The subject title of this post might sound exciting and intriguing. But I can not guarantee the excitement:). It is a story of my experience, probably boring.
One day I got up in the morning by my mom's call as usual. I splashed some water on my face to get rid of the sleepiness. I looked at the sun, green trees. Everything seemed familiar. I do this everyday. Strangely I had forgotten all my past days. I could not remember anything I had done before that. It was like as if I was reborn on that day. I knew everyone, all my friends, my mom, my uncles, aunties and my grandfather (most precious person of my life at that time). But I failed to recollect any specific activity before that day. But it did not stop me from loving the lush greenery, the ever flowing river near our house, the other shore of the river, the white sand where I make castles, the pebbles, the brown soil, the fields with vegetable plantations and the cattle. You wonder sometimes, "Am I in heaven?". People seem so happy in the morning. Off-course it was the imagination of an innocent child who wished to be loved and love everyone. He did not know of any malignant feeling. He had dreams of seeing everyone happy and together. The best part of my day was when my grandfather used to take me to river for helping me learn swimming. I used to wrap myself in my grandfather's towel, my mom's saree. The fragrance of love and affection comes from everything they touch. I sometimes find it difficult to comprehend the psychology of a child, or was it just me? Nevertheless all the emotion and love does not stop the process of evolution. How much ever you think good of the world, how much ever you love a certain point of your life, you will grow out of that.. You will become wiser, more knowledgeable, practical. Basically you will achieve all those good attributes in life which is needed to sustain in this ruthless, competitive world. Ironically all these good things destroy better things in life :). You know what, I always wonder if the sanskrit saying "Vidya dadati vinayam" is true. If knowledge gives humility, then what is this knowledge we acquire that makes us arrogant and look down upon people? Probably what we think as knowledge is not knowledge. At best they can be described as skills to manipulate. As usual I have strayed into some other zone in my writing. someone needs to help me improve my incoherent skill of expression :)
Well coming back to the real zone, if you look at my beautiful village there was no electricity, no water supply, no irrigation, no flood control, no good schools, no good healthcare facility and no efficient transportation facility. Amid all these, it was still beautiful in my eyes. I will touch upon some particular issues that concerns me immensely as a citizen. First point is what is the source of livelihood for all these villagers? It was agriculture. But it is not like punjab where farmers own huge amount of land with all the modern technology. People plough the lands with oxen. Whatever they got out of it it was probably not sufficient for them. In 1990s farmers started growing cash based crops like peanuts, mustard and different dals. Because just growing rice grain did not give enough cash in their hands. But the real problem was the unpredictable nature. Nature's wrath sometimes appear in form of flood, sometimes in famine or cyclone. By the way Odisha has always been affected with such natural calamities and that had always hammered any upliftment in economy time and again. Despite having vast expanse of arable and fertile land, it could not take advantage of green revolution. The density of population is high in coastal areas of the state. When I look at any village, I could not think of any agricultural entrepreneurship to ever take place. Same was applicable to my village. The land sizes are small. Even if you want to use a tractor, you cannot. Tractors can not be used in small lands. This is a small description of the plight of agriculture. But if you see, other basic needs like education, sanitation were also far fetched dreams. There was not enough schools. Children had to walk a long distance to go to high school. The teachers never come to school. School buildings are debilitated without desks, chairs and restrooms. The situation now has worsened. I can see some qualified people from my village in old times. At least my father came out as a graduate in 70s. He studied on his own and was a brilliant student. In that way I was lucky to have been guided by erudite parents. Right now the standard of education has hit a bottom. Young people migrate to outside states for manual labor. There is no skill development training available in village areas and also there is no opportunity. I agree, the financial state has improved. But life needs to have balance. There is a qualitative aspect to it where we need to have right mix socioeconomic ingredients. There is electricity now. There are cable tvs. Roads are improved, people have pucca houses. But the environment is not same now. There is animosity among people. The nearby liquor shop that was not there before is great contributor in creating many of these tensions. As usual there will always be problems.
But how do we solve these problems? We need to find the root cause. I strongly believe in empowering people rather than delivering development. People need to be aware of their rights. They need to have the requisite skill and education so they can reap the benefits of modern economy. There are two basic things I would pick that alone can transform the whole system in my belief. Education and Infrastructure development are two most important factors. Reform the education sector, build more schools. Education system needs to draw brightest talents as teachers. Right now go to any school and ask the students what they want to become in life. No one wants to become a teacher.It was not like that may be 10-20 years before. People who do not achieve anything in life become teachers. The motivation level of teachers is very low. Their minds are corruptible. What kind of education they will provide? Education is not only about studying books of different subjects. Character building is the most basic part of education. Today's children are tomorrow's citizen. With such abysmal level of education the nation building process has become deeply flawed. Teachers are not the only problem. There is right to education act now. Govt has launched "Sarv Sikhsya Abhiyaan" plan, the ambitious project wants to educate every child. But see what it does. The teachers get meagre amount as compensation. They can never run their family with that money. So inevitably they start tuition business and whole focus shifts from school. To create an environment of balanced education, we need good teachers, good schools and students with full stomach, books and clothes. Sadly Govt is focused on quantity and not quality.
Infrastructure is the other major problem. When we have flood and drought as alternate problem, the commonsense says we need to build dams. Reserve excess water and distribute when there is shortage. This is no rocket science. In Odisha the coastal area highly prone to floods because of many number of rivers. There was a committee which had recommended to build three dams to contain floods. We have the biggest dam in Hirakud on Mahanadi river built in 1957. That had reduced the intensity of floods. Our village is affected by floods from river Brahmani. So it was decided to build a dam on brahmani river and another on Bhimkund river. Construction of Rengali dam on Brahmani river was started in 1975. It was finished in 1987. It took 12 years quite unlike china :). The construction of other dam on Bhimkund river never ever started. now there are protests. So the flood control is never full proof. Politicians indulge in relief politics; giving food, blankets and loan waiver to affected people. People become happy and vote them back. They never understand what they deserve because of low level of awareness. We need river interlinking, bridges, dams and irrigation projects, roads. Who will explain people and who will demand? The questions remains unanswered till now.
Unless we focus on development of villages in holistic manner, the migrant politics in Mumbai will continue. People deprived of opportunities will always flock to the big cities seeking jobs and a better life. In reality they are disillusioned there also. We will always have traffic problem in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. How much ever planning we do it will remain ineffective. This is high time we shift our focus to 70% people living in villages, the real India. We have to develop second tier and third tier cities and make them hub of opportunities. India needs more cities. Basically villages need to be turned to small cities gradually. If it happens, I will definitely miss that old village.But logic and rationale always takes precedence. People can not just live on green trees. If we middle-class in cities can aspire to lead such luxurious life having all the comfort, why can't a normal villager? This country belongs to everyone. With this I end.
One day I got up in the morning by my mom's call as usual. I splashed some water on my face to get rid of the sleepiness. I looked at the sun, green trees. Everything seemed familiar. I do this everyday. Strangely I had forgotten all my past days. I could not remember anything I had done before that. It was like as if I was reborn on that day. I knew everyone, all my friends, my mom, my uncles, aunties and my grandfather (most precious person of my life at that time). But I failed to recollect any specific activity before that day. But it did not stop me from loving the lush greenery, the ever flowing river near our house, the other shore of the river, the white sand where I make castles, the pebbles, the brown soil, the fields with vegetable plantations and the cattle. You wonder sometimes, "Am I in heaven?". People seem so happy in the morning. Off-course it was the imagination of an innocent child who wished to be loved and love everyone. He did not know of any malignant feeling. He had dreams of seeing everyone happy and together. The best part of my day was when my grandfather used to take me to river for helping me learn swimming. I used to wrap myself in my grandfather's towel, my mom's saree. The fragrance of love and affection comes from everything they touch. I sometimes find it difficult to comprehend the psychology of a child, or was it just me? Nevertheless all the emotion and love does not stop the process of evolution. How much ever you think good of the world, how much ever you love a certain point of your life, you will grow out of that.. You will become wiser, more knowledgeable, practical. Basically you will achieve all those good attributes in life which is needed to sustain in this ruthless, competitive world. Ironically all these good things destroy better things in life :). You know what, I always wonder if the sanskrit saying "Vidya dadati vinayam" is true. If knowledge gives humility, then what is this knowledge we acquire that makes us arrogant and look down upon people? Probably what we think as knowledge is not knowledge. At best they can be described as skills to manipulate. As usual I have strayed into some other zone in my writing. someone needs to help me improve my incoherent skill of expression :)
Well coming back to the real zone, if you look at my beautiful village there was no electricity, no water supply, no irrigation, no flood control, no good schools, no good healthcare facility and no efficient transportation facility. Amid all these, it was still beautiful in my eyes. I will touch upon some particular issues that concerns me immensely as a citizen. First point is what is the source of livelihood for all these villagers? It was agriculture. But it is not like punjab where farmers own huge amount of land with all the modern technology. People plough the lands with oxen. Whatever they got out of it it was probably not sufficient for them. In 1990s farmers started growing cash based crops like peanuts, mustard and different dals. Because just growing rice grain did not give enough cash in their hands. But the real problem was the unpredictable nature. Nature's wrath sometimes appear in form of flood, sometimes in famine or cyclone. By the way Odisha has always been affected with such natural calamities and that had always hammered any upliftment in economy time and again. Despite having vast expanse of arable and fertile land, it could not take advantage of green revolution. The density of population is high in coastal areas of the state. When I look at any village, I could not think of any agricultural entrepreneurship to ever take place. Same was applicable to my village. The land sizes are small. Even if you want to use a tractor, you cannot. Tractors can not be used in small lands. This is a small description of the plight of agriculture. But if you see, other basic needs like education, sanitation were also far fetched dreams. There was not enough schools. Children had to walk a long distance to go to high school. The teachers never come to school. School buildings are debilitated without desks, chairs and restrooms. The situation now has worsened. I can see some qualified people from my village in old times. At least my father came out as a graduate in 70s. He studied on his own and was a brilliant student. In that way I was lucky to have been guided by erudite parents. Right now the standard of education has hit a bottom. Young people migrate to outside states for manual labor. There is no skill development training available in village areas and also there is no opportunity. I agree, the financial state has improved. But life needs to have balance. There is a qualitative aspect to it where we need to have right mix socioeconomic ingredients. There is electricity now. There are cable tvs. Roads are improved, people have pucca houses. But the environment is not same now. There is animosity among people. The nearby liquor shop that was not there before is great contributor in creating many of these tensions. As usual there will always be problems.
But how do we solve these problems? We need to find the root cause. I strongly believe in empowering people rather than delivering development. People need to be aware of their rights. They need to have the requisite skill and education so they can reap the benefits of modern economy. There are two basic things I would pick that alone can transform the whole system in my belief. Education and Infrastructure development are two most important factors. Reform the education sector, build more schools. Education system needs to draw brightest talents as teachers. Right now go to any school and ask the students what they want to become in life. No one wants to become a teacher.It was not like that may be 10-20 years before. People who do not achieve anything in life become teachers. The motivation level of teachers is very low. Their minds are corruptible. What kind of education they will provide? Education is not only about studying books of different subjects. Character building is the most basic part of education. Today's children are tomorrow's citizen. With such abysmal level of education the nation building process has become deeply flawed. Teachers are not the only problem. There is right to education act now. Govt has launched "Sarv Sikhsya Abhiyaan" plan, the ambitious project wants to educate every child. But see what it does. The teachers get meagre amount as compensation. They can never run their family with that money. So inevitably they start tuition business and whole focus shifts from school. To create an environment of balanced education, we need good teachers, good schools and students with full stomach, books and clothes. Sadly Govt is focused on quantity and not quality.
Infrastructure is the other major problem. When we have flood and drought as alternate problem, the commonsense says we need to build dams. Reserve excess water and distribute when there is shortage. This is no rocket science. In Odisha the coastal area highly prone to floods because of many number of rivers. There was a committee which had recommended to build three dams to contain floods. We have the biggest dam in Hirakud on Mahanadi river built in 1957. That had reduced the intensity of floods. Our village is affected by floods from river Brahmani. So it was decided to build a dam on brahmani river and another on Bhimkund river. Construction of Rengali dam on Brahmani river was started in 1975. It was finished in 1987. It took 12 years quite unlike china :). The construction of other dam on Bhimkund river never ever started. now there are protests. So the flood control is never full proof. Politicians indulge in relief politics; giving food, blankets and loan waiver to affected people. People become happy and vote them back. They never understand what they deserve because of low level of awareness. We need river interlinking, bridges, dams and irrigation projects, roads. Who will explain people and who will demand? The questions remains unanswered till now.
Unless we focus on development of villages in holistic manner, the migrant politics in Mumbai will continue. People deprived of opportunities will always flock to the big cities seeking jobs and a better life. In reality they are disillusioned there also. We will always have traffic problem in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. How much ever planning we do it will remain ineffective. This is high time we shift our focus to 70% people living in villages, the real India. We have to develop second tier and third tier cities and make them hub of opportunities. India needs more cities. Basically villages need to be turned to small cities gradually. If it happens, I will definitely miss that old village.But logic and rationale always takes precedence. People can not just live on green trees. If we middle-class in cities can aspire to lead such luxurious life having all the comfort, why can't a normal villager? This country belongs to everyone. With this I end.
