Vice Chancellor, Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute (Deemed University),

Pune

A STATISTICAL GLANCE AT, "THE SOCIAL DYNAMICS OF A GROWING TOWN AND ITS
SURROUNDING AREA"
Author(s): S. G. Prabhu-Ajgaonkar
Source: Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute, Vol. 31/32, No. 1/2 (1970-71-
1971-72), pp. 432-436
Published by: Vice Chancellor, Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute
(Deemed University), Pune
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/42930931
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Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute

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 A STATISTICAL GLANCE AT, " THE SOCIAL DYNAMICS
OF A GROWING TOWN AND ITS SURROUNDING AREA "

S. G. Prabhu-Ajgaonkar

Aurangabad

It is my esteemed privilege to contribute this article in the Souvenir

of late Professor Mrs. I. Karve. And more so because, some of the points
expressed in this article, were discussed with her.

With the financial assistance from the Research Programme Com-

mittee of the Planning Commission, Government of India, Professor Mrs.
Karve and Mr. J. S. Ranadive carried out an investigation of the Market
Town, Phalton, with its surrounding area in order to present an insight into
the mutual relationship of the two regions and the population trends. The
data were collected during the year 1961-62, which was also the year of the
Indian Census.

Their study of the Phalton Town and its surrounding area is a pains-
taking one and deserves careful reading. The principal conclusion of their
study, as Professor Mrs. Karve explained to me, is presented on p. 12 of their
Report, entitled, " The Social Dynamics of a Growing Town and its surround-
ing area, " Deccan College Building Centenary and Silver Jubilee Series :
29, Deccan College, Post-graduate and Research Institute, Poona, 1965.
(Hereinafter this publication is referred to as the Report), and is that the
villages are tending to become purely agricultural settlements inhabitated by
people who work on the fields as owners, tenants or hired servants. Subse-
quently Prof. Mrs. Karve was of the opinion that in the near future it would
be impossible to notice the services of daily necessities like, barber, black-
smith, carpenter, etc., and it would be impossible to make village self-sufficient.
I pointed out her that the aim of Sarvodaya Movement under the leader-
ship of Vinoba Bhave is to make every village in India self-sufficient.
To this she very categorically replied that it was impossible. In the present
article, I am concerned with values of the characteristics, regarding the Town
Phalton, arrived at by Professor Mrs. Karve and Ranadive and presented
in the Report.

The reliability of the data collected in a survey is always a crucial

thing. Professor Mahalanobis advocated use of interpenetrating net-work
of subsamples to test accuracy of data.
In the case of present Report, it is interesting to note that the Indian
Census was carried out at the same time when the present investigation by

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SOCIAL DYNAMICS OF A GROWING TOWN & ITS SURROUNDING AREA 433

Prof. Mrs. Karve and Ranadive was undertaken. Since the time period and
places are same, the values determined by them must be the same. Admittedly,
it is possible to check authenticity of values of characteristics relating to the
Town Phalton, as reported by Professor Mrs. Karve and Ranadive provided
these same characteristics appear in the District Census Handbook, SATARA,
Census of India 1961.

Method of Investigation:

The first paragraph on p. 8 of the Report presents the method of

investigation as follows :

" In the Town of Phalton, there were 2100 habitations, with one to
twelve families each. The average works out a little over two families per
habitation. From these, every third was visited. Some houses had more
than one tenements. In the case of odd number of tenements, the one which
was situated in the middle was chosen. In the case of even number of
tenements, the one which was situated immediately after the first half was
chosen. In all these the Census numbering for individual families, for 1961,
was followed. In this way, we collected data from 697 families from the
Town Phalton. This forms about 15.0 percent of the population or about
one family in every seven. "

At the outset it should be pointed out that the source for the figure,
2100 habitations is not mentioned. From the context, it is noted that
habitations are the same as houses. However, from 44 District Census Hand-
book SATARA, Census of India 1961 " compiled by the Maharashtra Census
Office, Bombay, it is noted on p. 12 that there were 3597 occupied houses.
It is learnt from the Report that there were more than 4200 families in the
Town Phalton. The Census Book records the presence of 3626 households.
Thus the Sampling Frame assumed by Professor Mrs. Karve and Mr. Ranadive
is faulty and it is not possible to look further into this grevious error, since
the authors have not furnished any source for their figures. From the method
of selection it is noted that a proper weightage was not given to the values
collected in the survey and that this has subsequently resulted in creating a
biased picture. The procedure for determining the true values would have
been as follows :

Let Mi be the number of families (households) in the ith habitation

(occupied house) where i = 1,2,. . . .,2100. If Uj ( j = 1,2. . . .,697 ) represents
a sampled house with the corresponding number of families (households) Mj#
the value of the jth observation should have been proportionately weighted
by Mj in order to derive unbiased estimates of the corresponding population
characteristics.

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434 s- G- PKABHU-AJGAONKAR

Since the proper weighlage was not adopted, the values on t

acteristics presented in the Report are in error. It is noteworth
Report has tabulated values pertaining to household statistics, whi
Handbook deals with village statistics. Inspite this there are
tabulated in the Census Handbook relating to household statistics
these provide useful checks for the figures presented in the Re
consider some of these values.

(1) Distribution of Heads of families according to sex :

From the Table No. 5 on p. 14 of the Report, the following confidence
limits for the sex ratio, number of Men Heads/Total number of Heads, is
obtained for the confidence coefficient equal to 0.99,
0.93 ± 0.02.

On p. 164 of the Census Handbook, the Table C-l-Size and composition of

sample households based on 20 percent sample - Part B - Composition of
sample households, presents the following data regarding sex of Heads of
urban households in Satara District.

Heads of Households
Males Females
District Urban 5391 981

From this it is noted that the confidence limits with the same confidence
coefficient for the sex ratio are given as
0.84 ± 0.007.

If the sex ratio for the Town Phalton is the same as that for the Urban Distri
the wide disparity between the valuer _ easily noted.

(2) Average number of members in a family :

On p. 25 of the Report, Table No. 19 : Distribution of familie

according to the number of members in the family, presents percentages
actual number of families corresponding to the number of members in a fam
The last sentence on the same page reads as follows :

"The average number of members in the family in the Town work

out to be 6.38

While introducing the physical features of the District on p. 20 of the

Census Handbook, it is pointed out in the Section, entitled : " Size of House-
holds", that the average size of the households is 4.8 in urban areas. The
over estimation of the value, presented in the Report, is easy to note.
(3) Distribution of families according to the number of members in the
family :

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 SOCIAL DYNAMICS OF A GROWING TOWN & ITS SURROUNDING AREA 435

We reproduce below the Table No. 19 : Distribution of families,

according to the number of members, presented, on p. 25 of the Report (here
classes are grouped for convenience) and also the relevant data concerning
urban population from the Table C-I : Size and composition of sample house-
holds (based on 20 percent sample), Part A - size of sample households
classified by participation in household cultivation or Industry presented on
p. 164 of the Census Handbook :

Size of
sample holds Report Census
«■

1 22 3.15 percent 979 15.36 percent

" 2-3 120 17.22 „ 1543 24.22 ..
4-6 268 38.45 2259 35.46 „
7-9 203 29.13 „ 1166 18.20 ..
10 and above 84 12.05 „ 425 6.67 ..

Total : 697 6372

i

The wide discrepancy between the two sets of data is readily observed. The
under estimation of number of households with single members might be also
due to the fact that whenever these houses were lacked, a concerted effort
might not have been made to contact them.

(4) Distribution of families according to amount of land held :

From the Table No. 51 : Families according to amount and type of

land heid : presented on p. 32 of the Report and from the relevant data
concerning urban district tabulated in the Table B-X : Sample household.,
(i) engaged neither in cultivation nor household industry, (ii) engaged either
in cultivation or household industry but not in both, and (iii) engaged both in
cultivation and household industry - presented on p. 144 of the Census Hand-
book, we construct the following Table :

Number of families

Those ~ '
possessing Report Census
*■

No land 367 52.65 percent 5124 80.41 percent

land 330 47.35 1248 19.59 „

Total : 697 6372

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436 S. G. PRABHU-AJGAONKAR

Difference between these two sets of data are easily ob

(5) Type of Housing : Own or rented on p. 56 of the R
on Type of Housing : own or rented and in the Tab
of Sample Census Households living in Census Hous
presented on p. 185 of the Census Handbook, the follo

Number of families

owned 432 61.97 percent 380 57.83 percent

rented 215 30.84 „ 277 42.17

blank 50 7.10 „ 0

Total 697 657

f.

Mrs. Karve and Mr. J. S. Ranadive, was erroneous and due to this values
of the characteristics reported by them are incorrect. This is actually demon-
strated with the help of values of some characteristics which also appear in
the District Census Handbook. The importance of this effort can not be
overemphasized in the light of the following candid observation of Professor
Mrs. Karve and Mr. Ranadive, on p. 104 of their Report :

" The importance of such a survey consists firstly in presenting a

comprehensive picture of a slice of society at a given time. If this is done
accurately and comprehensively such a presentation remains of permanent
value

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