Bachelor of FY - BAF Semester-1: Project On "Government System in Urban and Rural Area"

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PROJECT ON

Government System in Urban and Rural Area


Bachelor of FY.BAF
Semester-1
(2016-2017)
Submitted by
(JEEVITHA . R . MUDALIAR)
Roll no (16015)
Under the guidance of
Asst . Prof . SHANTI MUDALIAR

S.I.C.E. S Degree College of Arts , Science And Commerce


Jambhul Phata, K.B.Road, Ambernath(West), Thane-421505

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CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Miss JEEVITHA . R . MUDALIAR of FY.BAF
Roll No. 16015 Semester -1 (2016-2017) has successfully the
completed project on (Government System in Urban and Rural Area)

Name & signature


SHANTI
MUDALIAR

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Prepare the project on (Government System in Urban and Rural Area) has
given me extensive practical knowledge related to the subject

I would first thank our principal Prof. (Dr.) SATISH . A . BHALERAO, for his
valuable support in preparing this project

I express my deep sense of gratitude to the subject teacher Asst . Prof . SHANTI
MUDALIAR for his valuable guidance and support during my project work.

I would you like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all the people who
directly or indirectly support me for the preparation of the project

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INDEX
Sr. No.

Content

Page No.

1.

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA

2.

URBAN AREA

3.

RURAL AREA

4.

DEVELOPMENT ACTIONS

10

5.

12

6.

CRITERIA OF RURAL-URBAN
CLASSIFICATION
CENSUS OR NON-MUNICIPAL TOWNS

7.

WORKING

15

8.

INCOME & EARNING

16

9.

EARNING FLOW

17

TRANSITIONAL FLOW

18

11.

URBAN SIZE

19

12.

CONCLUSIONS

20

10.

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13

Local self-government in India


Lord Ripon is known to have granted the Indians first taste of freedom by
introducing the Local Self Government in 1882. His scheme of local self government
developed the Municipal institutions which had been growing up in the country ever
since India was occupied by the British Crown.
A uniform three-tier structure of panchayats at village (Gram Panchayat GP),
intermediate or block (Panchayat Samiti PS) and district (Zilla Parishad ZP)
levels. All the seats in a panchayat at every level are to be filled by elections from
respective territorial constituencies.
An urban area is the region surrounding a city. Most inhabitants of urban areas have
nonagricultural jobs. Urban areas are very developed, meaning there is a density of
human structures such as houses, commercial buildings, roads, bridges, and
railways. "Urban area" can refer to towns, cities, and suburbs.
A rural area is an open swath of land that has few homes or other buildings, and not
very many people. A rural areas population density is very low. Many people live in a
city, or urban area. Their homes and businesses are located very close to one
another.

Urban and Rural Classification


The Census Bureaus urban-rural classification is fundamentally a
delineation of geographical areas, identifying both individual urban areas
and the rural areas of the nation. The Census Bureaus urban areas
represent densely developed territory, and encompass residential,
commercial, and other non-residential urban land uses. The Census
Bureau delineates urban areas after each decennial census by applying
specified criteria to decennial census and other data.

The Census Bureau identifies two types of urban areas:


Urbanized Areas (UAs) of 50,000 or more people;
Urban Clusters (UCs) of at least 2,500 and less than 50,000 people.
Rural encompasses all population, housing, and territory not included
within an urban area.

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URBAN AREA
An urban area is the region surrounding a city. Most inhabitants of urban areas have
nonagricultural jobs. Urban areas are very developed, meaning there is a density of
human structures such as houses, commercial buildings, roads, bridges, and railways.
"Urban area" can refer to towns, cities, and suburbs. An urban area includes the city
itself, as well as the surrounding areas. Many urban areas are called metropolitan
areas, or "greater," as in Greater New York or Greater London.
When two or more metropolitan areas grow until they combine, the result may be
known as a megalopolis. In the United States, the urban area of Boston,
Massachusetts, eventually spread as far south as Washington, D.C., creating the
megalopolis of BosWash, or the Northeast Corridor.
Rural areas are the opposite of urban areas. Rural areas, often called "the country,"
have low population density and large amounts of undeveloped land. Usually, the
difference between a rural area and an urban area is clear. But in developed countries
with large populations, such as Japan, the difference is becoming less clear. In the
United States, settlements with 2,500 inhabitants or more are defined as urban. In
Japan, which is far more densely populated than the U.S., only settlements with
30,000 people or more are considered urban.
Throughout the world, the dominant pattern of migration within countries has been
from rural to urban areas. This is partly because improved technology has decreased
the need for agricultural workers and partly because cities are seen as offering greater
economic opportunities. Most of the worlds people, however, still live in rural areas.
Towns
One type of urban area is a town. A town is generally larger than a village, but smaller
than a city. Some geographers further define a town as having 2,500 to 20,000
residents.
Towns usually have local self-government, and they may grow around specialized
economic activities, such as mining or railroading.
The western part of the United States, for instance, is dotted with "ghost towns."
Ghost towns no longer have any human population. They are full of abandoned
buildings and roads that have been overtaken by shrubs and natural vegetation.
Many ghost towns in the western U.S. are the remains of "boom towns," which
developed after gold and silverwere discovered in the area in the 19th century.
Economic activity boomed in these towns, most of it centered on mining. When all
the gold and silver was mined, economic activity stopped and people moved away,
leaving ghost towns of empty homes and businesses.
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Growth of Suburbs
Suburbs are smaller urban areas that surround cities. Most suburbs are less densely
populated than cities. They serve as the residential area for much of the citys work
force. The suburbs are made up of mostly single-family homes, stores, and services.
Many city residents move to suburbs, a situation known as suburban migration.
Homes in suburbs are usually larger than homes in cities, and suburbs usually have
more parks and open spaces. Residents may move to escape the traffic, noise, or to
enjoy a larger residence.
Large groups of Americans began to move to suburbs in the late 1800s. The invention
of the streetcar made it possible for residents to commute from their homes to their
city jobs.
At the end of World War II, the U.S. government enacted a program that gave home
loans to returning war veterans. This created an explosion of single-family homes and
increased the growth of suburbs across America.
The establishment of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 also contributed to the
growth of suburbs and urban areas. The Highway Act created 66,000 kilometers
(41,000 miles) of interstate roadwaysystems. The original plan for the highway
system was for the evacuation of large cities in case of a nuclear or military attack.
What the Highway Act created instead was suburban sprawl.
Suburban sprawl continues to be a phenomenon in the U.S. First, outlying areas of a
city widen. Slowly, these outlying areas become more crowded, pushing the suburbs
farther into rural areas.
Housing and businesses that serve suburban communities eat
up farmland and wilderness. More than 809,000 hectares (2 million acres) of farmland
and wilderness are lost to development every year in the U.S.
Smart Growth
Recently, experts have tried to curb the spread of suburban sprawl, or at least create
urban areas that are developed more purposefully. This is known as "smart growth."
City planners create communities that are designed for more walking and less
dependency on cars. Some developers recover old communities in downtown urban
areas, rather than develop the next piece of farmland or wilderness.
States such as Oregon are passing laws to prevent unplanned urban sprawl. They have
created boundaries around cities that limit the growth of development. Officials have
created laws stating that the minimum size of a plot of land is 32 hectares (80 acres).

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This is to prevent developers from creating suburban communities. An 80-acre plot of


land is too costly for a single-family home!
Other smart-growth communities are creating new types of development. Some have
large amounts of undeveloped "green space," organic farms, and lakes.
Urban areas typically drain the water from rain and snow, which cannot collect in the
paved-over ground. Rather than use drainage pipes and ditches, smart-growth
communities create wetlands designed to filter storm runoff.
More city planners are developing urban areas by considering their geography.
Engineers build structures that blend with their natural surroundings and use natural
resources. White roofs, for example, reflect the suns rays and lower the cost of air
conditioning. Homebuilders in urban areas as diverse as Los Angeles, California, and
the island communities of Greece create homes and businesses with white plaster or
tile roofs for this reason.
There is also a move toward preserving and maintaining more green areas and
planting more trees in urban areas. Landscape designers often consult with city
planners to incorporate parks with development
An urban area is the region surrounding a city. Most inhabitants of urban areas have
nonagricultural jobs. Urban areas are very developed, meaning there is a density of
human structures such as houses, commercial buildings, roads, bridges, and railways.
"Urban area" can refer to towns, cities, and suburbs. An urban area includes the city
itself, as well as the surrounding areas. Many urban areas are called metropolitan
areas, or "greater," as in Greater New York or Greater London.
When two or more metropolitan areas grow until they combine, the result may be
known as a megalopolis. In the United States, the urban area of Boston,
Massachusetts, eventually spread as far south as Washington, D.C., creating the
megalopolis of BosWash, or the Northeast Corridor.
Rural areas are the opposite of urban areas. Rural areas, often called "the country,"
have low population density and large amounts of undeveloped land. Usually, the
difference between a rural area and an urban area is clear. But in developed countries
with large populations, such as Japan, the difference is becoming less clear. In the
United States, settlements with 2,500 inhabitants or more are defined as urban. In
Japan, which is far more densely populated than the U.S., only settlements with
30,000 people or more are considered urban.
Throughout the world, the dominant pattern of migration within countries has been
from rural to urban areas. This is partly because improved technology has decreased
the need for agricultural workers and partly because cities are seen as offering greater
economic opportunities. Most of the worlds people, however, still live in rural areas.

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RURAL AREA
A rural area is an open swath of land that has few homes or other buildings, and not
very many people.
A rural areas population density is very low. Many people live in a city, or urban area.
Their homes and businesses are located very close to one another. In a rural area,
there are fewer people, and their homes and businesses are located far away from one
another
Agriculture is the primary industry in most rural areas. Most people live or work on
farms or ranches. Hamlets, villages, towns, and other small settlements are in or
surrounded by rural areas.
Wildlife is more frequently found in rural areas than in cities because of the absence
of people and buildings. In fact, rural areas are often called the country because
residents can see and interact with the countrys native wildlife.
Throughout the world, more people live in rural areas than in urban areas. This has
been changing rapidly, however. Urbanization is happening all over the world. In
Asia, for example, the United Nations estimates that the urban population will
increase by almost 2 billion by 2050.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Rural development is the process of improving the quality of life and economic wellbeing of people living in relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas.[1]
Rural development has traditionally centered on the exploitation of land-intensive natural
resources such as agriculture and forestry. However, changes in global production
networks and increased urbanization have changed the character of rural areas.
Increasingly tourism, niche manufacturers, and recreation have replaced resource
extraction and agriculture as dominant economic drivers.[2] The need for rural
communities to approach development from a wider perspective has created more focus
on a broad range of development goals rather than merely creating incentive for
agricultural or resource based businesses. Education, entrepreneurship, physical
infrastructure, and social infrastructure all play an important role in developing rural
regions.[3] Rural development is also characterized by its emphasis on locally produced
economic development strategies.[4] In contrast to urban regions, which have many

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similarities, rural areas are highly distinctive from one another. For this reason there are a
large variety of rural development approaches used globally

DEVELOPMENT ACTIONS
Rural development actions are mainly and mostly to development aim for
the social and economic improvement of the rural areas.[6]
Rural development programs are usually top-down from
the local or regional authorities, regional development agencies, NGOs, national
governments or international development organizations. But then, local populations
can also bring about endogenous initiatives for development. The term is not limited
to the issues for developing countries. In fact many of the developed countries have
very active rural development programs.The main aim of the rural government policy
is to develop the undeveloped villages. This was designed by Eric Kiplagat.
Rural development aims at finding the ways to improve the rural lives with
participation of the rural people themselves so as to meet the required need of the
rural area.[7] The outsider may not understand the setting, culture,language and other
things prevalent in the local area. As such, general people themselves have to
participate in their sustainable rural development. In developing
countries like Nepal, India, Bangladesh, integrated development approaches are being
followed up.[8] In this context, many approaches and ideas have been developed and
followed up, for instance, bottom-up approach, PRA- Participatory Rural Appraisal,
RRA- Rapid Rural Appraisal etc.

Shift to Cities
People are migrating to urban areas for many reasons, including agricultural
technology, industrial technology, and the hope of changing ones economic
circumstances.
Agricultural technology has decreased the need for agricultural workers. Improved
transportation, tools, fertilizer, and genetically modified crops mean fewer
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farmworkers harvest more food. This decreased need for farm employment drives
many farmworkers into cities in search of jobs.
Industrial technology has created many jobs unique to urban areas. Developing
countries often have resource-based economies, meaning most people make their
living from agriculture, timber, mining, or other harvesting of natural resources. These
natural resources are most often located in rural areas. As developing countries
expand the use of industrial technology, they often shift their focus to a service-based
economy. Service-based economies use industrial technology to provide finished
goods and services to people inside and outside their countries.
India, for instance, is a country where many people practice agriculture in rural areas.
As the Indian economy develops, however, more people migrate to urban areas like
Bangalore to work in the technology industry. Instead of providing the raw materials
(metals) for computer chips to nations like the United States, Indian companies now
manufacture the computer chips themselves.
Centers of learning, such as universities, hospitals, and regional government, are
usually located in urban areas. Many rural residents travel to cities to take advantage
of economic opportunities there.
The cost of living in urban areas is usually much higher than in rural areas. It costs
more to rent a house, buy food, and use transportation. For this reason, wages are
usually higher in urban areas. The search for higher wages is another reason people
migrate from rural areas.
In the United States, rural areas take up about 98 percent of the country but are home
to only 25 percent of the population. In Ethiopia, a less-developed country where
agricultural jobs are much more common, 87 percent of the people live in rural areas.

Recognition
Jindal Prize
Sitaram Jindal Foundation, India has instituted an award Jindal Prize in which Rural
Development and Poverty Alleviation is one of five categories. Prize will be awarded
to those individuals or organizations rendering significant service to rural
development and poverty alleviation without any profit motive. Prizes of Rs. one
crore in each category will be awarded annually.

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CRITERIA OF RURAL-URBAN CLASSIFICATION


An agglomeration of population, thepredominance of non-agricultural activitiesand
provision of social amenities haveemerged as distinguishing features ofsettlements
following the industrialisation ofagrarian economies. In seeking to define theurban,
however, different countries haveapplied various criteria from size and densityof
population to percentage of non-agriculturalworkforce to administrative status.3In
South Asia, for example, Nepal on theone hand defines urban areas on the basis
ofpopulation size only: a settlement of more than9000 is declared urban. On the other
hand,countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka andPakistan apply administrative
criteria todeclare a settlement urban: any settlement witha municipal corporation,
municipality, towncommittee or urban council, for example, isdeclared as urban
(United Nations, 2001). Bycontrast, the definition of urban in China isvery much
political. Urban areas comprise bothtown and countryside areas as determined bythe
extension of town government seats; non-agricultural populations living in the areas
oftown government seats enjoy certain benefitsand the rural-urban classification is
associatedwith differential privilege (Zhu, 2001).
In India, there has been very little in situurbanisation. Historically, urban centres
havegrown up due to sudden investment in certainareas by state governments or
throughadministrative mechanisms such astransplanting district and subdistrict
(tehsil)headquarters and municipal apparatus. In thepast, rulers had built up prominent
towns andcities mainly for political and strategic reasons.

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CENSUS OR NON-MUNICIPAL TOWNS


As the definition of urban incorporates bothadministrative and demographic criteria,
twotypes of town are identified by the Census:municipal or statutory towns; and
census ornon-municipal towns. In 1991, 36 per cent oftowns in India were classified
as census townscompared to over 26.6 per cent in 2001 (seeTable 1). Some of the
states with largerconcentrations of non-agricultural activitiessuch as Gujarat, Kerala,
Tamil Nadu and WestBengal had over 65 per cent of towns as censusor non-municipal
towns in 1991. By 2001,although the population of census or non-municipal towns
had decreased significantlyin India as a whole, the level remained quitehigh in the
states of West Bengal (66.9 percent), Kerala (62.2 per cent), Goa (65.9 per cent)and
Andhra Pradesh (43.3 per cent). Though
Census of India, 1961a). The three importantmega-cities of Kolkatta
(Calcutta), Mumbai(Bombay) and Chennai (Madras), forexample,
had also been transplanted as portcentres during British rule. As Mr.
Baille, theBritish Census Official, said:In India towns attract the trade
and notthe trade the towns (Census of India,1911b:24).As towns
grow, they engulf the adjoiningareas, resulting in suburbanisation.
Thepresent definition of rural and urban,however, fails to capture
such a process asthere is no transitional category in the
urbandefinition. The Census Superintendent ofPunjab raised this
problem as early as in1961, reporting that this bilateral classification led to an underestimation of thegrowth of urban populations
(Census ofIndia, 1961a).

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WORKING
Job locations
In 2008 the UK had an estimated 32 million jobs and 40 million people aged 16 to 64,
whichincludes students, homemakers, those with multiple jobs, and others not
actively seeking work.
This jobs estimate is based on workplace location, and includes the self-employed,
those ongovernment training schemes and HM Forces. A jobs density can be
calculated by dividing thenumber of jobs in an area by the number of residents aged
16 to 64, and is one way of measuringdisparities between the number of workers and
jobs. It can be produced for local authority areas.The UK average is 0.79 jobs per
person; national rates range from 0.71 in Wales to 0.80 in Scotland. This section aims
to answer the question, are rural areas generallydormitories, with more workers than
actual jobs? Figures 18 to 21 examine the patterns country by country.
In England two of the urban area types have the highest jobs densities, at 0.83 jobs per
person for Other Urban6 and 0.82 for Major Urban, the group of local authorities
covering the cities with the biggest populations. There is no clear pattern among the
other area types, and differences are small overall. Of the eight rural local authorities
with jobs densities above one, six are in the Rural- 80 group (the most rural areas).
Some are self-contained by virtue of their geography the Isles of
Scilly, for example; others have historic importance such as Stratford-on-Avon. Of
all urban local authorities, the City of London has an exceptionally high density of 37
jobs per resident aged 16 to 64; Westminster is next highest at 3.3. A number of
London boroughs appear at the top and bottom of the urban rankings, with Lewisham
showing the lowest jobs density in England at 0.41. In Wales, the Valleys area type
shows the lowest jobs density of any area type at 0.57 jobs per person, while local
authorities in the Urban area type7 have the highest jobs density at 0.87. The Rural
area type jobs density is only a little lower than that of Wales as a whole. The highest
jobs density is for an Urban local authority (Newport, 0.92), the lowest in a Valleys
area (Blaenau Gwent, 0.49).

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INCOME AND EARNINGS


Differences in income, as distinct from earnings or overall wealth (which is difficult
to measure at small area level), are a useful indicator of economic wellbeing.
Modelled data for MSOAs show that in 2007/08 the average weekly gross income per
household in England was 670, and 540 in Wales. When taking account of
household composition (a process known as equivalisation), deductions such as tax,
and housing costs, incomes fell to 420 and 380 respectively. Figure 29 shows how
incomes in England vary by area type, using the small area (MSOA) definition. Are
incomes higher in one type of area? Considering areas by their rurality and sparsity,
however income is measured; the most rural and the least sparse areas perform better.
Total weekly income was as high as 751 per week in
Village, Hamlet and Isolated Dwellings Less Sparse (VHID Less Sparse)
households (equivalent to about 39,000 a year), and as low as 533 in Urban
Sparse households11 (or about 28,000 a year). Urban Sparse areas had lower
incomes than average, ranging from 79 per cent of the national average when using
total income, to 83 per cent when taking household structures into account (either
before or after household costs). Among less sparse areas there is greater variation in
incomes. The highest earning 10 per cent of Urban Less Sparse MSOAs had almost
twice the total income of the bottom 10 per cent of MSOAs. Wales, not shown in
Figure 29, shows similar patterns of differences between area types; however, the
variations in income between area types tend to be smaller in value.

POVERTY
Poverty is conventionally measured by the proportion of all households that fall below
the recognised poverty threshold, which is set at 60 per cent of the England and Wales
mean weekly equivalised income (after housing costs). In 2007/08 for England and
Wales this was estimated at 199 per week (or 862 per month). Figure 30 shows
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how poverty rates in Wales varied by small area (MSOA) type. Both sparsity and
rurality appear to affect poverty levels. VHID Less Sparse12 areas have the lowest
estimated poverty rate at one household in five. Sparse areas that fall into the town
and fringe or urban settlement types have the highest proportions of households below
the poverty threshold; however, results may be less reliable for these areas because
they each contain very small proportions of the total population and are more difficult
to estimate. No areatype is poverty free there is often more variation within area
types than there is between them. England shows similar differences by area type;
however, the two Town and Fringe area types have lower relative poverty. Both types
of less-sparse rural area (Town and Fringe and VHID) show well below average
poverty levels for England. Across England and Wales there were 75 MSOAs where
more than 50 per cent of households were in poverty, all in urban areas. Of these
MSOAs only one was in Wales (in Cardiff) and 21 were in Birmingham. The highest
percentage of households in poverty was in a Leicester MSOA at 68 per cent; the
lowest level, at less than 5 per cent of households, was an MSOA in Wokingham,
Berkshire. Both these MSOAs are classed as Urban Less Sparse.

EARNINGS FLOW
The rural/urban differences in income suggest investigating the flow of earnings for
people who earn in one area type and live in another area type. Are rural/urban areas
self-sufficient, or dependent on well-paid jobs elsewhere? The ONS Annual Survey of
Hours and Earnings (ASHE) estimates workers earnings based on both where people
live and where they work, at local authority level13. The data in Figures 31 to 32
reflect a snapshot of weekly average earnings as at
1 April 2010. Areas types with a positive flow are those where workers living in the
area, regardless of where they work, earn more on average than those whose jobs are
located in the area, regardless of where they live.
In England all three rural local authority area types have a positive earnings balance
for each identified employee type (Figure 31). Differences in the levels of these
positive balances are similar for all three rural area types, suggesting that this situation
doesnt just cover people in rural areas adjacent to urban ones, commuting out to take
high paid jobs. Conversely earnings are flowing out of Major Urban areas at a
higher level than in any other area type (that is, employees living in these areas earn
less than those working there). The rural/urban earnings flow is much more
pronounced for male and full-time workers, although it is important to recognise that
more men than women work full-time.

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TRANSITIONAL AREAS
During the last few decades, processes ofsuburbanisation have brought
considerablechanges to adjoining rural areas, particularlyto those near mega-cities and
state capitals.The present classification of rural and urbanfails to capture these
transitional areas of rural-urban space. A threefold classificationrecommended earlier
namely urban, semi-urban and rural (Census of India, 1961a) hasnot been
attempted officially. With theconstitutional amendments of 1992, threetypes of urban
local bodies are recognised:Nagar Panchayats 6 for a transitional area(an area in
transition from a rural to an urbanarea); Municipal Councils for smaller urbanareas;
and Municipal Corporations for largerurban areas.7 However, the population
sizecoming under the local bodies for these threeurban areas was not specified;
furthermore,as the Census does not give any informationon transitional areas, state
governments applytheir own judgment on this too. Few attemptshave been made to
define transitional areas, anotable exception being the 1994 MunicipalAct of
Maharashtra which provides that:no area shall be specified astransitional area
unless it has apopulation of not less than 10,000 andnot more than 25,000, is not more
than25 km away from the territorial limits ofany Municipal Corporation/Munici-pality
and the percentage of employ-ment in non-agricultural activities is notless than 25 per
cent (Mathur, M.P.,2001:239).

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URBAN SIZE
The contemporary role of urban governancein implementing broader structural
adjustmentand other economic policy changes raises thequestion of the relation
between urban sizeand economic viability. Urban size has beenshown to be
intimately related to the level ofdevelopment and revenue potential of
urbanareas (Rowland, 2001). Data available from astudy in India in the early
1990s (Kundu,2000:25) show that the per capita revenue ofcities with
populations of 500,000 and morewas two and half times greater than that
forcities and towns of less than 100,000, but thatthe per capita revenue of smaller
municipalitieswas uniformly low across different states. Asa result, bigger urban
centres are lessdependent on grants from the federalgovernment than are
smaller towns, and smalland medium size urban centres (with populations of less
than 50,000) are especiallydisadvantaged as their economic bases aregenerally
weak inferring from the fact thatless than 15 per cent of the workforce
isengaged in non-household manufacturing ascompared to 25 per cent for cities
(of morethan 100,000). Greater dependence onagriculture (26 per cent)
compared with cities(7 per cent) also means lower revenues for thelocal
authorities. Similarly, the level of civicamenities is found to be much lower in
townsof less than 50,000 (see Table 4). Thus, it isclear that several small and
medium sizemunicipal towns are not in any position to meetthe challenges
unleashed by the Seventy-Fourth Amendment.

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CONCLUSION
This paper has examined the rural-urbanclassification in the contemporary
Indiancontext in the light of renewed emphasis onlocal self-government. The
Seventy-FourthAmendment to the Indian Constitutionenvisaged three types of urban
governancefor three categories of urban areas, namelylarger, smaller and transitional.
However, nocriteria have so far been specified for thisclassification as municipal
governance is astate matter within the Indian federal system.Most state governments
have not attemptedto develop criteria for the identification ofdifferent categories of
urban areas formunicipal governance. The Census of Indiaalso fails to provide
information ontransitional areas. Due to the lack of criteriafor identifying transitional
areas, aconsiderable number of settlements falloutside the ambit of municipal
governance,particularly in those states with betterinfrastructure facilities and in states
that haveexperienced the Green Revolution in therecent past. The constitutional
amendmentmandates that Nagar Panchayats, anoffshoot of urban local bodies, will
governsuch areas.

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