Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

usha manohar wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

usha manohar wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

Lovely pictures Usha!Do you own these fields?

Yes Kalyani,the fields are family owned close to my ancestral  home at a place called Maroli on the outskirts of Mangalore, you can see part of it in one of the pics and now the cultivation season is on full swing..

Wow, lucky you! It must be so nice to be able to experience and get yourself involved in all the phases of rice cultivation! One of these years, I really might gatecrash your home for the experience! :) :)

Sadly Kalyani most of it is going , remember I had written about it a couple of years ago . The corporation is taking it over to build of all the things a bus stand since they could not find any other vast stretch of land that is just outside the city. Most farmers have either sold their fields or converted it into house sites.

We will have to hand it over once they send the notice and give compensation..we have appealed but I doubt it would yield any results.

Oh, that is really sad. I guess it is the same story everywhere in India. Development at the cost of loss of natural beauty, which is irreplaceable and irrevocable, but no one is least bit concerned about not making up for it or even seek other alternatives.

If the development is going to benefit a whole community it is ok but when politicians grab forest land and build resorts and nothing ever happens to them, it makes your blood boil esp when an agriculturists livelihood is being taken away from him..

Sainath, the man behind this Web portal was disturbed to see how these rich Rural areas are being abused  to build Townships by the Authorities and the leaders. The sole aim of  Sainath was to create an awareness in the thoughts of  the people, Authorities and political leaders.

anil wrote:

Life in rural area is much hard in India. It is right that rural and urban area is equally important. But focus of most of governments are urban area. It is reason that most of village have not electricity, pure water, transport facilities, education facilities and health facllities.

It is a shame that after all these years of Independence , there i  proper connectivity to some of the smaller villages here which are on islands ,cut off completely during monsoon months when the rivers are full. I have visited one such village which has about 30 odd families living there with school going children, who miss School during monsoon. Their only means of transport is country boats which cannot be used when the river is flowing full and with force.

Even today, we have many such villages in AP. The school going children from these villages have to wade through knee deep waters, keeping their School Bags on their heads. Years passed. But the authorities did not care for an action to end the troubles of these children.

Exactly! That's what happens when the chief ministers spend lavishly on things that are not absolutely essential but neglect what actually needs to be done...

usha manohar wrote:

anil wrote:

Life in rural area is much hard in India. It is right that rural and urban area is equally important. But focus of most of governments are urban area. It is reason that most of village have not electricity, pure water, transport facilities, education facilities and health facllities.

It is a shame that after all these years of Independence , there i  proper connectivity to some of the smaller villages here which are on islands ,cut off completely during monsoon months when the rivers are full. I have visited one such village which has about 30 odd families living there with school going children, who miss School during monsoon. Their only means of transport is country boats which cannot be used when the river is flowing full and with force.

So very true. In the rural areas, children have to miss school on most days because of lack of connectivity. At least the boys get to go more than girls to school, because sending young girls to far away schools is still not safe in our country at all. Just few days, in Ahmednagar district, a horrible incident happened where a 13-yr-old girl was returning home on her bicycle when she was accosted 3 drunkards from her village who dragged her to the roadside, raped her and killed her after mutilating her body horribly. they broke off all her limbs in addition to other nasty things! Now the local muscles are busy giving it overtones of dalit-high caste struggle which is not true at all. As a result, other girls from her school are now locked up in their homes. Their parents refusing to send them to school at any cost.

In contradiction, someone had shared a video of an extremely remote village in Japan. A single railway to that village was operating in losses for many years so the authorities decided to close the line down. But the local railway station master brought it to their attention that even they ahd losses, there was a single passenger in that railway each day who would suffer if the train was closed. THe passenger turned out to be a young girl whose sole means to reach her school was the train. As soon as the railway officials came to know about the girl, they have decided to keep running the train, no matter what losses they incur until the time the girl finishes her school. Such a glaring discrepancy in their outlook and the Indians' outlook.

People will be carried away by these Leaders' false claims. Because the Leaders give a rosy picture of rural India. Which is why, Sainath, the man behind the creation of this Web site thought, to display the real picture of Rural India so that reality surfaces. By this people will know how false are the claims of  these politicians.

rambabu wrote:

People will be carried away by these Leaders' false claims. Because the Leaders give a rosy picture of rural India. Which is why, Sainath, the man behind the creation of this Web site thought, to display the real picture of Rural India so that reality surfaces. By this people will know how false are the claims of  these politicians.

 

Let us not blame the politicians every time. I agree that life is very hard in rural India, but where there is a will, there is way. If the people themselves change their mindset and work hard, they can change things for better for themselves and their villages. There are numerous such examples, the prominent ones in Ralegan Siddhi, Anna Hazare's village. Another one is Hivare Bazar, where its sarpanch worked hard to bring the change and it is a virtual paradise now. There are many others whose examples can be followed. If the people get together and work together. the politicians have to bend before them.

True. People once they are aware of the reality, they themselves will come forward to improve the situation in the villages. A few Villages in my state, in Srikakulm district well known for its backwardness, without looking towards the Government for help, inhabitants built Borewells, toilets and other minimum amenities. Where there is will there is a way.

There is no doubt that India has neglected its rural areas, not hat urban areas are better but atleast they get some attention. Our planners have not been upto the mark. See the water logging in our "planned" cities.