ਸੈਦ ਖੇੜੀਸੈਦ ਖੇੜੀ

Where is Said Kheri?

Said Kheri is a village in Rajpura tehsil of ਪਟਿਆਲਾ district, Punjab, in the Malwa region, standing just behind ਰਾਜਪੁਰਾ town. The 2011 directory recorded Rajpura, about 2 kilometres away, as its nearest town; the tehsil headquarters is about 7 kilometres away and Patiala, the district headquarters, about 25 kilometres. In the census record Said Kheri carries village code 036956 and covers only 455 hectares, one of the smallest village areas in this programme for a population of its size. The census gave PIN code 140401, while postal and LGD listings use 140402, the code of the Suhron branch office that serves the village. It falls in the Rajpura community development block. The census recorded a single gram panchayat, Said Kheri, while current LGD listings divide the village between two, Said Kheri and Khajur Peer Colony. For political representation it sits in the Ghanaur assembly constituency and the Patiala Lok Sabha constituency. Villages recorded around it include ਗਜ਼ੀਪੁਰ, about 1.4 kilometres away, ਭੋਗਲਾ, ਖਾਨਪੁਰ ਬਰਿਂਗ and ਖੇੜੀ ਗਂਡੇਅਨ.

The saint who founded Said Kheri

Said Kheri takes its name and its founding story from a Muslim saint. The village was established by Said Raju, whose real name was Shah Raju and who was also known as Zinda Pir. He was born in Bhor village and came to this place at the insistence of the then Raja of the area. In the village he was called Dada Raju. After his death a mazar, or shrine, was built over his resting place, and it drew people of different religions, as it still does: the shrine of Peer Shah Rajoo remains the village's best known place of devotion, and listings for the village also name a Gurdwara Sant Baba Tulsi Das Ji among its places of worship. Ten generations of Said Raju's family lived in Said Kheri, until the Partition of 1947 changed the village, as it changed villages across this borderland district.

The village that doubled in a decade

Said Kheri's census story is growth. It counted 4,185 people in 2001 and 8,334 in 2011, a rise of about 99 per cent: the village doubled in ten years, as Rajpura's housing and work spilled the short distance across its fields. The 2011 census counted 4,375 men and 3,959 women living in 1,589 households, about 5.2 people to a household. Packed onto 455 hectares, the density works out to about 1,832 people per square kilometre, by far the densest village in this batch. The sex ratio was 905 women for every 1,000 men. Children up to the age of six numbered 1,158, about 14 per cent of the village, the youngest profile in this batch and a sign of the young families who moved in. Scheduled Castes made up 1,183 people, about 14 per cent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded.

Literacy in 2011 stood at 73.31 per cent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 78.52 per cent and women at 67.57 per cent, the highest literacy in this batch. The census recorded 2,516 workers, about 30 per cent of the village. Of the 2,312 main workers, an overwhelming 1,958 were other workers in trade, transport, industry and services, ahead of just 267 cultivators and 51 people in household industries. A further 204 people were marginal workers. Counting everyone, the village held 270 cultivators against only 52 agricultural labourers: Said Kheri keeps the name of a village, but its working life already runs on Rajpura's economy.

Land and farming

What farmland Said Kheri has is intensively worked. Of the village's 455 hectares, 415 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and every sown hectare was irrigated, all of it from wells and tube-wells, with no canal water at all. Only about 40 hectares were under non-agricultural uses in 2011, a share that the doubling population has pressed on ever since. Farm power supply was recorded at 8 hours a day. With so few labourers against its cultivators, most farm work is done by the landholding families themselves, on some of the smallest and most valuable fields in the tehsil, ringed by the colonies of a growing town.

ਸਕੂਲ

Education in the village runs through one government primary school, one government middle school, one government secondary school and one government senior secondary school, recorded in 2011, so children can study in Said Kheri up to Class 12. The wider facility record adds a government pre-primary school and a private primary school. For higher study, everything is close: the listings place the nearest government arts and science degree college at Rajpura, less than 5 kilometres away, with engineering, management and polytechnic colleges in the town and the medical college at Patiala.

Health and daily services

The 2011 Village Directory recorded no human health facility inside Said Kheri at all: no community health centre, primary health centre, sub-centre, allopathic hospital or dispensary. What the village had was its veterinary hospital, serving the livestock of its farming families, and an ASHA health worker. Present day listings place the nearest sub-centre, primary health centre and community health centre within 1 to 2 kilometres, on the Rajpura side. Treated tap water was available in the village, along with total sanitation campaign coverage, though no community toilet complex was recorded. There was no post office in the village in 2011, the nearest being within five kilometres, and no internet common service centre, also within five kilometres. The village did have a PDS ration shop, mobile phone coverage and an anganwadi centre. No bank branch or ATM was recorded in the village in 2011, the nearest banks being within five kilometres; present day listings show a bank in the village itself, with the nearest ATM 1 to 2 kilometres away. In all, 16 of the census directory's 32 facility fields were positive. Domestic electricity supply was recorded at 12 hours a day.

Getting there

Said Kheri is a town-edge village, and its transport reflects that. No bus service of either kind ran inside the village in the 2011 record; both public and private buses were available within five kilometres, and present day listings describe shared auto-rickshaws as the village's main public transport. The village is reached by pucca, all-weather roads, and its railway station in all but name is Rajpura Junction, recorded within five kilometres, one of the busiest junctions in the state. Rajpura town is about 2 kilometres away and Patiala about 25 kilometres.

What is the population of Said Kheri?

The population of Said Kheri was 8,334 at the 2011 census, living in 1,589 households in Rajpura tehsil of Patiala district. It had doubled from 4,185 in 2001.

Which tehsil is Said Kheri in?

Said Kheri is in Rajpura tehsil of Patiala district, Punjab, in the Rajpura block. Its census village code is 036956. The census gave PIN code 140401, while postal listings use 140402.

Who founded Said Kheri?

Said Kheri was established by the Muslim saint Said Raju, real name Shah Raju, also called Zinda Pir and known in the village as Dada Raju. His mazar in the village has drawn people of different religions for generations.