Rural urban divide need to act

As the land holdings get smaller and smaller, employment opportunities too dwindle in the rural sector leading to steady migration to cities. This is not helped the system that encourages the benefits of growth to be cornered by the urban sector. This is leading to an explosive situation. The decision makers need to pay immediate heed to the demands of agriculture, make it remunerative so that not only employment opportunities grow but also the threatening social unrest is arrested.

by BRIJ BHARDWAJ

The desire to grow faster and the need to have better distribution are two objectives which often work at cross purposes. It is believed that lower taxes, free play for market forces can result in higher growth, but they also lead to widening the gap between the poor and the rich. More so it also leads to a divide between the urban and rural populations as most of the gains are cornered by urban population engaged in industry and service sectors while rural population engaged in agriculture is increasingly made poor and pushed down in some cases even below the poverty levels with increasing fragmentation of land holdings.

As such, as a first step we see the movement of rural population to urban areas in search of employment. The rural folks do get employment but their quality of life deteriorates as they have to live in slums urban clusters where they are denied basic amenities like enough space as well water, electricity or proper sanitation. Most of the cities become unmanageable as they are unable to deal with the large scale influx.

This is exactly what is happening in India. In the first instance there was large scale influx to metro cities. As the metro cities started filling up, the influx has now started to second rung cities which in turn will create conditions in these cities on a smaller scale but the consequences are the same. The official agencies under pressure to improve conditions in urban areas are helpless as the root cause of the problem is not resolved that is stopping the influx of rural population to urban areas.

The land holdings continue to become smaller and employment avenues shrinking. Besides the expansion of families, acquisition of land for public utilities and industries is only adding to this problem. The industries set up provide few employment opportunities for rural youth as they lack training or education to work in these units. All these problems, grave enough on their own, have been further aggravated by changing terms of trade against agriculture which has forces farmers in many cases to commit suicides.

These problems became very acute in marginal areas like Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and are now spreading to other states. The UPA Government after it came to power three four years ago had declared that they would tackle this problem on war footing and announced several schemes to help the farmers in distress. These projects included provision of easy loans and other forms of help for the farmers. But the situation has not changed and the number of suicides is continuing to grow.

While on one hand farmers are suffering on other the country is close to facing shortages of food grains and even the growth rate is likely to suffer it agriculture does not grow at a reasonable rate. This problem is not unique to India but is also faced by many other countries. Besides India, world-over the prices of food grains are rising and there is fear that it may become difficult to even import food grains to feed the growing population unless a solution is found to have a second green revolution.

The general feeling is that India is in a position to go for the second green revolution as the country has the required expertise in terms of scientists who can give us the technology and the Government other means to increase the food production substantially. It is, however, clear that it will not happen unless a drastic overhaul is undertaken as half measures or mere lip service to agriculture is not enough. Real efforts to give farmers a place of pride in our scheme of things are necessary.

Agriculture is facing adverse terms of trade not only in third world but also in developed countries of Europe and USA. These countries while calling upon third countries including India to lift barriers to allow their industries to have a free run, at the same time keep their agriculture protected by providing it strong protection. The result is that food production world over has not been rising as was the case in production of other items as it is not profitable to engage in agriculture.

In case of India we have no choice, but to make our agriculture healthy as not only we have to feed a huge population and the chances of feeding them with imported gains as was the case immediately after independence is an option which is not available any more. Our production levels are poor not only when compared to European countries and America, but also Asian countries. Both UPA and NDA Governments have taken credit for economic growth, but no one has owned blame for lack of agriculture growth. A time has come when economic planning should accept upgrading of rural infrastructure, agriculture as essential items for fight against poverty and progress on agriculture front in order to reduce the gap between the rich and poor.

The biggest challenge is how to convince rural people that they need not migrate to urban centers for better quality of life and employment but same will be available to him at his doorsteps. This alone can make our cities livable and crisis created b rural and urban divide resolved.