A first of its kind study on the state of India’s small towns – those with a population of less than one lakh – has come up with a grim picture of these mushrooming urban settlements.
Though the numbers of such towns have grown by 157 % from 2223 in 1961 to 5705 in 2011, they have “enormous backlogs” when it comes to basic infrastructure and socioeconomic indicators visàvis metro cities with a million plus population, according to the study done during 201516 by National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), an autonomous body under the union urban development ministry.
The report “Towns of India” based on secondary data from 2011 Population Census was released by urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday.
