Question

What are rural and urban settlements? Mention their characteristics.

Answer 1

Rural settlement: These settlements are those which have population of less than 5000 people and density of less than 400 persons and more than 75% people are engaged in primary activities.

Characteristics: i. Most of the people are engaged in primary activities. They directly depend on land resources for their livelihood.

ii. The population of villages is less and they have less density of people.

iii. They depend on urban areas for obtaining manufactured consumer goods whereas they are providers for all primary products.

iv. They lack in both economic and social infrastructure.

Urban settlement: The census of India defines urban settlement as “All places which have municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee and have a minimum population of 5000 persons, at least 75 per cent of male workers are engaged in non-agricultural pursuits and a density of population of at least 400 persons per square kilometers are urban.

Characteristics: i. The population as well as population density of urban areas is veiy high.

ii. Most of the people are engaged in secondary and tertiary activities.

iii. They depend on rural areas for raw material and primary products. They are supplier of manufactured and consumer goods.

iv. They have advanced social and economic infrastructure.