Nyotini

Nyotini is traditionally said to have been founded by the Raja Ram, a descendant of Raja Balbhaddar of Jhalotar.^[3] Raja Ram was supposedly on a hunting expedition when he came across the spot now occupied by the town, and he was struck by the beauty of the place.^[3] He cut away some of the "tin" grass which grew here and founded the town, which he called "Nyotini".^[3] His fort was supposedly on the site now occupied by an old dih.^[3]

Nyotini was ruled by Raja Ram's family until the time of one Raja Apre, who is said to have mistreated and robbed an influential merchant; the merchant complained to Mahmud of Ghazni, who then sent a force led by Miran Muhammad Zahir-ud-Din "Aftab" to conquer the place.^[3] This is associated with a chronogram, "Khuda Dad", which gives the year 614 AH or 1197 CE, which would have been during the reign of Shams-ud-Din Iltutmish.^[3] Ever since then, Nyotini has served as a major centre of Muslim settlement in what is now Unnao district.^[3]

At the turn of the 20th century, Nyotani was described as having "an air of prosperity".^[3] Several members of the local Muslim community held high government posts (one was also a professor of Arabic at Queen's College in Benares) and they had nice houses in the town.^[3] The surrounding farmland was "extraordinarily rich and well cultivated", and the main crops were poppies, vegetables, spices, medicinal herbs, and paan.^[3] The town, which was in the revenue mauza of Pura Bhar, had an upper primary school, and its population in 1901 was 3,957, including 1,314 Muslims.^[3]

Nyotini was first classified as a town for the 1981 census.^[4] At that time, its main item of manufacture was listed as cotton cloth.^[4]

As of 2001^[update] India census,^[5] Nyotini had a population of 7,120. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Nyotini has an average literacy rate of 43%, lower than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 52%, and female literacy is 34%. In Nyotini, 18% of the population is under 6 years of age.

According to the 2011 census, Nyotini has a population of 7,577 people, in 1,212 households.^[1] The town's sex ratio is 917 females to every 1000 males; 3,952 of Nyotini's residents are male (52.2%) and 3,625 are female (47.8%).^[1] The 0-6 age group makes up about 13.9% of the town's population; among this group, the sex ratio is 916, which is higher than the district urban average of 903.^[1] Members of Scheduled Castes make up 27.91% of the town's population, while no members of Scheduled Tribes were recorded.^[1] The town's literacy rate was 59.5% (counting only people age 7 and up); literacy was higher among men and boys (67.7%) than among women and girls (50.6%).^[1] The scheduled castes literacy rate is 50.8% (60.3% among men and boys, and 40.3% among women and girls).^[1]

In terms of employment, 21.1% of Nyotini residents were classified as main workers (i.e. people employed for at least 6 months per year) in 2011.^[1] Marginal workers (i.e. people employed for less than 6 months per year) made up 15.9% (the highest proportion in the district), and the remaining 63.0% were non-workers.^[1] Employment status varied significantly according to gender, with 57.0% of men being either main or marginal workers, compared to 15.2% of women.^[1]

The 2011 census recorded 100.2% of Kursath residents as living in slum conditions.^[1] There are 10 slum areas in Nyotini: Dayanand Nagar, Shastri Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar, Adarsh Nagar, Jawahar Nagar, Valmikinagar, Indira Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Keshav Nagar, and Azad Nagar (the largest).^[1] These range in size from 121 to 166 households and have between 2 and 5 tap water access points.^[1] The number of flush toilets installed in people's homes ranges from 4 in Valmikinagar to 65 in Indira Nagar.^[1] 8 of the 10 areas are served by open sewers, while the remaining 2 (Keshav Nagar and Azad Nagar) have a mix of open and closed drainage.^[1]

26°33′00″N 80°17′00″E / 26.5500°N 80.2833°E / 26.5500; 80.2833