LAW AS A MEANS TO DEVELOP RURAL INDIA

This article was written by Rishabh Rathore, a student of Raffles University.

KEYWORDS

• LAW
• RURAL AND URBAN AREAS
• RELATION OF LAW WITH RURAL INDIA
• PANCHAYATI RAJ INSTITUTION
• SWARNJAYANTI GRAM SWAROZGAR YOJNA
• MGNREGA
• PRADHANMANTRI GRAM SADAK YOJNA
• INDIRA AWAS YOJNA
• LAND ACQUISITION ACT, 2015

ABSTRACT

From the advent of independence to the contemporary scenario, our Indian government has done a lot of changes to the rural areas. Government would have been working on rural development (after independence) a bit lazily but due to circumstantial problems the government had no option but to work relentlessly, the problem was the separation of India and Pakistan and influx of people from Pakistan to India which caused burden on Indian government to accommodate the refugees and provide them food and land for cultivation because most of them were uneducated and don’t know anything except doing agricultural activities, due to this reason it was easy for the law making bodies to demarcate between rural and urban, because the populated areas with agricultural land were rural areas and other than this the population area where people used to work, study and  employed were the urban areas.

The reason being that rural areas need more attention than urban areas in India because the rural areas are lagging behind in development due touneducated population, Policy Implementation Methods, employment, Connectivity with Urban Areas, Gender Inequality, Low Wage Rate, Residential problems, having good Cultivation Methods and last but not the least, the technology. Now to cope up with the problems was not the option because such turmoil was causing a great economic loss in terms of marketable surplus in agricultural sector and capital formation. The government in response to such a economic loss has no option but to implement policies such as  “Panchayati Raj System”, “Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna”, “MGNREGA”, “Pradhanmantri Gram Sadak Yojna”, “Indira Awas Yojna”, “Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyut Yojna” and many more which could make the rural areas developed and make the rural population active in economic formation.

INTRODUCTION

LAW

The word law in general parlance is the set of rules and regulations used to govern the society and apart from this, the Constitution of India itself mentions the term Law which states that-unless the context otherwise requires law includes any Ordinance, order, bye law, rule, regulation, notification, custom or usages having in the territory of India the force of law; laws in force includes laws passed or made by Legislature or other competent authority in the territory of India before the commencement of this Constitution and not previously repealed, notwithstanding that any such law or any part thereof may not be then in operation either at all or in particular areas[2].

RURAL AND URBAN AREAS

And the relation of term Law with the word “rural” is very archaic, to understand the relation, India can be a good example.The country where out of the 1.252 billion unbridled population, 68 % lives in rural areas, the reason being thatprior to the advent when the fight was being between two Kins namely India and Pakistan, cause a serious disrupt which lead to partition and caused the countries major link, Punjabwas divided between East Punjab and West Punjab, just because of this partition influx of the Hindus and Sikhs were shifted from west to east which cause a sudden burden on the government, but due to circumstances the government of India has to accommodate all these refugees and the government of India without being restive in between, great turmoil took out the solution of the same and settled refugee camp in the kurukshetra, which was the great evident of the battle of Mahabharata and history was still lying on the surface of kurukshetra but this time it was not between kaurav and panadavas.

Vast numbers of tents were there which were having the capacity of 100,000 refugees, and daily it welcomed 20,000 refugees but at a particular time the burden was so increased that the camps has to accommodate 3 times of it. The guests were used to consume about 100 tons flour daily including lentils, sugar etc. The services were free due to the helping hand of “United Council for Relief and Welfare” (UCRW). The irony in the same condition was that the most number of migrants were “Farmers”, they were not supposed to leave there land (in Pakistan) if were promised withdecent standard of living but nothing as such happened and they have to leave there land at the last moment.

The same situation was also in Bombay and Calcutta, the peasants and other refugees don’t have any productive work to pursue. Thus, to avoid this the government started showing the movies featuring Disney characters named Donald duck and Mickey mouse, the consequences of which made the helpless and impoverished refugees forgot there misery for about 2 hours. But this setup was not solution to the problem because about 300,000 refugees were sitting mad and the government have to frame rules or regulations which accommodate them permanent work and housing facilities because the economy of the country was facing a serious backdrop in terms of both Economic growth and Economic development.As a result of this peasant started shouting that they don’t need so much of care rather than they should be provided with land, which could be cultivated. Because the farming is the onlyand productive occupation which doesn’t need any educational qualification. And as a result of this, government started allotting 4 hectares of land from the 1.9 million hectare land, which the Muslims left behind; loans were also given at low ROI (Rate of Interest) to buy seeds and equipment’s. While cultivation commenced on these temporary plots, applications were invited in which the refugee family has to mention the area of land which they loose prior.

At this juncture it’s very easy to demarcate between the rural areas and urban areas (reason is that before partition of India the “British Raj” used to prevail and maximum work was under there hand and population management was not also disrupted) becausenow the areas in which people who were involved in farming activity was called as Rural Areas and other than the place in which people used to reside and do other occupation which was known as Urban Areas.

RELATION OF LAW WITH RURAL INDIA

Now from that time (since 1947-48) rural areas are less developed as compared to the urban areas the reason being that the people residing there are farmers which are not adequately educated, and on the other hand urban population always used to develop techniques according to there needs. So the government of India has to make some guidelines (laws) to develop the rural areas (process is known as rural development) i.e. to modernize farming methods, land use as well as rural property rights should be pushed up and other important things are also there like fire department, library, schools, street lights, garbage managing system etc., all these things are very immune for the development of rural India, the reason being that about three-fourth of the population of the India resides in rural areas and the underdevelopment of the same will cause great difference between the urban and rural population which can lead to a great political instability apart from this nearly half of countries the national income is derived from agricultural sector, which is the main occupation of rural India also the maximum number of raw material for industries come from agriculture sector and if  we see on the other side then around 70 percent of the employment of nation comes through the agriculture sector. Thus, any backdrop in countries rural development can lead to great economic loss in sense of economic development because if the rural population is not properly educated and properly facilitated then productivity level will start decline, then wage rate will start declining and efficiency of working will also start going down which will lead to fall in consumption level and fall in thequality of food, shelter and health and this process will continue to go on as a cycle.

However, it is not the facilities that lead to backwardness of rural areas but certain things, which the rural population has itself developed –

• Traditional way of thinking
• Lack of confidence
• Existence of unfelt needs
• Personal ego
• Poor understanding

MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELPMENT

Again due to societal needs government has to introduce appropriate laws, and it has time-to-time evolved technological and resources advancement, but despite of these efforts, India is lagging behind in terms of rural development.

In Indiathe Department of Rural Development came into existence in October 1974 as a fragment of Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Later On the Department of Rural Development was given status of a new Ministry of Rural Reconstruction dated 18^th August 1979. Thereafter it was renamed as Ministry of Rural Development on 23rd January 1982.“Ministry of Rural Development” is the apex body to govern and regulate the conditions in the rural areas. The mission of the ministry is to bring out sustainable development in India by providing better education, food, fertile land, land reforms policy i.e. the acceleration of the working efficiency of agricultural system and ensuring a quality of life. The ministry has presently two departments naming the “Department of Rural Development” and “Department of Land Resources”.Which are under control of Ch. Birender Singh, who is the present head of the Ministry.

If we look behind the first initial step to improve the rural condition was the “Panchayati Raj System” and after this several other schemes or laws which wereinitiated and were effective also, was fully due to the real reasons and such a diversity in the country.

• PANCHAYATI RAJ SYSTEM:

The ministry of rural development through the Panchayati raj institution wants toincrease the facilities in the rural areas and want to develop an efficient rural India. The panchayati raj system was the dream of our father of nation, he wanted that every village in India should possess a Panchayat or Republic and thus the dream was constructed in a true sense, which lead to participation of each and every villager into the development of village, the first attempt to confer a constitutional status to the panchayati raj institution was constitutional bill (64^th amendment) and the same was introduced in parliament in 1989 by the prime minster, Shri Rajiv Gandhi. The Constitution(73^rd amendment) Act, 1992 bridged a new part IX and the Eleventh Schedule to the Constitution of India, the said amendment screened the gram Sabah as the basis of panchayati raj to preform functions and powers given to it by the state legislature system. The said Act described the three tier PRS at the Village, Intermediate, and at District Level. Panchayati raj institution has the power to provide guidelines for the implementation of the policies for rural development or more clearly we can say that it’s the administrative tool for rural development. The agenda of this institution is to strengthen the aim of panchayati raj in various states as according to the 73^rd amendment act, so the panchayats could foresee the better development of rural administration and rapid rural development, objective is to setup democratic transfer of power from central to local self government and thus leading to rapid inexpensive justice and betterment of social and economic conditions of the rural life. The said charter has been divided into 7 subjects –

• Rural cleanliness program
• Decentralization program
• Control over gram panchayats
• Responsibility of panchayats
• Responsibility of public towards panchayats
• Arrangement of panchayati helpline
• Financial aid to gram panchayats.

Thus, all these subjects under this institution are making a step towards a better rural India with complete coordination and transparency.

Indian government after introducing the panchayati raj institution placed full stop to the rural development. There are another such policies working for the betterment of rural India known as.

• SWARNJAYANTI GRAM SWAROZGAR YOJANA (SGSY):

The following said initiative was introduced by government of India in month of April 1999 to provide a sustainable income to the poor population of rural areas, by introducing the method of self employment by organizing self-help groups according to the skill and aptitude through the process of capacity building, provision of income generating asset and their training,with an objective to bring these people (poor rural population) above poverty line, these BPL families will be considered by Gram Sabah. Each cluster work on a particular activity through their skill, resources and market potentiality.The center government and state government provide funds to this scheme by the ratio of 75:25, and of the subsidy by government. The SGSY is being implemented by District Rural Development Agencies with the active involvement of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI). The scheme will promote the marketing of the goods produced by the clusters. Usually this scheme was also initiated to expose skills of rural women who are not allowed to work outside, this scheme helps them to interact with other women, which will develop self confidence in them and group meetings also help them in identifying and patronization of their needs. The most elemental thing of cluster approach is that people either to fund diverse activities, each block should be selected for the same and attend to the entire variable aspect of this activity the swarozgaris can gain a reasonable income. Activities are being taken in clusters; the reason is because the forward and backward linkage could genuinely established.This would establish the provision of different services needed by swarozgaris and monitoring also.

More employment laws were also initiated which guarantee work to unskilled people of rural areas who are willing to work, next is.

• NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT 2005:

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 the name which was later amended and kept as “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005” (MGNREGA) is an labor law introduced in 2005 and was spread across 200 district and by 2008 it was spread all over country. This scheme is for rural adults who are willing to work and registersthem to local gram panchayat (orally or in written) for rural employment and get casual manual labor for 100 days of employment (not exceeding 100 days), because a maximum number of backward rural people of country are mainly dependent on the wages they earn through the unskilled and manual labor. In this, if a person is not getting employment within 15 days of registration for this scheme then he shall get unemployment allowances and if a men doesn’t get employment within 5 km radius then he will be compensated. The agenda of this act is not to provide100 days of employment to the rural households but to increase GDP of the country as well as promoting equality without gender discrimination, i.e. women and men will get equal amount of wage. The beneficiaries in this scheme will get their wages, compensation or allowances in their respective bank accounts or post office accounts.

The other jubilant effect point of this scheme was, there are only 30 % of underweight children in 2014 vis-à-vis in 2005 47.7 % it was[3].

The MGNREGA physical progress report (2015-16 Survey) of some of the major states in India is rolled down in the below mentioned following table[4]:

And the total number of Rural house hold provided Employment under this scheme including all states is “43578669[5]”and maximum number of employment was provided in “Tamil Nadu” having “5781162” No. of HH employed.

However, employment alone cannotdevelop rural areas, it’s the connectivity of the rural areas to the urban areas which cause a serious drawback in rural development, if rural areas are not connected to urban areas or other areas nearby then its very toiling to get development in that area. In effect of this a central sponsored scheme is introduced namely,

• PRADHANMANTRI GRAM SADAK YOJNA (PMGSY):

“Pradhanmantri Gram Sadak Yojna” (PGSY) is usually a central sponsored scheme, initiated on dated 25^th of December of year 2000 with an aim to provide all weather road connectivity in rural areas having population of 500 or more in plain areas and 250 in respect of hilly areas (North-East, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttrakhand), desert areas (As mentioned in Desert Development Program) and tribal areas (As mentioned in Schedule-V[6])to maintain livelihood opportunities, connectivity with society at national level and market. The scheme was planned to start when it was found that around 1.70 lakh unconnected rural are to be connected[7]. The latest survey available by the state government found that around 1.67 lakh habitats are being covered under this scheme and to cover this it involves construction of 3.71 lakh kilometers of new road connectivity. This program also involvesup-gradation of existing routes and important connectivity to ensure good market. This scheme tend to ensure the all weather road connectivity i.e. the roads which canbe operated in all seasons by making strong and durable with culverts and cross drainage structures which will remain rigid through-out the year. The agenda of this scheme to improve conditions of habitation, which doesn’t include village or panchayat unit,it includesDesam, Dhanis, Tolas, Majras, and Hamlet[8] etc.

The scheme will provide core network only to the habitations, it will full fill basic access to socio and economic services and in adverse condition it will provide a single lane all weather road connectivity. Here are some recent (2015) data of work progress of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna[9]

Parallel to this maximum number of road expenditure is done in “Bihar” amounting 16, 14,963.830[10] lakh rupees.

• INDIRA AWAS YOJNA (IAY):

 With the escalation of population in rural areas, the paramount challenge which government face is to provide roof to people or more clearly we can say that to provide housing to the poor rural population. To come over this challenge the government of India shrewdly introduced a social welfare flagship program known as “Indira Awas Yojna” in which Awas means Residence. Initially the name was to be “Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Program” which came into existence since 1885- 86 and later named as “Indira Awas Yojna”.

The agenda of this scheme is to provide shelter to the impoverished rural people or to provide financial assistance to poor (Schedule Caste & Schedule Tribe, BPL, Ex-Serviceman of armed and paramilitary forces killed in battle, Mentally & Physically challenged, Bonded Labor that are freed, Non-Schedule Caste & Non-Schedule Tribes).

Centre and state provide fund to the Indira Awas Yojna scheme by sharing by the ratio of 75:25. In case of Union territories the center gives fund to DRDAs and the beneficiaries draw funds from DRDAs through gram panchayat. Financial assistance given under this scheme is 75,000 (w.e.f from 2013), earlier it was   45,000 to 48,000. And the listed beneficiaries can also get load around 20,000 rupeesat low Rate of Interest. Assistance to upgrade the Kutcha House to Pakka House / Semi-Pakka house is also available under this scheme.

However under the scheme assistance is given on the basis of allocation & target fixed, District Panchayat/ Zila Panchayat/ DRDAs decide the number of houses to be constructed and to be upgraded. The houses to be constructed under this scheme will on 20 sq. area and under this scheme the electricity will also be provided by IAY through RGGVY (Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyut Yojna) and apart from this the beneficiaries will get a Chulla (Smokeless) and a Sanitary Latrine.

The allotment of houses under this scheme will be on the name of Female member of the benefitted household or in the name of Husband & Wife, in cases where there is no female member then the name of male member will be registered. And the said houses will be constructed near the particular village to make people available to common needs and connected to the near by population.

Here is the data of some states physical achievements under this scheme (2010-11)[11]:

Now the list of rural development programs will continue because there are so many of the programs started by the government such as – DDU-GKY, National Social Assistance Program, PURA, DRDA administration, PMRDFs etc. The reasonbehind these government regulations is the Private Capitalist, they are always in hurry to re-invest there “Capital Surplus” in there respective industries and this tend to a escalation in the demand of labor in Capitalist Sector which lead to influx of labor from the rural sector, after a particular time when labor migration will increase from subsistence sector to capitalist sector then the subsistence sector would tend to increase the wage rate in its sector in order to control the migration, by this subsistence sector will never be able to make there capital surplus (or saving), due to the reason of less capital surplus, investment will be affectedand without capital and investment, development can not be increased. By this reason there is no option is left to the government, but to implement policies, laws, regulation in order toincrease investment in rural sector and to make this sector developed.

Our government may always try to make our economy increase but in run of increasing our economy,government may commit a mistake that lead to a little bit of feud in between rural population and government. The example of the same is “The Land Acquisition Act”.

The reason being land acquisition is included in this category because the same Act is said to be Anti-Farmer Bill because acquiring farm land for the private industrial construction, without the consent of the owner of the property seems to be biased, along with that the compensation is paid is not adequate with the same and if any land owner who’s property is been acquired under this act wants to lodge a compliant then he has to seek permission of government. The said government, which is uprising the bill, is making a staggering effect on the farmers; it is stating that the farmers who oppose this bill are opposing the development of the nation, because they are stopping the growth of the private industries. The government is presuming the private growth more important in pushing up the economy as compared to the agriculture sector or more precisely we can say that rural development. But the true fact is that both are equally involved in pushing up the economy and the fact is that the maximum number of population is involved in agriculture. Now, if the government will acquired the agricultural land for the private purpose then land for growing of the grain and other lentils will decrease which will lead to less production and on this less production even the Indian population (rural as well as urban) can’t even subsist, and how with this less growth the grains will exported to other countries, and without any appropriate productivity level and marketable surplus in agriculture sector,the economy will not increase.

But the anomaly is not that the government implements some laws off the way of rural development but the anomaly is that despite of such prevailing conditions in India where “only thing which is uniform is diversity”, government and our law making bodies are making schemes and implementing them for suitable brethren.

REFRENCES

Books:

• M. Bakshi, The Constitution of India (13^th edn Universal Law Publication 2015).
• Rajiv Ahir, A Brief History of Modern India (20^th edn SpectrumPublications 2014).
• Shyam Diwan, Armin Rosencranz, Environmental Law and Policy in India (2^nd edn Oxford University Press 2007).
• Ramachandra Guha, India after Gandhi (Picador India Publication 2008).
• N. Mishra, V.K. Puri, Indian Economy (33^rd edn. Himalaya Publishing House 2015).

Website:

• http://www.aau.in/sites/default/files/Unit%204%20RURAL%20DEVELOPMENT.pdf
• http://omms.nic.in
• http://www.ummid.com/news/2015/April/29.04.2015/dr-rahul-pandey-on-land-acquisition-bill.html
• http://pib.nic.in/archieve/flagship/faq_iay.pdf
• http://rural.nic.in/netrural/rural/sites/programmes-schemes.aspx
• http://www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/government/mnrega-progress-made-by-modi-government-in-one-year
• http://indiankanoon.org/doc/134715/

[2] Article 13(3).

[3] International Food Policy Research Institutes Global Hunger Index.

[4] Ministry of Rural Development.

[5] Ministry of Rural Development.

[6] BAKSHI P.M., The Constitution of India, (10^th edn. Universal Law Publishing Co. 2015) Pg 408.

[7] Ministry of Rural Development.

[8] Terminology to define Habitations.

[9] Online Management, Monitoring and Accounting System (OMMAS).

[10]Online Management, Monitoring and Accounting System (OMMAS).

[11] Ministry of rural development.