Community Empowerment by Dr. SBM Prasanna, Dr. K Puttaraju, Dr.MS Mahadevaswamy (books under 200 pages TXT) 📕

time. More so the industrial and tertiary sectors having agriculture is usually very limited the job prospects in the Public Sector are restricted for unskilled labor force to absorb due to shortage of budgetary resources and the private action measures in the ongoing economic reforms process. The continued alleles of all these phenomena envisage a serious risk of imbalance in countries like India. A concerted effort on planning the rural roads is therefore essential to anticipate and avoid these risks.

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