Page 53 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change

Notes powerful, denying opportunities to women, terror against dalits, and subversion of elections are
pathologically pervasive in the countryside. To overcome these problems is a tough proposition.
No valid reason exists to reject grassroots self-government. Justice Krishna Iyer (Yojana, January
23, 1989, 20) assuming that there will be favouritism, casteism, ill-will, bureaucrats’ apathy and
non-cooperation, even so Panchayati Raj experiments will eventually open the political eyes of the
populace. It is fashionable to exaggerate villagers’ weaknesses and urbanites’ abilities, but our
rural geniuses are sure to measure up to the challenge of participative ioles.

2.3 Urban Communities in India
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 socio-economic adjustment would accentuate.
Concepts of Urban, Urbanisation and Urbanism
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 slum’s, 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’ (Ramchandran, 1998: 101-103). 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 population is defined as ‘urban’ and there are 12,000 such places in India but the census
recognises 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 (Ibid: 106-107). 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 specilisation 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 (1953:11) holds
that urbanisation involves not only movement of population to cities but also change in the
migrants’ attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviour patterns..

48 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY