Shutranaਸ਼ੁਤਰਾਣਾ

Shutrana is one of the biggest villages in Patran tehsil of Patiala district, in the Malwa region of Punjab. The 2011 Census counted 12,768 residents in 2,552 households, spread across eight gram panchayat units: Shutrana itself and the deras and colonies of Khanpur Garhian, Karanpur, Chhatehra, Ahmadpur, Odianwali, Dera Bhai Ki Patti, Dera Fateh Singh Wala and Dera Bishan Singh Wala. The village stands 8 km from Patran, its tehsil and block town, on the highway corridor that runs through Shutrana Adda, close to the Sangrur district border and within reach of the Haryana side towns of Cheeka and Tohana. Its name carries weight beyond the village: Shutrana gives its name to a Punjab Assembly constituency of its own.

The census detail fills out the picture of a big, working village. Shutrana's literacy rate stands at 57.17%, with men at 63.31% and women at 50.25%. Scheduled Caste residents number 6,155, which at 48.21% is close to half the village, one reason the assembly seat that carries its name is reserved. Children under seven number 1,676, and the sex ratio is 893 women for every 1,000 men.

The village that names a constituency

Shutrana is one of the few Punjab villages whose name sits on the state election map. The Shutrana Assembly constituency, seat number 117 of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, is a Scheduled Castes reserved constituency in Patiala district, covering the Patran and Shutrana circles of Patran tehsil, and it votes in the Patiala Lok Sabha seat. In the 2022 Punjab Assembly election the seat was won by Kulwant Singh Bazigar of the Aam Aadmi Party, who defeated the Congress candidate by a margin of 51,554 votes. Before him, the seat was held by Nirmal Singh of the Congress in 2017 and by Vaninder Kaur Loomba of the Shiromani Akali Dal in 2012. For a farming village, that makes Shutrana a regular stop on the Patiala district campaign trail, and its adda a place where district politics is argued over tea.

Religious places

Local schools give their addresses by the village's religious landmarks, which is usually the surest map of where village life gathers. The G.G.S. Public Senior Secondary School stands near the centre gurdwara of the village, the big gurdwara at Shutrana's heart, and another school, the Adarsh Public School, gives its address by a second gurdwara. Directory listings for the village also record the Radha Krishan Mandir in Shutrana and a second temple listed simply as Shatrana Mandir, serving the village's Hindu families. Between the gurdwaras, the mandirs and the deras attached to the panchayat, religious life in Shutrana is spread across the settlement the way the village itself is: one large centre, with smaller neighbourhoods of its own around it.

Schools, health and services

The Census Village Directory records a full ladder of government schooling in the village: a primary school, a middle school, a secondary school and a senior secondary school, with private schools such as Adarsh Public School, G.N.D. Public Senior Secondary School and G.G.S. Public Senior Secondary School adding to the choice. The G.N.D. school gives its address by another village landmark, the Shutrana anaaj mandi, the grain market.

On health, the Village Directory record for Shutrana is stronger than older summaries of this page suggested. The village has a community health centre, a primary health centre, a primary health sub-centre and a dispensary, along with a veterinary hospital for its livestock. Shutrana also has its own police station, a sub post office (the head post office is at Patran, 5 to 10 km away), an anganwadi centre and ASHA health workers. A cooperative bank and an ATM operate in the village, with commercial banking 5 to 10 km away at Patran. One honest gap: the fair price ration shop is more than 10 km away, the weakest link in the village's services.

Land, work and the farm economy

Shutrana covers 2,937 hectares. Of these, 2,600 hectares are net sown area and every hectare of it is irrigated by wells and tube-wells, with 337 hectares under non-agricultural use. Electricity reaches the village for 12 hours a day for domestic use and 8 hours for agriculture. The census counted 4,490 workers, 35.17% of the population. Farming employs most of them, and the balance is telling: 1,295 cultivators work their own land while 1,537 agricultural labourers work the fields of others, a sign of how many landless and smallholding families the village carries. Another 1,025 residents are other workers, in transport, trade, services and the mandi economy, and 54 work in household industry. The grain market at the adda, the filling stations on the highway and the bus services, both public and private, tie the village's fields to Patran, Samana and the wider Malwa mandi network.

Is there a hospital or health centre in Shutrana?

Yes. The Census 2011 Village Directory records a community health centre, a primary health centre, a primary health sub-centre and a dispensary in Shutrana, plus a veterinary hospital. Claims that the village has no health facility are out of date against the census record.

How far is Shutrana from Patran and Patiala?

Shutrana is 8 km from Patran, its tehsil town and nearest town in the census record, and about 62 km south of Patiala city. It stands on the NH-71 corridor at Shutrana Adda, with public and private bus services, near the border of Patiala and Sangrur districts.