The State cannot fail India’s census towns

Haphazard growth along with economic and social challenges must be tackled

If you drive or take a train out of a city, the view outside will be a slideshow of patchwork of settlements: the city, the towns, the wannabe towns (aka census towns) and the villages. In the last decade, these census towns (CTS), which can be defined as populous places where farming is no longer viable and people have turned to other professions, have grown exponentially.

The Census captured this enormous growth. In 2001, there were 1,362 CTS. Over the next 10 years, the number rose to 3,894. Using past Census data, a recent study by the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, has predicted that this growth of CTS will continue with 2,231 new census towns likely to be declared before the next census. To become a CT, a village needs at least 5,000 inhabitants, a density of 400 people per sq km, and, crucially, at least three quarters of its male working population must be “engaged in non-agricultural pursuits”.

The spurt in the number of CTS sounds like a promising development not just for the town but the cities that border it. According to former urban development secretary, M Ramachandran, “The census towns will someday become statutory towns. But the tragic reality is that the state governments have allowed those to grow in a haphazard manner.” This haphazard growth has meant lack of sewerage, drainage or street lights in most of these towns and no regulation in building norms. These issues need to tackled if these CTS are to become economic hubs and bulwarks against migration into urban areas.

In 2014, the NDA announced the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission to meet some of challenges — mainly infrastructural — of these rural conglomerations. An Integrated Cluster Action Plans for 100 villages was rolled out within five years. However, the ground reality is far from satisfactory. But this is a mission in which India cannot afford to fail.