Which of the following is NOT the reason for the increase in the urban population of the states and Union Territories of India?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Large share of workers in farming activities
Option (1) Development of urban areas — A reason (Incorrect). As towns develop, they offer more work, services and facilities. These draw people in and let more of them live there, so the urban population rises.
Option (2) Improvement in socio-economic conditions of urban areas — A reason (Incorrect). Better economic conditions bring more jobs, and better health and hygiene mean fewer deaths. Both add to the people living in towns, so enhanced economic development has sped up urban growth.
Option (3) Increased rate of rural-urban migration — A reason (Incorrect). Each person who moves from a village to a town adds directly to the urban count, so a faster flow of migrants means a faster rise in urban population.
Option (4) Large share of workers in farming activities — Not a reason (Correct). Farming is done on village land, so farm workers stay in rural areas. The most urbanised areas, such as Delhi, Chandigarh and Puducherry, have most of their workers in non-farm services, because urbanisation and industrialisation need non-farm workers; a large share of farm workers marks a rural area, not a growing urban one.
NCERT (2025-26): “Rural – Urban Composition … You have noted that contrary to rural population, the proportion of urban population (31.16 per cent) in India is quite low but it is showing a much faster rate of growth over the decades. The growth rate of urban population has accelerated due to enhanced economic development and improvement in health and hygienic conditions.…” “Rural – Urban Composition … It is, however, noticed that in almost all the states and Union Territories, there has been a considerable increase of urban population. This indicates both development of urban areas in terms of socio-economic conditions and an increased rate of rural-urban migration.…” “Working Population … It is important to note that the proportion of workers in agricultural sector in India has shown a decline over the last few decades (58.2% in 2001 to 54.6% in 2011). Consequently, the participation rate in secondary and tertiary sector has registered an increase. This indicates a shift of dependence of workers from farm-based occupations to non-farm based ones, indicating a sectoral shift in the economy of the country. The spatial variation of work participation rate in different sectors in the country (Appendix–v and vA) is very wide. For instance, the states like Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland have very large shares of cultivators. On the other hand states like Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh have higher proportion of agricultural labourers. The highly urbanised areas like Delhi, Chandigarh and Puducherry have a very large proportion of workers being engaged in other services. This indicates not only availability of limited farming land, but also large scale urbanisation and industrialisation requiring more workers in non-farm sectors.” |