Mari Mustafaਮਾੜੀ ਮੁਸਟਫਾ

Where is Mari Mustafa?

Mari Mustafa is a large village in Bagha Purana tehsil of Moga district, Punjab, in the Malwa region. The 2011 directory recorded Bagha Purana, about 14 kilometres away, as its nearest town; the district headquarters at Moga city is about 32 kilometres away. In the census record Mari Mustafa carries village code 033947, covers 1,843 hectares and has PIN code 142049. It falls in the Baghapurana community development block. The census recorded a single gram panchayat named Mari Mustafa; current local listings divide the village between the Basti Gurusar and Mari Mustafa gram panchayats. For political representation it sits in the Bhagha Purana assembly constituency and the Faridkot Lok Sabha constituency. Villages recorded around it include Veroke, Ladhaike, Rajiana and Sangatpura.

The fourth largest village of Bagha Purana tehsil

By the 2011 count Mari Mustafa ranked fourth among the 56 villages of Bagha Purana tehsil, in a tehsil where the typical village holds about 3,579 people: Mari Mustafa, at 8,639, is more than twice that size. It grew from 7,547 people in 2001 to 8,639 in 2011, a rise of about 14 per cent. Nothing in its recorded history gives it a fort, a famous shrine or a celebrated son; its story is written in its fields and its workforce, and that story is unusual enough, because this is a village where the people who work other families' land outnumber the families who own land.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 8,639 people in Mari Mustafa: 4,504 men and 4,135 women living in 1,713 households, about 5.0 people to a household. Spread over 1,843 hectares, the density works out to about 469 people per square kilometre. The sex ratio was 918 women for every 1,000 men. Children up to the age of six numbered 896, about 10 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 3,987 people, about 46 per cent of the population, by far the highest share in this batch and close to half the village, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded.

Literacy in 2011 stood at 64.78 per cent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 69.31 per cent and women at 59.87 per cent. The census recorded 3,866 workers, about 45 per cent of the village, the highest worker share in this batch. Of the 2,825 main workers, the largest group, 1,057 people, were agricultural labourers, just ahead of 1,043 cultivators working their own land, with 596 other workers in trade, transport and services and 129 people in household industries. A further 1,041 people, more than a quarter of all its workers, were marginal workers employed for only part of the year. Counting everyone, the village held 1,093 cultivators against 1,565 agricultural labourers, so farming here supports many more labouring families than landholding ones, and a large part of its workforce depends on seasonal work.

Land and farming

Farming covers nearly all of Mari Mustafa's usable land. Of the village's 1,843 hectares, 1,676 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and every sown hectare was irrigated, mainly from canals (1,225 hectares) with wells and tube-wells adding 451 hectares. Only about 37 hectares were under non-agricultural uses such as the settlement, roads and ponds, while 125 hectares were barren or uncultivable. Farm power supply was recorded at 8 hours a day. This is the canal and tube-well wheat, paddy and cotton country of the Bagha Purana plain, worked at a scale where the harvest decides the year for landholders and labourers alike.

Schools

Education in the village runs through one government primary school, one government middle school, one government secondary school and one government senior secondary school, so children can study in Mari Mustafa up to Class 12, and the census listings add private primary and middle schools. School listings name the Government Senior Secondary School Mari Mustafa, established in 1966 in the UDISE based listing, and private schools including G.H. Public School and G.A.D. Public School. For higher study, the listings name Bagha Purana as the nearest centre for government degree, engineering and polytechnic colleges, and Faridkot for medical and management colleges.

Health and daily services

Health facilities recorded inside the village in 2011 were a dispensary and a veterinary hospital, with no primary health centre, sub-centre, community health centre or allopathic hospital, the thinnest human health cover in this batch. Treated tap water was available in the village, but neither total sanitation campaign coverage nor a community toilet complex was recorded. Mari Mustafa has both a post office and a sub post office of its own, and a PDS ration shop stands in the village. Banking is in the village itself, with a commercial bank branch and a cooperative bank branch, though there was no ATM in 2011 and the internet common service centre was recorded more than ten kilometres away. The village also had mobile phone coverage, an anganwadi centre and an ASHA health worker: 21 of the census directory's 32 facility fields were positive. Domestic electricity supply was recorded at 12 hours a day.

Faith in Mari Mustafa

No historic shrine of Mari Mustafa itself appears in the directories opened for this page, and religious life in the village is local, centred on its own gurdwaras and temples. Readers should not confuse the village with a widely reported mosque and gurdwara story from Mahadian village in Fatehgarh Sahib district: that complex stands far from here and has nothing to do with Mari Mustafa.

Getting there

Mari Mustafa is reached by pucca, all-weather roads, and a private bus service runs in the village itself; the 2011 directory recorded the public bus service and the nearest railway station both more than ten kilometres away. Bagha Purana town is about 14 kilometres away and Moga city about 32 kilometres, and the two towns are the practical hubs for administration, markets and onward travel.

What is the population of Mari Mustafa?

The population of Mari Mustafa was 8,639 at the 2011 census, living in 1,713 households in Bagha Purana tehsil of Moga district. It had grown from 7,547 in 2001.

Which tehsil is Mari Mustafa in?

Mari Mustafa is in Bagha Purana tehsil of Moga district, Punjab, in the Baghapurana block. Its census village code is 033947 and its PIN code is 142049.

What work do people do in Mari Mustafa?

Most work is farm work. The 2011 census counted 1,565 agricultural labourers against 1,093 cultivators, and 1,041 of its 3,866 workers were marginal workers employed for only part of the year.