BRIDGING RURAL-URBAN DIVIDE

From Sampath’s Desk:

BRIDGING RURAL-URBAN DIVIDE

 

“India lives in its villages”, said Father of our Nation Mahatma Gandhi. This remark was made by him during the pre-Independence era when we were under the yokes of the British rule. Pre-independence India was a country enfettered on all fronts under the alien rule with a vast majority of people reeling under conditions of poverty and a hand-to-mouth existence without industrialization taking the due plunge and playing its development role, the hallmark of a growing economy, even as the whole western world was progressing and prospering splendidly with mass industrialization.

 

With manacles broken and political freedom achieved in 1947, India set out on the path of a mixed economy, also going in for the much-needed massive industrialization even as top priority was given to agriculture. As industrialization gained momentum along with the inevitable large-scale urbanization, people, abandoning their traditional homelands and land-holdings, moved to urban centres in search of livelihood. Modernization of agriculture characterized by the mechanized and automated equipment and implements coupled with improved agro-inputs like hybrid seeds/plants, manures, fertilizers, insecticides, etc. transformed and transmuted agricultural operations from labour-intensive into a highly automatized mode throwing scores of agricultural labourers out of employment. Fragmentation of land-holdings worsened the situation in that small landowners and self-cultivating farmers who deployed traditional manual operations couldn’t compete with giant landlords who alone could afford the state-of-the-art sophisticated agricultural operations giving a drubbing and setback to small farmers. The result was an exodus of people from rural to urban areas where scope for myriad blue-collared and white-collared jobs existed. Urban centres in India started growing with an ever-increasing population as urbanization was going a whole hog ever since independence. Is it a good harbinger or a bad omen? Given the complexities of the urban mayhem bringing both advantages and disadvantages, it is not that easy for an answer to come by easily; contrarily, it poses different counter-questions.

 

Most urban centres in India have had a slapdash and slipshod growth with a rapidly increasing population not accompanied by matching infrastructure development. Where then the solution lay? Of course, of late, unprecedented development of Communication and Information Technology is remarkably bridging the whopping rural-urban gap by networking both urban and rural populace into new lifestyles playing a vital role in metamorphosing the entire world into a 'global village'. How could India walk alone or plough a lonely furrow? Today, even semi-urban areas have many quality facilities as are available in urban centres. A plethora of e-regimens has revolutionized the knowledge sector with a massive information flow that comes surging just at the press of buttons/keys with the fusion of knowledge levels always climbing up providing people with new vistas of enlightenment and edification.

 

Concentration and density of population have led to skyrocketing costs of land parcels and housing. House rents in urban centres are ever on the increase and remain beyond the reach of the poor and middle-class people, putting the urban populace into perennial financial constraints. Having a home at the outskirts or suburban area and the workplace in the nearby urban centre has become the norm nowadays. The trend is likely to continue unabated.

 

With distances becoming increasingly irrelevant in the present Communication and Information Technology era and knowledge world induced economy flourishing in an environment of experience-based excellence, there is a need to even out the infrastructure creation and development in all geographical contours instead of concentrating and having them only in the already developed pockets. That is the key to stop the migration of people to the already cramped and congested urban pockets which will incidentally ease the job of urban infrastructure maintenance managers and administration.

 

Crystallization of new ground-breaking initiatives is necessary to provide job opportunities including self-employment for individuals, creation and development of self-help groups, small scale industries, cooperative movement, small entrepreneurship, etc., among others, in rural areas. Creation of satellite towns, making available urban amenities and facilities in rural areas for a hassle-free life including employment generation there, locating or shifting industries, factories and/or other establishments (including opening of branches) away from the riotous and hustle-bustle urban hubs with concrete jungles, ensuring reliable public transport system, sharing of knowledge powered inputs and outputs, accelerating information exchange and dissemination, fostering and nurturing high-end result-oriented plans and projects, encouraging multi-purpose-sector growth and coordinating their efforts, opting for a right mix of growth and development paradigms, etc. offer the right solution. Increasing the awareness among people to live in pollution-free areas away from the chaotic and hurly-burly urban milieus and creating conditions for the same, etc. are some of the strategies, inter alia, hold the key in bridging the rural-urban divide.

 

We should also constantly undertake initiatives for ‘providing urban amenities in rural areas’ (PURA). The digital revolution taking place holds out a great promise in this regard. Today, even simple initiatives of content and accessibility could help bridge the rural-urban divide mainly to make the common people digital-literates. However, with all said and done, preventing people from migrating from rural to urban centres still remains elusive and a far cry.

 

 

(R.SAMPATH)