OF IN MILLION PLUS TREND AND GROWTH PATTERN OF POPULATION IN MILLION PLUS CITIES OF INDIA-AN OVERVIEW

Urbanization can also be defined as the rapid and massive growth of urban population and migration to towns/large cities. Urbanization is the process where an increasing percentage of a population lives in cities and suburbs. This process is often linked to industrialization and modernization, as large numbers of people leave agriculture work and live in cities. Urbanization is also facilitated by improvements in surplus agriculture, as cities are always dependent upon external farming for food. The larger cities have attracted a significant proportion of migrants in their population as respect their status. The present paper examines Trend and growth pattern of population in million plus cities of India based on census data during 1901-2011. The findings show that the urban population uneven and huge portion of population inhabited in major cities.


Introduction
Urbanisation is an index of transformation from traditional rural economies to a modern industrial one. It is progressive concentration (Davis, 1965) of the population in urban unit. It is a long term process. Kingsley Davis has explained urbanization as a process (Davis, 1962) off switch from spreading out pattern of human settlements to one of concentration in urban centres. It is a finite process-a cycle through which a nation passes as they evolve from agrarian to industrial society (Davis and Golden, 1954). He has mentioned three stages in the process of urbanization. Stage one is the initial stage characterized by rural tra-ditional society with predominance in the agriculture and dispersed pattern of settlements. Stage two refers to the acceleration stage where basic restructuring of the economy and investments in social overhead capitals including transportation, communication take place. The proportion of urban population gradually increases from 25% to 40%, 50%, 60% and so on. Dependence on primary sector gradually dwindles. A third stage is known as terminal stage where urban populations exceed 70% or more. At this stage level of urbanization (Davis, 1965) remains more or less same or constant. Rate of growth of urban and total population becomes same at this terminal stage.
Urbanisation is an increase in population and economic activities in the urban areas which leads to further development of towns and agglomerates to contain this rising population. It is a cause and effect of heightened economic progress in a region (Census of India, 2011). It plays an enormous role in social transformation and economic mobility all over the world. The process of urbanization is a universal phenomenon, which refers to the population of a nation living in urban areas. Urbanisation is the increased proportion of the population living in urban areas. It is an indicator of modernization, the growth and economic development. Urbanisation is involving a change from agricultural to non&#8209;agricultural occupation and being associated with organizational and behavioural change (Patil, 1993). In the 21st century, the rate of urbanisation is much more in developing regions than developed regions. In recent decades, India is experiencing rapid growth of urban population and created an imbalance in total socio-economic and cultural development, which in-turn leads to several causes and consequences and it is discussed at length by many demographers (Ashish Bose, 1978;Ashok Mithra, et. al. 1980, andKunda, 2006).

Importance
The population explosion is one of the most threatening issues facing contemporary India, particularly the Indian million plus cities. One of the most important reasons for population explosion in the cities of India is the largest scale rural to urban migration and rapid urbanization, resulted in many severe issues. Hence, the study of trends and the growth pattern of population in million plus cities of India are vital for planning and framing policy issue.

Objectives
• To study the urban morphology in India • To study the trend and growth pattern of population in million plus cities of India

Method and Material
The present paper is descriptive research based on secondary data collected from census of India during 1901-2011. Urbanisation is defined as a proportion urban population to total population and million plus cities that is cities having ten lakhs and above population.

Trends of Urbanization
The study of urbanization in both quantitative and qualitative is of great importance and relevance to the population. Patterns of urbanization reveal the significant variable exists in the index of past and present levels as well as the concentration of population by size class towns and city level.
These phenomena generate a lot of interest among the urban planners, social scientists, policy makers and demographers. In this paper an attempt is made to here study the trends as well as patterns of urbanization in India by analyzing the percentage and growth of urban population, urbanisation by size class, percentage of population in million plus cities, and pattern of urban population concentrated in million plus cities. Table-1 gives data on trends of urbanisation in India during 1901-2011. Table 1 reveals that there is wide variation in levels and trends of urbanisation in India. It is evident that, in 1901, eleven percent of the population was living in the urban areas. In this context, Davis (1965) noticed that, this population resides in cities of smaller size with less than 20 thousand population. A steady increasing in trend of urban had noticed except, a decline in the decade 1901-1911, when plagues epidemic broke. Since 1901-1941, the growth rate of urban was slow to increase to 44.15 million (13.9 percent) because of freedom movement. While during 1941-51 decade, the proportion of urban population rose to 17.3 percent with the size of 62.2 million. This is largely due to the partition of the country in 1947, which leads to a large number of displaced persons from Pakistan had settled in large cities of India (Kunda, 2006). Apart from this, socio-economic development is another cause for an increase in urban population.
In the 1961 census, 78.94 million of Indian population was inhabited in urban areas; constituting 18.0 percent. This is mainly due to reorganization of states in 1956 and adoption of new distinctive classification rural-urban population (Ashish Bose, 1978). From 1961-81, the momentum of urban population growth had found an increasing trend. It can be attributed to planned development in several parts of India. In the decade 1981-91, the process of urbanisation was slow. Davis (1962) revealed that, slowness in economic development leads to slowness in an urbanisation. However, from 1961 to 201l, the trend of urbanisation increased 18.0 to 31.2 percent with the bulk size of the urban population, which is equal to the total population (283 millions) of the Western African Region (Population Reference Bureau, 2007). Another indicator of urbanisation is Rural-Urban ratio. It was 12.2 in 1901, increased to 20.9 in 1951 and it further rose to 45.3 by 2011.

Growth of urban population
The urban population in India in 1901 was only 25.9 million, constituting 10.9 per cent of the total population in 1901, which increased to 377.1 million accounts for 31.1 per cent of the total population in 2011 (Table-2). The urban population did not grow much until 1921 and the level of urbanization even showed a decline in 1911 owing to devastating plague epidemic of 1911, which spread mainly in the urban areas and brought exodus of urban population to rural areas. From the year 1921 onwards, the level of urbanisation grew steadily and  (Mohan and Pant, 1982).
In 1951-61 decade, a slowing of growth rate was noticed with the exponential growth of 2.3 with absolute growth of 16.4 million. This is mainly due to reorganization of states in 1956 and adoption of new distinctive classification ruralurban population (Ashish Bose, 1978). However, it can be noticed from table-4.2 that the highest in urban growth was observed during 1971-81 when the decennial growth rate raised to 46.1 per cent-the highest ever during the last century. Thereafter, the urban growth rate has slowed down, which declined to 31.4 percent in 2011 (Table 2). It can be attributed to the mainly low volume of migration of people to urban areas apart from a steep decline in natural growth rate. Table-

Urbanization by Size Class of Cities/Towns
Urbanization may be linked with details related to topography, transportation, land use, social structure and economic type, but is generally related to demography and economy in a city (Li, et al., 2002). The most important index in the study of urbanisation is distribution of population by different size classes, overtime, which reveals the population concentration across the cities/ towns by size class. In table-3, urbanization is analyzed by spatial urban form and its changes over time a period of eleven decades (1901-2011).It gives information on the size classes which are losing as well as gaining over a period of time. Urban units in India are classified into six classes. They are as follows: Class-I with a population of 1,00,000 and above; Class-II consists 99,999-50,000; Class-III has 49,999-20,000; Class-IV holds 10,000-19,999; Class-V with a population of 5,000-9,999 and Class-VI contains less than 5,000. Proportion of Indian urban population concentration by Size Class of Cities/Towns for eleven decades (1901-2011) is given in Table 3.
3 depicts that the number of cities-towns in class-I to class-IV has been increasing during 1901-2011, while the class class-V and class-VI towns where fluctuating during 1901-1951, thereafter rapidly declining. Thus, the Indian urbanization scenario shows a high concentration of population in large cities/towns signals the enormity of the urban problems such as socio-economic, environmental and administrative etc.

Urbanisation in million plus cities
The cities with a million and more population deserve a special category in India's urbanisation because of their large size and economic dominance in the countries. Such cities

Table 3. Number of Cities/Towns and Percentage of Urban Population by Size Classes
Census year are called as million plus or metropolitan cities. Million plus cities are a major source of economic activities, employment generation and prosperity in an economy. With rising income levels, people demand more goods and services, which become an important factor for them to live in cities. The cities attract more skilled labour, which, in turn, facilitates investments to open new firms and foster industrial development in the cities. Cities are the reflection of global integration of an economy as a majority of foreign firms operate their businesses in big cities and attract experts to live and work there. Over the last five decades, the world has faced dramatic growth of its urban population. The number of so-called mega cities increased in the period from 1975 until today from 4 to 22, mostly in less developed regions (Munchner Ruck, 2005). Particularly, Indian mega cities are among the most dynamic regions on the earth. During the last five decades, the population of India (As per 2011 census, 1.2 billion) has grown two and a half times, but the urban population has grown nearly five times. Here, an attempt is made to trace the trend and pattern of urbanisation in million plus cities in India over period of eleven decades. Table 4 depicts that the number of million plus cities in India doubles during 1901-1941, rose to 12 cities in 1981 and grew to 53 by 2011; thereby India has the largest concentration of mega cities in the world, while, the inhabitants of million plus cities had rapidly increased in recent decades than earlier periods. In 1901 census, only one city had recorded 1.5 million population, Also, the volume of urbanisation in million plus cities can be noticed through their share in a Population of Million Cities as percent of India's population, percentage of total urban population and Cumulative Growth Index of Population in million plus cities. Of the 53 cities that have upgraded to million plus status, 48 cities were in existence in 1901 also. These cities contained 12 percent of the total urban population of the country. This period contains frequent epidemic diseases that not only took a toll of millions of human lives, but also disrupted the economic life of urban and rural areas alike. Moreover, the decline of India's exports of cotton, leather, sugar and coffee in the face of growing international competition was also responsible for arresting the growth of many markets, manufacturing and port towns. Table 5 shows that in Kerala, three million plus cities like Kannur, Kollam, Malapuram and Thrissur have shown an abnormal increase in the populationrecording growth rate more than 100 percent during 2001-2011. This may not be due to natural increase, but due to the three type process of change in the territorial boundaries of these urban agglomerations through incorporation of the surrounding rural areas and merging of the towns into them apart from inflow of people. Growth of population during 1991-2011 in million plus cities at the time of the census 1991 and have attained the status in 2011 indicate the different growth rate. The fastest growth documented on those urban centres which are become million plus cities in 2001-2011 census in comparison to the existed million plus cities. The natural growth of urban population, in-migration from rural area as well as smaller urban places and expansion of urban boundaries which include adjacent towns and villages contributed the rapid growth. Evidence indicates that, about two-thirds of an increase in the urban population of the large cities as a result of natural increase (Singh, 1992) and remaining as the consequences of in-migration (Oberai, 1993). Reasonably, Southern India is more urbanized than its northern counterpart. The coastal areas are characterised by development of port areas, industrialisation and commercialization resulted in a higher degree of urbanisation.

Conclusion
Although the present share of the urban population in India is relatively small, namely about 31.2 percent, but it is quite large in absolute number, namely, about 377 million. Moreover, the large mega-cities in the country are showing an imbalance fast growth pace over the past decades. Million plus cities has become congested, clogged, polluted, and also show significant social polarization. Thus, the top-heavy character of India's urban system also adversely impacts the balanced regional development of the country. The government policies aimed at tackling the urban challenges by developing small as well as medium towns to divert migration to larger cities and develop rural areas to curtail out-migration.