The growing number and size of towns/cities in India: Emerging issues from 2011 census data

India is urbanizing rapidly and about 377 million people live in 7935 towns/cities(census, 2011) across the country which constitutes about 31.2 % of the total population. The number of towns has significantly increased from 5161 in 2001 to 7935 in 2011. During the fifties and sixties of the twentieth century, the country experienced rapid growth of its urban population. But during the last few decades India has experienced urban deceleration. The country has experienced a noticeable slowing down of the rate of urbanization and urban growth in the past two decades(1981-1991 and 1991-2001). But there has been an urban turn around in 2011 which reported an acceleration of urbanization. For the first time since independence, the absolute increase in urban population exceeded to that of the increase in rural population though 69% of the total population live in rural areas which is highly significant. There is high inequality in the distribution of the urban population by size class categories. About 70% of the total urban population(265 million) live in 468 towns which is also reflected in Gini Index and Lorenz curve. Against this background, the recently released 2011 census data provides an opportunity to explore and analyse this urban turn around.