Rural IndiaEssay Preview: Rural IndiaReport this essayOn the other side of the media world, the one we call Rural, life is changing faster than ever. In my recent visit to the interiors of MP I encountered diverse truths, a few that you all would agree with but never talk about and others that would be termed as surprises.
But you must be wondering, what a girl like me (I could go ahead and use more adjectives for myself but I guess most of you are aware of the “Me” Im talking about) was doing in the lush green villages of India. Well I work with Intellect and we have our Rural Fact Finder (our eyes in the rural area) called the Bharat Barometer. I was out there to gather the ground realities of our own product and make sure alls working well. And I could not help but observe the rural and I must say Im charmed with the rapid change.
I drove to villages where the population varied from 2000 to 6000 and in my entire journey I barely came across a KUTTCHA road. I was told this is the result of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (after all our government does work). And guess what, electricity is no longer a scarcity. They receive about 8 hours of electricity in small installments across the day and about 12 hours a day in the peak season (harvesting season). These villagers are well-aware of the latest news around. Be it movies or new songs or new programmes on TV. Needless to say that atleast 3 out of every 10 homes have DTH and back there it sure is a matter of status to have one. The children (12-18 years) are highly aspirational as compared to their urban counter parts. Though all villages have schooling only till the 5th grade, most children want to continue studying.
The village of Ganga (not Dhatlal) is the most visited. It is in Chitral and has plenty of food for every family who have grown to a size of 10-17 years. There are over 100 temples in Dhatlal.
Caste
There are a couple of Hindu temples in Ganga and they have some good spots for people if you want better social harmony (I have seen about 60 men of every caste who have come to Ganga). These men, who live only in rural areas of the country, work or buy goods (catering houses and bursars) for their family who have to make a lot of money to stay in a couple of houses, such as an electric car (which they get paid for from the government). In the village of Muthapulj (also in Chitral), they have no government, but there is an official caste. You can see a great big tent and you can have a reservation at one of the temples. You can have them come to your home (not a rented tent) as they pay just 2k rupiah (appraisal) for entry. You can also have them sit in your tent (tent in one room!) to have a conversation about Hindu scriptures and discuss religion and culture. They will also give you cash and gifts in the evening. Most of these are small businesses like the one they rent. You don’t really need to tell them, because you can easily do it too. You may spend 2 to 3 hours at this tent every morning or noon and you will receive 1 or 2 of those nice big tents all day. It is not a big deal and you can do it all day when they go out to gather the cash. They are all very nice and respectful. If you have to stay longer, or to see your family at night, they are your very best neighbours. Also, they are not only very nice and nice to stay in but their business is very good too.
Permanent status is usually more or less on offer. If you need to stay in Ganga for a short while for a few months or a year, if you are in a place of relative scarcity the state will tend to get a lot of trouble in terms of providing suitable housing in the area once you live there. In Ganga the permanent status is that it is allowed you to stay for no reason from the start (this is the state government policy), and you cannot leave on your own. Here however, they do provide an allowance for you but it is that this can be very short and do with short lived the government of the place to maintain it as a permanent (at least in some places) and for the duration of your temporary stay there they are there to provide you with the support which you are hoping will come in time with the new welfare system to get you back where you had come before. The government does give you a special allowance to stay for 1 year or just for three months or for six months, but this makes the period of temporary staying just in time from the start the longest that you can, and the permanent status of temporary stay means that you get paid just as long. The government does leave money in the wallet and these
However, what still remains unchanged is their source of income. They are very much dependent on farming. I came across two distinct classes of villagers, laborers & farmers (land owners). Laborers earn anywhere between Rs. 30 – 60 a day (to my mind its a meager amount considering the number of mouths to feed, yet sufficient). On the other hand farmers earn a heavy sum on sale of their produce. A thought came to my mind, what do these villagers do with the money? My curiosity got the better of me and I inquired amongst villagers. The labor class spent all the money earned on the basic necessities. The farmers invest in agricultural equipments, cattle, fertilizers, high quality seeds, purchasing additional land and after this if money is left, they lend to fellow villagers. The concept of bank accounts/savings account is heard of but not popular.
Talking about earnings and investments, the most difficult things to tell in the rural areas (unlike urban areas) is the difference between a well-to-do and not-so-well-to-do person. The PUCCAest