Akliaਅਕਲਿਆ

Where is Aklia?

Aklia is a large village in Mansa tehsil of Mansa district, Punjab, in the Malwa region. The census recorded Mansa town, about 20 kilometres away, as its nearest town, while the village itself stands about 24 kilometres from the Mansa headquarters by road. In the census record Aklia carries village code 036159, covers 2,664 hectares and has PIN code 151510. It falls in the Bhikhi community development block and has its own gram panchayat. For political representation it sits in the Mansa assembly constituency and the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency. Villages recorded around it include Rar, about 3.4 kilometres to the south west, Burj Jhabran to the south, Joga to the east and Burj Dhilwan to the south west. Wikipedia's village article gives its coordinates as about 30.182 degrees north, 75.401 degrees east.

Three gurdwaras, a temple and a mosque

Aklia's places of worship reflect a mixed village. The village article records three gurdwaras standing in the village, together with a temple and a mosque, serving its Sikh, Hindu and Muslim residents side by side. The same article names Baba Aklia as the village's founder and dates its establishment to 1918, a founding tradition carried in the village's own accounts rather than in the census record, and it gives the village a local nickname linked to learning. No shrine at Aklia is nationally known, and no individual gurdwara in the village could be verified by name from the sources opened for this page, so none is named here. What the record does show plainly is a large farming village where three faiths keep their own places of worship within the same settlement.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 8,282 people in Aklia: 4,394 men and 3,888 women living in 1,571 households, about 5.3 people to a household. Spread over 2,664 hectares, the density works out to about 311 people per square kilometre. The village had grown from 7,513 people in 2001, a rise of about 10 per cent over the decade. The sex ratio was 885 women for every 1,000 men. Children up to the age of six numbered 902, about 11 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 2,651 people, about 32 per cent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded.

Literacy in 2011 stood at 54.61 per cent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 58.56 per cent and women at 50.14 per cent, the lowest literacy of this batch and a reminder of how recently schooling reached depth here. The census recorded 3,463 workers, about 42 per cent of the village, the highest work share in this batch. Of the 2,635 main workers, the largest group, 1,217 people, were cultivators working their own land, ahead of 785 agricultural labourers and 612 other workers. A further 828 people were marginal workers, the most in this batch. Counting everyone, the village held 1,686 cultivators against 1,077 agricultural labourers.

Land and farming

Farming covers nearly all of Aklia's land, and paddy is recorded as its main crop. Of the village's 2,664 hectares, 2,440 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and every sown hectare was irrigated: 2,235 hectares from canals and 205 hectares from wells and tube-wells. About 224 hectares were under non-agricultural uses such as the settlement, roads and ponds. Farm power supply was recorded at only 4 hours a day, the tightest farm supply in this batch, against 10 hours for domestic use and 20 hours across all users.

Schools

Education in Aklia runs through two government primary schools, one government middle school, one government secondary school and one government senior secondary school, recorded in 2011, so children can study in the village up to Class 12. The wider facility record adds two private primary schools and two private middle schools, and three private pre-primary schools. The senior secondary school is the Government Senior Secondary School at Akalia, as the name is spelled in school listings, which the listings date to 1952 and which teaches classes 6 to 12 under the Punjab School Education Board; the listings place it in the Joga school cluster and give its postal code as 151509, against the census PIN of 151510 kept in the facts box. For higher study, the nearest government arts and science degree college and ITI college are at Mansa, with engineering study at Bathinda.

Health and daily services

Health facilities recorded inside the village in 2011 were a primary health sub-centre, a dispensary and a veterinary hospital, with no community health centre, primary health centre or allopathic hospital recorded that year. Treated tap water was available in the village, though neither total sanitation campaign coverage nor a community toilet complex was recorded. Aklia has a sub post office of its own, while the post office itself was recorded within 5 kilometres. The village also had a PDS ration shop, mobile phone coverage and an anganwadi centre, while an ASHA worker was recorded 5 to 10 kilometres away and an internet common service centre more than 10 kilometres away. There was no bank branch or ATM in the village in 2011, the nearest banks being 5 to 10 kilometres away: 18 of the census directory's 32 facility fields were positive.

Getting there

Aklia corrects its earlier description on buses: both public and private bus services ran in the village itself in the 2011 record. The village is reached by a pucca road, while the all-weather road was recorded 5 to 10 kilometres away, as the written record stands. The nearest railway station was more than 10 kilometres away, at Mansa. Mansa town is about 20 kilometres away and Barnala about 24 kilometres, and Mansa serves as both tehsil and district headquarters for the village.

What is the population of Aklia?

The population of Aklia was 8,282 at the 2011 census, living in 1,571 households in Mansa tehsil of Mansa district. It had risen from 7,513 in 2001.

Which tehsil is Aklia in?

Aklia is in Mansa tehsil of Mansa district, Punjab, in the Bhikhi block. Its census village code is 036159 and its PIN code is 151510.

What is Aklia known for?

Aklia is a canal-irrigated paddy village of Mansa tehsil with three gurdwaras, a temple and a mosque, government schools to Class 12 and a health sub-centre, dispensary and veterinary hospital recorded in 2011.