Uplifting Villages

[app_engine]

As we can see from the Shame, Reservation, Price increase threads, economically and also socially the villages esp. in TN seem to be struggling. At the minimum, following seem to be major issues:

a) Issue of divisions / rifts / discriminations etc based on caste is more pronounced there

b) Schools / education seem to suffer a lot (unlike previous decades when there was a lot of progress in villages - now with schools / colleges getting treated as lucrative businesses, there's no "service-minded" establishments anymore)

c) Farmers getting raw deals - especially in lower prices while costs of agri gone up. Poverty (or lowering of standard of living) forcing many to think of abandoning this occupation

d) Developments focus cities almost exclusively making the villages less-livable for those who want to advance in lifestyle. (Infrastucture, especially)

Obviously, all hubbers are not govt. policy makers:-) However, it's probably worth a while to throw in your thoughts (even suggestions as to what needs to be done / can be done etc). Who knows, someone having some real power may read these and get influenced in making some good decisions in favor of villages:-)

[Shakthiprabha.]

d) Step by step approach is wiser.

Rather than pouring entire efforts in villages, thought can be had about INCREASING infrastructure for every near by town of any given village.


Developments can be focused in TOWNS almost on par with that happening in cities. Towns are more approachable both by cities and villages.

PPl should be offered great offers/packages to work in towns. Subsidies should be higher for factories in such areas.

This would give a 50/50 win situation for both parties initially.

[app_engine]

Shaktiprabha,

I beg to differ:-) Focussing on small towns will only help them to grow into bigger towns and finally into cities while the villages continue to suffer. (Take any district HQ in TN that can serve as an example in this case). I think most towns have their political heroes who can fight for their development and get at least some things done. OTOH, only the focus from TOP leadership can help the villages IMHO.

I grew up in a very small village 10km away from the nearest town and I know exactly the difference between the "town" getting some facility and the "village" itself getting a similar facility. There is a LOT of difference for the person living in that village.

[Shakthiprabha.]

IF town grows bigger and extends its limit, dont u think its feasible to reach villages easily?

Ofcourse we aren't talkin about basic facilities which IS A MUST and assume IS provided in any said village. (and that includes easy commutation too to the nearby town)

For more comforts and increase in the standard of living of a villager, town expanding in its size is more approachable :?

Ofcourse I understand, picturising is not sufficient, as uve personally seen or suffered or otherwise growing up in a remote village :)

Words written are easier, painless and lifeless than the reality. PPl who know reality can talk or suggest better.

Any upcoming industry /technology focuses its growth only in cities. If industries are spread more geographically, situations would get better :?

I defintiely dont think ppl would be willing to go 2 steps down to improvise on villages, when there is lot more left to be done in towns.

[app_engine]

This is supposed to be the gov site for rural dev. (ministry headed by a person with PhD)
http://rural.nic.in/

Apart from looking pathetic, a lot of the pages are not even functional. For example, if you try to get the # of BPL (below-poverty-line) stats for TN using the appropriate link and selecting the reports in that page, you get all zeroes. In one of the queries, I got this error:
"Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home1/tempweb225/docs/st_rep/st_60age.php on line 66"

Definitely not expected from a central gov website of the IT super-power of the world:-(

This is suppoed to give details of all the programs and their status reports etc. Many links return "no page found". Such casual approach can be expected in their implementation of dev programs as well:
http://rural.nic.in/g1.htm

This is the agenda that bigwigs will discuss next week:
http://rural.nic.in/PRCmeeting0809/PRC_AGENDANOTE.pdf

இந்தியாவின் எதிர்காலம் கிராமங்களில் இருக்கிறதோ இல்லையோ, கிராமங்களின் எதிர்காலம் ஒளிமயமாக இல்லை என்பது தெளிவாக இருக்கிறது:-(

[app_engine]

In 2001, only 22% of rural India had sanitation coverage as per this official report of gov:
http://ddws.nic.in/NewTSCGuideline.doc

Hope this situation has improved in the last seven years and when the census is taken in 2011, this percentage goes up significantly. However, going by the program guidelined in this document (and also considering the efficiency of our gov workforce), there may not be a significant change:-(

I think it'll be quite significant if programs like doc's working in rural area are implemented. Apart from the direct benefit of such programs, these would also help pulling infrastructure development in rural areas faster, as more influential people will now be affected / involved.

[app_engine]

Disturbing report - especially the part about TN:
http://kumudam.com/magazine/Kumudam/2008-07-30/pg28.php

எழுத்தறிவித்தவன் இறைவன் ஆவான்...

[app_engine]

More than 60% Indian population don't have access to good sanitation (and villages worst affected):
http://dinamalar.com/fpnnews.asp?News_id=1373&cls=row3

[Miami]

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/213215.html

http://publication.samachar.com/pub_article.php?id=2363831&navname=General%20&moreurl=http://publication.samachar.com/newindianexpress/general/newindianexpress.php&homeurl=http://www.samachar.com

and countless others like these in Bihar. A 10 year old's fingers were chopped off by rich landlords in Bihar a few months ago, because she stole spinach from their garden. Does the punishment even remotely fit the crime of stealing spinach?? If that landlord's arms and legs were chopped and left him to die, then I would call that as a punishment fitting the crime.

[naren_666]

It is a bit hard to say..! The fault not just lies in the govt and we people are alos reponsible for it. We talk a lot and blame a lot and refrain from voting saying every body standing in the election is a criminal or else we might be sitting in any of the city on the election day while our voting rights in a village far away from the city.

I would say rather educate all the people and make education compulsory and free. And this should be implemented properly so that not even a single child is left behind without education. Once people are educated it will be far easy to create the awareness about everything from Sanitation to usage of technology in agriculture..!

[app_engine]

naren_666, It's not much of criminal politicians who are responsible in this case (though they are to blame for a lot other woes).

It's more of irresponsible bueracracy & lower level govt. officials who are to blame for the pathetic plight of villages. Politicians, despite all their other flaws, have been allotting funds to villages budget after budget in smaller or larger scale depending upon the nearness or otherwise of elections. OTOH, most of those programs are spoilt by the corrupt/indifferent/lethargic officials.

Even those officials who originally are from villages but after education locate themselves in towns / cities, never care for the villages. And the way they treat even their parents from villages had been deplorable, let alone other poor illiterate villagers.

If they spend at least a fraction of the funds allotted in the budget in time, our villages would have been a lot different. (There was a frontline article on an Assam district in another thread highlighting how a sincere officer can make so much of a difference).

Literacy and awareness of rights can make a lot of difference to the villages, ofcourse, as we can see the status of development in a # of villages in Kerala compared to TN.

[Anoushka]

d) Step by step approach is wiser.

Rather than pouring entire efforts in villages, thought can be had about INCREASING infrastructure for every near by town of any given village.



Shakthi: I recently visited a village school near Chengelput, the teachers there had this to say...

The nearest shop that the children have, to buy anything related to school is 14 kms away in Chengalput. The kids bring books to school in plastic bags, most SSLC students did not have geometry boxes.

How is improving towns going to help villages like these?

In my own village in Tirunelveli (Dad's birth place), the infrastructure is so poor that there are only 4 buses connecting that village everyday! And that too only in the past 10-15 years. There is one school which has upto 5th standard, I am not sure how many teachers are there!

There is a ration shop as well now and a post office, all this only in the past few years! Before that children had to go to town and study, which meant walking atleast 3kms one way!

[Shakthiprabha.]

Anou,

I have least exposure or exp regarding villages and its living conditions. I supp app engine also pointed out what u had said.

What I had suggested is a practical solution.

I personally felt, if improvement of any near by town is absent, NO BIG improvement can be had in village itself.

These are steps. If step 1 is not done, we cannot directly go to step 2. Not much can be done. If connecting point to any village is not strong, then the situation would become EVEN WORSE, this is the primary reason due to which many workers or educated lot would be unwilling to shift their base.

I am unsure if I am putting my point right.

However, UPLIFTMENT does not end with this step 1. After improving the town, THE MAIN work is to go to detailed improvement of any unheard village. Only then its accomplished.
In most cases, town gets attention and lime light and THERE IT STOPS. Villages again remain in poing 1 with NO IMPROVEMENT at all :(

Primary commuting facility between the town and village SHOULD ENHANCE. That should be step 2.

Why I mentioned town was because, if the NEAREST town is not improved, then reaching out for the village becomes difficult.

When commuting becomes easier, flow of population would be balanced. Lack of right transportaton is the basic root cause. The plight of school is an example. No teachers would wanna permanently stay in villages cause of lack of transportation in case of emergencies.

Assume a case even the nearest town is NOT DEVELOPED. Wont the living condition becomes alarming?

Our leaders or politicians, put all their effort in devleoping town, out of which 50 percent is done. Then they stop with this, and walk out of the scenario forgeting to reach out to bottom of the issue.

[Shakthiprabha.]

IF 'node 1' becomes stronger only then it can connect its child nodes with strengh. If node 1 itself is weak there is no base to connect child nodes.

Thats putting the entire view in a nutshell.

[pavalamani pragasam]

My hubby's friend, a retired school inspector once narrated his experience of finding a teacher(only person responsible there!) sleeping in the classroom after lunch break was over. The children gaily playing in the ground wanted to wake up the teacher but the inspector stopped them and waited patiently for the teacher to wake up by himself which was after several minutes. Obviously he was ashamed but that is the general condition in schools in villages.

[suba]

:)

hi pp and shakthi,

really nice to see you people are active here. sure i miss this forum

:)