Essays

"Even after 56 years of Independence, right from the Nehru era to the Vajpayee era, the rural India of today still short of basic amenities, like drinking water, electricity, roads, housing, food anil clothing".

 Once Gandhiji told the renowned author Mr. Mulk Raj Anand that we can’t build India unless we build villages. Gandhrj I wanted to make the villages independent , republics, independent in governance and for routine requirements, governed by the : people of the villages and self sufficient for financial needs. In India seventy percent of our population live in villages, but the developmental schemes, for the develop it till of rural segment are not given the required priorities.

 Our economy is developing fast. Industries and big corporate are going( globalised, with liberalization, tremendous changes are being felt in IT, manufacture Service sector, but nobody thinks of the rural development to make it as fast as in theft sectors. Then what all this progress and development means? Benefitting to 30% of the total population, already developed and above poverty does not mean actual development.

 Visiting a village we find even today houses made of mud, bamboos and grass, have no protection against rains, storms, moisture and fire. Supplying of adequacy drinking water is a tedious problem in which housewife and girls are devoting a size part of the daily routine, fetching enough water from far flung area or standing in the queue for hours waiting their number at the public tap. Illiteracy and particularly among the girls is main peculiarity of our rural India. A few States tried to enroll and attract children in schools with the incentive of mid day meal scheme, but all the sam, universalisation of elementary education is still a dream and there is no let up the number of annual drop outs. Rural poverty and illiteracy has given our country that dubious name where highest number of child laborer in the world is on the John feed this bellies. Health care is just rudimentary and few doctors are willing o wet is rural area. Villagers are mostly dependant on Vaisya, or other RMPs forte medical needs. Lack of proper infrastructure like roads, transportation, electricity, Water, proper housing, educational schools demotivate a person, whether a dactyl, I engineer or any educated personnel to go to villages and stay there with his family. | High rate of migration from villages to nearby cities or meters is also there Soult of lack I of proper infrastructure in rural areas. These migrated people build slums, Jugghies,' Chawls or Cherries in cities to live not so comfortably but have no option as in cilia they could find jobs, and could earn to fill their starving stomachs.

A The present government realised the gravity of the situation and has taken of important measures to develop infrastructure in the countryside. The PradhanMn Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) launched on Dec. 25, 2000, seeks to provide road connectivity through good all weather roads to all unconnected habitations having a population of more than 1000 persons by the year 2003 and those with a population of more than 500 persons by the end of the Tenth Plan i.e. 2007. An investment of about Rs. 38000 crore has been made so far in the water supply sector. According to government sources, more than 15 laces rural habitants have been covered by the provision of drinking water facility. The revised Rural Water Supply Programme envisaged:

 (1) The involvement of the people in the choice of scheme design, control of finances and management arrangements.

(2) Shifting the role of government from direct service delivery to that of facilitator.

(3) Partial cost sharing either in cash or kind or both.

(4) 100% responsibility of operation and maintenance by end users.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY), it is proposed to tackle quality related problems like fluorides, arsenic and iron contamination, blockishness and also sustainability of drinking water sources.  he States are also being encouraged to promote schemes of water conservation, rain water harvesting ground water recharge in respect of regions where programmes such as Desert Development Programmes, Drought Prone Area Development Programme are running.

A centrally sponsored sanitation programme for the rural areas was launched in 1986 to improve the quality of life and to provide some kind of privacy to women particularly. The concept of sanitation was further extended to include personal hygiene, home sanitation, pure drinking water, garbage and excreta and waste water disposal in 1993. The programme includes construction of individual sanitary toilets for families below poverty line, conversion of toilets, construction of village sanitary complexes for women, setting up of sanitary marts, intensive campaign for awareness generation and health education among the rural people with greater emphasis on community involvement. Till 2001, approximately 90 laces toilets have been constructed under the programme.

Indira Awaas Yojana was launched in 1985, to provide dwelling units to the people below poverty line, belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, freed bonded laborers and others. Since 1995-96, benefits under the schemes have also been extended to widows or next of kin of defense personnel killed in action, and ex- servicemen, and retired members of paramilitary forces as long as they fulfill the eligibility conditions of lndra Awaas Yojana. Selection of beneficiaries under IAY is to be done by the Gram Sabha. As per the reports around 80 laces houses have been constructed under Indira Awaas Yojana up to 2001. Other schemes for rural housing include the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana, credit cum subsidy schemes for Rural Housing and Samagra Awaas Yojana.

SGSY (Swaranajayanti Gram Swarpjagar Yojana) was also launched on April-1-1999 to support the family income of rural poor. The scheme aimed at established a large number of micro-enterprises for individuals or group or self help groups^^H order to bring every assisted family above the poverty line. Four or five activity identified in each block based on the resources, occupational skills of the people the availability of markets. With the start of SGSY, all the old rural development programmes like IRDP, DWCRA, TRYSEM etc. have ceased to operate. Into discussed programmes and schemes there are so many other programmes employment assurance programme, Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana, National Social Assistance Programme, Annapurana Scheme and the like, for the development of the rural area.

 The point is, in spite of many programmes launched earlier and presently w^^H real impact, quantitatively and qualitatively these have on the progress and prosperity of rural area. We have to evaluate each programme, funds involved therein and the {result derived there from. The most challenging task is to see whether the funds have been properly utilised. It is paradoxically that before the Panchayats were made self- f sufficient and strong we have been accusing the bureaucrats for their corrupt f practices, now the corruption has gripped the Panchayats also and it has destroyed the ( very concept of rural democracy /rural republic as envisaged by Gandhiji. The funds ^ are swindled away by the local leaders and officials who are supposed to implement Ji them in the right spirit.

Though lot of initiative has been taken by the present government to improve the economic conditions of the rural people and providing infrastructure to boost the rural economy, yet much more is needed keeping in view the peculiarity of our areas in the field of education, electrification, drinking water and health and hygiene sector etc. The implementation is to be properly checked to bring the required result.

  Vocabulary

I. priorities—superiority, preference, precedence. 2. tremendous—huge, enormous, great, |U colossal. 3. adequate—sufficient, equal to the need, satisfactory. 4. devoting—dedicate, apply, consecrate. 5. elementary'—primary, introductory, rudimentary. 6. Dubious- hesitant, skeptical, indecisive. 7. migration—emigration, immigration. 8. envisaged—visualize, imagine, conceive, .fluorides—a compound of fluorine and another element, radical. 10. contamination—impurity, pollution, adulteration. 11. brackishness—tartness piquancy, pungency. 12. sanitation—sanitary science, science of public cleanliness, 13. dwelling—house, residence, abode. 14. assisted—supervised, controlled, conducted. 15. assurance—conviction, trust, certainty, certitude. 16. derived—reached, attained, gained. 17. envisaged—visualize, imagine, conceive