Progressive change could reduce migration, relieving pressure on the cities; importantly, it will also contribute to social justice and nation-building. Here is a challenge worth taking up
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Many urban dwellers look at cities as centres of congestion, chaos and crime. Air pollution, power outages and water shortages are considered an inevitable component of city life. Monsoon flooding, crowded public transport, traffic jams, and health contagions are routine hazards. On the other hand, thanks in considerable measure to Bollywood films, rural India is often conceived as idyllic, with fields of waving wheat or sunflowers swaying in the wind. The romance of rural is heightened with the hero and heroine in a tractor-trailer, singing a merry melody. Clean air, friendly people, peace and quiet stand in sharp contrast to urban areas.
Most people are wary of the rapidly-growing urbanisation of India. Over the next few decades, the urban population is projected to grow by leaps and bounds, adding considerable stress to the already strained and creaking urban infrastructure. Today, roads are unable to cope with the need-driven and prosperity-induced increase in vehicular traffic. Flyovers and by-passes have hardly helped, with any improvement in traffic speed probably being an incentive for greater use, thus quickly nullifying the gain. My suggestion to rename (a favoured activity today) important urban arteries (for example, Western and Eastern Expressways in Mumbai, or Delhi-Gurgaon in NCR) as “Parkways” or “Parkingways” instead of Expressways has not found acceptance, despite the more factual nomenclature.
Expensive new metro systems, which provide fast and comfortable mass transportation, are quickly getting crowded, without any reduction in road-borne traffic. Bicycle tracks and pedestrian pathways are always in a state of shoddy disrepair, and new, dedicated ones are quickly encroached upon. Bus services have run down, and procurement of new buses (laudably, often electric ones) is slow. More motorised transport than ever before is on the roads, making for congestion, jams and adding to air pollution. The transition of all public transport to CNG in Delhi did improve the air quality – but all too briefly. Now, it is worse than earlier. One can only hope that the transition to electric vehicles will improve air pollution in the next few years, though what discarded batteries will do to land and water (and possibly air too) is yet to be seen.
All this and a host of other problems – including serious social ones like crime, violence, drugs, and personal safety ‒ have made the cities less liveable. Most of these are seen as stemming from overcrowding: too little infrastructure for too many people. Fears abound about how cities can cope with further growth. This is largely due to the growing influx from rural areas, leading policy-makers to look for ways of stemming the tide.
Creating jobs beyond cities seems to be the solution, and many efforts are being made to see how work and jobs can be shifted to rural areas. The new mantra of work-where-you-live sounds like an attractive proposition: expenses are lower, as is the cost of living; there is no commuting, nor a separation from the family; and one can continue to live in the same socio-cultural milieu.
Easier logistics, thanks to a growing network of roads, and a more skilled and educated population, does make it possible to think of moving some manufacturing activities to small towns or villages. At the same time, better digital connectivity and the lower cost of data transmission could facilitate the shifting of some services to rural areas. Some – including this writer – have argued that new technologies make possible the decentralisation of both manufacturing and services, with economies of scale being substituted by economies of scope. In addition, lower wages and far less staff attrition are additional advantages. The government too is encouraging rural work centres through various incentives.
A few pilot projects have proven successful. However, most companies are yet at the stage of exploring small (tier-3) cities rather than rural areas. Scenarios of IT and business process management (BPM) centres in hundreds of rural locations and employing lakhs, are yet to be realised. May be this will be a reality one day. Meanwhile, people point to the reverse migration (city to small town/village) triggered by the pandemic and facilitated by work-from-home. Independent contractors and many employees are happy to escape the rigours and problems of the city and may permanently relocate.
Such reverse migration, though, is probably limited to a few thousand at most (as compared to the millions who traverse the opposite path). As schools re-open and the need for social interaction and entertainment (restaurants, theatres, malls) returns, even the limited back-flow may end. Yet, if small towns and states ensure the necessary social infrastructure, this trickle could become a flood in future.
This viewpoint, of jobs moving to rural areas and of city-dwellers migrating to villages, may appear contrarian. Yet, it could be a reality in the years to come, with the negative “push” factor from unliveable cities being supplemented by the “pull” of rural areas with urban-class facilities. There is though, a strong reverse “push” for today’s rural population. Mostly, this is due to the lack of jobs, but it also stems from the discrimination, caste and class oppression, patriarchy and regressive moral codes of rural society. Many, especially youngsters, find this stifling, and migration provides an escape. Cosmopolitan cities provide an antidote, and anonymity has its advantages. The romance-of-rural movie is a hit only in cities.
Thus, it is not just economics but also sociology that one has to study to understand the attraction of a big city. Stemming the coming tidal wave of village-to-city migration may require not only job-creation in rural areas, but also radical social change. Progressive change could reduce migration, relieving pressure on the cities; importantly, it will also contribute to social justice and nation-building. Here is a challenge worth taking up.
Kiran Karnik loves to think in tongue-in-cheek ways, with no maliciousness or offence intended. At other times, he is a public policy analyst and author. His latest book is Decisive Decade: India 2030 Gazelle or Hippo (Rupa, 2021).
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors' and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house. Unless otherwise noted, the author is writing in his/her personal capacity. They are not intended and should not be thought to represent official ideas, attitudes, or policies of any agency or institution.