Rural India

Sanitation is usually a concept that deals with the disposal of liquid and solid waste, hygiene of an individual and foods they consume, household and environmental hygiene. The root cause of various health problems, particularly in rural areas of the country, is the inadequate sanitation. Most of the people still defecate in the open space, most of the villages lack waste disposal and drainage systems and many in the villages are unaware of the effects of poor sanitation and unhygienic conditions. As a result, many people suffer from diseases caused by poor personal and environmental hygiene practices and even die due to them. At present the extent of sanitation coverage in India is around 16 percent of all rural households. This figure is one of the lowest in the world, at par with countries like Niger and Afghanistan and possibly lower than Bangladesh. The absence of safe sanitation contributes significantly to the poor quality of life. In this paper, we have discussed about the overall concept of sanitation and open defecation and its impact on the lives of women all over India. Along with that various issues related to open defecation are also discussed in brief.

India is a country with an agrarian economy where more than half of the population is involved in agriculture and allied activities. Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for about seventy percent of India's population. Of these, rural women cover a wide area. Women in rural India perform a pivotal role both in farm and non farm activities. They do all the farm work from day to night. But despite all this, they remain deprived in society. They are neglected. They are not given values, wages and dignity despite of their significant contribution in agriculture. In this research article, we have tried to highlight all these aspects and emphasized on numerous challenges that they face in farming. And finally, we have brought out some solutions to overcome those challenges.

The marketing of agro products is a multifarious process. Agriculture sector is facing several challenges in terms of exploring and searching new markets for the increased production. But unfortunately, Farmers are not so much aware and educated henceforth; the middlemen enjoy the benefits at the cost of poor Indian farmers. So to boost the standard of living of Rural Indian, there is a need of Agricultural marketing. It involves many activities and processes through which the nutriment and raw material move from the farm to the final consumers. This paper is related with the concept related with the marketing of agricultural products, problems faced by the farmers in the marketing of agriculture goods and imitative taken by Indian Government to beat the problems faced by the rural farmers at the time of marketing their produced goods.

Rohinton Mistry, though known more for touching on the life of minority Parsi community in India has also presented a graphic picture of the rural India in his voluminous novel 'A Fine Balance'. The period is of the infamous Emergency imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The civil liberties were curtailed and opposition muffled with millions thrown in jails. How the poor of all castes, creeds and regions suffered forms the theme of this very interesting narrative. My paper presentes a holistic examination of the novel.

Rationale-The quality of education at the foundation level plays an important role in the development of human resources. This study examines the state-wise status of elementary education of schools situated in rural areas of India based on the students achievement performances on own regional language, mathematics and everyday calculation test. Method-In order to measure the achievement performances of students enrolled in Std-I to vlll, the present article used principle component analysis on original 14 correlated variables to generate four factors. The standardized regression factor score of four factors, generated from principle component analysis, is used to measure the status of education at elementary level for different states, Results-By considering the average score of four factors in principle component analysis, the study found achievement performance of rural students enrolled in elementary levels weak in states like Kerala, Puducherry, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tripura, Punjab, Mizoram, Sikkim, Rajasthan, west Bengal, Bihar and Gujarat. However, the states like Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, chhattisgarh, Assam, Haryana, Goa, fharkhand, Daman and Diu, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, orissa, Karnataka and Manipur are good in educational achievements as their average factor score remains above 0.

Primary Health Centre (PHC) is the most vital constituent of Public Health Care System as it is the first place of interaction between the populations and the Public Health System. The government is trying to expand the delivery of health care services through various programmes, so as to improve the health status of people. The most important aspect of the success of health programmes is the extent of availing of public health services by the people. Thus, it would be essential to determine the reasons which help in better availability of public health care service by individuals particularly at PHC level, so that health for all is achieved. As the government is trying to address health issues of rural through National Rural Health Mission 2005, there is need to examine whether there is any association between the types of services and socio-economic variables of PHC, Jawaan Block of Aligarh District. The study also tries to know about people’s knowledge about NRHM programme. The present paper tries to address these questions by using, statistical measures; simple percentage analysis, averages and the Pearson’s Chi-square test for independence has been used to test the hypotheses. The study found significant association between the marital status, education, income and type of services. Gender, age, occupation and type of services doesn’t show any significance. However in instance of socio-economic variable and knowledge about NRHM there is no significant association only income shows the significant association.

Cet article consiste en une lecture analytique de A PUNJABI VILLAGE IN PAKISTAN de Zekiye Eglar (Columbia University Press, 1960). Il s'agit avec cette oeuvre non seulement d'une enquête exceptionnelle, "faite par une anthropologue femme parmi un groupe de personnes qui partagent avec elle la foi dans laquelle elle a grandi mais qui vivent dans un pays loin du sien", pour citer Margaret Mead (Avant-propos, page x) et ayant pour objet d'étude un monde en transition - un village panjabi pakistanais en 1949, deux ans après l'indépendance, mais aussi d'une lecture fondamentale pour toute personne s'intéressant à l'Asie du Sud rurale.

This paper argues that the divergent performance of the rural economies of China and India after 1950 was a product of the different capabilities of the Chinese and Indian governments to mobilize the labor force and financial resources of the rural population. By mobilizing unpaid labor and the financial resources of the villagers through mediation by the collectives (before 1984) and local administrations (from 1984 to the abolition of agricultural taxation and compulsory rural labor mobilization in 2006), the Chinese state developed rural infrastructure and the quality of the labor force at a pace and geographical scope that was far beyond its limited fiscal capacity. Efforts by the Indian state to establish rural organizations with similar mobilization capabilities failed due to the effective opposition of well- entrenched political and economic interests in the countryside. Unable to mobilize the labor and financial resources of the villagers, the Indian government relied primarily on its limited fiscal resources, which produced a much slower development of physical infrastructure and labor force quality. These are the primary reasons why China’s rural economy developed much more rapidly than India’s, which contributed significantly to the divergence of their national economies in the post-1950 era.

Land oriented economy in Puruliya is closely related to the ecological history of the tribal people of the district. The colonial period saw breakdown of the age-old customary system and introduction of market-linked systems of land resource utilization. Post-colonial era experienced random invasion of hybrid seeds, indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and introduction of groundwater irrigation techniques by the name of ‘green revolution’. The result was catastrophic as it permanently altered the sustainable nature of agriculture in Puruliya.
Constraints of land resource utilization in Puruliya are divided into physical and socio-economic groups. Harsh climate, particularly high summer temperature and vagaries of monsoon, highly erosive soil, scarcity of water and sometimes biotic influences cause severe loss to agriculture. On the other hand, instability in tenancy, recurring fragmentation of land and poverty restrict farmers to take initiative to improve the situation. Conservation of land resources starts with making utilization process eco-friendly. Switch over to less moisture demanding crops and efficient irrigation techniques can bridge the gap between supply and demand of water. Besides practice of agro forestry and animal husbandry in commercial way can reduce the vulnerability of farmers from crop failure.

Digital is a new parameter that is added in the last two decades wherein digital gadgets were familiarized across the households in India. Digital gadgets are devices which are functional and operational at best when these gadgets accessed the high speed Internet. However, the digital divide is wider if we compare both rural and urban in terms of accessibility of the Internet in the country. The accessibility of the Internet is often considered the backbone for the social media industry. The efficient digital infrastructure will enhance the digital consumption in the country.

The article 'Rural Marketing Scenario in India-The Online Village Ahead' speaks widely about the growth of e-commerce in rural areas. It explains the need for change in strategies to adapt to the new, diverse market, and provides a list of prerequisites for rural marketing. This article also concentrates on how the study on 'analysis of customer' can be completed to better understand the market. The four major characteristics of rural customers are highlighted, on the basis of which rural marketing may be performed. Government initiatives in agriculture, Digital India, AgTech, and so on are relevant subjects which are accustomed to the future of rural markets as an online village. Rural marketing is highly important for businesses in India because of the wide customer base in those areas; businesses, therefore, need to penetrate the markets there. No business can succeed if it is based primarily only in the cities. Hence, this article covers the need for rural marketing in India.

The Indian markets which are full of opportunities and uncertainties, it's an entrepreneur who assumes risk and becomes a catalyst for change and innovation. The very existence of entrepreneurs depends upon the economic, social, cultural and psychological factors prevailing in the society. In India, entrepreneurship is not a new concept but the structural changes in the above stated factors in Indian economy have given a rise to a phenomenon known as ―women entrepreneurship‖. Undoubtedly, all the entrepreneurs have to face a lot of risks and challenges but the intensity of these challenges increases in case of women entrepreneurs and that too when they belong to rural area. So, this paper tries to do the SWOT analyses of the women entrepreneurship in rural India. Apart from this, the paper will also try to analyze the differences between the situations faced by urban and rural women entrepreneurs. Lastly, the paper will be concluded by giving suggestions as to how to increase and uplift the women entrepreneurs.

The concept of ‘financial inclusion’ has become a central trope that legitimates a wide range of contemporary development practices. By constructing a new object of development – the
‘financially excluded’ – it facilitates the expansion of an increasingly corporatized microfinance technocracy. The present paper problematizes the underlying binaries of inclusion/
exclusion and formal/informal finance upon which this narrative is based. Through an examination of the 2010 Andhra Pradesh microfinance crisis, it demonstrates key contradictions
within the discourse and practices of commercial microfinance. In so doing, it demonstrates why the narrative of financial inclusion and its correlate notion of ‘consumption
smoothing’ are inadequate tools with which to conceptualize the political economy of contemporary agrarian change.

In a rural Indian population beset with inadequate health access due to socio-cultural and economic factors, CARE India under the Maternal and Infant Survival Project encouraged village women to form Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and to save health funds collectively. After 15 months of implementation, CBOs were formed in 345 of 447 project villages and health funds were operational in 203 villages. A total of 292 persons benefited from health funds through loans for treatment of obstetric complications and infant illnesses. Additional initiatives include social marketing, sales of disposable delivery kits, and village drug banks. Over half (56 percent) of the loans were repaid within the grace/low interest period. This experience demonstrates that village women, when appropriately encouraged, are capable of creating rules and managing health funds. The process empowers village women (through access to resources and information and the strength of social capital) to make decisions and act to improve their well being.

Questo scritto si propone di documentare ed interpretare i cambiamenti indotti dalla modernizzazione dell’agricoltura nell’economia e nella società di un distretto rurale nell’India meridionale. L’oggetto della nostra analisi è un sistema socio-economico- territoriale composto da alcuni villaggi agricoli e da una città-mercato di medie dimensioni, localizzato nel distretto di Tiruvannamalai, nel Nord del Tamil Nadu, in un’area in cui, a metà degli anni 1960, è stata introdotta la rivoluzione verde. In questo comprensorio, l’introduzione di progresso tecnico nell’agricoltura ha costituito un potente fattore di cambiamento per l’intera economia ed ha modificato alla radice gli equilibri fra i settori, nella società, nel territorio.

The paper is within a project for collaboration in learning and development in academic education and research between two quite different countries – Sweden with an European perspective and India with an Asian perspective. The focus is India, a country with almost 1/5 of the world population, with a rapid development and growth and with a majority of the population still living in rural villages.
The research questions are, based on these puposes: How can design innovation thinking vitalize the ideas of development in rural village areas in collaboration between the village people, higher education and research institutions, government and NGOs for appropriate technology, innovation, entrepreneurship and management? And, how can studies of the life in rural villages give meaningful learning, new insights and changing mindsets of MBA students for their coming roles as ´future professional managers´? A third question is, what can we learn and share from each other on the aggregated institutional level between a Swedish university and an Indian business school?

This article discusses the continuity between of patterns, shapes and meaning between pre historic rock art and contemporary tribal art as a key to unlock the cognitive beginning of humanity. It provides extensive illustrations of shared gestures, postures, rituals and practices that can be deciphered in a comparative study. It also provides a global backdrop to the shared awareness about similar hilly and forested environments, which were and are frequented by artists of rock art and tribal art. It suggests that the only way to move out of an exclusive scientific concern with materials, techniques and chronology of the oldest available evidence of human cognition is to study its art in relation to the art of people living in ecologically isolated enclaves till this day.

This paper examines the construction of oppositional symbols among small and nmarginal peasant producers and landless labourers in Central Uttar Pradesh. It focuses on the relationship between the construction of a set of oppositional symbols, language, and mythology, on the one ...

The Covid-19 pandemic has starkly exposed the plight of a vast number of migrants who had been surviving in the interstices of a highly segmented urban informal sector. This report has been prepared by a group of researchers to document the conditions of migrant workers and others during the pandemic in villages in five different states. These reports provide snapshots of life in rural India during what is emerging as a significant disruption of livelihood. The significant take away from these fragments of evidence includes the significance of labour migration in the rural livelihoods. The overall picture that emerges is that in the villages studied here, the flow of remittances has started to play a significant role in household consumption of those households who have a migrant member. The pandemic has affected the household economies in all the studied villages. Both cultivator and labour households have suffered severe loss of earnings and employment. Deepak K. Mishra, Awadhesh Kumar, Bailochan Behera, Chandi Charan Mehentar, Dibya Nag, Jitendra Padhan, Krishna Surjya Das, Neela Madhaba Sheekha, Rakesh Kumar Yadav, Rukmini Thapa, Santosh Kumar Meher and Sudipta Sarkar (2020) Surviving the Pandemic: Ground Reports !om India’s Vi"ages, Bhubaneswar: Development Research Institute.