Answer:

♤ Counter-urbanization is a “demographic and social process whereby people move from urban areas to rural areas as a reaction to inner-city deprivation, pollution and overcrowding”

♤ Suburbanization is the “growth of areas on the fringes of cities”. It is one of the many causes of the increase in urban sprawl. Many residents of metropolitan regions work within the central urban area, and choose to live in satellite communities called suburbs and commute to work via automobile or mass transit. Others have taken advantage of technological advances to work from their homes. The skyrocketing real estate prices are one of the main reasons for suburbanization process.

♤ In India, suburbanization as a process is being witnessed in areas around metropolitans. The trend is strongest in cities like Delhi where a more efficient public transport system allows people residing on the periphery of the urban sprawl to commute to the cities.

♤ True counter-urbanization marked by taking up typical rural occupations is almost non-existent in India, notwithstanding the mushrooming ‘farm houses’ on city outskirts. The situation as it exists may be taken as a cross between sub- urbanization and counter urbanization.