Mandi Kalanਮੰਡੀ ਕਲਾਂ

Where Mandi Kalan sits

Mandi Kalan is a large village in Maur tehsil of Bathinda district, Punjab, in the Malwa region. The 2011 census recorded it under Rampura Phul tehsil, and it is administered today in Maur tehsil; it falls in the Rampura community development block. Unusually for a village of its size, it does not have its own gram panchayat: it is served by the panchayat of neighbouring Jaidan. In the census record it carries village code 035678, covers 2,498 hectares and has PIN code 151103. The 2011 directory recorded Rampura Phul, about 4 kilometres away, as its nearest town, and Bathinda city is about 36 kilometres away. Villages recorded around it include Khokhar, Badlala, Pirkot and Bhaini Chuhar.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 9,098 people in Mandi Kalan, up from 8,429 in 2001: 4,874 men and 4,224 women living in 1,714 households, about 5.3 people to a household. Spread over 2,498 hectares, the density works out to about 364 people per square kilometre. The sex ratio was 867 women for every 1,000 men. Children up to the age of six numbered 1,003, about 11 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 4,026 people, about 44 per cent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded.

Literacy in 2011 stood at 61.43 per cent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 67.31 per cent and women at 54.65 per cent. The census recorded 3,069 workers, about 34 per cent of the village. Of the 2,452 main workers, the largest group, 1,168 people, were cultivators on their own land, ahead of 670 agricultural labourers and 583 other workers in trade, transport and services. A further 617 people were marginal workers, employed for only part of the year: one worker in five is seasonal here. Counting everyone, the village held 1,184 cultivators against 1,006 agricultural labourers, so nearly half of Mandi Kalan's farm workforce works on other people's land, the pattern of the cotton belt's labour economy.

Land and farming

Farming covers most of Mandi Kalan's land. Of the village's 2,498 hectares, 2,235 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and every sown hectare was irrigated. This is canal country: canals watered 1,830 hectares against 405 hectares from wells and tube-wells. About 263 hectares were under non-agricultural uses such as the settlement, roads and ponds. The crops recorded for the village are wheat, paddy and cotton. Farm power supply was recorded at 6 hours a day, and both an agricultural credit society and an agricultural marketing society were recorded in the village.

Schools, health and daily services

Education in the village runs through one government primary school, two government middle schools, two government secondary schools and one government senior secondary school, six government schools in all, so children can study in Mandi Kalan up to Class 12; the nearest colleges are in Bathinda. Health is where this village stands out. The facilities recorded inside it in 2011 were a primary health centre, an allopathic hospital and a veterinary hospital, a government health set few villages of this size can match, and the census detail adds two registered medical practitioners and two medical shops.

The directory table records treated tap water in the village. Mandi Kalan has both a post office and a sub post office, a commercial bank and a cooperative bank, and a PDS ration shop, an anganwadi centre and an ASHA health worker; the nearest ATM was 5 to 10 kilometres away in 2011. Sports facilities, a birth and death registration office and house-to-house waste collection were also recorded, and domestic power supply was 14 hours a day.

A market in the name

The name means the larger Mandi: kalan and khurd are the standard Punjabi pair for the bigger and smaller of two settlements sharing a name, and a Mandi Khurd appears alongside Mandi Kalan in the census lists of the same tehsil. In practice the grain trade of this area runs through the mandis of Rampura Phul, four kilometres away, and Mandi Kalan itself is a farming village whose panchayat sits at Jaidan.

Faith in Mandi Kalan

No shrine of Mandi Kalan appears in the national gurdwara and temple directories opened for this page, and religious life in the village is local, centred on its own gurdwara and temples. The best known shrine village of the same tehsil is Bhai Rupa, whose Gurdwara Patshahi Chhevin marks the visit of Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji.

Getting there

Both public and private bus services run in the village itself, a state highway passes through it, and a district road also serves it. The nearest railway station is at Rampura Phul, 5 to 10 kilometres away in the 2011 record, and Bathinda, the district headquarters, is about 36 kilometres away.

What is the population of Mandi Kalan?

The population of Mandi Kalan was 9,098 at the 2011 census, living in 1,714 households in Bathinda district. It had grown from 8,429 in 2001.

What does Mandi Kalan mean?

Mandi Kalan means the larger of the two Mandi settlements: kalan marks the bigger village and khurd the smaller, and Mandi Khurd stands in the same tehsil. A mandi is a grain market, though the market trade of the area today runs through nearby Rampura Phul.

Which tehsil is Mandi Kalan in?

Mandi Kalan is administered today in Maur tehsil of Bathinda district, Punjab. The 2011 census recorded it under Rampura Phul tehsil, and it still falls in the Rampura development block.