Settlement can be defined as any form of human habitation which ranges from a single dwelling to large city. The word settlement has another connotation as well as this is a process of opening up and settling of a previously uninhabited area by the people. In geography this process is also known as occupancy.
Settlements can broadly be divided into two types – rural and urban. Before discussing about meaning and types of rural and urban settlement in India, we should know some basic differences between rural and urban areas in general. (i) The major difference between rural and urban areas is the function. Rural areas have predominantly primary activities, whereas urban areas have domination of secondary and tertiary activities. (ii) Generally the rural areas have low density of population than urban.
Types of Rural Settlements:
Geographers have suggested various schemes of classification. If we group settlements found all over the country, these can broadly be grouped under four categories:
- Compact/clustered/nucleated settlement
- Semi-compact/Semi-clustered/fragmented settlement
- Hemleted settlement
- Dispersed settlement
Compact Settlements:
- As the name suggests, these settlements have closely built up area. Therefore in such settlements all the dwellings are concentrated in one central sites and these inhabited area is distinct and separated from the farms and pastures.
- Maximum settlements of our country comes under this category. They are spread over almost every part of the country.
- These settlements are distributed over the entire northern Indo-Ganga plain (from Punjab in the north-west to West Bengal in the east), Orissa coast, basins of Mahanadi in Chhattisgarh, coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh, cauvery delta of Tamil Nadu, Maidaus of Karnataka, lower Assam and Tripura, in the valleys of Siwaliks etc.
- Sometimes people live in compact settlement for security or defence purpose. The greatest example of this type is in Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
- In Rajasthan also people live in compact settlement because of the scarce availability of cultivable land and water body. Therefore, they want to make maximum use of available natural resources.
Semi compact Settlement:
As the name suggests, the dwellings or houses are not well-knitted. Such settlements are characterized by a small but compact nuclears around which hamlets are dispersed.
- It covers more area than the compact settlements.
- These settlements are found both in plains and plateaus depending upon the environmental conditions prevailing in that area.
- Such settlements are situated along streams in Manipur Mandla and Balaghat districts of Madhya Pradesh, and Rajgarh district of Chhattisgarh. Different tribal groups inhabit such settlements in the Chhota Nagpur region. In Nagaland, such settlements may be in the form of blushing villages.
Hamleted Settlements:
These type of settlements, are fragmented into several small units. The main settlement does not have much influence on the other units. Very often the original site is not easily distinguishable and these hamlets are often spread over the area with intervening fields. This segregation is often influenced by social and ethnic factors. The hamlets are locally named as faliya, para, dhana, dhani, nanglay etc. These settlements are generally found in West Bengal, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and coastal plains. Geographically it covers lower Ganga plain, lower valleys of the Himalayas and central plateau or upland region of the country.
Dispersed Settlements:
This is also known as isolated settlements. Here the settlement is characterized by units of small size which may consist of a single house to a small group of houses. It varies from two to seven huts. Therefore, in this type, hamlets are scattered over a vast area and does not have any specific pattern. Such type of settlements are found in tribal areas of central part of India covering Chhota Nagpur plateau, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, etc. Such patterns are also common in the hills of north Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
There are three factors that influence the type of settlements in India. These factors are (i) Physical (ii) Ethnic or cultural and (iii) Historical or defence. Let us discuss these factors one by one.
Physical Factors:
These include relief, altitude, soil capability, climate, drainage, ground water level, etc. These factors influence the type and spacing of dwelling or instance, in dry regions of Rajasthan, water is a crucial factor and, therefore, houses are situated along a pond or well which guides the compactness of the settlement.
Ethnic and Cultural Factors:
These include aspects like caste, community, ethnicity and religion. In India it is commonly found that the main land owning caste resides at the centre of the village and the other service providing castes on the periphery. This leads to social segregation and fragmentation of a settlement into several units
Historical or Defence Factors:
In the past, mostly border areas of northwestern plains were conquered or attacked frequently by outsiders. For a long time, apart from attack from outsiders, there had been continuous fight between princely states and kingdom within the country therefore, security concerns favoured the evolution of nucleated settlements.
Type of urban settlement:
Like rural settlements, urban settlements are classified on various bases. However, classification based on size and function are most common. Let us discuss them one by one
Classification based on Population Size
According to population size, census of India classifies urban centres into six classes. Classwise urban settlements and their population
Class Population
Class I 1,00,000 and above
Class II 50,000 – 99,999
Class III 20,000 – 49,999
Class IV 10,000 – 19,999
Class V 5,000 – 9,999
Class VI less than 5,000
There is another classification of urban settlements. The classification is as follows:
Town Places which have less than one lakh population
City Urban centres having population between one lakh to one million.
Metropolitan Cities Cities having population in between one million to five million
Mega cities Cities having more than 5 million population
Urban morphology is the study of the form of human settlements and the process of their formation and transformation.Morphological studies often deal with development of forms and
pattern of the present city or other urban areas through time.
Urban morphology is the study of the physical form of a city, which consists of street patterns, building sizes and shapes, architecture, population density and patterns of residential, commercial, industrial and other uses, among other things. Special attention is given to how the physical form of a city changes over time and to how different cities compare with each other.
India exhibits a very stable settlement structure such that much of the urban growth that has occurred has been because of the accretion to existing towns and settlements and only marginally because of the emergence of new towns. As a result, the proportion of urban population residing in towns above a certain population cut-off point continues to increase, but there is little evidence of correlation between city size and rates of population growth.
In other words we can state that the development of new urban centers in India has been minimal and the urban growth has been accredited to the development of existing centers.
Prof. E. Ahmad has identified some of the components of urban morphology as site characteristics, historical background, sky-line, green open spaces, and water bodies, physical and cultural dominants.
For the Census of India 2011, the definition of urban area is as follows;
- All places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee, etc.
- All other places which satisfied the following criteria: i) A minimum population of 5,000; ii) At least 75 per cent of the male main working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits; and iii) A density of population of at least 400 persons per sq. km.
Urban centres of India are of 4 types:
1. Those that have grown from ancient town and villages e.g. Varansi, Madurai, Patna
- Those that have grown from medieval towns such as Lucknow, Delhi, Jaipur. These towns have lot of features of medieval Islamic architecture with palaces, minarates, walled city with Meena bazaars.
- Cities that have grown from the British administrative centres. Most of them were medieval towns or cantonment areas which retain lot of features of European Victorial architecture.
- During the post independence period a number of planned cities have been developed. Chandigarh, Bhuvneshwar, Gandhinagar, Dispur and Bokaro are some of the typical examples of planned cities.
City is a complex agglomeration of multiple activities – economic, social, cultural, etc. Its ‘central area’ also known as Central Business District is its distinct section which is identified as the centre of marketing, business and financial activities as well as dense built-up sector where lines of transportation converge from various parts and nearly from all direction.
Smart City means aligning information technologies to citizens’ needs in order to enhance their day-to-day lives by increasing efficiency, lowering costs, and engaging more directly with city dwellers. Developing a smart city is the next generation urbanization process for improving the efficiency, reliability, and security of a traditional city. This paper discusses about the economic benefits, cost of implementation and challenges towards a Smart city. It also focuses on its building blocks, history, advantages and disadvantages of Smart cities.
The core infrastructure elements in a smart city would include:
i. adequate water supply,
ii. assured electricity supply,
iii. sanitation, including solid waste management,
iv. efficient urban mobility and public transport,
v. affordable housing, especially for the poor,
vi. robust IT connectivity and digitalization,
vii. good governance, especially e-Governance and citizen participation,
viii. sustainable environment,
ix. safety and security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly, and
x. health and education.
The Smart Cities Mission requires smart people who actively participate in governance and reforms. Citizen involvement is much more than a ceremonial participation in governance. Smart people involve themselves in the definition of the Smart City, decisions on deploying Smart Solutions, implementing reforms, doing more with less and oversight during implementing and designing post-project structures in order to make the Smart City developments sustainable. The participation of smart people will be enabled by the SPV through increasing use of ICT, especially mobile-based tools.
Most of the Indian cities are lacking infrastructure, social awareness, and skills to upgrade into the Smart Cities. Further to this, while some of the cities have ICT infrastructure, they are not utilized up to its optimum. There need to be an effective plan or layout by the city governance and government implementing agencies to build awareness, skills, and infrastructure to develop existing cities into future Smart Cities.
The purpose of the Smart Cities Mission is to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local area development and harnessing technology, especially technology that leads to Smart outcomes. Area based development will transform existing areas (retrofit and redevelop), including slums, into better planned ones, thereby improving liveability of the whole City. New areas (greenfield) will be developed around cities in order to accommodate the expanding population in urban areas. Application of Smart Solutions will enable cities to use technology, information and data to improve infrastructure and services. Comprehensive development in this way will improve quality of life, create employment and enhance incomes for all, especially the poor and the disadvantaged, leading to inclusive Cities.
Advance Infrastructure in Rural Areas
- Good quality infrastructure is critical to sustainable growth, especially for rural areas.
- As over 60 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, with low levels of per capital income, there is need to impart greater attention in improving rural infrastructure.
- Currently the rural infrastructure is inadequate to support over 600,000 villages. Investment in rural transport infrastructure stimulates the rural economy and hence acts as a tool for poverty reduction.
- The services in the rural sector, like market access, education, health, and communication depend on the availability of infrastructure.
- A common observation has been that the rural areas with better connectivity also lead on the development scale. Inadequate transport infrastructures in rural areas cause lack of mobility and constraint to rural development.
- However, providing infrastructure entails huge dose of capital investment. Rural infrastructure growth is thus dependent on financial resources.
- Improved transportation infrastructure and services undoubtedly contribute to reduced costs of transport, market expansion, improved productivity and competitiveness. Still, within the economic function of transport, the sector contributes to pro-poor growth patterns by targeting transport interventions to support the development of markets and businesses that serve and employ the poor.
- To address the issue of rural infrastructure the government launched the Bharat Nirman programme and there are independent schemes to boost Road building, Irrigation, Housing, Water Supply, Electrification, and Telecommunication Connectivity. In this issue we focus on the relevance of rural infrastructure in raising economic development in rural areas.
- There has been a virtual telecom revolution in the last ten years connecting all villages. In fact the growth of rural teledensity is remarkable and is growing at a much faster rate than urban teledensity.
- Information Communication Technology, (ICTs) is known to be a facilitator of socio-economic development. Rural areas which lag behind facilities by way of health, education, financial services and employment avenues are using the benefits of ICT.
- Certainly, the growth of rural telephony, especially mobile telephony has brought improved connectivity and this has contributed significantly to socio-political and economic mainstreaming of rural India in the past decade.
The importance of infrastructure to economic development: an example from China
- The fact that infrastructure provides critical support to the growth of an economy can be clearly seen when bottlenecks arise. One of the most striking examples is that of China’s intercity transport system, with its links to the supply of raw materials, coal, and electricity.
- The coverage of China’s intercity transport networks is one of the thinnest in the world: the total route length per capita or per unit of arable landfor highways or railwaysis similar to, or lower than, that in Brazil, India, and Russia. This has resulted mainly from chronic underinvestment in China’s transport infrastructure. China’s transport investments amounted to only 1.3 percent of GNP annually during 1981-90, a period of rapid growth in transport demand.
- Since the onset of China’s open door policy in 1979, economic growth averaging 9 percent a year has resulted in an unprecedented expansion in intercity trafficwith growth averaging 8 percent a year for freight and 12 percent a year for passengers.
- This traffic growth has imposed tremendous strains on the transport infrastructure, as manifested by the growth of bottlenecks in the railway network, the severe rationing of transport capacity on railway lines, and the poor quality of service experienced by shippers and passengers.
- Transport shortages have adversely affected the supply of coal in particular. Coal is the source of some 73 percent of China’s commercial energy and represents about 43 percent of the total tonnage of freight handled by the railways.
- The shortage of coal has in turn adversely affected supplies of electricity, about 76 percent of which is generated by thermal plants. In 1989, China was experiencing a shortfall in available power of about 20 percent of industrial electricity requirements. Central and local authorities established quotas for allocating electricity and rationed new connections, but power cuts have nevertheless been frequent.
- A conservative estimate is that the annual economic costs of not having adequate transport infrastructure in China during the past several years amount to about 1 percent of China’s GNP.
RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT-A TOOL FOR RURAL POVERTY
- Rural infrastructure is not only a key component of rural development but also an important ingredient in ensuring any sustainable poverty reduction programme.
- The proper development of infrastructure in rural areas improves rural economy and quality of life. It promotes better productivity, increased agricultural incomes, adequate employment; etc. Development of rural areas is slow due to improper and inadequate provision of infrastructure with compare to urban areas. That’s why rural share in GDP is always less.
- Infrastructure is important for the services it provides. It is an important input to the production process and raises the productivity of other sectors.
- Infrastructure connects goods to the markets, workers to industry, people to services and the poor in rural areas to urban growth centers. Infrastructure lowers costs, enlarges markets and facilitates trade.
- Thus, infrastructure provides services that support economic growth by increasing the productivity of labor and capital thereby reducing the costs of production and raising profitability, production, income and employment.
Areas of Rural Infrastructure
- A set of basic facts define the constraints within which the economic growth and development of India’s rural population must be addressed. Fundamentally, they relate to resource constraints, the nature of infrastructure, and the future trajectory of the geographical distribution of the population.
- These services include, at a minimum market access, educational, health, financial, entertainment, transportation, and communications. Further, services depend on the availability of infrastructure.
- Infrastructure investment is irregular and inadequate to support 600,000 villages and the average cost of providing infrastructure is inversely related to the scale of the operation.
- Limitations on the financial and other resources available for providing infrastructure made it impossible to provide infrastructure at every village in India. Even if they were provided at every village, it will not be commercially sustainable.
- The basic geographical structure of population distribution will change once India shifts from being agriculture based country to industry based nation. The Government has launched “Bharat Nirman” for the development of rural infrastructure. Plans proposed for the development of India Rural Infrastructure are –
- Irrigation,
- Roads,
- Housing,
- Water Supply,
- Electrification,
- Telecommunication Connectivity.
Growth of financial infrastructure in rural India
- Financial Infrastructure: It comprises the underlying foundation for a country’s financial system, including all institutions, information, technologies, rules and standards that enable financial intermediation.
- Poor financial infrastructure in many developing countries poses a considerable constraint upon financial institutions in expanding their financial services to the underserved segments of the society. It also creates risks to financial institutions and resultant lack of adequate credit facilities leads to financial crises.
Interventions for Achievement of Financial Inclusion
Goal of Financial Inclusion (F.I.) is difficult, but not unattainable:
- State Driven Interventions by Central, State and Local Governments.
- Voluntary Interventions by Banks, Micro-finance Institutions (MFI), Cooperatives, Self Help Groups (SHGs) and other social organizations.
Measures
- Harnessing advances in the Information & Computer Technology (I.C.T.), like Smart Cards, Internet Kiosks and Cell Phone Messaging.
- Developing, testing and implementing appropriate products and suitable delivery channels for financial services to be extended.
- Attention to the 5 Ps of marketing-Product, Price, Place, Process and Promotion.
Boosting Rural Development through Agri-infrastructure
- Most of the perishable items are produced in the villages which remain confined to these due to the absence of road networks. The existing road and rail facilities are inadequate. Most of the areas which produce good quality fruits are still inaccessible. This coupled with the rough terrain of the area and lack of regulatory markets make the farming community to suffer a lot at the hands of the local traders.
- Farmers have no information about the market price. There is an urgent need to establish suitable infrastructure like the use of information communication technology (ICT) for benefit of farming community.
- The technology like e-kiosks and e-choupals of Indian Tobacco Company in Madhya Pradesh and other states of the country are doing a great job. Each electronic kiosk is connected to a number of villages.
- The villagers can obtain any information easily from these kiosks regarding various aspects of crop production. Communication with different markets and among different stakeholders is also possible through the use of ICT.
- Irrigation is another area which requires infrastructure upgradation. With suitable infrastructure the irrigation potential can be increased. The utilization of available water for agriculture too is far from efficient. Wastage of water is huge in surface irrigation systems.
- The inability to conserve adequate water and curb its indiscriminate utilization, including rampant wasteful exploitation of water is also a cause of concern. The problem is more severe in dry land area of the country which accounts for more than 60 percent of the total cultivable area. Suitable water conserving infrastructure like the drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation should be installed in these areas.
- Water conservation techniques like water sheds, rainwater harvesting and other measures can bring additional area under irrigation in these water scarce regions. Similarly we can also invest in creating community grain storage Banks where the farmers can store their excessive food grains. This will also prevent them from distress selling as they can wait for the right time to sell their produce.
- To meet the energy needs of farming sector solar energy can be used and for that solar panels should be set up jointly in the villages to cater to the energy requirements of the farmers.
- There is a need to invest in developing infrastructure of agricultural supply chain. Moreover, the government has emphasized on increasing investments of private sector in marketing, transportation and storage facility of fast degradable agricultural products.
- The private sector should also come forward and invest in creating agriculture assets. They can use it on a built operate transfer basis.
- At the same time greater emphasis has to be laid on research infrastructure by establishing a number of new institutes, national research centers for several crops and livestock to address the local problems and come out with site specific solutions.
- To conclude, infrastructure potentially can influence rural economic performance through three ways. These are
- Individual development by the increased use of existing resources-land, labor, capital, etc.
- Bringing additional resources to rural areas and
- Socio-economic development by creating assets and making rural economies more productive.
- I Suvrathan, Secretary in the ministry of Food Processing has rightly said, “ Opportunities given to farmers to run post harvest facilities all by themselves in a professional way will empower them, as farmers can hold on to their harvest more than 24 hours and have a say in fixing price for their produce.
BharatNet Programme of India for Rural Connectivity
- BharatNet focuses on bringing high-speed broadband connectivity to rural India. In collaboration with Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), the Government has taken a step forward to connect nearly 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats.
- BharatNet for various e-Government services like tele-medicine, tele-education, e-Health, and e-Entertainment, etc. the project is meant to create local employment opportunities and drive socio-economic growth in the area.
SERVICES THROUGHT BHARATNET
- Connectivity of Gram Panchayat level offices like schools, panchayat offices, post offices etc
- Services like certificates, telehealth, e-Education, agriculture information etc. to rural population
- Help in reducing the digital divide across socio-economic strata
- Learning & employment opportunities for rural youth
Benefits: Majority of Indians live in rural areas and therefor the initiative will serve as a backbone for transforming India into a digitally empowered knowledge economy, by ensuring internet service to one and all
Government Programmes towards Rural Infrastructure
- Government of India continued to implement specific infrastructure strengthening programmes in sectors like irrigation, rural electrification, rural connectivity and rural drinking water supply.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA):
- Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, aiming at ensuring 100 days’ guaranteed employment for every rural household in a financial year – has put a major emphasis on creation of durable community assets as well as social and economic infrastructure in rural areas.
- Since its inception, in September 2005, the program has been instrumental in enhancement of rural livelihood opportunities on a sustained basis, by developing need-based rural infrastructures
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and Rural Roads
- Rural Road Connectivity is not only a key component of Rural Development by promoting access to economic and social services and thereby generating increased agricultural incomes and productive employment opportunities in India, it is also as a result, a key ingredient in ensuring sustainable poverty reduction. Notwithstanding the efforts made, over the years, at the State and Central levels, through different Programmes, about 40% of the Habitations in the country are still not connected by All-weather roads.
- It is well known that even where connectivity has been provided, the roads constructed are of such quality (due to poor construction or maintenance) that they cannot always be categorised as All-weather roads.
- With a view to redressing the situation, Government have launched the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana on 25th December, 2000 to provide all-weather access to unconnected habitations.
- The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) is a 100% Centrally Sponsored Scheme. 50% of the Cess on High Speed Diesel (HSD) is earmarked for this Programme.
PMGSY Programme Objectives
- The primary objective of the PMGSY is to provide Connectivity, by way of an All-weather Road (with necessary culverts and cross-drainage structures, which is operable throughout the year), to the eligible unconnected Habitations in the rural areas, in such a way that all Unconnected Habitations with a population of 1000 persons and above are covered in three years (2000-2003) and all Unconnected Habitations with a population of 500 persons and above by the end of the Tenth Plan Period (2007).
- In respect of the Hill States (North-East, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttaranchal) and the Desert Areas (as identified in the Desert Development Programme) as well as the Tribal (Schedule V) areas, the objective would be to connect Habitations with a population of 250 persons and above.
- The PMGSY will permit the Upgradation (to prescribed standards) of the existing roads in those Districts where all the eligible Habitations of the designated population size have been provided all-weather road connectivity.
Rural infrastructure key to inclusive growth
- The recurrent theme of public discourse during the last one decade has been ‘inclusive growth.’ Inclusive growth is essential for social and economic equity. Since India’s majority of people live in villages, it is easily seen that rural infrastructure is a major component for ensuring inclusive growth.
- Development of Infrastructure envisages creation of values through engineering consultancy.
- Rural development entails structural changes in the socio-economic situation to achieve improved living standard of low-income population and making the process of their development self sustained. It includes economic development with close integration among various sections and sectors; and economic growth, specifically of the rural poor.
- In fact, it requires area based development as well as beneficiary oriented programmes. No wonder, rural development is one of the main and important tasks of development planning in India.
- Development of rural areas is slow due to improper and inadequate provision of infrastructure with compare to urban areas. That’s why rural share in GDP is always less. The planning and development of human settlements and provision of required infrastructure are much better in urban areas.
- Rural population migrates to urban cities for employment opportunities and better facilities. Besides, the limited capacity of rural economy to accommodate the increasing population sends the labour force as surplus to migrate large cities.
- There is then a need to encourage reverse migration to rural areas through proper development of rural infrastructure and basic amenities by creation of income generation avenues and improving the quality of life Rural infrastructure is not only a key component of rural development but also an important ingredient in ensuring any sustainable poverty reduction programme.
- The proper development of infrastructure in rural areas improves rural economy and quality of life. It promotes better productivity, increased agricultural income.
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