Mallanਮੱਲਨ

Where is Mallan?

Mallan is a large village in Gidderbaha tehsil of Sri Muktsar Sahib district, Punjab, in the Malwa region, in the canal country east of the district. The 2011 directory recorded Jaitu, about 15 kilometres away, as its nearest town; the tehsil headquarters at Gidderbaha is about 23 kilometres away and Sri Muktsar Sahib city about 25 kilometres. In the census record Mallan carries village code 035340, covers 3,151 hectares and has PIN code 152031. It falls in the Kot Bhai community development block. The census recorded a single gram panchayat named Mallan; current local listings divide the village among three gram panchayats, Aman Garh, Dadu Mohalla Mallan and Mallan. Its postal address runs through the Doda post office. For political representation it sits in the Gidderbaha assembly constituency and the Faridkot Lok Sabha constituency. Villages recorded around it include Kotliablu, Kishanpura, Bhalaiana and Surewala, and Doda lies about 9 kilometres west.

A canal village of three panchayats

Mallan is one of the biggest villages of Gidderbaha tehsil by land: at 3,151 hectares it is the largest village in this batch, and almost every hectare of it is flat, canal watered farmland. It is a settled farming village rather than a growing one, up from 7,840 people in 2001 to 8,451 in 2011, a rise of about 8 per cent. What marks Mallan out in the census record is the shape of its workforce and its water: this is a village of owner cultivators, where the families who hold the land do most of the farm work themselves, and a village where the canal does nearly all the watering, with tube-wells almost absent. Nothing in its recorded history gives it a fort or a famous shrine; its institutions are its schools, the oldest of which dates to 1945, its gurdwaras and its three panchayats.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 8,451 people in Mallan: 4,530 men and 3,921 women living in 1,530 households, about 5.5 people to a household, the largest households in this batch. Spread over 3,151 hectares, the density works out to about 268 people per square kilometre, the thinnest spread in the batch. The sex ratio was 866 women for every 1,000 men. Children up to the age of six numbered 789, about 9 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 2,181 people, about 26 per cent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded.

Literacy in 2011 stood at 61.51 per cent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 65.88 per cent and women at 56.44 per cent. The census recorded 3,769 workers, about 45 per cent of the village, the highest worker share in this batch, level with Mari Mustafa of the last batch. Of the 2,979 main workers, the largest group by far, 1,650 people, were cultivators on their own land, ahead of 836 agricultural labourers and 455 other workers in trade, transport and services, with 38 people in household industries. A further 790 people were marginal workers. Counting everyone, the village held 2,158 cultivators against 1,013 agricultural labourers, so farming here rests on landholding families, and the wage labour force is the smaller half of the farm workforce.

Land and farming

Farming covers nearly all of Mallan. Of the village's 3,151 hectares, 2,822 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and every sown hectare was irrigated, almost entirely from canals: canals watered 2,814 hectares and wells and tube-wells just 8 hectares, the most canal dependent record in this programme. About 256 hectares were under non-agricultural uses such as the settlement, roads and ponds, and 73 hectares were barren or uncultivable. Farm power supply was recorded at 6 hours a day. This is the wheat, paddy and cotton plain of the Kot Bhai block, where the canal roster, not the tube-well, decides the farming year.

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 Mallan up to Class 12. The senior secondary school is an old foundation: the UDISE based listing dates the Government Senior Secondary School Mallan to 1945, teaching Classes 6 to 12 in the Guri Sanghar cluster, and its painted entrance arch, now a smart school gate, is pictured at the top of this page. School listings also name two government primary schools, the Akal Senior Secondary School, the Akal Public School, the New Malwa Model School and the Guru Gobind Singh Public School. For higher study, the listings name Muktsar as the nearest centre for degree, engineering and other colleges, and Faridkot for the government medical college.

Health and daily services

Health facilities recorded inside the village in 2011 were a primary health sub-centre and a veterinary hospital, with no primary health centre, dispensary, community health centre or allopathic hospital; present day listings also record a PHC Mallan, placed in the health listings inside the Gurdwara Shri Nanaksar premises, beside the older sub-centre. Treated tap water was available in the village, but neither total sanitation campaign coverage nor a community toilet complex was recorded. Mallan has a sub post office of its own, while the main post office was recorded more than ten kilometres away, and its postal address runs through Doda. Banking stands partly inside the village: a commercial bank branch was recorded in Mallan in 2011, with the cooperative bank 5 to 10 kilometres away and no ATM; a present day listing places an SGB ATM on the Jaitu to Muktsar road in the village. Two gaps stand out in the 2011 record: the PDS ration shop was more than ten kilometres away and the internet common service centre was also more than ten kilometres away. The village had mobile phone coverage and an anganwadi centre, with the ASHA health worker within five kilometres: 18 of the census directory's 32 facility fields were positive. Domestic electricity supply was recorded at 15 hours a day, and supply for all users at 20 hours.

Faith in Mallan

Religious life in Mallan is local and gurdwara centred. Map listings name the Sodian Wala Gurdwara Sahib in the village and a Gurudwara Ramsar Sahib on its northern side, and the village's Nanaksar gurdwara is woven into daily life closely enough that the health listings place the village's primary health centre inside its premises. The wider pilgrimage circuit of the tehsil runs through Kotliablu and Kot Bhai toward Gidderbaha and Muktsar, and the village's calendar turns with the gurpurabs and the Maghi season of the district.

Getting there

Mallan is reached by pucca, all-weather roads, and both public and private bus services run in the village itself. There is no railway station within ten kilometres, and the nearest towns are Jaitu, about 15 kilometres away, Gidderbaha, about 23 kilometres, and Sri Muktsar Sahib, about 25 kilometres, which between them carry the village's administration, markets and onward travel.

What is the population of Mallan?

The population of Mallan was 8,451 at the 2011 census, living in 1,530 households in Gidderbaha tehsil of Sri Muktsar Sahib district. It had grown from 7,840 in 2001.

Which tehsil is Mallan in?

Mallan is in Gidderbaha tehsil of Sri Muktsar Sahib district, Punjab, in the Kot Bhai block. Its census village code is 035340 and its PIN code is 152031.

What work do people do in Mallan?

Most work is farm work on family land. The 2011 census counted 2,158 cultivators against 1,013 agricultural labourers, and 1,650 of its 2,979 main workers cultivated their own land.