“The soul of India lives in its villages”
Mahatma Gandhi
For quite some time air has been filled with the smart cities in making in the country, but the abnormal situation due to the spread of coronavirus disease has brought a lot of changes. The turmoil created by COVID19 has affected everyone, however in different ways. Urban and rural population had suffered the severe jolt of the pandemic through the consequential lockdown enforcement. The sufferings of the migrant workers staying in urban areas have felt the brutal punch due to the stoppage of economic activities making their earnings zero. The lockdown had locked them away from their native places which are usually villages across the nation. Subsequently, their sufferings have compelled the system to create the path for their return back to native villages and the sizeable number of migrant workers is likely to be at their places. Let us analyze the situation and see if the
The migrant workers staying in urban areas have suffered a lot due to the stoppage of economic activities making their earnings zero.
Now, the partial lifting of lockdown and the gradual start of economic activities in safer places is visible but the new challenge of unavailability of the manpower is felt. It is premature to comment on when the migrant workers that had returned from their places of work will be going back to their work. Sights of poor workers walking on foot for hundreds of kilometers with women and children to reach their homes have been very frequently seen in media reports. The pitiable state of poor families moving on the road without food, water, and transportation in the 21st century requires sympathetic and out of box thinking to use the potential of the populace of the country. Quite often in news reporting, some of them have been sharing their agonizing experience and resolving for not coming back to work soon.
Do read: Resuscitating Migrant Workers to Economy
The agonizing experience during lockdown may be the reason for migrant workers not coming back to work soon
Thus, there is loud thinking about a good number of migrant workers will be staying back in their native villages and not go back to the metropolitan & urban centres for employment, which need to be considered. In an independent country, it will not be possible for any governance to stop any human being from going back to their native place. Any treatment of bondage will not offer a sustainable solution to the problem of migrant workers not reporting back on jobs. The prominent cue from it is for the governance, which should evolve a strategy to accelerate the economic activities in the rural part of the country. Introspection into the present scenario shows that the non-availability of economic activities in the rural part has been stimulating the migration of people from rural to urban areas.
Do Read: Poverty Alleviation: An imperative for sustainable development
Now with the fear-psychosis acting as a deterrent, the rural population may not like to migrate out in the same number to metropolitan & urban centres and vigorously look for job opportunities nearby. The local governance should make a quicker assessment of the psychology of the sufferers of un-organized sectors and strategize for rolling the wheel of the economy at the earliest. The honest commitment of those at the helm for improving the state of the agriculture-based economy is extremely essential and can ease out the rural habitat from miseries. Apparently, the suitable facilitation and creativity in handling the agro-economy seem to be capable of accomodating a huge population.
Visit Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Improving the agriculture-based economy is extremely essential as it can ease out the rural habitat from miseries.
Also, the rural centres and semi-urban centres in close vicinity of villages should woo the potential hubs of economic activities and provide all facilitation along with the safe environment to operate. The state’s intervention to look into the limitations of infrastructure, law and order issues, ease of transportation, the effectiveness of communication, etc. will help in arriving at a new development model that has a nucleus in rural areas. The vision of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the nation for ensuring economic processes for the prosperity and progress of villages holds high relevance in the present era.
Ensuring economic processes for the prosperity and progress of villages holds high relevance in the present era.
It appears that in the post COVID19 time, the centres of the economy will have to be shifted for providing survival to each human being. The time is ripe to find complete answers to the question of why has someone migrated out of the native place? Because the completeness in the identification of the reasons for migration from rural to urban areas will germinate the holistic solutions for the resurgence in the economy of the country.
Creating hubs of the economy in and around villages is need of the hour.
Let, the society debate for minimizing the migration of workers from one part to another for the sake of survival and better quality of life. Why should the rural and semi-urban centers not be strengthened as major contributors to the economy of the country? It is an opportunity to relocate human resources appropriately and emerge as a strong economy.
“A society must be built in which every village has to be self-sustained and capable of managing its own affairs. Growth will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom”
Mahatma Gandhi
By Editorial Team, The Rise.co.in