According to the Census of India, a main worker is a person who:

works for at least 183 days in a year

works for less than 183 days in a year

works for at least 183 days in a year

works in a household industry for any number of days in a year

is engaged only in cultivation on their own land

Which of the following is NOT one of the conditions a place must meet to be counted as a census town in India?

The presence of a university or college

At least 75 per cent of male main workers in non-agricultural work

The presence of a university or college

Assertion (A): Dispersed settlements are typical of the fertile alluvial plains of northern India. Reason (R): Dispersed settlements occur in remote jungles and small hills, where extreme terrain and limited land prevent large villages.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

India — Population and Human Settlements

The second book begins with India’s people. As per the 2011 Census, India had about 1,210 million people — the second largest population in the world at that census — living on about 2.4 per cent of the world’s land area, so the distribution, growth and composition of that population shape everything else in the book. The second half of the chapter looks at where those people live: the types of rural settlement and the towns and cities of India, classified by size and by function. Expect definitions (physiological density, main worker, census town), the phases of growth, and matching of towns to functions.

Distribution and Density

India’s population is very unevenly distributed. Uttar Pradesh has the largest population of any state, while hilly and remote states such as those of the north-east and the Himalaya hold small numbers. The 2011 Census put the average density at 382 persons per sq km, ranging among states from Bihar, the most densely populated, to Arunachal Pradesh, the least. The northern plains and the coastal deltas are dense because of fertile soil, water and flat land; deserts, high mountains and dense forests are sparse.

Three ways of measuring density
Measure	Formula	What it shows
Arithmetic density	Total population ÷ total area	The crude average spread of people
Physiological density	Total population ÷ net cultivated area	Pressure of the whole population on farmland
Agricultural density	Total agricultural population ÷ net cultivable area	Pressure of those who live by farming — cultivators, agricultural labourers and their families

Worked (illustrative): a district has 9 lakh people on 3,000 sq km, of which 1,500 sq km is net cultivated, and 6 lakh people depend on agriculture. Arithmetic density = 9,00,000 ÷ 3,000 = 300; physiological density = 9,00,000 ÷ 1,500 = 600; agricultural density = 6,00,000 ÷ 1,500 = 400 persons per sq km. Physiological density is always at least the arithmetic figure, because cultivated land is only part of the total area.

Growth and Composition

The four phases of India’s population growth

Phase I: 1901–1921
Stagnant or stationary phase — high birth and death rates, poor health care, famines and epidemics kept growth very low
Phase II: 1921–1951
Steady growth — better health and sanitation lowered the death rate, while the birth rate stayed high
Phase III: 1951–1981
Population explosion — a rapid fall in mortality with high fertility; development and better living conditions under planning
Phase IV: after 1981
Growth rate still high but slowing gradually, as the birth rate declines with later marriage and improving education, especially of women

Rural–urban composition: India remains predominantly rural — more than two-thirds of its people lived in villages at the 2011 Census.
Linguistic composition: four language families — Austric (Nishada), Dravidian (Dravida), Sino-Tibetan (Kirata) and Indo-European (Aryan); the Constitution’s Eighth Schedule lists 22 languages.
Literacy: the Census counts as literate a person aged 7 years and above who can read and write with understanding in any language.
Sex ratio in India is expressed as the number of females per thousand males; Kerala has the most favourable ratio among the states.
Working population: a main worker works for at least 183 days (six months) in a year; a marginal worker for less than 183 days; the rest are non-workers. Workers are grouped as cultivators, agricultural labourers, household industry workers and other workers.

Rural Settlements

Types of rural settlement and where they occur
Type	Form	Where and why
Clustered (agglomerated, nucleated)	A compact, closely built-up area of houses, with the fields around it	Fertile alluvial plains and the north-eastern states; for defence or security in Bundelkhand and Nagaland; in Rajasthan, scarcity of water makes people live together around it
Semi-clustered (fragmented)	Clustering in a restricted area of a dispersed settlement, or segregation of a large village — often a dominant community at the centre and others on the outer flanks	Widespread in the Gujarat plain and parts of Rajasthan
Hamleted	Several physically separated units sharing one name; the units are locally called panna, para, palli, nagla, dhani	Middle and lower Ganga plain, Chhattisgarh and the lower valleys of the Himalayas — often from social and ethnic segregation
Dispersed (isolated)	Isolated huts or hamlets of a few huts	Remote jungles, small hills with farms on the slopes; extreme terrain and limited land — Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala

Urban Settlements — Definition, Size and Function

The Census defines urban places in two ways. Statutory towns have a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee. Census towns satisfy three conditions together: a population of at least 5,000; at least 75 per cent of the male main workers engaged in non-agricultural pursuits; and a density of at least 400 persons per sq km. By history, Indian towns are ancient (Varanasi, Prayagraj, Madurai), medieval (Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Agra — headquarters of principalities and kingdoms) or modern (trading ports, colonial centres such as Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, hill stations, and post-independence planned towns such as Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar and Gandhinagar).

An urban centre with a population of more than one lakh is a city or Class I town.
Cities with between one and five million people are metropolitan cities; those with more than five million are mega cities.
An urban agglomeration may be a town and its adjoining urban outgrowths, two or more contiguous towns with or without outgrowths, or a city with one or more adjoining towns and their outgrowths.

Functional classification of towns, with the textbook’s examples
Function	Examples
Administrative	New Delhi, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Gandhinagar, Shillong, Jaipur
Industrial	Jamshedpur, Bhilai, Salem, Coimbatore, Modinagar
Transport	Ports such as Kandla, Kochi and Visakhapatnam; inland junctions such as Itarsi and Katni
Commercial	Kolkata, Saharanpur, Satna
Mining	Raniganj, Jharia, Digboi, Ankaleshwar, Singrauli
Garrison (cantonment)	Ambala, Jalandhar, Mhow, Udhampur
Educational	Roorkee, Aligarh, Pilani
Religious and cultural	Varanasi, Mathura, Amritsar, Puri, Ajmer, Tirupati, Haridwar, Ujjain
Tourist	Nainital, Mussoorie, Shimla, Pachmarhi, Udagamandalam (Ooty), Mount Abu

⚠️ All three census-town conditions, together

A census town must meet all three conditions — 5,000 people, 75 per cent of male main workers outside agriculture, and 400 persons per sq km. A large village of 8,000 where most men farm is not a town. Note too that the 75 per cent refers to male main workers, not to the whole population.

Key takeaways

India’s 2011 density was 382 persons per sq km; Bihar is the densest state and Arunachal Pradesh the sparsest; Uttar Pradesh is the most populous.
Physiological density = population ÷ net cultivated area; agricultural density = agricultural population ÷ net cultivable area.
Growth phases: 1901–21 stagnant, 1921–51 steady, 1951–81 explosion, after 1981 high but slowing.
Main workers work at least 183 days a year; marginal workers fewer. A literate person is 7 or older and reads and writes with understanding.
Rural settlements: clustered (plains, defence, water scarcity), semi-clustered (Gujarat plain), hamleted (panna, para, palli, nagla, dhani), dispersed (hills, jungles).
Census town: 5,000 people, 75 per cent of male main workers non-agricultural, 400 persons per sq km — all three.
City: over one lakh; metropolitan: one to five million; mega city: over five million.

Practice questions (8)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

The period 1951–1981 in India’s population history, marked by a rapid fall in mortality while fertility stayed high, is known as the phase of:
1. Stagnant or stationary growth
2. Steady growth
3. Declining growth rate
4. Population explosion
Show answer
Answer: D — Population explosion
From 1951 to 1981 mortality fell rapidly with development and better health care while fertility remained high, so the growth rate rose sharply — the population explosion. 1901–1921 was the stagnant phase, 1921–1951 the phase of steady growth, and only after 1981 did the growth rate begin to slow.
According to the Census of India, a main worker is a person who:
1. works for less than 183 days in a year
2. works for at least 183 days in a year
3. works in a household industry for any number of days in a year
4. is engaged only in cultivation on their own land
Show answer
Answer: B — works for at least 183 days in a year
A main worker works for at least 183 days, or six months, in a year; one who works for less than that is a marginal worker. The kind of work — household industry or cultivation — decides the category of worker, not whether the person is a main worker, which depends only on the number of days worked.
Settlements fragmented into several physically separated units that share a common name, locally called panna, para, palli, nagla or dhani, are:
1. Hamleted settlements
2. Clustered settlements
3. Dispersed settlements
4. Semi-clustered settlements
Show answer
Answer: A — Hamleted settlements
Hamleted settlements are split into several units with one common name, and panna, para, palli, nagla and dhani are the local names for those units, common in the middle and lower Ganga plain and Chhattisgarh. Clustered settlements are one compact block, dispersed ones are isolated huts, and semi-clustered ones are a cluster within or beside a larger village.
Which of the following is NOT one of the conditions a place must meet to be counted as a census town in India?
1. A population of at least 5,000
2. At least 75 per cent of male main workers in non-agricultural work
3. The presence of a university or college
4. A density of at least 400 persons per sq km
Show answer
Answer: C — The presence of a university or college
A census town must have at least 5,000 people, at least 75 per cent of its male main workers in non-agricultural pursuits, and a density of at least 400 persons per sq km. Having a university or college is not a criterion at all — an educational institution may make a town an educational town by function, but it does not decide whether a place is urban.
A district has a population of 9 lakh on a total area of 3,000 sq km, of which 1,500 sq km is net cultivated area. Its physiological density is:
1. 600 persons per sq km
2. 300 persons per sq km
3. 450 persons per sq km
4. 200 persons per sq km
Show answer
Answer: A — 600 persons per sq km
Physiological density = total population ÷ net cultivated area = 9,00,000 ÷ 1,500 = 600 persons per sq km. Dividing by the total area instead gives 300, which is the arithmetic density; the other figures come from mixing the two areas. Physiological density can never be lower than the arithmetic density.
Match List-I (functional class of town) with List-II (example):
List-I: A. Administrative town B. Mining town C. Garrison town D. Religious town
List-II: I. Digboi II. Mhow III. Gandhinagar IV. Puri
1. A-III, B-II, C-I, D-IV
2. A-IV, B-I, C-II, D-III
3. A-III, B-I, C-II, D-IV
4. A-I, B-III, C-II, D-IV
Show answer
Answer: C — A-III, B-I, C-II, D-IV
Gandhinagar is the capital of Gujarat (administrative), Digboi is an oil town of Assam (mining), Mhow is a cantonment (garrison) and Puri a centre of pilgrimage (religious). The tempting wrong code swaps Digboi and Mhow; remembering Digboi as India’s old oilfield fixes it.
Assertion (A): Dispersed settlements are typical of the fertile alluvial plains of northern India.
Reason (R): Dispersed settlements occur in remote jungles and small hills, where extreme terrain and limited land prevent large villages.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: D — A is false, but R is true
A is false: the fertile alluvial plains have clustered settlements, because flat land, water and intensive farming draw people together into compact villages. R is true — dispersed settlements of isolated huts are found in remote jungles and hills of places such as Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala, where the terrain itself breaks settlement up.
Consider the following statements about urban places in India:
A. Cities with a population of one to five million are called metropolitan cities.
B. Cities with a population of more than five million are called mega cities.
C. An urban centre with more than one lakh people is called a city or Class I town.
D. An urban agglomeration may consist of a town and its adjoining urban outgrowths.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
1. A and B only
2. A, B, C and D
3. A, C and D only
4. B and D only
Show answer
Answer: B — A, B, C and D
All four statements are true. One to five million is the metropolitan band and more than five million the mega city band; more than one lakh makes a city or Class I town; and a town with its adjoining outgrowths is one of the three forms an urban agglomeration can take. Leaving out any of them leaves out a correct definition.