Political participation has been defined by Winer and Chodhury as the process of any voluntary action, successful or unsuccessful, organised or unorganised, episode or continuous, employing legitimate or illegitimate methods and intended to influence the choice of political leaders at any level of government, local or national. Spontaneous participation of all citizens in the political process and institutions of the country is the key factor for fostering democracy.
Political problems of villages: For centuries, national and state level politics did not affect our villages much. Villages could continue their normal life unhindered by the political developments taking place at a higher level. The introduction of the democratic political system provided new opportunities for our villagers to show some interest in politics. Villagers’ active participation in the democratic system is of course, a good sign of a healthy development in our politics.
But unfortunately, it has led to some problems like decline in the standard of politics. Illiteracy is a nightmare of democracy. Many people with very poor educational background are entering politics. It is more so in the case of rural areas. The tendency of uneducated poor people to “sell their votes” for money, the control of politics by dominant class, the inability to elect competent representatives have led to further degradation of politics.
Even though one-third of the seats are reserved for women in the local bodies as per the provision of Panchayat Raj system, they are still under the control of their men folk. Politics is proving to be harmful for rural unity. The present political system has been successful to a great extent in establishing relative equality, in providing for distribution of power, in ensuring political participation for the rural poor and so on. But it is failure in safe guarding the unity of the villages which they have been able to maintain for centuries.
Villages too have become hot-bed of local politics today. All local issues, disputes and problems are looked at from political angle. This tendency has made people to become too much dependent on the politician and the government. Even for ordinary things such as cleaning village tank or well, repairing village mud road, leveling school playground, etc.- people expect village political leaders to get governmental help. This attitude of the villagers is providing to be harmful for the progress of the village.
Problems of transportation: Ri Bhoi district is in the midst of crises and changes. Though Villages in Ri Bhoi is known as the classical land of the villages her villages are not free from problems. Some of the major problems with which most of the villagers are confronted even today can be grouped into three major types; economic, social and political problems.
The global importance of the villages unabated even in the present society is economic whereby most of the rural places in Ri Bhoi District the road connectivity is worse thus which has hampered the economy, especially to the peasant and farmers in which they have to suffer and face major problems when it comes for selling their product or in may be in other kind of work. And we can say that agriculture is the life of rural masses, and commercialisation of it determines the development of the region. The role of rural roads in the sphere of agriculture cannot be ignored.
Proper road condition helps to connect with wider markets for these agricultural products. Linking up the entire county through the system of roads reaching down the villages is one of the major goals of Bharat Nirman. “Investment in roads reduces rural poverty not only through productivity growth, but also through increased non-agricultural employment opportunities and higher wages’’ (Fan et al., 2000:3587).
We have witnessed the dilapidated road conditions mostly in Jirang and Mawhati constituency in Ri Bhoi district roads like in Mairang-Ranibari Road via Patharkhmah, Jirang Road, Killing- Maikhuli Road, Byrnihat Road-Umden Road, Umling-Patharkhmah Road, Umsning-Topatoli Road, Kyrdemkulai-Dong Jingkiengding Road, Patharkhmah-Warmawsaw Road, Liarbang-Mawlasnai Road and all the Block II villages lack proper transportation and communication facilities. Still many villages are striving for improvement and getting better road connectivity from their region.
Moreover, most of the roads in these villages are constructed without proper drains on both sides. So rainwater gushes on the road reducing its longivity. A decade of pathetic road condition of this region, which is only becoming worse leading to the downfall of the economic, social and educational life of the rural people. The quality of life and socio-economic conditions of living of people may get significantly affected by the speed and ease with which they can carry their goods. In this sense, transport and economic development are interdependent and their relationship is both complex and dynamic.
There are villages like Amkhang, Lymphuid, Pynker A, Pynker B which are almost like islands. There are villages with no proper roads, bridges and transport facilities. Hence farmers or the villagers find it extremely difficult to take their produce to a market where the prices are comparatively attractive. They are made to walk miles together to reach town to obtain newspapers, and to get postal, banking, medical and telephone services.
Development of transport facility like road infrastructure, can, however, play a significant role in changing the socio-economic conditions of living of the people of this particular region through dynamic externalities that such development often generates. It can, in fact, be an important element of both direct and indirect interventions of the people.
While the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) do not include specific references to transport, it is now widely accepted that transport infrastructure and services play a critical role in addressing the MDGs. Transportation infrastructure and services provide physical access to domestic and international markets as well as jobs, thereby increasing people’s potential to increase consumption levels.
This will allow them to accumulate private and social assets, which in turn can increase their productivity and reduce their vulnerably to shocks. A recent study on the impact of one section of the National Highway No. 2 in India on rural populations showed, for example, that the construction of the Highway resulted in an increase in non-farm activities, higher workforce participation, an increase in school enrollment and better literacy levels, although the impact varied across different groups and areas (Asian Institute of Transport Development, 2010).
Transport infrastructure and services also facilitate access to schools, medical clinics, hospitals, cultural and religious institutions, and other facilities which contribute to their capabilities (MDGs 2, 3, 4 and 5). In some countries, such as Fiji and Nauru, free or subsidized bus and van services are provided to school children as part of the government policies to achieve MDG Goal 2, Universal primary education. Conversely, the lack of or inadequacy of such infrastructure and services affects the ability and willingness of teachers and medical staff to access remote or isolated communities, and also increases the cost of supplying educational and medical supplies (UNICEF, 2005).
Hence it’s high time for our political leadership and the various pressure groups of the state to give more focus and invest much more on the rising crisis of village road connectivity as it has got the potentiality to address diverse problems that these villages are facing today. The people of these villages also equally share the responsibility to be aware of their rights and use it judiciously while electing their representative so that positive change can occur in their area. Moreover they also have to make sure that these roads are also properly maintained and act as a pressure group so that nobody can take away their rights.
(Contributed by Dr Sandeep Gupta, assistant professor, & Phiralin Amy Marsing, PhD research scholar at University of Science and Technology)
