Sabhraiਸਭਰਾਏ

Where is Sabhrai?

Sabhrai is a large farming village in Patti tehsil of Tarn Taran district, Punjab, India, in the Majha region of the state. The town of Patti, the tehsil headquarters, is about 11 kilometres away. The village covers 4,809 hectares, one of the largest village areas in the district, and in the census record it carries village code 038225. A village of this size is governed in two parts: the Local Government Directory lists two gram panchayats for Sabhrai, named Sabhra and Joti Shah. For elections the village falls in the Patti assembly constituency and the Khadoor Sahib parliamentary constituency.

One village, two panchayats

Sabhrai's scale is written into the way it is run. The Sabhra panchayat, whose name is also the spelling used in panchayat and postal records, covers Sabhrai itself along with the neighbouring villages of Ghulewala and Mallahanwala in the Patti subdivision list. The Joti Shah panchayat covers the village's Joti Shah side, a named quarter with its own identity: it has a government primary school, GES Joti Shah, established in 1964 and grouped in the GES Sabhran school cluster, and a gurdwara of its own. Between the 2001 and 2011 censuses the village grew from 10,394 to 13,210 people.

Religious places

The named shrine of the village is Gurdwara Singh Sabha Joti Shah, recorded in place listings as an active Sikh temple serving the Joti Shah side of Sabhrai. Beyond it, daily worship is at the village's own gurdwaras and temples, none of which carries a documented history of wider fame, and this page does not invent one. For a historic shrine, villagers look to Patti, 11 kilometres away, where Gurdwara Chaubara Sahib recalls how Bhai Bidhi Chand recovered the shawls that Mughal officials had seized from a sangat carrying them for Guru Hargobind.

Land and farming

Land is Sabhrai's defining fact. Of its 4,809 hectares, 4,389 hectares were net sown area in 2011, and every sown hectare was irrigated, all of it from wells and tube-wells: the census record shows no canal irrigation here, so this is a groundwater farming village. Farm power supply was recorded at 8 hours a day. Because the land is plentiful, the population density is only about 275 people per square kilometre, low for so large a village. The census recorded 3,920 workers, about 30 per cent of the village. Of the 3,199 main workers, cultivators on their own land were the largest group at 1,828, ahead of 899 other workers in trade, transport and services and 406 agricultural labourers, so owner farming still leads the village economy. A further 721 people were marginal workers, employed for only part of the year. The growth behind those numbers was fast: the village added about 2,800 people in the decade to 2011, a rise of about 27 per cent.

Population and literacy

The 2011 census counted 13,210 people in Sabhrai: 6,982 men and 6,228 women, living in 2,358 households, an average of about 5.6 people per household. The sex ratio was 892 women for every 1,000 men. Children up to the age of six numbered 1,703, about 13 per cent of the village, a young age profile. Scheduled Castes made up 3,390 people, about 26 per cent of the population. Literacy stood at 65.44 per cent, with men at 71.08 per cent and women at 59.21 per cent.

Schools and services

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 the village up to Class 12, and the Joti Shah side has had its own primary school since 1964. Local school listings also name a government middle school for the village, GMS Sabhrai, and the senior secondary school on the Sabhra side, GSSS Sabhra. The village also had an anganwadi centre. No health facility was recorded inside the village in 2011, so residents rely on Patti for hospital care. Drinking water in the census record came from untreated tap water supplies. The village had a sub post office, and postal records also list a Sabhra branch post office serving the village. It had a PDS ration shop and mobile phone coverage, and banking was available in the village itself, with a commercial bank branch. Domestic electricity supply was recorded at 12 hours a day.

Getting there

Sabhrai is reached by pucca, all-weather roads, and the 2011 directory recorded a private bus service in the village itself. Patti, about 11 kilometres away, is the nearest town and the tehsil headquarters, and Tarn Taran town, the district headquarters, lies beyond it. The nearest railway station was more than ten kilometres away in the census record. Neighbouring villages include Bathe Bhaini, Tung, Nadohar and Saidpur.

How big is Sabhrai?

Sabhrai covers 4,809 hectares, one of the largest village areas in Tarn Taran district, and had 13,210 people at the 2011 census. That makes it one of the biggest villages of Patti tehsil by both area and population. Its two gram panchayats are Sabhra and Joti Shah.

What is the population of Sabhrai?

The population of Sabhrai was 13,210 at the 2011 census, living in 2,358 households in Patti tehsil of Tarn Taran district.