Shirdi

Shirdi About this sound pronunciation (help·info) (Marathi: ??????) is a town and falls under the jurisdiction of municipal council popularly known as Shirdi Nagar Panchayat, located in Rahata Taluka (Sub-division) in Ahmednagar District in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is accessible via the Ahmednagar – Manmad State Highway No.10, approximately 83 km from Ahmednagar and 15 km from Kopargaon. It is located 185 km east of the Western Seashore line (the Ahmednagar – Manmad road), which is a very busy route. Shirdi is best known as the late 19th century home of the popular guru Shirdi Sai Baba. It is one of the richest temple organisations.

As of the 2011 India census, the population of Shirdi stood at 36,004. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Shirdi has an average literacy rate of 70%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 76%, and female literacy is 62%. In Shirdi, 15% of the population is under 6 years of age. But, Shirdi being a pilgrimage centre, also has a large floating population. On any given day some 25,000 devotees come for darshan. On holidays the number reaches about half a million people. Due to the easy availability of jobs, a large migrant population, mainly of unskilled labourers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana etc. also reside here.