ISSUES IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT

FOUNDATION COURSE

BAF DIV A GROUP NO.5 ROLL NO 6749 6750 6751 6752 6753 6754 NAME ANKIT CHITRA SANJANA CHIRAG ANISHA RICHA

ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT
INTRODUCTION:

RURAL

"India lives in its villages - Mahatma Gandhi. Literally and from the social, economic and political perspectives the statement is valid even today. Around 65% of the State's population is living in rural areas. People in rural areas should have the same quality of life as is enjoyed by people living in sub urban and urban areas. Further there are cascading effects of poverty, unemployment, poor and inadequate infrastructure in rural areas on urban centres causing slums and consequential social and economic tensions manifesting in economic deprivation and urban poverty.

The present strategy of rural development mainly focuses on poverty alleviation, better livelihood opportunities, provision of basic amenities and infrastructure facilities through innovative programmes of wage and self-employment. A country like India where verily 70% of the people live in rural areas has great significance, of this 80% population is dependent on agriculture for its livelihood. Agriculture accounts for 37% percent of national income. The development of the rural areas and of agriculture and its allied activities thus become vital for the rapid development of the economy as a whole. But rural development is not an easy task. In last few decades India has experienced an increase in development both in urban and rural sectors. India occupies first or second position in terms of production of various crops but its productivity is quite low in case of other crops. There were 600000 villages in India by the end of 2008. Nearly three-

quarters of India's population of 1.2 billion people live in its vast rural expanses. They make just enough to get by. They toil in rice fields, harvest mangoes, cashews and ride ox- carts over poorly maintained roads to provide goods to the market. Villagers were said to prosper on MAHATMA GANDHIS vision of free and prosperous India. Yet today, Indian villagers are struggling to find their place in their country's growing economic prosperity. As India rises, its villages are in danger of being left behind. Agriculture generates only 37% of Indias economy but majority of people depend on it to survive. Traditional farmers are suffering too from 1997; Indian government says atleast 25000 men have committed suicide. It is mainly because of changing agricultural policies. So now let us have a look ahead as to why India is lagging back in rural development or what issues are faced in rural development.

Issues in rural development:

FOLLOWING ARE THE ISSUES OR TOPICS TO BE COVERED-

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

LACK OF INFRASTRUCTURAL STRUGGLING EDUCATION SYSTEM. GROWING WATER SHORTAGE. VOLUNTARISM HEALTH CONDITION.

DEVELOPMENT.

1.

LACK OF INFRASTRUCTURAL

DEVELOPMENT
For any country, development of rural areas is a pre-requisite for the overall growth of the economy and it is particularly important for a developing country such as India. A major hindrance to rural development has been a lack of access to safe, reliable power, telecommunications, water, sanitation and transport services. On the average 89 percent of rural households do not own telephones, 52 percent of households do not have domestic power connections. The average brownout in India is 3 hours in non-monsoon months and 17 hours in monsoon months; 20 percent of rural habitations have partial or no access to safe drinking water supply. In our race towards urbanization and our aspiration to become an economic super-power, we often forget the contribution made by our

farmers, who live in rural areas and contribute approximately the fifth of our GDP. The villages where these farmers live, lack basic infrastructure like roads, homes made of brick and mortar, hospitals and schools; indeed, much of what we take for granted in urban areas! One reason why infrastructure in rural areas has lagged behind is the inability of banks to finance investments in these areas. Though the governments Bharat Nirman Scheme has made some headway in improving the rural infrastructure and, in turn, rural lives, it would take years before for it begins to show long-term economic returns associated with improved infrastructure. Infrastructure in India is need of the hour because

o Transport of construction materials for new buildings o Alternate employment opportunities for rural populace o Improved access to healthcare, contributing to a healthier, more productive population o A higher literacy rate spurred by easy access to schools and basic education o Good roads would ensure greater personal transport and increased mobility.

WHAT COULD BE DONE??

The basic change that could be done in order to develop the infrastructure, as it plays such a key role is that public-private partnerships. This is because while government involvement is crucial for any good infrastructure project, the private sector brings in the entrepreneurship and energy to build such projects. The infrastructure projects will turn a new leaf and bridge the socio-economic divide between rural and urban India by creating profitable and long term economic collaboration. New infrastructure funds are, in fact, looking at factoring in these kinds of benefits with a view to generating excellent long term returns not only for the investors of these funds, but also for the rural areas where the funds are utilized in improving infrastructure.
NOTE: THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ABOVE ABOUT THE STATISTICS WERE LISTED IN ARTICLE DATED SEPTEMBER, 2010.

2.STRUGGLING EDUCATION SYSTEM

School-drop out is a serious problem in Rural India. If we try to analyze why is this so, the first reason appears to be the supply issue. Government controls education sector in such a manner that the schools operating margins hit badly. There seems to be 3 major issues: A) Teaching styles B) English C) Mathematics A) TEACHING STYLE: Most of the teachers impose learning processes on child. The teachers/parents themselves are badly taught and so they viciously follow the cycle. Learning is a joy. The children should feel that it is like a roller-coaster ride. To get to that level, children should be taught how to learn. For example, they should be told as many as stories. Exercise to the kids on this would be to tell many more stories to other children. Children must be

formed into a group of 5-10 and then teacher must guide each group. This is basically a process of peer review. Children themselves are good at creating stories. B) ENGLISH: Children are exceptionally talented to learn multiple languages at their very early ages. Most children in rural India struggle with the grammar rules and in turn they start to hate the language itself. The trick is to make them learn spoken language first and then to turn to Grammar but not the other way around C) MATHEMATICS: Maths is a very critical subject and children are very natural at it. However the astounding ability to learn the subject by the children is eclipsed by the incompetency of the teachers in turn to result that Maths is regarded as the most hated subject by a minimum of 1/3 of the all children. These were the main reasons found for the lack of education in rural India through a survey done in 2009.

ALSO due to infrastructural issues the education environment suffers. school should be build in such a way that the children themselves have a liking for attending school and education. Also the mind set of rural people should be changed towards girls education and education in general.

3.GROWING WATER SHORTAGE

"There will be constant competition over water, between farming families and urban dwellers, environmental conservationists and industrialists, minorities living off natural resources and entrepreneurs seeking to commodify the resources base for commercial gain" -UNICEF report on Indian water. The following case explains the problem of water shortage in rural areasGreen revolution started in Punjab in 1960 was a huge achievement by encouraging use of high yielding variety of seeds and chemicals fertilizers. India massively increased its food production but now the legacy of Punjabs achievement has suffered. Crop yields have become stagnant for a decade because of soils infertility and catastrophic decrease in groundwater reduction which Punjabi farmers use to use for irrigation. Every year groundwater level is falling one by one meter. Main reason for depletion is growing crop paddy. In some villages the condition is much worse, they believe that the groundwater level will rise with the

hope of god someday whereas the level decreases by 6 to 7 feet every year. They want to resolve this issue in court but why face such problem even after the development of green revolution?? The reason is that they get strong farming incentive in continuing in this way. Farmers pay nothing for water and electricity and the government pays fair price all the rice they produce. The farmers even assured that with these growing conditions villages would soon turn into desert areas where crop cultivation will not be possible. This example very well explains the problem of water shortage.

4) VOLUNTARISM The individual urge to extend ones responsibility for social change or formal duties is far more pervasive than is generally assumed. However, not each individual with such an urge takes voluntary initiatives. In still fewer cases are initiatives transformed into innovations. Only rarely are innovations institutionalized in society. Voluntarism based on agarigrah has another dimension. There must be voluntarily people coming up to work up for the development of the country after all as said earlier 37% of national income is generated from agriculture. Thus it should not only be farmers who are participating but other people too. But very few people take the initiative and come up voluntarily to improve the living conditions.

Its not only the NGOs who should come up with programmes and drives to help the rural people. Common people should also help them to put in efforts to develop the rural areas and help the

villagers to gain knowledge and hear out their issues so that help can be provided to them when it is required.

5) HEALTH CARE
India is a vast country with diverse culture, traditions and government structures, and its growing population already numbers more than 1.1 billion. Example of poor health conditions is provided as follows-Orissa is the country's poorest state, with the highest proportion of the population living below the poverty line. When it comes to health, one of the major problems encountered by the government is to reach out people in rural, mountainous and border areas. It is extremely difficult for people living in these remote areas to access health care. South eastern part of India the villages faces major health problem.

CASE STUDY 1: HEALTH CARE SERVICES ISSUES One such village Bolangir with the population of 24000 most cannot reach out for help when needed with the availability of just three doctors. People are spending large amount of money on treatments. It is affecting their livelihood and slowly people are becoming poorer. It is a sad state of affairs. The citizens of the villages have raised the issues to district administration many times but the administration just blames the government for not appointing a doctor to the area. Its a region with no education or transport infrastructure so doctors arent interested in relocating here. One such case wherein a woman recited that when her contraction started her neighbours had to bring her to Bolangir on a bullock cart as her husband was away working. She had lost her consciousness for hours

afterwards. She couldnt stay in hospital but if she stayed she had to take up medicines required by her which she couldnt afford at all. Now the village has the medical attention it needs after letters and request being sent to ministers several time. But still conditions have not improved completely because though they have doctors for few months he only comes three days a week. Overall things are only a little better. These are one of those remote villages who are cut off from basic amenities and health care services. The people here are still suffering from the problems and are still raising their voice for health issues. Such are the scenarios of Indian Villages. Thus for rural development these issues must be given prime importance.

GENERAL CASE STUDY 2RURAL CHALLENGES CASE STUDY FROM SOUTH INDIA Indias rural economy is the second best in the world worth around hundred sixty (160) billion dollars a year. The fertile land produces more wheat then USA, more rice than any other country then CHINA or sugarcane anywhere apart from BRAZIL. Also worlds biggest producer of 22 different crops. But not everyone is reaping the benefits. Indias economy maybe booming but the low tax approach taken by the government and the funds are limited and the rural areas arent high on the list of priorities. In the

past government funded projects have also been have been criticize for their top down approach. any programme which is top down, is basically pushy i.e basically forcing people. And without peoples involvement a lot of government programme which have been failed. Since independence a lot of such programmes have failed and thus it was decided to go to the grass root of the peoples need and ask them about their needs and aspirations and plan with them and implement with them. So the solution involves active participation of people.

CONCLUSION:
Thus for the development of rural areas it is necessary for the above prime issues to be resolved. Without the changes taking place in the economy it is not possible Also there are other factors which are responsible for holding back the development but the main underlined issues must be resolved first. Because if nothing is done to improve the conditions and people keep migrating to urban areas thinking about the privileges and lifestyle then it is difficult for development to take place. Moreover there will be no longer existence of rural villages which is the heart of the Indian economy.