Intelligent Information

"There can be no substitute for technology if you want to keep track of poverty in a city and provide for the city's betterment, especially the slums", insists Pratima Joshi, director of Shelter Associates. The Pune-based NGO she heads has devised a method to employ a Geographical Information System (GIS) in mapping poverty and directing the information thus gathered toward urban development activities. Pratima was recently in Washington DC, at the invitation of the World Bank, to present a paper on this topic at a symposium on Urban Development for Poverty Reduction.
The Geographical information Systems are used to study slums and Maharashtra's municipal councils find new opportunities for civic improvement.
Very often we come across instances in our daily life where the lack of adequate information results in civic chaos and mismanagement. Take rehabilitation work for example. Development projects such as road widening, riverbed work, and construction of bridges leave hundreds displaced. But almost always, the rehabilitation work is haphazard because the civic authorities have little or no clue about the number of people being displaced or the exact number eligible for resettlement. There are other examples too - we come across settlements where the civic body sets up community services like common water posts despite the fact that the inhabitants there have individual tap connections. Fires breaking out in informal settlements claim more victims simply because the affected area is inaccessible to fire engines, and the lanes are not widened because clear geographical details of the area are not available.
All such problems, which eventually lead to wastage of manpower, efforts and resources, arise out of one major cause - the lack of current and comprehensive information about urban areas. And it is this lacuna that Pratima Joshi's team at Shelter Associates (SA) addresses with its use of GIS software.
GIS is a tool which allows one to use and analyse spatial information in conjunction with relevant socio-economic information, and is therefore an ideal basis for planning.GIS integrates spatial information (maps) with any other data one have collected. For example, a typical slum map will show the physical features of the area, but it does not say anything about the inhabitants and their demographics. So,the workers can be sent to collect the relevant socio-economic information about the residents and then superimpose all this on the plane-table map.This ensures that the slum no longer remains a mere blob on the map; it becomes a living entity with a name and a boundary. When one clicks on the boundary, a dialogue box appears which gives settlement information such as location, legal status, hazards due to location, facilities within and around the slum, main castes, religions, languages spoken, etc. A detailed map of each settlement, showing every house, manhole, water point, electric pole, etc is also incorporated. Household-level data is connected to each house on the map, so clicking up a house brings up a dialogue box of information about the residents.
Therefore, the GIS is not merely a mapping system, but a tool to query, analyse, and map data that will lend support to a more effective decision-making process and greater improvement in the field of urban development.

Rural Development in India

The Rural Development in India is one of the most important factors for the growth of the Indian economy.Rural development in India has witnessed several changes over the years in its emphasis, approaches, strategies and programmes. It has assumed a new dimension and perspectives as a consequence.

People in the rural areas should have the same quality of life as is enjoyed by the people living in the urban areas. Further there are cascading effects of poverty, unemployment and inadequate infrastructure in rural areas on urban centers causing slums and consequential social and economic tensions manifesting in economic deprivation and urban poverty. Hence, rural development, which is concerned with economic growth and social justice, improvement in the living standard of rural people by providing adequate and quality social services and minimum basic needs becomes essential.

India is primarily an agriculture-based country. Agriculture contributes nearly one-fifth of the gross domestic product in India. In order to increase the growth of agriculture, the Government has planned several programs pertaining to Rural Development in India. The Ministry of Rural Development in India is the apex body for formulating policies, regulations and acts pertaining to the development of the rural sector. Agriculture, handicrafts, fisheries, poultry, and diary are the primary contributors to the rural business and economy.

The introduction of Bharat Nirman, a project set about by the Government of India in collaboration with the State Governments and the Panchayat Raj Institutions is a major step towards the improvement of the rural sector. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 was introduced by the Ministry of Rural Development, for improving the living conditions and its sustenance in the rural sector of India.

The several schemes started by the Indian Government for the development of the rural sector are as follows:

• Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY): This is a scheme launched and fully sponsored by the Central Government of India. The main objective of the scheme is to connect all the habitations with more than 500 individuals residing there, in the rural areas by the means of weatherproof paved roads.
• Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY): This was implemented as a total package with all the characteristics of self employment such as proper training, development of infrastructure, planning of activities, financial aid, credit from banks, organizing self help groups, and subsidies.
• Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana (SGRY): This scheme aims at increasing the food protection by the means of wage employment in the rural areas which are affected by the calamities after the appraisal of the state government and the appraisal is accepted by the Ministry of Agriculture.
• Indira Awaas Yojana (Rural Housing): This scheme puts emphasis on providing housing benefits all over the rural areas in the country.

The government’s policies and programmes lay emphasis on poverty alleviation, generation of employment and income opportunities and provision of basic infrastructure and facilities to meet the needs of rural poor. For realizing these objectives, self-employment and wage-employment programmes continue to pervade in one form or the other.

Rural development can be richer and more meaningful only through the participation of clienteles of development. Just as implementation is the touchstone for planning, people's participation is the centre-piece in rural development. People's participation is one of the foremost pre-requisites of development process both from procedural and philosophical perspectives. For the development planners and administrators it is important to solicit the participation of different groups of rural people, to make the plans participatory.

Empowering The Poor

Before we go on to discuss about poverty in india, it would be a good idea to first define the term “Rural”. Most of us define it as being synonymous with poverty. It is agreed that majority of the people in Indian villages are living in poverty. So, the question that needs to be tackled is, what is that one factor in our rural economy that leads to our rural population remaining poor throughout their lives? The plausible answer is: all of them are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood .There is a close correlation between rural areas, agriculture and poverty.
it can be easily explained how the rural population in India is by and large dependent on agriculture as a result of which the majority of people living in rural areas are poor. It is noted that in the year 1947 the population of India was around 345 million and stands at around 1.1 billion now. In 1947, approximately 80% of the population lived in the villages, whereas around 60% of the population still lives in our villages.
It's interesting to note the contradictions persisting in the Indian economy. the agricultural land which used to support 275 million people in 1947 is supporting 660 million now, which is a 2.5 fold increase. Even after factoring in the productivity gains, economic dependence of rural population on agriculture is excessive. While the Indian economy has made impressive gains, the share of agriculture in our GDP in 2006-07 has come down to less than 20% from approximately 80% in 1947. This means that recent economic growth and resulting job opportunities have only been created in the non-agricultural sectors of the economy, primarily the industries and off late the services sector. Unfortunately, these new job opportunities are not available to rural population due to their lack of education and the required skills.
Getting uneducated & unskilled rural folks to migrate and work in urban growth centres (where employment opportunities are available) is not a solution as most of them do not have required skills and end-up doing manual labour which earns them meagre amounts. This amount may be enough for two square meals but it certainly can’t afford them any urban comforts and amenities i.e. shelter, sanitation and potable water. They end-up becoming slum dwellers. In villages at least they have roof over their head and clean air/water.
Public policy experts have been trying their best to increase the income of the people in the rural areas by providing subsidies for agriculture and related inputs. However, irrespective of money spent on these efforts, rural poverty will remain as agriculture income alone can not sustain rural population even with much higher productivity levels given meagre land holdings of farmers in most of the states. Various efforts such as khadi and cottage industries have not been successful due to lack of forward integration, such as branding and marketing.
So, now the question arises, how does one make the rural economy self sustaining?
there is a need to find non-agriculture based alternate income generation opportunities in and around villages where these people reside. There is a need to look at local skills, if any, and devise various projects based on these skills to supplement agricultural income without rural population having to leave their villages. Local skill development could be undertaken in the areas of handlooms, handicrafts, community dairy, poultry farming, bee-keeping, fishery, piggery, food processing, community farming of cash crops and through other related income supplementing opportunities.
Financial inclusion by way of micro-finance or bank loans is an integral part of this strategy as it provides the rural population a credit history and removes them from the clutches of local money lenders and brokers who siphon-off a majority of their entitlement from various government schemes and loans.
Coming to children & students, Mid May Meal Scheme and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan has increased enrolment in government schools but quality of education has not improved. Efforts to improve quality of education in the Government schools in these villages are being made by way of training and motivating teachers and providing hostel facilities for the students so that they have conducive and hygienic environment to study to effectively compete with their urban counterparts. Hostel facility with dedicated teaching staff and warden is necessitated as children of illiterate parents do not have family support or help with their education, which is most vital.

[Please Visit http://www.aimforseva.org/] (the site provides for details on issues of poverty on children's education)

Long and Arduous Road

There’s a curious irony that every year March 8 is celebrated as International Women’s Day with growing enthusiasm, even as the status of women in Indian society remains static, if it hasn’t deteriorated. Of course in a nation which has developed a unique capability for celebrating ritual, there was no shortage of politically correct speeches on the day. many leaders stress that women’s rights are the edifice on which human rights stand; and a few special women's empowerment schemes have also been announced.

But beyond tokenism and displays of lachrymose sentimentality, the ground reality is this: the national male-female ratio is an alarming 1000:933; only 54.16 per cent of the women are literate; close to 15,000 women succumb to dowry torture annually and 130,000 women face the worst forms of assault upon their mental and physical well being every year.

Even as politicians and the urban middle class indulge in helpless hand wringing, educationists and social scientists are increasingly veering around to the view that persistent gender biases and oppression of women are rooted in post-independence India’s failed education system, particularly in the conspicuous failure of successive governments at the centre and in the states to universalise elementary education. According to the Union government’s own (suspect) statistics 35 percent of the nation’s adult population is comprehensively illiterate — the majority of them women. And it’s pertinent to note that literacy is less than synonymous with education.

Inevitably, there is no shortage of informed opinion that education of girl children is the prerequisite of national socio-economic development.UNICEF also acknowledges the fact that "Girls’ education is the most effective means of combating many of the most profound challenges to human development. Education is vital in emergencies… For communities, strategies for providing girls to complete their education yields benefits for all." Yet in the developing nations of the third world 135 million children between the ages of seven and 18 have received no education at all and of them more than 60 per cent are girl children. This gender disparity in education translates into other deprivations such as food, sanitation facilities, safe drinking water, shelter and information.

However it’s important to note that although gender disparities in education are particularly accentuated in the Indian subcontinent, they are not peculiar to it.Bias against women’s education is operational worldwide in varying forms. For example in Poland, school textbooks routinely stereotype women as mothers and housewives. The Indian bias against women’s education dates back to the colonial period, when only a minority of upper caste and middle class women were allowed access to formal education, and even then, they were confined to separate curricula, often focused on domestic skills and moral and religious education.

Many Indians explains why educating the girl child remains a low national priority: "A boy’s education is generally viewed as a possibility of increasing the earnings and status of the family. The value of a daughter’s education is gauged in terms of her marriage prospects. However, marriage of an educated girl carries its own practical difficulties, and the benefits of her education in any case are seen as going to her husband’s family. Therefore the desire or motivation to send girls to school and ensure its completion is circumscribed by high economic costs, unfriendly school environments and social sanctions."

The Government is a mere component of the larger community. Therefore there is a critical need to explain what people can expect from their local or district governments. If communities can get mobilised for politics why not for education? People should understand that it’s not acceptable if daughters don’t attend school and the community should take it upon itself to chastise offenders. Moreover it is important that grand government plans are broken into understandable targets. The common villager should know that his focus is not some aggregate enrollment figure but the little girl in his village who doesn’t attend school.

Fortunately the tonnes of written material and informed opinions high-lighting the critical importance of educating girl children is beginning to impact India’s hide-bound educracy. A high-potential Union ministry of HRD initiative is the Mahila Samakhya (MS), which addresses the constraints which prevent girl children from accessing quality education. It provides official support to women’s collectives to assist and monitor educational activities in villages.

Another community-based approach which is yielding results in India’s most populous state is the year-long residential learning camp for girls. Local communities, NGOs and the state government have joined hands to ensure that girls between the ages of ten and 14 who have never experienced school are given another chance. Similar enterprises are underway elsewhere.

Although these initiatives are belated and few and far between, they have served the very useful purpose of building a societal consensus on the need to educate girl children in the larger national interest. Simultaneously there is an emerging consensus that instead of flogging the almost dead horse that is the government educracy, support to the cause of women’s education has to come in the form of parental and community involvement, low cost and flexible timetables, new curricula which avoid gender stereotypes, schools closer to home with more female teachers and early childhood care to boost the self esteem of girl children and prepare them for school.

Given the inexplicable neglect of elementary education — and particularly education of the girl child — in post-independence India for which the nation is paying a heavy price, the road to gender parity is likely to prove long and arduous. But if India is ever to join the league of developed nations it’s a road that will have to be travelled quickly. Fortunately a national consensus has emerged that getting every girl child in school is the prerequisite for breaking the cycle of inter-generational poverty and deprivation, halting the spread of killer diseases, ensuring better lives for generations to come, and creating an equitable social order. In short, towards creating a new India fit for the 21st century.

practicing environmental protection.....

It is a lot easier to talk about environmental protection than to practice it. Fifty-five years of 'development' have spurred on unplanned urbanisation, extensive industrialisation, and the building of a series of big dams. In the process, India has landed bang in the middle of an ecological crisis. We have lost half our forests, poisoned our waters, eroded our lands and rendered millions homeless, resourceless and more impoverished. Three of our cities are amongst the 15 most-polluted cities in the world. Several of our plant and animal species are extinct. Why and how has this happened? And how can the situation be remedied? What is the difference being made by government legislation and people's movements for the environment?
According to the Eighth Five-Year Plan document (1992-97), the total irrigation potential of the country was 71.8 million hectares. However, according to landuse statistics, the net area irrigated is less than one-third of the net area sown. To irrigate this one-third of the total area, the government has spent over Rs 3 trillion during the Eighth Plan (Chitale, 1998).
Of all natural resources, freshwater resources have been exploited the most. Deforestation and changes in land use are major causes of imbalance in the hydrological cycle. Industrial pollution, rapid urbanisation and agricultural runoff have worsened this problem.
Indian rivers are a classic example of rapid, unplanned development at the cost of an important natural resource. For example, from the time the River Yamuna enters Delhi, about 1,700 million litres of untreated sewage are discharged in it per day.
Several autonomous agencies, offices and institutions have also been set up by the government to implement environmental programmes and policies. Equally important has been the peoples' response to the environmental crisis. Literally thousands of citizens' groups have sprung up in the last two decades or so. Several experiments with watershed management and simple rainwater harvesting techniques have achieved with much less ecological, social and financial cost, what big dams cannot. Also many other cost effective techniques like bio sanitisers, septic pits are being used in localities in various cities for purifying and reusing waste water. but all this is still being done on a very small scale....a large part of the water in india still remains polluted and unsafe for use by the people.
The clear lesson from the dynamics of both environmental destruction and reconstruction in India is that people -- local communities everywhere -- have to be involved in any kind of natural resource management. But there is still a long way to go before local communities are centre-stage in decision-making. And just as long to go before the development process becomes truly environment-friendly.

development....

i am still a little clueless abt what to write...what is development??, how is it different from progress and growth??what is it that we want want to do??....these were some of the questions that were raised in class ...n obviously we got some very interesting answers...
u knw ..we always talk(includes me as well) abt development, bringing change, n even quote famous people and give other people's examples...and when nothing changes we blame it on the government and a million other people..!!
its a fact that no matter how much we talk abt growth in the national income..and we say that our country is 'developing' when almost half of our population lives below the poverty line...and is denied basic human rights...i feel..a country cannot develop unless the mind set of the people changes.
we say the political leaders are corrupt...and there is not enough money to fun all the schemes..but what i think is that governments will only change when the people themselves, one by one, decide to honor the rights of everyone around them. one of the first steps towards bringing that change can be by appreciating individuality in others. i just read these lines by Dr. Daisaku Ikeda that i wud like to quote here: " unless we build a society that regards human beings not as means to a goal but as goal itself, we will remain forever deadlocked in inequality, unhappiness and violence. "
but i guess as abhay sir rightly said...it all depends on the choices we make...what we plan to do..!!
i'll jus leave it at that for now...m sorry that m posting so late but a lot of things happened so couldn't finish on time. but yea the next one wont be so preachy...lolzz..!!