Azimul Hoque, TwoCircles.net,
As per the provisional report of census 2011, one of the three most urbanized states of India is Mizoram (51.51%) and one the three least urbanized states of the country is Assam (14.08%) and interestingly both are belonging to North-Eastern India. While comparing with the all India average, the region shows a comparative slower pace in the urbanization. Lower urban growth rate definitely indicates the slower economic growth. Before going through the urbanization pattern, pace in the region it is better to have a look into the socio-cultural background of the region.
The region is a political entity of India which stretches from the foot hills of Himalayas in the eastern range and is surrounded by Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Nepal and Myanmar. Marked by diversity in customs, cultures traditions and languages, it is home to different social ethnic and linguistic groups. Troubled by history and geo-politics, the NE has remained one of the most backward regions of the country. The eight states located in India’s NE cover an area of 262239 sq. km. constituting 7.9% of the country’s total geographic area, but have only 45.5 million people or about 3.77% of the total population of the country (as on 2011 census). Over 68% population of the region live in the state of Assam alone. Density of population varies from 13/sq.km in Arunachal Pradesh to 340/sq.km in Assam. The predominantly hilly terrain in all the states except Assam is host to an over whelming proportion of tribal population ranging from 19.3% in Assam to 94.5% in Mizoram. The region has over 166 schedule tribes and over 400 other tribal communities and groups and hence by nature the region is characterized by rural dominant economy with 82% of the population living in rural areas. Standard of living of the people in the region has lagged significantly behind the rest of the country. The per capita income levels in all other states are lower except for Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim. Assam, the largest among the North Eastern states had the lowest per capita income at Rs. 15,661 which was lower than the country average by 40 per cent.
However, it is observed that in spite of this contrary scenario we find some particular uniform pattern of urbanization throughout the region.
It is also worthwhile to mention that challenge before the urban policy makers is to maintain a smooth balanced growth of towns without omission of small towns along with growth in urban slums. Small and medium towns should also be expanding with balance with the big towns. This Scenario will be clear if we study the growth of class wise towns in the region. It is seen that number of class I towns or Class II towns are growing faster than the growth in number of small towns.
Despite the increase in the number of towns as a whole it is seen that growth of Class VI category i.e. Small town is negative. Thus it putting the question marks whether the big towns are growing at the cost of small towns or whether the urbanization is being able to transforming rural areas to urban areas or not?
With studying the urban pattern analysis in the region, we find a unique phenomenon, which throws particular insight into the process of urbanization and its correlates. On the one hand there is the highly urbanized town of Imphal and Gangtok with high growth and on the other hand the urbanization of the towns like Thombai and Singtam, which are the second largest town of the respective state are considerably low. The urbanization in the region is mostly large town centric which is conducive to the slow growth of small town .The primacy analysis of the eight states of the region denotes that there is a decline of towns growing at a faster rate and increase of stagnating towns . Larger town is increasing at a faster rate while the proportion of small towns growing pattern is in decreasing trend. This extremity of growth rate for small town is due to weak and volatile base and because they are not the product of market forces. The primacy shows the difference between the largest town and the second largest town in the state or region. For example, Guwahati is the largest town in the NE while the second largest town for the 2001 was Shillong, but in 2011 census, Imphal has shown impressive population growth to become the second largest town in the region surpassing Shillong. Thus the primacy concepts can be used to analyze the growth pattern of the largest town in the region in comparision with the second largest town. That is, Primacy = Population of the largest town in the state or region/population of the second largest town in the state or region. Larger the value of Primacy, there is increase in the difference between the largest town and the second largest town.
In the NE, it is observed that there is a de-acceleration of urban growth in the small and medium towns of the region while the larger towns are in demand. As a result big towns are remained volatile in the regard influx of rural people which is making the larger more congested. This is the high time to give impetus in the inclusive urban development planning and policies to make the region more developed and resourceful as a whole.
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(Azimul Hoque is a Research Officer at PIU, Town & Country Planning, Assam and can be reached at [email protected])