UPLIFTING RURAL HABITAT STANDARDS IN A DEVELOPING SOCIETY
Anil Chotmarada
The major part of India’s large population lives in villages and a substantial part of the Indian economy is dependent on the agrarian sector. The country has, however, not given enough of thought to the development of the populace that provides the whole country food grain that feeds the total population of the country. It is unfortunate that while the urbanites and metro dwellers depend solely on the villages for their food, they have given no though to the people and their well being who actually toil to produce this food. In any case, it would make more sense to take care of the larger part of the population if the country wishes to develop. Only small pocket of the development pock marking the country face with the larger part of the country left in un-develop state lives if makes of the face of the country a very dismal picture.
Much has been said by the leaders of the country about the development of rural areas in the country nothing much seems to have being realized in this direction. From the time the country achieved independence that is the time when the country started planning for itself to the present time when all planning and controls are in our own hands for lot of words have been used regarding the improvement and development of the villages in our country. All this talk appears to start and finish in the corridors of power that lie out side these villages. Be it in the Center or in the State the powers to plan lie in the hands of the few who operate from air-conditioned offices located in the art of the urban areas.
Emanating from these powers centers are diktats that determine the course of action to be taken regarding development of the hapless lot of villagers in our country. The twenty year vision, the five year plan, the economic distribution, the regional plan very infrequently, if ever, consider the realities that exist in the hinterland of the country. Most planning, in all segments of life, be it economic social cultural or physical centers around the development of the urban or the industrial centers of the country leaving the rural sector to fend for itself.
The vast geographic spread of the country, with its wide variety of social cultural and economic ethos makes a variegated collage that requires different strokes of planning polices which can not emanate from a single point in the country. Not only is there a vast variation in the texture of the human fabric based on the regional differences, even the location of the village within a reason has so much of different in its social and economic fabric that there is the need to view these different villages in different planning lights. The North Indian villages are ever so different from villages in South India which differ so much from villages in the East or Best of the country. Even in North India there is so much of a difference in a Kashmiri village or a Haryanvi village. Not only is their a difference because of the climatic and geographic reasons, the cultural and social milieu also becomes a basis on which developmental thoughts and concepts need to vary when applied on these situations.
In spite of these large differences which may exist even in neighboring villages there is nevertheless one common streak that runs in all these rural situations. These are all in a very poor physical condition. The physical expression of these rural habitats is very, very depressing. The depression is not caused because of the conditions of poverty but because of the visible potential that is inherent but has not been exploited by some kind of planning. The villagers are living there so the basic facilities probably exist, but these are just not utilized properly because the facilities have been provided without the planning thought of the sustenance of the facility.
The street is there but there is no drainage, the house is there but there is no toilet facility. It is not just economy that is the culprit here but lack of some know how and some proper inputs from planners. The primary school, even a secondary school exists, a primary health facility exists, even adult education center exists but still there is rampant illiteracy, there is so much of ill health in the populace. The reason seems to be just a lack of considered planning thought, in some facet of planning or the other. Planning, in the isolated formats that is being applied at the moment, would be difficult to succeed. Physical planning without economic planning, economic planning without social appreciation would be difficult to succeed. All facets of rural planning require an appreciation of the other facets of the village situation.
Villages all over the country present dismal picture of poor living conditions in all the domain human existence. Extremely poor physical living conditions that manifest unplanned poor housing and inefficient building services lead to poor hygienic conditions. Lack of electricity, drinking water and lack of provision of other services makes living conditions miserable. Villages near the major transport corridors or urban centers are a little better off as these fall within the vision of the passing politician or bureaucrat. The villages falling in the hinterland, which are visited only at the time of elections, are in a much worse condition. Normally, the major blame is thrown on the economic situation but even that is a resultant of inefficient planning decisions taken at a central position of the state or country’s capital with not proper realization of the ground realities. Apart from the economic constraints, issues that can be resolved by means of low cost applications do not get implemented because of the lack of interest or exposure of the planners who are trained and experienced in only urban planning.
Normally there are no planning inputs in the rural segment and even if there are inputs the different facet of the rural ethos are not fully appreciated as the urban planner, ever so conditioned by the urban percepts subconsciously tries to urbanize the villages. This planning methodology can never be successful as there is a tremendous difference between the urban and the hinterland ethos. The planning intention should not be to urbanize the villages but to plan within the context taking care of the local intangibles of cultural societal and economic factors. The various efforts made by some State Government in creating focal and nodal villages have not been very successful as these intangible factors of consideration were over load. When the aspiration of the people are not met in a design resolution, the design because of lack of acceptance can never be successful.
A cow or buffalo may be a very dirty animal to an urbanite and a planner could very easily think of taking out the milch cattle from the rural house to put these all together in certain space to create a house that is cleaner by his standards by removing these animals. The villager, however, sees the situation in a very different light. The milch cattle are seen as children of the house and the mess they make is to be viewed in the same light. The cattle tied at the entrance space of the house and the master of the house laying his cot next to the cattle is an accepted way of life in a village. Any other condition would be a little difficult for the villager to tolerate. While the planner may be well placed in his intentions but lack of the knowledge of the cultural ethos of the village would create an awkward situation. Many such cultural differences between the urban and the rural thinking, unless understood would yield a non-pragmatic solution for uplifting the rural habitat standards in our country.
The social differences also need to be understood. The strong class stratification which exists in villages does not exist in cities. While the cites may have economic classification, the village based on the caste divisions needs to have physical demarcation for the separation of the residential spaces meant house the different caste groups. In spite of the fact that there is the thinking in the power centers that such caste divisions should be eliminated, the rural mindset does not accept this at all.
In a situation of such dichotomy the steps required to uplift the rural habitat standards can not be simple, but one thing is certain, that if the planning is done by outsiders, the success rate would be dismal. The possible remedy is then to empower the people at the grass root level. Be it planning of any kind, the Sarpanch through the Panchyat has the basic inherent potential of taking decisions that are appropriate to the local conditions. This in no way a suggested of the fact that the decision making processes and methodology should not the contemporized for the development to take advantage of the new happenings in the world of planning.
Information Technology which is a strong planning tool would still be a useful input devise for taking planning decisions. These technologically advanced systems would be of great advantage for the equitable distribution of wealth, knowledge and national resources when the planning is being done on a large scale. However, simplified and basic information technology systems can be deployed at even the grass root where other basic infrastructure facilities are in place. Not only the advanced technical systems but even the simple buildings services inputs like piped water and disposal systems need to be carefully examined before being recommended by planners. A classical case of example is the water supply and drainage and sewage system provided in the Jaiselmer Fort and Rajasthan after the completion of the Indira Gandhi Canal. The structures that were designed for very dry situations and the planner’s lack of appreciation of the inherent nature of the complex have led to a situation where the structure has given way.
Anil Chotmarada is a Faculty & Director in Gateway College of Architecture & Design, Sonipat-131001, India.