Bohaਬੋਹਾ

Boha is a large village in Budhlada tehsil of Mansa district, in the Malwa region of Punjab. The 2011 Census counted 12,170 residents in 2,278 households under a single gram panchayat, which makes Boha the second-largest village in Mansa district by population. It stands 10 km from Budhlada, its tehsil, block and nearest town, and about 28 km from Mansa city, in the canal-watered cotton and paddy country of Punjab's south western districts. For a village it carries a town-sized set of institutions: seven government schools, a primary health centre, its own post office and a Common Service Centre.

The district's second-largest village

The District Census Handbook for Mansa, in its 2011 District Highlights, states the ranking plainly: Budhlada Rural, at 13,389 people, is the largest village in the district, followed by Boha at 12,170. Boha votes in the Budhlada Assembly constituency and the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency. Its scale shows in the census detail: 4,074 Scheduled Caste residents, a little over a third of the village, 1,335 children under seven, and a workforce of 4,591 people, 37.72% of the population, the highest work participation share of any village enriched in this batch. Villages of this size in Mansa district are effectively small towns without a municipal council, run by the gram panchayat while carrying town-sized schools, banks and markets.

The handbook's district picture underlines how big that is. The average village in Mansa district held 2,547 people in 2011, against a Punjab average of 1,425, and only 22 of the district's villages had 5,000 people or more. Boha's 12,170 residents are nearly five times the district average, spread over 39.39 square kilometres of village land, which works out to a density of about 309 people per square kilometre, below the district figure of 350. The average household in the village holds about 5.3 people.

Schools, health and services

Boha's school bench is the deepest of any village in this round: the Census Village Directory records three government primary schools, two middle schools, two secondary schools and a senior secondary school in the village. One of them, the Government Primary Smart School, is the subject of the photograph at the top of this page, its Gurmukhi signboard a familiar sight at the village gate. Health care rests on a primary health centre, a primary health sub-centre and a dispensary, with a veterinary hospital for the village's livestock; a hospital or community health centre means the trip to Budhlada or Mansa. The village has both a post office and a sub post office, a Common Service Centre in the village itself, a public distribution ration shop and an anganwadi centre, though the directory places the nearest ASHA worker 5 to 10 km away. Commercial and cooperative banks both operate in Boha and there is an ATM. Public and private buses serve the village, and the nearest railway station is Budhlada, on the line towards Bathinda and Jakhal. Treated tap water was available in the village in 2011, and mobile phone coverage had reached it.

Religious life

Directory listings record a Gurdwara Sahib serving Boha, the centre of the village's religious calendar of gurpurabs, kirtan and langar, as in every large Malwa village. The checks made for this page found no separately documented historic shrine in Boha in the sources opened: no famous samadh, dera or heritage gurdwara is recorded for the village in census or reference sources, and no name beyond its serving gurdwara could be verified. If residents can point to a documented history for a village shrine, it belongs in a future update of this page.

Land, water and work

Boha covers 3,939 hectares, the largest land area of the three villages in this batch. Of 3,628 hectares sown, 3,406 hectares are irrigated and only 222 hectares unirrigated, and the irrigation is overwhelmingly canal: 3,224 hectares by canal against 182 hectares by wells and tube-wells. Another 311 hectares sit under non-agricultural use: roads, ponds, school grounds and the built village itself. Electricity for agriculture is recorded at a generous 14 hours a day, with 12 hours for domestic use. Work follows the land: 1,495 cultivators and 1,503 agricultural labourers, almost exactly matched, with 76 people in household industry and 871 other workers in trade, transport and services. A further 646 people were marginal workers, employed for only part of the year. A workforce split that evenly between those who own the fields and those who labour in them is the social signature of this part of Malwa, and it shapes everything from the village's politics to its school rolls.

Is Boha the largest village in Mansa district?

It is the second-largest. The District Census Handbook 2011 lists Budhlada Rural (13,389) as the district's largest village by population, followed by Boha (12,170), which is governed by a single gram panchayat covering 2,278 households.

How far is Boha from Budhlada and Mansa?

Boha is 10 km from Budhlada, its tehsil and block town and the nearest town in the census record, where the nearest railway station also stands. Mansa city, the district headquarters, is about 28 km away. Public and private buses connect the village to both.