Chirakਚਿਰਕ

Moga's second village, on the city's southern edge

Chirak is a large village in Moga tehsil of Moga district, Punjab, in the Malwa region, lying just south of Moga city at about 30.72 degrees north and 75.17 degrees east. It is the second largest village in Moga tehsil: CityPopulation's table of the census puts its 10,228 people behind only Buttar's 10,519, and ahead of every other village in the tehsil. Chirak has grown fast, from 8,224 people in 2001 to 10,228 in 2011, as the city beside it has spread. The census record carries it as village code 033997 across 2,818 hectares, with its own gram panchayat in the Moga-I block. One caution for readers: Chirak is not Charik. Charik, its better known neighbour a short distance away, is a separate census village famous for its own schools, and the two are often confused in conversation and in listings.

Religious life in Chirak

No shrine of more than local fame stands in Chirak, and its religious life is the everyday kind: the village's own gurdwara and temples serve its neighbourhoods and mark the festivals of the year, and for the historic shrines of the area residents look to Moga city, a few kilometres north, whose gurdwaras draw worshippers from across the tehsil. The village record is an honest one, and it is written here as it stands rather than dressed up: Chirak is a working farming village whose identity rests on its size, its schools and its place on Moga's shoulder, not on a famous shrine.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 10,228 people in Chirak: 5,405 men and 4,823 women, in 1,965 households at about 5.2 people to a household, a density of about 363 people per square kilometre. The sex ratio was 892 women for every 1,000 men. Children up to the age of six numbered 1,135, about 11 percent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 4,234 people, about 41 percent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded. Literacy stood at 65.87 percent among residents aged seven and above, men at 69.35 percent and women at 61.97 percent, a solid figure for the district and ahead of many villages of its size in Malwa.

Of the village's 4,208 workers, about 41 percent of the population, 3,526 were main workers. The largest group was 1,521 other workers, in trade, transport, services and the small industry that gathers around a city like Moga, followed by 1,181 cultivators working their own land and 711 main agricultural labourers. Counting marginal workers as well, the totals were 1,200 cultivators and 1,176 agricultural labourers, a near even split between those who farm their own fields and those who work the fields of others. A further 682 people were marginal workers, employed for only part of the year.

Land and farming

Chirak's farming is fully watered. Of the village's 2,818 hectares, 2,544 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and every sown hectare was irrigated: 2,403 hectares from wells and tube-wells, and 141 hectares from the village's tanks and ponds. There was no forest area, and 274 hectares lay under non-agricultural uses. The recorded harvests are the Malwa staples, wheat, rice and maize, grown on groundwater in the classic tube-well pattern of the region. Farm power supply was recorded at 10 hours a day.

Strong schools, but no health facility of its own

Chirak is unusually well schooled for its size. The 2011 directory recorded 3 government primary schools, 2 middle schools, 2 secondary schools and a government senior secondary school, and the private sector matched it almost seat for seat: 2 private primary schools, 2 middle schools, a secondary school and a senior secondary school, with pre-primary schools on both sides. An anganwadi centre and an ASHA worker were also recorded.

Health is the gap in the record, and it is worth stating plainly. The freshly read 2011 Village Directory lists every human health facility at zero for Chirak: no community health centre, no primary health centre, no sub-centre, no allopathic hospital and no dispensary inside a village of more than ten thousand people. What the village did have was a veterinary hospital for its livestock, recorded with one doctor and one paramedic in position, and day to day care from 3 non-government medical practitioners and 4 medicine shops. For hospital care, Chirak looks to Moga.

Daily facilities are otherwise complete. The village had a sub post office, an internet common service centre, a PDS ration shop, an agricultural marketing society and an agricultural credit society, a sports field, a daily newspaper supply and its own assembly polling station. Banking ran through a commercial bank branch and a cooperative bank branch. The 2011 directory recorded no ATM in the village; that has since changed, and Punjab and Sind Bank's published list of ATMs now includes a machine on Link Road, Chirak. Drinking water came from untreated tap water and tube-wells. Domestic electricity supply was recorded at 10 hours a day.

Getting there

Chirak sits on the road network south of Moga: a state highway and major district roads serve the village, with pucca, all-weather roads, and the 2011 directory recorded both public and private bus services in the village itself. The nearest railway station was 5 to 10 kilometres away. Moga, the tehsil and district headquarters, is the hub for everything the village does not have, from hospitals to colleges; the census recorded the nearest statutory town, Moga, at 16 kilometres. Neighbouring villages include Ramuwala Kalan, Mandiranwala Nawan and Ramuwala Harchoke, with Charik close by to the south.

What is the population of Chirak?

The population of Chirak was 10,228 at the 2011 census, living in 1,965 households in Moga tehsil of Moga district, up from 8,224 in 2001. It is the second largest village in Moga tehsil.

Does Chirak have a hospital?

No. The 2011 Village Directory recorded no government health facility of any kind inside Chirak: no hospital, health centre or dispensary. The village had a veterinary hospital, 3 non-government practitioners and 4 medicine shops, and hospital care is in Moga.