AUTHOR=Roy Anil Kumar , Saha Meghnad 

TITLE=Emerging trend and pattern of urbanization and its contribution from migration in Gujarat: Evidence from district level analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Cities

VOLUME=Volume 5 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-cities/articles/10.3389/frsc.2023.985278

DOI=10.3389/frsc.2023.985278

ISSN=2624-9634

ABSTRACT=Gujarat has been one of the leading states in India as far as the levels of urbanization are concerned. It has been due to its pull factors attracting migrations from outside the state. However, the urban population is concentrated in a few districts dominated by large urban centers such as Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar. The levels of urbanization in Gujarat have been higher than the national average throughout independent India. It has also experienced rapid urban growth of population during the same period, but the recently emerging concentration and pattern of urbanization have been lopsided, meaning that a few districts contribute more than half of the total urban population of the state. Literature in the thematic areas of urbanization particularly in Gujarat is few and limited. The studies so far have discussed the impact of globalization and urbanization, trends and patterns of urbanization, dynamics of urban development, and migration in Gujarat. This study particularly focuses on establishing a link between migration and urbanization using district-level data on urbanization. This study is unique in the sense that previous studies have failed to capture interstate migration and levels of urbanization in the state of Gujarat in India. This paper aims to analyze the trends and emerging patterns in the levels of urbanization at the district level. It attempts to understand the inequalities in the distribution of urban population using the GINI coefficient of different size-class towns during the 2001 and 2011 censuses. It also tries to map the distribution of the urban population at the district level to show the emerging pattern. Emerging trends and the existing network of the census towns of 2011 have also been mapped to provide the idea of regional distribution.
Recent census data show a substantial increase in the census towns in Gujarat in the vicinity of the developed corridor and within the influence areas of large metropolitan cities. The existing urbanization pattern in Gujarat matches the industrial development. The migration pattern during the last two censuses shows that the above above-mentioned districts are attracting in-migration due to the early post-independence industrialization period.