Last night I thought to write something on the Day Vs. Night mode of development. This is a new approach to overview the problem of rural development in the country. I am sure you would have not read such model of development ever before. The basic objective of the theme is to examine the functioning of institutions and infrastructure at the site in the night e.g., Day Vs. Night or Rural Vs. Urban. This Day Vs. Night mode of development is due to spatial and locational aspects, which are as follows:
A) Functioning of Health Facilities: Health facilities in rural areas are non-functional during night whereas it is operational 24*7 in the urban areas. This is called rural Vs. urban health infrastructure functional inequality. People of urban areas are more important for the Government, otherwise it would not the case. Most of the VIP’s e.g., bureaucrats, leaders, industrialist, lawyers, doctors, etc., live in urban areas. Their life is more important than their rural counterparts. Even the more striking fact is that 72 percent of population resides in rural areas but approximately 80 percent of the health facilities are located in urban areas. So to cater the needs of the 28 percent population 80 percent infrastructure have been built up whereas for 72 percent of the population it is only 20 percent or even less than that. Furthermore, a villager has to spend more to avail the same health facilities as of Urban counterpart. He has to spend some money on the transportation cost to reach the district headquarters for availing the same health facilities. All the way a villager has to compromise in terms of money expend on health and extra time to get the equal facility like an urban citizen. This is ridiculous. I am sharing this based on my own knowledge of primary survey which I conducted to understand the major problems of rural India. A person may have to die for a very simpler reason like fever, food poisoning, snake biting, diarrhea, dysentery, etc. Leave the fatal disease like heart attack, blood pressure, etc.; in that case they are mentally prepared to end their very life. In the surveyed area, out of 20 villages there is no hospital which operates in the night. Let me disclose one very important fact in this regard that my village has the third largest hospital of the district which is of no use. Because it is non functional and non operational fully even the day time. It has capacity of 200 beds and can accommodate 1000 patients but the infrastructure is unused. Doctors don’t want to stay here in the night time and the reason is but obvious it lacks infrastructure like electricity, transportation in one hand on the other they can’t run their own private clinic which is more profitable venture for them. Alone more than ten people have died in my village due to very simple disease like fever and above mentioned reasons. My own Tai ji (Elderly Mother) died because of snake bite. I don’t know to solve this problem, which is part of basic amenities. This is the village of ex-UP chief Minister Late Shri Bir Bahadur Singh, in spite the infrastructure is developed authorities are not taking interest to make it operational. A minimum effort from the government may ensure the functioning, since infrastructure is ready. Only enforcement part is missing. I hope in near future Government will take appropriate steps to solve these issues, otherwise I will take this issue to Supreme Court of India.
In my next blog I will share my experience on electricity conditions (Dark Vs Light India).
