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Rural visit
UNDERSTANDING rural India
Rural India:
India, with more than six lakh villages where nearly 68% of the countrys
population resides, can be described as a country of villages. Rural areas which
consist of these villages have played a vital role in the evolutionary process of
man. Rural areas were the initial places of settlement by man. Agriculture,
animal rearing and other food production activities were practised by man in the
villages for his survival. With the passage of time, needs of man also increased
which forced him to start other occupations like carpentry, weaving. Soon,
villages became centres of production and were self-sufficient. With the
increase in population, economic activities like trade also increased leading to
the creation of urban areas which acted as trade centres. As the economy started
shifting from primary sector to the secondary and tertiary sectors, the
importance of urban areas further increased as they began replacing villages as
centres of production and created employment. Money generated through
economic activities were spent to create robust infrastructure and facilities in
urban areas, thereby forcing rural people to migrate towards urban areas for
better opportunities and standard of living. Due to this process of migration,
many leaders focused their time, ideas, money on developing urban areas, thus
neglecting the villages. This deterioration of progress in Indian villages reached
its peak under the British rule. Recognising the importance of villages,
Mahatma Gandhiji called for Gram Swaraj where villages should be
basically self-reliant, making provision for all necessities of living - food,
clothing, clean water, sanitation, housing, education and so on, including self-

government and self-defence and all socially useful amenities required by a

community. Even after Independence, the situation in villages didnt seem to
change.
Some Rural Realities:
Though majority of the leaders talk greatly about the developmental
activities they did in rural areas, the ground reality is different. Recent Socio
Economic Cast Census (SECC) report of 2011 reveals the worrying picture of
villages.
The report states that 36 per cent of rural Indians are illiterate, less than 10
per cent make it to higher secondary or above and just 3.41 per cent of
households have a family member who is at least a graduate.
In nearly 75 per cent of rural households, the main earning family member
makes less than Rs.5000 per month and only 8 per cent households earn
Rs.10000 or more every month.
Less than 5 per cent of rural households pay income tax
Just 20 per cent of rural households own a vehicle, and only 11 per cent
own a refrigerator
Only 10 % households have someone with a salaried job and over 90% of
rural India have no salaried jobs.
Over half of all rural households derive their household income mainly
from casual manual labour, another 30 per cent derive it from agriculture.
Challenges Faced:
The condition of educational sector which includes infrastructure of
schools and quality of education is not up to the current standard. ASER reports
on Indian rural education further strengthens this. Health sector in villages
which mainly consists of primary health centres are not working to meet the
demands of the people. Worrying figures of infant mortality rate (IMR) and
maternal mortality rate (MMR) in Indian villages is because of this. Another

major problem faced by rural people is the poor quality of drinking water and its
associated health problems. Sanitation around villages is threatening the lives
of people. Due to lack of job opportunities and continuous failure of crops
owing to frequent droughts, people are migrating towards urban areas which
further increases the burden of employing rural populations in the already
tightly packed and congested cities and towns. This creates an issue of
unemployment in the rural areas.
Steps Taken:
Though the current picture of rural areas is not satisfactory, the future
looks bright because of advancements in technology and change in the system
of governance. SECC 2011 which has shown the difficulties faced by rural
people also mentioned that over two out of every three rural households own a
mobile phone. By making mobile phone as a tool of empowerment the
standard of living in rural areas can be improved. Honourable former President
of India Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam proposed the PURA strategy for development of
villages. PURA means Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas. This
scheme includes providing purified drinking water to every household round the
clock, continuous power supply, good educational and health facilities, creating
job opportunities and others. Recently the new government also started a
program by the name RURBAN which aims to develop a cluster of villages
into urban areas. Its major aim is providing high standard hospital facilities,
providing skills to rural youth, encouraging entrepreneurship among people and
transforming them to job providers from job seekers. All this will control
migration from rural areas to urban areas and will regulate the urbanisation
pattern in India which is messy, unorganised and unplanned according to World
Bank report.

Proposed Measures:
As most of the land in our country is under agriculture which is a major
source of employment and income to people living in rural areas, improvement
in agriculture will lead to betterment of the lives of people. Most of the farmers
in India still practice non-mechanised and ignorant agricultural practices which
are the reasons for low productivity levels. This scenario can be changed by
increasing agriculture extension services, making formal financial services
available to farmers, encouraging them to move towards mechanisation,
bringing awareness to them about soil health and fertilizer usage.
Is urbanization advisable?
Urbanisation in any country is undeniable. It is the process of economic
development of country. But that development should not be at the cost of rural
areas and people associated with it. The fundamental pillar of any economy is
primary sector as it provides the inputs required for other sectors. As rural
areas are major players in primary sector, the rural flavour should be retained
and its standards must be developed for overall development.

Challenges faced by people in the rural areas

visited:
The following aspects could be generally observed: Poverty:
Poverty and hunger still exists in most of the
households. Although the situation has improved compared
to the time 2-3 decades back, people still find it difficult to
have least 2 good square meals a day. Few confessed with
happiness that they are at least able to fill half of their
tummy,

instead

of

just

drinking

few

glasses

of

water/porridge and going to work. Most of them dont even

possess few cents of agriculture land. They work in the fields
owned by the people of upper caste or in the fields of the
ones who are well off. Only because of the recent rains in
the month of December, they happen to have paddy
cultivation this time which otherwise, is a drought prone
area.

Education:
People here have now felt the importance of educating their
wards, compared to early days. We observed that this is the blossoming
period of first gen graduates. Almost all the households/huts we visited were
very keen in making their children to at least finish a UG degree, even
by means of mortgaging their land or home in order to educate them.
They had two nearest accessibility to schools one was run by the Loyola
and the other one was a Govt. school. Both of these were having classes till
higher secondary, but people were only willing them to study in Loyola in
spite of many free things provided by the local Govt. school. The reason
behind it was interesting. One of the person said Even though the govt.
school provides us cycle, laptop, dress, meals, etc., we dont find the quality
in the education and exposure. Moreover we want to bring up our wards in
a more disciplined manner. Thats why we choose to educate them in Loyola
Hr. Sec. School. So basically, they have felt the need for quality education,
even if it costs them little more amount of money.
One school teacher who was in the village JP Nagar said that many first gen
graduates are also willing to guide many of their peer groups in the village
who are coming up, by forming a network among them.

Gender equality and empowerment:

Gender inequalities do prevail in many spheres of the society and
villages in India are a no exemption to that. We could observe these things

in terms of wages, inter caste marriages, freedom of speech etc. But some of
the dimensions here, again seems to have been slowly changing, particularly
when it comes to education. Some of the families have also felt the real to
need to educate their girl child (even though some of them do feel the
heat/burden of dowry). Very interestingly, one of the family we visited who
had four girl child, all of them found to have at least a diploma, even though
the family doesnt have a stable source of income and no properties for
them. But yet, not just finishing a degree is enough when it comes to the real
world, employment plays a role here. Not all the four were employed, but
still their parents were happy and optimistic that someday, the degree they
have earned will fetch them a job.
Women here have also stared to form their own SHGs (Self Help
Groups), by means of cattle rearing and dairy farming. Individual
households, who have cows, supply milk to other distributors by means of
these groups. They collect these money and deposit in the bank and later
even use this to lend money to others at an interest rate of 2%. Also some
of them are aware of the govt. schemes, provided to such groups. Good to
see such kind of awareness among them. But yet, not all the households
allow their women to go to such an extent and to be a part of this.

Health and Sanitation:

The nearest areas had PHCs (Primary Health Centres) which are
quite easy in terms of accessibility, but yet some people in these villages feel
that they dont get quality health care facilities and amenities. We also
happen to hear that, some of the medicines/tablets provided by them are not
much effective enough, so they are forced to get medicines from private
medical shops. Many of them felt the need for a health insurance scheme to
be provided by the state government, when it comes to undergoing major
surgeries or medical procedures, particularly among the elderly people. As
one very old man says, I got benefited from Kalaingar Kaapeettu Thittam

(Kalaingar Health Insurance Scheme) to undergo a major operation in my

kidney. Thank God. Poor people like me cannot afford to pay money in term
of lakhs.
Discussing about the nutrition level, there is a visible difference in
the growth and stature of people and children, compared to their
counterparts from cities and towns but not many cases of nutrition
deficiencies were found. However, under nourishment and malnutrition
prevailed.
Sanitation in many parts of the village is really bad. Not even a
single household had a lavatory facility in the areas we visited. One thing
which we found in this regard was that, it is mainly because of the mind-sets
of the people, although they are aware of the need for it (particularly among
the women). One person said, Many of us dont want to have a toilet, very
inside our living place. We feel it very uncomfortable on seeing a toilet, next
to our bedroom or kitchen or within the house, also the open fields are the
place which helps us to mingle with friends and people so that we can share
our day-to-day happening here. Adequate awareness and change in the
mind-sets of the people is the only solution here.
No village had a sewage system, at least for the sake of its existence.

Government Programmes/Schemes:
Many of the people are particularly aware of the present state
governments Amma Veedu (Amma House Scheme), where the govt.
builds and gives each huts a house, built of bricks and cement worth of
Rs.1,10,000, but not all of them are benefited because of this. Some of these
are being attributed to the corruption among the officials, affiliation to
political parties, influences, etc.
IAY (Indira Awaas Yojana), seems to have no much impact in these
villages.
MGNREGA Almost all the houses are benefited because of this. Even in
some villages, they work for more than 100 days per year. One good move

by the government in this regard is that, they have made the payment of
wages, a corruption free one, by means of sending the money directly to
their bank accounts. Some people even confessed that, this is one of the sole
means of income they have in a year.
OAP (Old Age Pension) Not all the elderly people get the amount and free
rice under this scheme. There have been instances where the govt. officials
have voluntarily cancelled this for the people who are living along with their
grown up children. But similar to the MGNREGA, the transaction occurs
only by means of Bank. Political and Panchayat Sarpanchs influence has a
major role here.

Employment:
Many graduates, even those who have at least finished their
schooling are not much affiliated to have their career in agriculture or to
work in rural areas, though they have a burning desire to do something back
for their native villages. Its mainly because of the difference in salary, the
comfortable life styles, facilities and amenities they get elsewhere.

Casteism:
The plight of the poor people is really bad, when it comes to the
issue of caste, particularly among the Dalits in the area. They face troubles
from almost all dimensions in a village life, unlike in urban areas. One
schools teacher, who is a Dalit, confessed that he still continues to face a lot
of indirect caste discriminations in his life in the village and he said, Even
if the Dalit people here are economically uplifted, still the discrimination
will prevail, although if it gets reduced to a great extent.

Urban Rural divide:

The major dimensions of rural and urban divide can be grouped into
social, financial, technological aspects.

Social divide include differences in the thought process, culture and

traditions. It is felt that rural people have fundamentalist approach and are
stubborn in their thinking and not always ready to change whereas urban
people are liberal in their thoughts. Though this approach of rural people
may be helpful in preserving their culture and traditions, it restricts them to
have benefits of modern world. So it is necessary to bring social awareness
among people to adopt new methods and practices which are beneficial to
them and thus bridging the social divide between urban and rural.

Financial divide includes investment and saving patterns, access to

formal credit and others. This divide is mainly because of lack of financial
literacy among rural people and limited access to affordable financial
institutions like banks in rural areas. This financial divide can be removed by
further enhancing the facilities provided under Jan Dhan Yojana which is
being implemented by the government and by improving financial literary
among people by using business correspondents in-line with ASHA workers

(Accredited Social Health Activists) who work to educate people about their
health.

Technological divide between urban and rural is getting narrower with

penetration of mobile phones in every household. This can be further
narrowed by taking various steps like investing in research and development,
customising electronic appliances and software to our needs, provide data in
local languages, encouraging rural innovators.

Providing urban amenities in rural areas and

need for Urbanization:
Both the Government and NGO play a vital role in bridging the gap between
the rural and urban area and particularly in this rural visit context, an NGO
called ASIFA has done a commendable job in providing basic necessities and
urban amenities to the people in some of the villages such as infrastructure,
education, water (bore wells), loans etc. but when it comes to the talk of
Urbanization of the rural, it is pretty difficult. For instance, when we asked
about using modern techniques and equipments in their farms, peoples answers
revealed that it would not be both economically and technically feasible.
There are certain micro economic factors which have to be looked into this
issue. Also our honest opinion is that, rural places and people are the only
entities who care about their ecology and environment. People do have to be
taken care of, but rapid urbanization, may endanger the concept of sustainable
development.
With the increase in literacy rate, per capita income of individuals, usage of
mobile phones, improvement in rural infrastructure like roads and transportation
facilities, the urban-rural divide is getting narrower and with the continuous
work being done by the government and various NGOs, the difference between
urban and rural economies will become minimal in the years to come.