Classification Of Towns by ashok,s Mitra

Classification of towns by ashok Mitra

1. CLASSIFICATION OF TOWNS
SS

2. Classification of Indian Cities based on size of the population
•Data of this six-fold classification is available from 1901 to 1991 and
present an interesting profile of urban growth.
The cities with population of
• more than 100000 are the class I cities,
•>50,000 and <99,999 are class II,
• >20,000 and <49,999 are class III,
• >10,000 and <19,999 are class IV,
•>5,000 and <9,999 are class V and
•less than 5,000 are class VI.
• In census terminology, only those in the first group are cities or UAs, class
II are the large towns, class III medium towns and the last three form the
'small town' category.

3. Classification of towns based on population
size
Census
year
All
classes
I II III IV V VI
1901 1.811 24 43 130 391 744 479
1911 1.754 23 40 135 364 707 485
1921 1.894 29 45 145 370 734 571
1931 2.017 35 56 183 434 800 509
1941 2.190 49 74 242 498 920 407
1951 2.795 76 91 327 608 1,124 569
1961 2.270 102 129 437 719 711 172
1971 2.476 148 173 558 827 623 147
1981 3.245 216 270 738 1,053 739 229
1991 3.609 296 341 927 1,135 725 185
2001 5177 448 498 1389 1564 1043 235
2011 7933 505 605 1905 2233 2187 498

4. Number of UAs/ Towns by size class, 2001- 2011

5. On the basis of functions- Classification
of Indian cities and towns
The structure and functions of any region varies in terms of function, history of development as well
as age of the town. Some towns and cities specialize in certain functions and they are known for
some specific activities, products or services. However, each town performs a number of functions.
On the basis of functions, Indian cities and towns can be broadly into

1.Administrative Cities
2.Defense Towns
3.Cultural Cities
4.Collection Centres
5.Production Centres
6.Transfer and Distribution Centres
7.Resorts Towns
8.Residential Towns
9.Seaport Towns
10.Cities with Diversified Functions

6. •Administrative towns and cities: 
Towns supporting administrative headquarters of higher order are administrative towns, such as
Chandigarh, New Delhi, Bhopal, Shillong, Guwahati, Imphal, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Jaipur Chennai, etc.
• Industrial towns: 
Industries constitute prime motive force of these cities such as Mumbai, Salem, Coimbatore, Modinagar,
Jamshedpur, Hugli, Bhilai, etc.
•Transport Cities: 
They may be ports primarily engaged in export and import activities such as Kandla, Kochchi, Kozhikode,
Vishakhapatnam, etc. or hubs of inland transport such as Agra, Dhulia, Mughal Sarai, Itarsi, Katni, etc.
• Commercial towns: 
Towns and cities specialising in trade and commerce are kept in this class. Kolkata, Saharanpur, Satna,
etc. are some examples.

7. •Mining towns:
 These towns have developed in mineral rich areas such as Raniganj, Jharia, Digboi, Ankaleshwar, Singrauli,
etc.
•Garrison Cantonment towns: 
These towns emerged as garrison towns such as Ambala, Jalandhar, Mhow, Babina, Udhampur, etc.
•Educational towns: 
Starting as centres of education, some of the towns have grown into major campus towns such as Roorki,
Varanasi, Aligarh, Pilani, Allahabad etc.
•Religious and cultural towns: 
Varanasi, Mathura, Amritsar, Madurai, Puri, Ajmer, Pushkar, Tirupati, Kurukshetra, Haridwar, Ujjain came to
prominence due to their religious/cultural significance.
•Tourist towns:
 Nainital, Mussoorie, Shimla, Pachmarhi, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Udagamandalam (Ooty), Mount Abu are some of
the tourist destinations.

8. Cultural Cities
∙These cities perform either religious, educational, or recreational functions.
∙Educational: They are characterized by universities, college buildings, libraries, and playgrounds. They
also have shops which mainly catch to the needs of the students, such as book shops, sports shops, etc.
∙Example: Shantiniketan, Aligarh, Gurukul, Kharagpur, etc.
∙Entertainment: Such towns are known for their theaters, art galleries, and other cultural activities as
that of film making.
∙Example: Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, etc.
∙Religious: Religious towns can be centers of pilgrimage on the seats of religious leaders. They are
characterized by religious monuments, shops of selling religious books, pictures, candles, agarbattis,
etc.
∙Example: Allahabad, Amritsar, Ajmer, Bodh-gaya, Dharamshala, Gangotri, Hardwar, Pushkar,
Varanasi, etc.

9. Functional Classification of Towns
•Ashok Mitra gave his functional classification of town in year
1991 based on industrial categories in Census of India (1971).
He was the Registrar General of Census of India.
•He classified the towns and cities of India based on economic
function. Ashok Mitra’s functional classification of towns is most
appropriate in Indian context because of its flexible approach.
• He chose the proportion of workers in industrial
activities as an indicator of the dominant economic function of
a town.

10. There were nine major industries in
Census of India (1971)
•I–Cultivators,
•II- Agricultural Laborers,
•III- Livestock, fishing, forestry, hunting, plantation and allied activities,
Mining and Quarrying,
•IV- Household Industry
•V- Manufacturing Other than Household,
•VI- Construction,
•VII-Trade and Commerce,
•VIII- Transport, Storage and Communication and
•IX- Other Services.
•These categories of workers are based on Indian Standard Industrial
Classification.
•However, Mitra excluded the agricultural activities from the purview of this
classification because he considered agriculture as a rural activity.
•So, his final classification of towns includes the categories III to IX.

11. Mitra’s Criteria for Functional Classification of
Towns

•According to Ashok Mitra, it is the dominance of the major three
economic activities which define the character of a town. So,
he set certain criteria for classification of towns into the following
three categories.
• Manufacturing Town
•Trade & Transport Town
• Service Towns

12. Manufacturing Town

•Industries marked III, IV, V and VI are part of the
manufacturing sector. These activities, generally, comprise the
processes of value addition to the raw materials.
•We can classify a town as a manufacturing town when
the proportion or percentage of workers in manufacturing
activities is greater than the rest of economic activities.
•In such towns, manufacturing is the predominant economic
function.

13. Trade & Transport Town

•Economic activities marked as VII & VIII are part of the trade
and transport sector.
•These activities are necessary for the flow of raw material,
goods, labor and services from one place to another.
•One can classify a town as a trade & transport town when
the proportion of workers in trade & transport activities is
greater than the rest of economic activities
•In such towns, trade & transport is the predominant economic
function.

14. Service Towns
•Those economic activities marked as IX are part of the
service sector. These activities provide skill, knowledge and
help of any kind to other sectors for their smooth operation.
•We can classify a town as a service town when the proportion
of workers in service activities is greater than the rest of
economic activities.

Ashok Mitra carved the whole India urban landscape into three
broad categories because he believed that Indian towns are
multifunction. For example, a religious towns are also
manufacturing towns. Hence, accruing a very specific function
to a city is not possible. However, these three major economic
functions exist in every city.

15. Degree of Specialization of Economic
Function

•Ashok Mitra used the Ternary Diagram for determining the degree
of specialization of an economic function for a given town. Once
we have decided the broad functional class of a given town, we
plot the share of the most dominant function of the city in the
ternary diagram to get a degree of specialization.

16. •Ternary diagram refers to a diagram which
shows the percentage or proportion of any three
indicators on the three sides of the triangle and
the percentage increases from the median of
the sides (A, C, E) of the triangle towards the
vertices (B, D, F).
•In Ashok Mitra’s functional classification of
towns, the ternary diagram shows the
percentage of workers in manufacturing, trade &
transport and services on the three sides of the
triangle.
•Here, the blue, red and yellow lines show the
percentage of workers. The percentage
increases from zero from the medians of
triangles at points A, C and E towards the points
B, D and F. For example, in the case of services
the percentage of workers is zero at point E and
increases towards F. The percentage at F is
100.
•Further, the smaller triangle (black) shows the
50 percent limit. When the line EF crosses the
smaller triangle, it denotes that the percentage
of workers in the service sector is greater than
50 percent.

17. Classes of Specialization

•Mitra drew three circles from the center of the triangle,
proportionately, to show the degree of specialization. When we plot
the percentage of workers of a dominant function in the ternary
diagram, we get following categories of specialization.
1.Diversified Towns: The center point of the triangle shows 35
percent. Any point falling with in the purple circle shows
diversification of economic activities.
2.Moderately Specialized: Any town falling between purple and black
circle shows moderate functional predominance.
3.Highly Specialized: The town falling between black and green circle
points towards high functional predominance.
4.Very Highly Specialized: Lastly, the point falling outside the green
circle shows very high degree of specialization.

18. •Apart from identifying classes by type of activity, three other classes for mono, bi and
multi-functional categories were also recognized. The methods adopted were as follows :
•The nine industrial categories of workers in the Census, are first grouped into the following five
sectors.
Sectors and industrial categories
Sector Census Industrial Categories
1.Primary ActivityI, II, III and IV
2.IndustryV and VI
3.TradeVII
4.TransportVIII
5.ServicesIX

The functional category of the UA/town was then determined as follows :
• If workers in one sector constituted 40 per cent or more, the UA/town was classified in the
relevant mono-functional category.
•(ii) If the percentage in no one sector was more than 40 per cent two sectors having the largest
percentage was to see if they together constituted 60 per cent or more. If so, the UA/town was
classified in the relevant bi-functional category.
•(iii) If no two sectors added up to 60 per cent or more, the largest sectors were combined and the
unit was classed as multi-functional.

19. Functional
classification of the
million cities of
India - Dr. M.K.Jain
(1991 Census)

Urban AgglomerationPopulation Functional Category
1 Bombay 12,596,243 IND
2 Calcutta 11,021,918 IND-cum TR and COM
3 Madras 5,421,985 IND-cum-Service
4 Bangalore 4,130,288 IND
5 Hyderabad 4,344,437 IND-cum-Service
6 Vizag 1,057,118 Services-cum-IND
7 Delhi 8,419,084 Service-cum-IND
8 Patna 1,099,647 services
9 Ahmedabad 3,312,216 IND
10 Surat 1,518,950 IND
11 Vadodara 1,126,824 IND-cum-Service
12 Kochi 1,140,605 IND-cum-Service-cum-TR and COM
13 Indore 1,109,056 IND-cum-Service
14 Bhopal(MC) 1,062,771 Services-cum-IND
15 Pune 2,493,987 IND
16 Nagpur 1,664,006 IND-cum-Service
17 Ludhiana 1,042,740 IND
18 Jaipur 1,518,235 IND-cum-Service
19 Coimbatore 1,100,746 IND
20 Madurai 1,085,914 IND-cum-TR and COM
21 Karur 2,029,889 Services-cum-IND
22 Lucknow 1,669,204 Services
23 Varanasi 1,030,863 IND

20. Conclusion
The cities are not static in their function. The functions change due to
their dynamic nature. Even specialised cities, as they grow into
metropolises become multifunctional wherein industry, business,
administration, transport, etc. become important. The functions get so
intertwined that the city cannot be categorised in a particular functional
class.