What Happens To Villages As India Moves To Its Cities?

While number projections by various agencies differ, about 40 per cent of India's population is expected to be urban by 2025. Through its infrastructure and housing schemes, the government is doing everything to accommodate the rising numbers into the urban fold. However, what is conveniently forgotten is what will happen to villages and the remaining 60 per cent population. The fate of the agriculture sector, the biggest contributor to the country's economy, also seems to be in doldrums as more and more people relocate to cities.

The government is forming its policies on the basis of the increased desire of a majority of rural Indians to move to, say, 2BHK house units in city highrises, leaving behind their spacious rural homes. In an effort to make city-life more comfortable, the urban infrastructure is being given a major push. However, who will produce the crops to feed the teeming millions is not the question that is pressing enough for the government machinery so far.

As a matter of fact, the comfort of the city life is quite alluring; living the rural life is quite hard and there are not really many incentives to do so. For instance, the average profits of a landowner growing rice and wheat in a village would be much less that the average profits of a small trader in a city. Not to mention the fact that toiling as a farmer is much tougher than selling articles of daily needs sitting in an air-conditioned store. This is the basic fact based on which we comfortably ignore all the romantic notions attached to the rural life.

However, the policy of rewarding those who chose the comfortable life over the tough one is certainly flawed on many parameters. While there is no denying the fact that urban Indians are driving the country's economic growth at present, the reality that the food that fuels the spirits of these growth drivers come from villages should also be drawn into the picture. This arrangement might work for a while as the population ratio has yet to reach 40:60. However, with more and more Indians moving to cities, a situation of disbalance might lead to a complete breakdown. And, urbanising villages will certainly not be the answer to it.

In the years to come, the challenge for India will be how to retain its villages and promote rural housing.