Issues in Rural Development

8/3/2019 Issues in Rural Development

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ISSUES IN RURAL

DEVELOPMENTFOUNDATION COURSE

BAF DIV A

GROUP NO.5

ROLL NO NAME

6749 ANKIT

6750 CHITRA

6751 SANJANA

6752 CHIRAG

6753 ANISHA

6754 RICHA


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ISSUES IN RURAL

DEVELOPMENTINTRODUCTION:

"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.


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The present strategy of rural development mainly

focuses on poverty alleviation, better livelihood

opportunities, provision of basic amenities andinfrastructure 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 therural 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 ofproduction 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-


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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, harvestmangoes, 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 havea look ahead as to why India is lagging back in

rural development or what issues are faced in rural

development.


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Issues in rural development:

FOLLOWING ARE THE ISSUES OR TOPICS

TO BE COVERED-

1. LACK OF INFRASTRUCTURAL

DEVELOPMENT.

2. STRUGGLING EDUCATION SYSTEM.

3. GROWING WATER SHORTAGE.

4. VOLUNTARISM

5. HEALTH CONDITION.


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1. LACK OF INFRASTRUCTURAL

DEVELOPMENT

For any country, development of rural areas isa pre-requisite for the overall growth of theeconomy and it is particularly important for a

developing country such as India. A majorhindrance 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


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farmers, who live in rural areas and contribute

approximately the fifth of our GDP. The

villages where these farmers live, lack basicinfrastructure 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 ofbanks 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 toshow long-term economic returns associatedwith improved infrastructure. Infrastructure

in India is need of the hour because


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oTransport of construction materials for

new buildings

o Alternate employment opportunities forrural populace

oImproved access to healthcare, contributingto a healthier, more productive population

o A higher literacy rate spurred by easy

access to schools and basic educationoGood roads would ensure greater personal

transport and increased mobility.


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WHAT COULD BE DONE??

The basic change that could be done in order todevelop the infrastructure, as it plays such a keyrole is that public-private partnerships. This isbecause while government involvement is crucial for any good infrastructure project, the privatesector brings in the entrepreneurship and energy to

build such projects. The infrastructure projects will turn a new leaf and bridge the socio-economicdivide 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 therural areas where the funds are utilized inimproving infrastructure.

NOTE: THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ABOVE ABOUT THE STATISTICS WERE LISTED IN

ARTICLE DATED SEPTEMBER, 2010.


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2.STRUGGLING EDUCATION SYSTEM

School-drop out is a serious problem in Rural

India. If we try to analyze why is this so, the firstreason appears to be the supply issue. Governmentcontrols education sector in such a manner that the schools operating margins hit badly. Thereseems to be 3 major issues:

A) Teaching styles

B) English

C) Mathematics

A) TEACHING STYLE:

Most of the teachers impose learning processes onchild. The teachers/parents themselves are badly taught and so they viciously follow the cycle.Learning is a joy. The children should feel that itis like a roller-coaster ride. To get to that level,

children should be taught how to learn. Forexample, they should be told as many as stories.Exercise to the kids on this would be to tell manymore stories to other children. Children must be


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formed into a group of 5-10 and then teacher mustguide each group. This is basically a process of peer

review. Children themselves are good at creatingstories.

B) ENGLISH: Children are exceptionally talented to learn multiple languages at their very earlyages. Most children in rural India struggle withthe grammar rules and in turn they start to hate the language itself. The trick is to make themlearn spoken language first and then to turn toGrammar but not the other way around

C) MATHEMATICS: Maths is a very criticalsubject and children are very natural at it.

However the astounding ability to learn the subjectby the children is eclipsed by the incompetency of the teachers in turn to result that Maths isregarded as the most hated subject by a minimumof 1/3 of the all children.

These were the main reasons found for the lack ofeducation in rural India through a survey done in2009.


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ALSO due to infrastructural issues the educationenvironment suffers. school should be build in

such a way that the children themselves have aliking for attending school and education. Also the mind set of rural people should be changedtowards girls education and education in general.


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3.GROWING WATER SHORTAGE

"There will be constant competition over water,

between farming families and urban dwellers,environmental conservationists andindustrialists, minorities living off naturalresources and entrepreneurs seeking to commodifythe resources base for commercial gain"-UNICEF report on Indian water.The following case explains the problem of watershortage in rural areas-Green revolution started in Punjab in 1960 was ahuge achievement by encouraging use of highyielding variety of seeds and chemicals fertilizers.

India massively increased its food production butnow the legacy of Punjabs achievement hassuffered. Crop yields have become stagnant for adecade because of soils infertility and catastrophicdecrease in groundwater reduction which Punjabi farmers use to use for irrigation. Every yeargroundwater level is falling one by one meter.Main reason for depletion is growing crop paddy.In some villages the condition is much worse, theybelieve that the groundwater level will rise with the


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hope of god someday whereas the level decreases by6 to 7 feet every year. They want to resolve this

issue in court but why face such problem even afterthe development of green revolution?? The reason is that they get strong farming incentive incontinuing in this way. Farmers pay nothing forwater and electricity and the government pays fair price all the rice they produce. The farmers

even assured that with these growing conditionsvillages would soon turn into desert areas wherecrop cultivation will not be possible. This examplevery well explains the problem of water shortage.


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4)VOLUNTARISM

The individual urge to extend ones responsibility

for social change or formal duties is far morepervasive than is generally assumed. However, noteach individual with such an urge takes voluntaryinitiatives. In still fewer cases are initiatives transformed into innovations. Only rarely are

innovations institutionalized in society.Voluntarism based on agarigrah has anotherdimension. There must be voluntarily peoplecoming up to work up for the development of thecountry after all as said earlier 37% of nationalincome is generated from agriculture. Thus it

should not only be farmers who are participatingbut other people too. But very few people take theinitiative and come up voluntarily to improve theliving 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 inefforts to develop the rural areas and help the


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villagers to gain knowledge and hear out theirissues so that help can be provided to them when it

is required.


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5) HEALTH CARE

India is a vast country with diverse culture,

traditions and government structures, and itsgrowing 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 theseremote areas to access health care. South eastern part of India the villages faces major health

problem.


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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 andslowly people are becoming poorer. It is a sad

state of affairs. The citizens of the villages have

raised the issues to district administrationmany times but the administration just blames

the government for not appointing a doctor to thearea. 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 abullock cart as her husband was away working.

She had lost her consciousness for hours


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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 thevillage has the medical attention it needs after

letters and request being sent to ministersseveral time. But still conditions have not

improved completely because though they have

doctors for few months he only comes three daysa 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 forhealth issues.

Such are the scenarios of Indian Villages. Thus

for rural development these issues must be given

prime importance.


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GENERAL

CASE STUDY 2-

RURAL CHALLENGES CASE STUDYFROM

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 differentcrops. 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


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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.


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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 urbanareas 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.


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Issues in Rural Development

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