Dodaਦੋਡਾ

Where is Doda?

Doda is a large village in Gidderbaha tehsil of Sri Muktsar Sahib district in Punjab, India, in the Malwa region of the state. It stands on the Muktsar road (state highway 41), about 13 kilometres from Sri Muktsar Sahib, its nearest town in the census record, and about 10 kilometres from Gidderbaha, the tehsil headquarters. The village falls in the Kot Bhai community development block and has its own gram panchayat. In the census record it carries village code 035358, and it covers 4,346 hectares. For elections it falls in the Gidderbaha assembly constituency and the Faridkot parliamentary constituency.

A village that runs like a small town

Most villages of 13,000 people still send their residents to town for anything official. Doda does an unusual amount for itself. Local listings record a police station in the village, a sub-tehsil office, its own post office (Doda, PIN 152031) that serves the surrounding villages, a block primary education office, commercial and cooperative bank branches with an ATM, and a spread of shops and workshops along the Muktsar road and the Bathinda road. It is the kind of village the surrounding hamlets come to for work to be done, one of the two service centres of its block alongside Kot Bhai, the block's namesake village.

Health care: a community health centre of its own

The 2011 Village Directory gives Doda a health record few Punjab villages can match: a community health centre, a primary health centre, two primary health sub-centres, an allopathic hospital and a dispensary, besides a veterinary hospital. The community health centre, CHC Doda, stands behind the government school, and the two sub-centres, Doda-I and Doda-II, carry care into the village's own quarters. For a village this is hospital-level infrastructure, and it makes Doda the health address for the villages around it.

Religious places

Daily worship in Doda is served by the village's own gurdwaras and temples, and local listings record a dera, Dera Baba Dhyan Das, in the village. No shrine in Doda carries a documented history of wider fame, and this page does not invent one. The historic gurdwaras of the district are up the road in Sri Muktsar Sahib, where Gurdwara Tuti Gandi Sahib and the other shrines of the 1705 battle of Muktsar draw pilgrims all year, above all at the Maghi mela in January.

Population and people

The 2011 census counted 13,070 people in Doda: 6,825 men and 6,245 women, living in 2,468 households, an average of about 5.3 people per household. Spread over 4,346 hectares, the density works out to about 301 people per square kilometre. The sex ratio was 915 women for every 1,000 men, above the district figure of the time. Children up to the age of six numbered 1,573, about 12 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 5,360 people, about 41 per cent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded. Literacy stood at 63.12 per cent, with men at 69.48 per cent and women at 56.24 per cent.

Land, water and work

Of Doda's 4,346 hectares, 3,564 hectares were net sown area in 2011, and every sown hectare was irrigated, all of it from canals: the village's irrigation is entirely surface water from the canal network, not groundwater. About 578 hectares were under non-agricultural uses, the built-up share of a village that behaves like a small town, and 204 hectares were barren. The census recorded 4,715 workers, about 36 per cent of the village. Of the 4,250 main workers, the largest group, 1,688, were cultivators on their own land, closely followed by 1,558 agricultural labourers, with 967 other workers in trade, transport and services; a further 465 people were marginal workers, employed for only part of the year. Farm power supply was recorded at 8 hours a day, and domestic supply at a generous 18 hours.

Schools and services

Education runs from the government primary schools up to the Government Senior Secondary School, Doda, whose painted main gate on the village road is a local landmark; private schools work alongside, among them the Akal Sahai Public School and the B.K.M Public School, the latter running since 1982. The village also had an anganwadi centre. Treated tap water was available. Banking is available in the village itself, with a commercial bank branch, a cooperative bank branch and an ATM. One gap in the record: the village had no PDS ration shop of its own in 2011, the nearest being more than ten kilometres away.

Getting there

Doda is reached by pucca roads on the Muktsar road corridor (state highway 41), and the 2011 directory recorded both public and private bus services in the village itself. Sri Muktsar Sahib, about 13 kilometres away, is the district headquarters, and Gidderbaha, the tehsil headquarters, about 10 kilometres away, has the nearest railway station, more than ten kilometres from the village. Neighbouring villages include Kauni, about 3 kilometres away, Giljewala, Duhewala, Sukhna Ablu and Chak Giljewala.

What is Doda known for?

Doda is known as a service village: it has its own community health centre and hospital-level care, a police station, a sub-tehsil office and a post office serving the surrounding villages, a rare set of institutions for a village of its size in Gidderbaha tehsil.

What is the population of Doda?

The population of Doda was 13,070 at the 2011 census, living in 2,468 households in Gidderbaha tehsil of Sri Muktsar Sahib district.