, the urban
population grew to 377 million showing a
growth rate of 2.76% per annum during
2001-2011. The level of urbanisation in the
country as a whole increased from 27.7%
in 2001 to 31.1% in 2011 –
an increase of
3.3 percentage points during 2001-2011
compared to an increase of 2.1 percentage
points during 1991-2001. It may be noted
that the Indian economy has grown from
about 6% per annum during the 1990s to
about 8% during the first decade of the
2000s (Ahluwalia 2011). This clearly ref
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lects the power of economic growth in
bringing about faster urbanisation during 2001-2011