India is on the verge of a historic change. Known as the country that lives in its villages, it stares at an opposite scenario. In the near future, more people will inhabit the country’s urban areas than rural ones. The census of 2011 gave the first definitive signal of this change. India’s urban population has now reached 377.1 million, according to the latest census report (GoI 2011). This is 31.16 percent of the total population of the country. However, the urban population growth rate is 1.8 times that of the overall population growth and 2.6 times the rural population growth.
Government policies and development priorities, besides migration and natural growth, have led to faster urbanization. In the last decade (2001–11), the total population of the country has increased by 181.5 million, the rural population by 90.5 million, and the urban population by 91 million. Thus, the absolute urban population growth was more than the rural population growth. In the preceding decade, the number of towns (urban centers) has increased by 54 percent. In 2001, there were 5,161 towns, which increased to 7,935 by 2011 (GoI 2011).