It’s a story of a village.
A very beautiful village; no worries no sorrow… They didn’t have
money; they didn’t have education, still everyone was happy with what they had;
it was free from the so called urban evils… They were hard workers… They were very affectionate with each other such that
they used to walk for kilometers, spending hours and days simply to meet their
relatives or friends. They used to look after patients, in their home itself.
They worked together in fields…
Oh, wait!
That was an old version of the story; let me tell you the new
one.
That was an isolated place; in terms of development. Not even
primary facilities like hospital, school or equipment that were necessary for a
better farming. You won’t even find a well-established transport system in that
place. And hence natives were forced
to walk very long distance to meet their needs. The lack of hospitals forced them to take care of patients in
their home itself. They don’t even get a primary education to increase the
productivity in fields according to their population growth, especially when
there is a collective attack by insects in fields. Because of this low
efficiency they were forced to work
together despite everything.
Everyone hopes for a better future (regardless of the worry that
‘will it happen?’ ;and we all know that is the reason for all kinds of change).
In our story, there was a young person who wanted to change
things as possible. The plan was this; they need a connection between
their village and the nearest city so that goods and other facilities can be
transported to and fro. Everyone agreed to the idea.
They need money for the
implementation! They found a solution; contribute whatever they had. After a
few years they gathered enough money to build a road. The young person traveled to the nearest city with the money to
implement their dream…
With not much delay the road was built.
As they expected goods were transported to and fro. Several
varieties of products started arriving the village. Crops were transported to
other places. The good carrying vehicle arrived at the field reducing their
burden to carry the goods to distant place; the vehicle had to travel long
distance for that. And hence they pay cheap for the crops. Though there
were shops with fancy items none of the villagers buy a thing, because
they didn’t have enough money to buy things. A bit of starvation too, since
they exported crops… They continue to look after the patient in home itself,
because they didn’t own a vehicle. Unfortunately they do not
have enough money to buy such a thing.
They began to think…
Why didn’t the road ease the
suffering?
Is it because all profit flow to the young person who took
initiative?
Is it because they didn’t have money?
Is it because they didn’t own
a vehicle to travel all the places and get the facilities?
Is
development good if it makes life more miserable?
Or can it even be called as
development?
We say something is development when we -the society- benefit
from it… If it doesn’t benefit us, then how do we call it as development!!!
So, are you saying building road is not development?
Not at all! We are supposed to serve what they ‘need’.
If it was a village of rich people who own vehicle, it would’ve been a best
idea-to build a road-. So they can go anywhere they want and get any services…
In our story we had a different situation!
Think about a scenario, the young person came up with an idea of public transportation instead of building road
(well, it includes road, since it’s an ingredient of public transportation)…
Still the villagers are poor- in terms of money-.
Yes, but they won't remain poor as in the earlier case; they get
means of transportation; goods’ or individual’s-without the presence of a
dealers-. Hence by spending not much money they get a vehicle to travel. They
can go to the city market and can sell their goods without getting deceived
(you can find similar unscientific development examples in the book everybody loves a good
drought by P.
Sainath ). It
reduces wastage of working time -which can be converted into money after
all; which in turn contribute a lot to their economy as well as the GDP of
nation-. Say, we do not have to spend time on the maintenance of private
vehicles, preparation of appropriate vehicle for goods or for individuals etc.
Do you see the economic impacts of the idea public transportation on individual
as well as on nation?[1]
Why did the young person choose the development of road over
development of public transportation? Is it because the young person wanted to
open a crop market at low cost (that it will benefit him) or due to the ignorance -that 'what development is'- ?...
Ref:
[1] http://www.camsys.com/pubs/publictransp_nationseconomy.pdf
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