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Vashi2Panvel.com: Navi Mumbai: October 3: A small railway station, a bazaar, hotel and a government run school are the essential request for a small town in any Bollywood flick. The amenities in these town are minimal in lakhs of such town who connect the rural-urban India. Some feature on the rail or road maps, others come into light when ‘big news’ like a tsunami hits Nagapattinam, a boy from Palampur gets a posthumous Paramvir Chakra, happen.

According to the 2001 census, in India, there are 299 cities, with populations of over one lakh. These include 24 metropolitan areas with populations of more than one million.
the Census definition of an urban area is when at least 75 per cent of its people are engaged in non-agriculture and non-livestock work and when its population density crosses 400 people per sq km.

Most small towns do not even come near this mark. The Census does not identify these transitional areas, as a result except for the 299 clearly demarcated cities, the rest of the country is rural by default.

The irony is that demographic details of 5,161 small towns, (talukas and tehsils), are mentioned in District Census handbooks, but are deprived of urban amenities. Many of our small towns are lost between India’s rural or urban development ministries. These town lack civic amenities despite the presence of local bodies at many places.

According to the figures available, in cities with populations of over one lakh, only 60 per cent people have electricity, drinking water and toilets. This drops to 44 per cent for towns with a population of between 50,000 and a lakh and slips further, to below 35 per cent, for even smaller towns.

The networking of villages and concessions to the villagers is well in place. Whether these towns would be better of as villages is a matter to be worth considering. Like, recently when 14 settlements falling under the New Bombay and Thane municipalities, were rechristened villages.
Towns also lack civic amenities like electricity, roads, transport and a proper legal system in place. According to the census 2001 nearly 50 new towns come up every year.

Many farmers settle in towns in the vicinity of their village. These towns have youths who want to make it big, given the opportunity.

V2P Correspondent