Urban areas have seen a major development in the last two decades but rural areas haven’t been developed much. Rural areas are still facing issues like poverty, low literacy rates, and lack of basic infrastructures like schools and hospitals. As a result, youth is migrating to urban areas in search of new opportunities. If rural areas are poor, India is poor.
India is continuously trying to boost the rural economy. But in its effort to boost the rural economy, India is facing many issues, which slows down the economic growth. The issues are really important and need to be solved.
Here is a list of key issues that must be solved in order to grow the rural economy
1.Poverty
According to the latest reports by the World Bank, it is estimated that the poverty rates in India will increase to 12% ( approximately ) due to COVID-19. It declined from 22.1 percent to 8.1 percent between 2011 and 2017. Again due to the nationwide lockdown poverty level is increasing in India which will become a major issue in rural development.
2. Connectivity
Roads, transport, and mobile communication play an important role in rural development. It connects the people of rural areas to the outside world. In India, many poor communities are isolated due to bad road conditions, inadequate transport, and lack of mobile communication services. Bad connectivity causes many other problems for rural people. Bad road conditions make it difficult for people of rural areas to transport their goods or make it to the workplace, to handle health emergencies. Bad mobile communication causes problems like lack of information and awareness among the rural people.
3. Electricity and water supplies
Progress report of village electrification of 2015 shows that around 19,909 villages are not electrified yet. Even the villages that are electrified are not getting quality power and estimation shows that 33% of villages are under electrification. They only have access to less than 50kWh of electricity per month.
Water causes a majority of health diseases. Inadequate or impure water supply is an issue in most rural areas these days. The number of Indians affected by water-borne disease every year is 37.7 million. The death toll is also very high, approximately 1.5 million children die due to diarrhea alone each year. The Indian government spends around $600 million on health services in rural areas for waterborne disease. Pure water is a necessity and it must reach the people of rural areas.
4. Education/Literacy
In 2015, the youth literacy rate in India was 90.2% while the adult literacy rate in India was 74.04% in 2011. In India, there is a wide gender gap in literacy rates. In 2011, 82.14% of men were literate while only 65.46% of women were literate. This gap causes a negative impact on population stabilization and family planning. Though we have seen an increase in the female literacy rate in the last decade, there is still a gap that needs to be filled out.
5. Employment
Unemployment is a big issue in India, especially in rural areas. Youth is migrating to urban areas to find jobs while the aged remain in rural areas. The amount of agricultural land is the same but the population is growing. With the increase in agriculture technology, we have seen a decreased rate of employment in the past few years.
6. Migration to urban areas
The most common reasons why people are migrating to urban areas is the lack of income and lack of opportunities. These are the economic factors, there are also other factors like health, finance, social, education, etc.
7. Land Reforms
Land reforms must be initiated in rural areas. Zamindars and the big landlords have been exploiting poor people since independence. However, the Government of India has taken various steps to get rid of it.
Land reforms enable the use of modern technology to increase production leading to large-scale production with the efficient and optimum use of agricultural land.
There are a few other issues that have a negative impact on rural development. The Government of India is now focused on developing rural areas and creating more opportunities. They have introduced various schemes like Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushal Yojna, Heritage Development and Augmentation Yojna (HRIDAY), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), and many more. Click here to get the details of schemes offered by the Government of India for rural development.
We may not be able to see the big picture now, but India is developing and so are the rural areas. India is facing few issues now but it will surely resolve those in the coming years. Many private companies and start-ups have stepped up to solve these issues.
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