Community Empowerment, Dr. SBM Prasanna, Dr. K Puttaraju, Dr.MS Mahadevaswamy [most inspirational books of all time .TXT] 📗
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The term road has a very wide connotation. Any stretch of land joining two termin is a road. It may be quite narrow muddy and short (as is common within villages). The Government of India appointed a One-Man Commission to make recommendations regarding the developing of rural roads in the country in the year 1967. The Committee has defined rural roads as those roads which serve predominantly the need of village and provide communication not only between one village and another but also from one village Mandy (market place) and to the main road.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
Given the findings of some studies the major objectives of this study is to examine the impact of road development on rural population at a micro level. Taking the following are the objectives of the present study.
To examine the role of rural roads in rural economy in general and agriculture in particular.
To examine and analyze the socio-economic development due to the rural roads.
To study the changes in the socio-economic levels of the rural farming families due to road and access to communication in the case study area.
METHODOLOGY
An attempt is made to collect primary level data by using random sampling method selecting a sample of 200 farmers, 50 families each from in four villages, namely, Sonappahalli, Kudenur, Nagondahalli and Baliganahalli villages of Malur taluk of Kolar district of Rural Karnataka. A structured questionnaire was prepared to canvas with the sample farmer respondents on the issues connected to them, connected to their socio-economic activities in relation to the rural road connected to their respective villages.
RURAL ROAD DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA
Detailed Rural Development Plans were drawn periodically and the rural road development programmes were speltout clearly in each Road Development Plan. Various schemes launched in rural areas focused the main attention of poverty alleviation through employment generation. Thus the rural road development was incidental to these programmes. In place of systematic planned development of rural roads. The latter became one of the components of various poverty alleviation programmes.
The first of its kind was Minimum Needs Programme introduced during 5th Five Year Plan. Rural roads were considered as one of the basic needs of the rural community in addition to other basic needs such as Education, Health, Electrification and Housing in rural areas.
The following table can be seen that India has witnessed a gradual and phenomenal increase in road network during the past 40 years under various plan periods
DEVELOPMENT OF ROADS DURING 1950-51 to 1990-91
ITEMS
1950-51
1960-61
1970-71
1984-85
1990-91
Total road length
398
705
917
1772
2210
Surfaced length
156
234
397
833
1115
Unsurfaced length
242
471
520
939
1095
National Highways (in kms)
19700
23769
24000
31717
33600
Source: Annual Plan Report of the Ministry of Transport and Communication, Government
VILLAGE CONNECTIVITY WITH POPULATION LESS THAN As on 31-3-95(Roads in Kms)
Sl. No.
States/Union Territories
No. of Villages
Villages connected up to 1991-92
Balance to be connected
1
Karnataka
18,632
6,399
12,233
2
Arunachal Pradesh
3,176
612
2,564
3
Assam
18,777
11,362
7,415
4
Bihar
53,234
14,457
38,777
5
Goa
172
172
0
6
Gujarat
9,814
7,362
2,452
7
Haryana
3,275
3,209
66
8
Himachal Pradesh
NA
-
-
9
Jammu & Kashmir
NA
-
-
10
Andhra Pradesh
13,888
4,504
9,384
11
Kerala
-
All connected
-
12
Madhya Pradesh
63,546
13,982
49,564
13
Maharashtra
25,057
6,381
18,676
14
Manipur
1,760
695
1,065
15
Meghalaya
4,793
80
4,613
16
Mizoram
395
287
108
17
Nagaland
-
-
-
18
Orissa
41,132
11,428
29,704
19
Punjab
8,842
8,729
133
20
Rajasthan
27,598
6,655
20,943
21
Sikkim
19,598
6,655
20,943
22
Tamil Nadu
371
234
137
23
Tripura
19,867
11,996
7,871
24
Uttar Pradesh
4,183
3,120
1,063
25
West Bengal
90,271
31,762
58,509
26
Union Territories
27,646
11,004
16,642
27
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
460
223
237
28
Chandigarh
0
0
0
29
Dadra and Nagar Haveli
34
30
4
30
Daman and Diu
11
11
0
31
Delhi
54
54
0
32
Lakshadweep
0
0
0
33
Pondicherry
207
207
0
Total
4,37,195
1,54,955
2,82,240
Source: Compendium of Transport Statistics, Planning Commission, January 1996
The table indicate that till 1991-92, with less than 1000 population only 1.55 lakh villages less 25% were covered under Rural Road Programme.
IMPORTANCE OF RURAL ROAD NET WORK IN KARNATAKA
Karnataka state being predominantly with agriculture based economy, rural roads play a prime role in providing inputs for agriculture marketing of agricultural produce and products helps for crop diversification and provide good employment to rural mass. Improved rural connectivity provide access to villages and open up the area and pave the way for further social economic development. They help in the mobility of rural population and rural produce, help in improving the rural economy living standards of rural population and increase in their percapita income. Transport is a vital infrastructure for rapid economic growth.
Road transport is preferred mode of transport because of its inherent advantages such as door to door services, flexibility, reliability, timely deliveries, etc., so it is rightly said that good roads are an asset and bad roads a debt for the nation. About 70% of the passenger traffic and 60 % of the freight are carried by the road network. A rail dominated economy has now become a road dominated economy. The road transport has to bear a major share of transport burden in view of rural development oriented plan programmes implemented since the five year plans as there is enormous facilities in rural areas, good number of rural roads are attracting heavy traffic and are in dire need improvement.
Road Network in Karnataka
Karnataka has a total road network of 1, 22,383 kms (as on 31-3-1995) spread over an area of 1, 91,791 sq.kms. Average road length per 100 sq.km of area comes to 64 km and 272 km road length per one lakh population both of which are above the national average of 63.3 kms and 238.80 respectively.
Road Development since 1956 – 2005
SURFACE DETAILS
Year
Total Road Length
CC
BT
WBM
Motorable
Non-Motorable
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1956
43182
426
3432
18059
5540
15725
1961
45669
555
7406
19354
6669
11685
1966
55369
565
13888
19900
10274
142
1974
79947
420
2338
22500
1568
18621
1979
95363
421
26051
29266
17527
22098
1985
112610
360
30436
37309
20837
23668
1990
117138
298
34561
41767
18638
21874
2005
122383
233
42061
41928
17741
20420
Source: PWD at Glance, 2005 A Report, DES, Govt... of Karnataka
The road length which was 43,182 kms in 1956 has increased to 1, 22,383 kms by 2005 with an overall increase of 79,201 kms or 183.4 % increase. In the same manner there is an enormous improvement as well as increase in the surface of the total road network since 1956 in the State. Rural roads are the nearest to the vast majority of rural population. As already noted, out of total geographical area of 1, 91,791 sq.kms of the State, rural area comprised of 1, 87,520 sq.kms accounting to 97.8%. In the same manner of the total population of 4, 47,77,201 Rural population is 3,10,69,413 accounting to 69%. Similar total length of rural road (ODRs, VRs and TDBRs) other district roads, village roads and taluk development roads is 68,708 kms out of the state total of 1,22,383 kms which accounts to 56.1%. The details are given in the Table
RURAL ROAD LENGTH AS ON 31-3-1979 AND ON 31-3-1995
Category
Road length as on 31-3-1979
Road length as on 31-3-1995
CC
BT
WBM
US
TOTAL
CC
BT
WBM
US
TOTAL
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Other district roads
5
3,802
4,945
496
9,043
2
1,248
822
20
2,090
Village roads
10
2,451
15,352
14,849
32,662
9
7,929
21,431
7,812
36,931
T D B roads
-
100
3,253
20,044
23,397
-
205
5,732
23,700
29,637
Source: Master Plan for rural roads in Karnataka, 1996, PWD,Govt..of Karnataka
The road length under Black Tap which was 6,153 kms has increased 9,380 kms, i.e. 52.5% increase road length under Water Bound Mackdom has increased from 23,550 kms to 27,985 kms with percentage increase of 18.8% during the period from 1979 to 1995. Similarly 35,389 kms of unsurfaced road length has been reduced to 31,332 kms (13.0 %) and there is 5.5 % increase in the total rural road length from 65,107 kms to 68,708 kms during the same period.
CONNECTIVITY OF VILLAGES AS ON 31-3-1979 AND AS ON 31-3-1995
Number of Villages
Number of Villages
As on 31-3-1979
As on 31-3-1995
All weather roads
Fair weather roads
Kutcha roads
No. of roads
Total
All weather roads
Fair weather roads
Kutcha roads
No. of roads
Total
2185
2310
7043
1580
13118
3539
3057
4557
136
11289
1871
1799
3017
320
7007
3633
2132
1570
8
7343
1157
916
839
87
2999
2503
707
245
6
3461
2111
1021
555
60
3747
4183
585
166
1
4935
7324
6046
11454
2047
2687
13858
6481
6538
151
27028
Source:Road Development in Karnataka, Public Works Department, Government of Karnataka, 1995
From the above table it can be seen that number of villages having all weather roads has almost doubled during the period from 1979 to 1995, number of villages which had kaccha roads 11,454kms in the year 1979, this number has come down to 151 villages by 1995.
IMPACT OF ROADS ON RURAL ECONOMY
This study was undertaken to study the impact of roads on Rural Economy in four villages of Malur Taluk of Kolar District. With emphasis on the Solo-Economic impact before and after the construction of roads. Detailed information from the members of villages was collected through questionnaire. Interaction with members of villages was carried out through Focus Group Discussion as well.
Details about Sample
For the present study four villages were selected and 200 respondents were consulted to assess the impact of roads on rural Economy. Gender details of these village members from four villages are given in the Table 1.
Table-1 :Gender Details of Sample
villages
Gender
Total
%
Male%
Female%
Village 1
29(14.5%)
21(10.5%)
50
25%
Village 2
33(16.5%)
17(8.5%)
50
25%
Village 3
31
19
50
25%
Village 4
40
10
50
25%
TOTAL
133
67
200
100%
Source: Primary data
As shown in the Table 1, the sample size in all the villages is 50. However representation of gender varies from village to village with Village 1 having highest number of feminine gender (N = 21), while the Village 4 has lowest representation of feminine gender (N = 10)
Dwelling Details
Types of dwelling details were collected from the sample and details are given in the Table 2.
Table- 2 : Details of Dwelling
Land Holding of Farmers
Pucca
Semi Pucca
Kutcha
Marginal Farmer
8
38
29
Small Farmer
9
42
30
Medium Farmer
7
29
2
Large Farmer
3
3
-
Total
27
112
61
Source: Primary data.
As can be expected marginal and small farmer dwellings were dominated by Katcha and Semi Pucca Houses. However, there are some marginal farmers having pucca houses as well and similarly some large farmers (3 nos.) living in semi pucca houses.
Household Details
Nature of household members with reference to joint or nuclear family was collected and details are given in the Table 3.
Table – 3 : Household Details
Class
Nuclear
Joint
Total
Marginal Farmer
57
18
75
Small farmer
59
22
81
Medium Farmer
31
7
38
Large Farmer
5
1
6
Total
152
48
200
Source: Primary data.
As can be seen from the Table 3 most of the families are nuclear in nature and joint family is observed to be declining.
Land Holdings across the Study Area
To capture the impact of the intervention, assumption was made that marginal and small farmers would have highest bearing of intervention, sample is selected in selective random with Marginal and Small Farmers constituting highest percentage and large farmers constituting lower percentage
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