A call for building Rural India
In our country socio-economic problem are mostly rooted in rural areas since a long time. Government and non-government agencies have always tried to reduce the problem and somehow they have achieved that. The IMR (Infant Mortality Rate), MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate) have reduced by number, the literacy rate has increased and the dropout rate has declined. However, the poverty may have decreased percentage wise, but, has it reduced in absolute numbers? Income might have increased, but, has the purchasing power parity increased? Is the poor farmer able to increase his number of assets or secured retirement or gain wealth? And still many problem remain unsolved.
I agree that the government and non-government agencies have worked a lot to solve the rural problems, but my question is; Are they able to provide sustainable solution through which a village can become self-sufficient and free from all the socio-economic problems. Academicians and researchers have produced a lot of literature on sustainable development and self-sufficiency since the emergence of the development sector. But then why have we not achieved it in reality? They high volume of elite English literature is useful for other researchers and the elite classes; there is no meaning in it for the rural poor, who want work not words, and who need nutritious food and not rich literature about their poverty.
All the top leaders and elites just romanticize about state of poverty of the rural poor, but there are very few people who have really worked for reducing this poverty. Many reports about poverty claim that the poverty rate has been lowest over the period of time. However, we cannot say that it is a result of the government and the non-government sector’s efforts. Instead, it is because of the poor people themselves who have worked day and night to come out of poverty. There is philosophy - you cannot help those people who do not want to help themselves – and it directly relates to the fact that this betterment has happened because poor people have tried to help themselves. If the government and non-government agencies really want to take credit of poverty reduction, then till now why they have not been able to make any single self-reliant village such as Hiware Bazar, with a per - capita income of Rs. 30,000? These examples have been made possible only by the local leaders not by an outsider. Similarly, we need local leaders who want to end the social problems prevailing in the rural areas.
Leadership is such a key and powerful tool which can change the whole world that history stands evidence for the fact, that if any change has been brought, there has been a powerful and dynamic leadership behind it. In order to transform Rural India, we have leaders such as Anna Hazare and Popatrao Pawar, who have led to major positive changes that have impacted their villages greatly. However, unlike these two, the leaders of our nation today mostly belong to Urban India irrespective of the sector; social, political and corporate. Though these leaders might have a high educational qualification or come from an influential environment, they work for developing cities. But what about the rural, which consists the majority of population of the country. Most of the youngsters belong to rural areas. How many of them are recognized as leaders, entrepreneurs or change-makers? Are today's rural youth not equal in potential to the urban youth? Don't they have the talents or merit to become a leader?
Small change by small things, by small people in small places.
In such circumstance all the Indian rural youth need to ignite themselves for solving their own problems themselves. Don’t dependent on others. Don’t wait for Messiah. You yourself become the Messiah of your village, like Anna Hazare and Popatrao Pawar. Both these persons were like you youngsters, who became the cause of change. Gandhi ji said that “Be The Change You Want To See In The World”.
We should not wait for someone, who will come and make food for us and only then will we eat. Instead, if we are hungry, we should prepare food ourselves with whatever little resources we have and eat, only then can we save ourselves. Similarly, if you have the spark for the rebuilding rural India, then look around you for whatever you have, and start constructing our rural India.
Opportunity for Rural Youth
Rural development has become one of the widely discussed sectors in today’s time. It consist of 70% population of a country of 87.5 crore people which is a large market for corporates and for development (Third World Country) and social value creation by international agencies. It pulls the attraction of all, from corporates to social organizations and from investments to profits.
Today’s youth are very vibrant and the concept of individualism is very relevant in today’s time. Before taking any action one asks “what is my benefit?” and every one functions on this concept. The point is not that the rural youth are not aware about their local problems, they even know the solution, but that is not going to feed them or generate any income for them. The word ‘Social Service’ does not work today as everyone is busy in earning their livelihood. The youth also does business, not for social cause, but for own profit. They are engaged not only in economic activities, but also in political activities, but they won’t care one another.
Rural India has tremendous opportunities as small business hubs. Rural India produces food the entire country and feeds round the year. Rural people may go hungry themselves but first, they feed the urban population (money power). The big companies which are into the food-processing business or the middle men in the supply chain system earn much higher proceeds from this food production, than the farmers. This is the area where rural youth can take over the place of the middle man and produce a viable enterprise.
Schemes for national level skill development have been initiated by the previous government to fulfill the need for the skill based labour, but what are the other consequences of this? Rural youth learn skills for getting jobs in cities and this leads to migration to urban areas, and causing them to remain as slaves. It is true that we need skill based labour but when the supply of this labour exceeds the demand then again will have unemployment so, why not focus on entrepreneurship and leadership skill programmes? The people will invest in the village, create opportunities in the village itself and thus, negate the need to go to urban areas. The concept is to localize the resources in the village in every aspect. Local investment in the village will change the picture of that village and would also channelize the other economic system. Capital formation theory can be applied by the rural youth for development.
In our country socio-economic problem are mostly rooted in rural areas since a long time. Government and non-government agencies have always tried to reduce the problem and somehow they have achieved that. The IMR (Infant Mortality Rate), MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate) have reduced by number, the literacy rate has increased and the dropout rate has declined. However, the poverty may have decreased percentage wise, but, has it reduced in absolute numbers? Income might have increased, but, has the purchasing power parity increased? Is the poor farmer able to increase his number of assets or secured retirement or gain wealth? And still many problem remain unsolved.
I agree that the government and non-government agencies have worked a lot to solve the rural problems, but my question is; Are they able to provide sustainable solution through which a village can become self-sufficient and free from all the socio-economic problems. Academicians and researchers have produced a lot of literature on sustainable development and self-sufficiency since the emergence of the development sector. But then why have we not achieved it in reality? They high volume of elite English literature is useful for other researchers and the elite classes; there is no meaning in it for the rural poor, who want work not words, and who need nutritious food and not rich literature about their poverty.
All the top leaders and elites just romanticize about state of poverty of the rural poor, but there are very few people who have really worked for reducing this poverty. Many reports about poverty claim that the poverty rate has been lowest over the period of time. However, we cannot say that it is a result of the government and the non-government sector’s efforts. Instead, it is because of the poor people themselves who have worked day and night to come out of poverty. There is philosophy - you cannot help those people who do not want to help themselves – and it directly relates to the fact that this betterment has happened because poor people have tried to help themselves. If the government and non-government agencies really want to take credit of poverty reduction, then till now why they have not been able to make any single self-reliant village such as Hiware Bazar, with a per - capita income of Rs. 30,000? These examples have been made possible only by the local leaders not by an outsider. Similarly, we need local leaders who want to end the social problems prevailing in the rural areas.
Leadership is such a key and powerful tool which can change the whole world that history stands evidence for the fact, that if any change has been brought, there has been a powerful and dynamic leadership behind it. In order to transform Rural India, we have leaders such as Anna Hazare and Popatrao Pawar, who have led to major positive changes that have impacted their villages greatly. However, unlike these two, the leaders of our nation today mostly belong to Urban India irrespective of the sector; social, political and corporate. Though these leaders might have a high educational qualification or come from an influential environment, they work for developing cities. But what about the rural, which consists the majority of population of the country. Most of the youngsters belong to rural areas. How many of them are recognized as leaders, entrepreneurs or change-makers? Are today's rural youth not equal in potential to the urban youth? Don't they have the talents or merit to become a leader?
Small change by small things, by small people in small places.
In such circumstance all the Indian rural youth need to ignite themselves for solving their own problems themselves. Don’t dependent on others. Don’t wait for Messiah. You yourself become the Messiah of your village, like Anna Hazare and Popatrao Pawar. Both these persons were like you youngsters, who became the cause of change. Gandhi ji said that “Be The Change You Want To See In The World”.
We should not wait for someone, who will come and make food for us and only then will we eat. Instead, if we are hungry, we should prepare food ourselves with whatever little resources we have and eat, only then can we save ourselves. Similarly, if you have the spark for the rebuilding rural India, then look around you for whatever you have, and start constructing our rural India.
Opportunity for Rural Youth
Rural development has become one of the widely discussed sectors in today’s time. It consist of 70% population of a country of 87.5 crore people which is a large market for corporates and for development (Third World Country) and social value creation by international agencies. It pulls the attraction of all, from corporates to social organizations and from investments to profits.
Today’s youth are very vibrant and the concept of individualism is very relevant in today’s time. Before taking any action one asks “what is my benefit?” and every one functions on this concept. The point is not that the rural youth are not aware about their local problems, they even know the solution, but that is not going to feed them or generate any income for them. The word ‘Social Service’ does not work today as everyone is busy in earning their livelihood. The youth also does business, not for social cause, but for own profit. They are engaged not only in economic activities, but also in political activities, but they won’t care one another.
Rural India has tremendous opportunities as small business hubs. Rural India produces food the entire country and feeds round the year. Rural people may go hungry themselves but first, they feed the urban population (money power). The big companies which are into the food-processing business or the middle men in the supply chain system earn much higher proceeds from this food production, than the farmers. This is the area where rural youth can take over the place of the middle man and produce a viable enterprise.
Schemes for national level skill development have been initiated by the previous government to fulfill the need for the skill based labour, but what are the other consequences of this? Rural youth learn skills for getting jobs in cities and this leads to migration to urban areas, and causing them to remain as slaves. It is true that we need skill based labour but when the supply of this labour exceeds the demand then again will have unemployment so, why not focus on entrepreneurship and leadership skill programmes? The people will invest in the village, create opportunities in the village itself and thus, negate the need to go to urban areas. The concept is to localize the resources in the village in every aspect. Local investment in the village will change the picture of that village and would also channelize the other economic system. Capital formation theory can be applied by the rural youth for development.
