Census of India 2027 and The Struggle to define Urban India

Outdated Urban Criteria

The government has opted to stick with the current meaning of the phrase urban areas as India plans to conduct Census 2027. Although this maintains consistency with the previous information, experts believe that the existing structure has not been successful in reflecting the fast evolving settlement patterns in the country. The urban/rural binary is steadily unbolstered and many communities are found in the incorrect classification.

Existing Framework and Framework Limitations.

Urban areas have been considered either as urban towns (statutory towns with a municipal corporation, council, or committee) or as census towns, which must be (a) having a population of at least 5000; (b) having a population density of no less than 400 per sq. km; (c) having at least three-quarters of the male main workforce occupied by non-agricultural activities. But, the benchmarks do not consider the work done by women, mixed livelihoods, and the diversifying gig economy. At this, numerous urban comblike places are treated as rural because of this.

Governance and Service Gaps

The classification gap has some real-world implications. City local governments have a stronger financial capacity as well as planning authority whereas in Panchayati Raj institutions there are usually no resources to handle such city-like settlements. To take some examples, there were hundreds of new census towns in West Bengal in 2011, and old ones in 2001 still existed, but were considered rural. The result of this delay in municipalisation is a hindrance to development of infrastructure, sanitation and services to the people.

Miscounting Urbanisation

Research indicates that the actual amount of urbanisation can be significantly greater than in India than in truth. But although 2011 Census fixed it at 31, alternative approaches taking into account density and population size index between 35% to 57. Misclassification implies millions of people in peri-urban and semi rural clusters are not included in urban development plans and their policies and investment priorities are skewed.

The Rationale behind the Nascent Definition.

The current trends in India in its settlement are on a rural-urban road display due to development of industries, migration as well as growth of services. A narrow definition can lead to low estimation of the city needs and consumption breakdowns. Those contacting agree that there should be more flexible and inclusive criteria to factor in the work of women, to reflect double career, and to present developing economies. The re-defined model would help maintain improved governance, increased accuracy in data and more equitable allocation of resources.