Villages: A Blessing in Disguise – Aryan Pandey

Indian is the nation of villages. Indian culture plays a great respect to the villages, and villages too, are very loyal friends of us all. Villages have sustained India with a sureshot success for over thousands of years. Even today, the villages are the one which are carrying our nation towards real development. Sounds ridiculous?? Although it may sound ridiculous, but it is a fact that India is still being successfully sustained only and only because of villages. Our mighty cities, metropolitan cities, which are the brand ambassadors of India’s development, are nothing more than a sand-castle. They just pollute minds and also pollute environment. They just reflect that, India, which was known to the world for its great values, has now become selfish, same as the world entire. We Indians have lost our true self and surprisingly, we are proud of it. Heavily obsessed by a desire to imitate the West, we Indians have brutally, ignored, exploited and have caused damage to our most loyal friends, the villages. Totally deprived of even the very basic amenities, villages are still functioning selflessly and are paying for the wrongs,the cities are doing . We need to understand a thing, India can easily sustain if all the cities are turned to villages, but India cannot sustain if all the villages are turned into cities. Villagers are compelled to migrate to these monstrous cities. These innocent migrants are very much vulnerable to exploitation. The Covid lock down should as the real face of the cities. Millions of migrants were compelled to work hundreds of kilometres to reach their home. Villages keep us down to Earth . Villages show us the mirror. They tell us a reality. The cities teach us to build a castle in air. At a point, when our cities are heavily overloaded, we need to look back once more towards our villages. The villages are self-sustainable, but our foolish decisions have compelled villagers to leave their home and migrate to cities. We have exploited and exploited villages so badly, that they have slowly begun to lose their self sustainability. It’s a major question, that why government and society is not putting a check on villagers leaving the villages. If all the youth will just move to city to work how can we expect our villages to grow !!!! I am a villager, and I am writing what I see with my own naked eyes. The villages are totally deprived of even the very basic amenities. There is not even a proper clinic, neither a proper school. The youth in the villages is jobless. There are no job possibilities. Majority of young men are indulged in evil practices like smoking, drinking etc. My village has no hospital, not even a clinic, but my village has two alcohol shops. What to expect the youth to get an inspiration from ?? The situation of government schools in majority of villages is just like a holocaust prisoner. We need to look at, and think on this matter. We need to enhance our villages, we need to educate our villages, we need to decorate our villages. Now, the question comes, how to develop our villages? Development of a village is totally different from the concept of development that most of us have in our minds. Developing a village doesn’t mean, converting it into a city. Conversion of a village into city, is not development, it is just destruction. To develop a village, all we have to do, is to make them totally self-sustainable. Constructing hospitals, improving status of government schools etc. These things will also provide employment to the villagers. Developing such things will provide employment, education, better standard of living, and will also reduce migration from villages to cities. Special attention needs to be paid on the education of children in villages. Most of them are economically weak. The education can be improved by improving the condition of government schools. These things will make villages totally self-sustainable. Now, another thing to be paid special attention is ,the migration. There are various reasons for migration from villages. To be more precise, there are different reasons for migration of different class of people. As for example, the cause of migration for the poor is unemployment. The cause of migration for the middle-class or upper-class youth is to get good education etc. Most of the people I know, do not want to do a job in small towns or villages. Even if they get more money, still ,they prefer to work in big cities only. Why? because they want their kids to study in convent schools, they need a luxury lifestyle, and above all they need ways to entertain themselves. Villages earlier used to have community organisations etc . There existed harmony and brotherhood . But, these things are now becoming extinct.An educated person finds it difficult to pass even a day in a village. We need to develop our villages in such a way , so that we can curb the brain drain . If we really want to improve the standard of our villages, then we’ll have to provide the learned people a cause to live in villages . When educated people will live in villages, then , slowly and gradually, the status and quality of villages will rise up. Now, how will they live in villages ?? We need to provide them some facilities. As for example, consider an educated person, who received his education from the prestigious institutes of the country, is now appointed any job in a village or small town. When he gets up in morning, he’ll not get to read ‘The Hindu’ every morning. He will not have any common topic of discussion with his surroundings. He will have very poor network connectivity. On weekends, he will just sit in his home, as there are no ways of entertainment that he is used to. So, do we think that , he’ll stay there for longer ?? No. He’ll try to leave the place by any means. Therefore, we need to think about these issues. These issues do not require a lot of government interference. Earlier, villages used to have gram sabha, but now, it has just become nominal and nothing else. We need to develop or village level administration. The villagers should be informed about how to develop their village. Because, the only way to raise the village standards is to provide the reasons for the learned ones to live there .During the COVID lockdown most of us returned to our villages. I myself have seen several of constructive work is being done. The six months tenure during which, the students and professionals who lived in cities , returned to their villages, was very much constructive. They did several new things. But, they stayed in village only due to compulsion. As soon as the lockdown was relaxed, the again moved to cities. We can take a great lesson from this thing and can try to improvise or villages. More than 65% of India’s population lives in villages, yet the 85 crore villagers, living in over 6 lakh 30 thousand villages receive less than 0.65% of media coverage. Why??Because they are not considered important. They don’t know how to fight for their rights. They don’t even know that what they don’t have. When learned people will live in villages, then they will make villagers aware of their rights, their needs, and the scenario can change drastically.
Conclusively, we may say that villages have served us for centuries. The government has, so far failed to provide the villages, the reward of their faithful services. Therefore, the society should take the responsibility in its own hands……
Let me finish by quoting Italian novelist, Cesare Pavese,
” You need a village, if only for the pleasure of leaving it. A village means that you are not alone, knowing that in the people, the trees, the earth, there is something that belongs to you, waiting for you when you are not there. “