The record
Written from the 1 report below. Nothing here is unsourced.
- The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has told a parliamentary committee that the 1981 criteria for defining Census Towns are outdated and fail to capture the true scale of India's urbanisation.
- A Census Town is currently defined as a village with at least 5,000 people, 75% of the male workforce in non-agricultural jobs, and a density of 400 persons per sq. km.
- The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister estimates urbanisation could have been as high as 63% in 2015, against the official Census 2011 figure of 31%.
- The Registrar General of India has decided to retain the old rural-urban framework for Census 2027, saying it is too late to change and that the Ministry has offered no quantifiable alternative definition.
- The outcome matters because misclassified towns affect planning, funding and governance for rapidly urbanising areas, and the parliamentary committee has deferred its draft report for further study.
What to watch next
- Whether the committee finalises a recommendation for updated Census Town criteria after consultations.
- Whether the Registrar General of India commits to revising the definition for future digital censuses.
- How the Ministry's proposals, including satellite imagery and a 'transitional areas' category, are taken forward.
Who said what2
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Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
1 quote · 1 outlet
“The four-decade-old criteria used to classify Census Towns will not be able to capture the actual scale of urbanisation in India”
In the article
The four-decade-old criteria used to classify Census Towns will not be able to capture the actual scale of urbanisation in India , the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) told a parliamentary committee, arguing that the present rigid definition, which the Registrar General of India (RGI) has decided to continue with despite the…
Registrar General of India
Registrar General of India
1 quote · 1 outlet
“it was too late to alter the framework for Census 2027”
In the article
…settlements and growth corridors that functioned like urban areas. It said the current system, based on data from the previous Census, could lead to both exclusion and inclusion errors. However, the RGI maintained that it was too late to alter the framework for Census 2027 , as enumeration blocks, boundaries, training and field deployment depending on the rural-urban classification being finalised in advance. The RGI also noted that while the Ministry had flagged several concerns, it had…
Coverage1
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Named India · Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister · Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy · Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs · Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs · Registrar General of India
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