Around 33 villages have ‘disappeared’ in Uttarakhand. Don’t be surprised, this is a bitter reality that came to light after announcement of figures of Census 2011. The State, between 2001 and 2011, lost a total of 33 villages.
In the year of 2001, there were 16,826 villages in Uttarakhand. The figure decreased to 16,793 in 2011. It showed that the 33 villages disappeared from the State in a span of 10 years. Activist calls it a deteriorating trend, while sociologist calls it a result of urbanisation.
Activist Rajendra Agarwal blamed lack of amenities and means of employments for the trend that would have far reaching consequences. “The people are migrating from the villages as there is lack of amenities and means of employment. When people will migrate towards the cities, the number of villages will certainly decrease,” Agarwal said.
He said that the authorities should start serious efforts to create means of employment in the rural areas and basic amenities in the villages. The efforts and schemes to carry out development should not be confined to the papers only. “The trend is not a good sign,” he said.
Former Head of department sociology at MKP PG College, Sociologist Prof Zainab Rahman calls it a result of urbanisation. “See, the villages are turning into towns as large number of people goes to cities in search of employment. After getting the employment, they think of settling down there. As a result, area of cities increases and several villages in the outskirts of the city turn into town,” Rahman said.
She substantiated her point by referring to two villages, including Azapur Kalan and Azabpur Khurd which are now town and almost part of the city. “When I carry out a study of these villages, process of change started there. In the later period, the two grew into towns,” she said.
She said, “The villages were there, villages are there and villages will be there. Villages are necessity. life style is changing in the villages also. Impact of urbanisation is clearly visible there. People want to live more comfortable life. As a result, they don’t want to do some other business, excluding farming as they don’t find it a profitable venture. These things together are bringing change.”
She, however, doesn’t consider change a major cause of concern. “Changes are there is every State. In this State, the changes are taking place rapidly,” she said, adding that pace of the changes would decrease in the future when there would be focus on rural development.