Come 2021 and a new census will start. At this fag end of the last 2011 census, the Govt declared 56 villages as urban areas! Why now?
Criteria for urban area classification is: Minimum 5000 population, at least 75% of males main working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits and a population density of at least 400 persons per sq km!
Now the questions posed in the 2011 census to determine type of work a category of the economic activity.
Occupation: Nature of the industry, trade or services. Some pertinent questions: why only for males working? Today, women are equal bread winners and many of them work in agriculture which is not urban. Further, jobs are all on contract: a person may work in the fields and also in other non-agricultural pursuits. He should be allowed to write both. Many households have vegetable gardens: housewives must be able to write agriculture and anything else. Many people shamelessly show agricultural income losses only to unethically avoid paying increased tax. People have coconut orchards: do they write agriculture as profession or service because they also hold a Govt job or private part time job or full time? Most of such people are from current urban areas and if they filled the survey correctly maybe these urban towns need to be classified as rural!
Density of 400 per sq/km cannot be classified as urban! It appears that the criteria and census questionnaire were aimed at increasing the urban areas only. Now, world over, urbanisation means increased facilities and quality of life as per UN. In Goa, this is reverse: urbanisation is required to further increase the quality of life of urban dwellers mostly in terms of increased land at the cost of rural areas! Urbanites need land for setting up garbage, sewage, water treatment plants. For burial grounds, recreation facilities, factories even for dwelling, you name it they require it as they have no land.
In the rest of the world urban areas provided job opportunities in the cities for the villagers who migrated to these places causing infrastructure failure. Hence, urbanisation of villages is planned to stop migration. Check all ‘true’ urban areas in Goa like Margao: every morning you will see a huge number of vehicles at the KTC bus stand belonging to villagers who have to come to Margao and then catch a bus to their destination. Urbanisation is nothing but a hijacking of villages for the benefit of existing urban areas. All migrants from other States settle in villages bringing all sorts other problems including squatting, open defecation, spitting and a strain on infrastructure. Taxes and even BSNL tariffs become urban but income for the inhabitants remain same. How will urbanising the villages solve the income problem and more? How will their quality of life increase?
People need to be wary when filling the 2021 Census criteria! Go for agriculture as category of economic activity.
