Conclusion and Suggestions
It is observed that the rate at which a particular area grows i.e. sprawls, is not uniform both in time and space. There are several factors, which governs the growth rate and are also responsible for the growth to continue in a particular direction. The “traffic nodes” are assumed to be the most important factor for the beginning of settlement, which continue to grow with the passage of time. Hence, transportation in general is the most important factors in governing the type and rate of growth of the urban areas. The impetus, generated due to the installation of any “industry” is the next important factor in the growth of the city. With the establishment of the industry, population is attracted from various directions in search of economic opportunities. Tertiary activities like services, commercial and other activities follow it, and the area grows larger. Here transportation gives the direction but the impact of industrialization is strong which generates the faster growth of the city, than transportation. As the area develops, commercial centers and services come up to specialize in particular functions. Hence, “commercial activity” becomes the third important factor after transportation and industry in influencing the type and direction of growth of urban areas. The physical factors of the region like rivers, plains, hills etc traditionally were the most important factors for determining the direction of growth of a city but in present era when technology has immensely improved, this factor is not considered to be a constraint, yet it has been placed as the fourth important factor which influencing the growth of the city. The area occupied by build up land in 1970 was 3596 hectare. The magnitude of built up area increased to 8640 hectare in 1991
The northwest sector witnessed tremendous sprawl. It appeared to have merged with the township of Urla industrial center in coming decades. Already area along the N.H-6 and State highway has been built up. Those that were still lying un-build were the plot layouts awaiting are likely to come under construction in a few years. The southern direction has still not seen much sprawl. However, it was observed that the density of population increased considerably. People returning from metropolitan cities including the capital of India, after Raipur emerged as state capital, had removed their building and have mostly constructed double storied houses, some of them were bonafide residents of the region in the past. The extreme south is also appeared unattractive for the reason that one had to commute for old city to developed urban area to meet his needs and wants. This was a unique example of obscure sprawl due to social factors.
A large number of industries are established in and around Raipur city. These include cement industry and steel industry; New firms are located in the fringe area also because of non-availability or high cost of land in the center. In course of time the worker employed in these limits would change their residence to live near their place and so move to new houses built in the fringe area or outgrowth towns. This is universal phenomenon and is also noticed in Raipur. During the past 30 years a number of industrial units have come up in the city the impact of which finds expression not only in overall pattern of spatial development but also in the economy of fringe community. Industrial expansion to the fringe area has accelerated the expansion of residential land use and led to rise in the value of non-agricultural land use.
Land under residential area forms a major use of the total urban land in Raipur. About 55 percent of the total developed land is under this category. The present pattern of residential land use shows a mixed character of both planned and unplanned growth in the city. Like other cities of the state the heart of the inner zone is highly congested. The peripheral areas have very low density of houses. Existing physical features like Budha Talab have played an important role in influencing the pattern of residential area.
Although the Raipur city has grown over centuries in various phases. But in the present study its process of sprawl has been examined during 1971 and 2001, when it has become very rapid specially after it’s becoming the state capital.
The incorporation of villages within the Raipur M.C. was not uniform in all direction. Their land was acquired mainly to provide for necessities of the expanding city. The expansion of the city during is period this time was very little in the eastern part as only one village Telibandha was incorporated in that direction. Along with National highway No.-6 the sprawl had started with new dimension and magnitude owing to industrial activity. Though the rate of growth was slow in 1971and it was extended up to Khamtari in northwest, which was in a linear stretch along transport artery. The southern part extended up to Dungania, which however had been stagnant for long. The southern part though developed in past due to historic reasons but there was no major incentive for growth in this direction during the later period.
Age composition of the population is very important parameter in the process of overall development in general and rural development in particular because it not only ascertains the workforce and level of dependency but a favourable age composition is also instrumental in the adoption of new ideas and process which bring economic benefits and prosperity. Hence, if the leadership of household is in the hands of energetic younger generation, the probability of prosperity and overall change is more.
The study reveals that the younger generation of less than 30 years of age are coming towards the decision making process of the household matter specially related with migration decision and more on economic issues. Although there are variation in villages but by and large, about 34 percent of all respondents belongs to younger generation and other 32 percent to lower middle age group, which was not the cases even two decades before. They will accelerate the process of transformation due to their higher level of education, more mobility and interaction as compared to older generation who resist to change from their age-old practices, and adoption of innovation. Therefore, the younger generation specially the educated ones should be encouraged to take the lead in the decision making process of the household matters.
Education is of course, unfailing engine of change and is the chief instrument through which society socializes its members for bringing desirable change. It is the aggregate of all social process through which people develop abilities, attitudes and other form of behaviour of positive values. Hence, special focus has been given in this study on educational status of respondents, and the household, preference of the school and its is very encouraging because only 8 percent is illiterate and nearly 25 percent are less educated. As such nearly 55 percent are under moderate, while 12 percent are highly educated categories. This is mainly due to urbanization process.
However, there is lot of variations in the educational status of different villages. The educational status of village’s merges in 1971-1981 is high as compare to village’s merges in 1991-2001.
The Size of family is another social parameter, which has undergone a change across the board. Earlier the large size of family was considered as a measure of social security and instrumental for generating income but now they have realized the merits and advantages of the small and medium size family which is reflected by the fact that the small size of family accounts roughly 45 percent of the total household, while the medium size covers roughly 42 percent of the total households. As such almost 87 percent of the households belong to small and medium size of family, which shows a positive sign of social transformation. The family size is very much associated with the adoption of family planning programme. The study reveals that the educated younger people are in favour of changing the structure of their family. In the ultimate statistical analysis, a little less than 13 percent of the total number of households belongs to the higher categories. However, as expected, urban respondents are more receptive to family planning programme than the rural once.
Income is the basis for transformation in other economic parameters such as standard of living, housing conditions and so on. The index of standard of living indicates that nearly 20 percent respondents belong to high category, while 39 percent fall under medium category. As such 41 percent have low standard living and majority of them are working in industries.
Occupation structure of the city is one of the major indicators of level of development of a nation. In India, which is basically an agricultural country, agriculture and allied activities are the main occupation of the rural masses. In 1971,1981 and 1991 the total number of persons engaged in cultivation activities were 1833, 2588 and 2333 respectively, whereas agricultural labours were 1121, 2651 and 2727 for the same census years. Household industries (manufacturing, processing. servicing and repair) has engaged 2067, 2032 and 2472 while other activities their were 7117, 93983 and 20961persons respectively for the same census years. The expansion of the city into the surrounding countryside forced large number of workers out of their traditional occupations and agricultural. The illiterate and unskilled workmen could not find suitable jobs in the city, which resulted in a serious problem of unemployment and has increased the dependency burden to a large extent, In the beginning, lack of experience in urban occupations, cast considerations for the change in occupation and low literacy, caused a steep rise in the dependency ratio during 1971-81 period.
The planning of city requires a multifaceted, comprehensive and time bound approach with provision to monitor the implementation at regular intervals. It has been observed that there is immense scope for further development in the fields of industrial and agricultural development due to availability of abundant resources but authorities are so far encouraging industrial development only.
The demographic trends are highly explosive. The ever-increasing population is occupying the surrounding of Raipur at tremendous pace. Each decadal sprawl has converted large areas of agricultural land into waste and vacant land. It was due to private builders, who have converted the peripheries of the build up land into wastelands to be developed subsequently into the plots
The sprawl of the city leaves marked impact on the land use pattern. The growth of Raipur city not only changes the land use pattern of the surrounding but also the internal morphology of city.
With the formation of Raipur Development Plan in 1976 for Raipur city the highest number of villages were incorporated. It was necessary to prepare a comprehensive plan for the projected population of almost 10 lakhs people. Thus large space was required for this purpose. Consequently eight villages had surrendered their cultivated land and their peoples to the city, which increased by nearly more than 50 percent. The expansion of the city was in all direction but largely towards the south and the west. This was primarily the result of the concentration of industries, jobs and other services in B.S.P and Industrial growth center of Durg District.
Scarcity of houses leads to mushrooming of slums resulting higher magnitude of density of population, haphazard and unorganized pattern of development The vertical sprawl in the core of the city is observed to be growing at a tremendous speed.
Mode of transportation (state transport) is almost nil. It cause increase in number of personalized transport and resultant traffic jam and congestion in the city. Study of present status of traffic reveals that total number of mechanized vehicles has increased in many folds. Cycle rickshaws a predominant mode of passenger transport plays an important role in city traffic. Due to lack of public transport system in the city the only means for transport of passenger traffic is cycle rickshaw. A cycle rickshaw has increased 5871 in 1990 to 6436 in 1995. Intermixing of fast and slow moving vehicles on city road is a major problem for safe and efficient traffic.
The city of Raipur since its inception, which dates back to the year 1857,has grown to its own till the year 1976, when it was put under planning authority. Planning process was more or less absent during this period of 600 years. The planning authority namely Raipur Development Authority drafted the first master plan in 1976 for the period of two decades (1976-1995). But by then it was too late. The expansion of Raipur city was not equitable with a huge population growth especially after the formation of Bhilai steel plant and Durg emerging as important industrial areas. The influx due to large streams of in migrants leads to deterioration of physical, social and economic lifestyle of people.