With Ram Temple issue gaining momentum, people in Ayodhya believe that religion can help in reviving the economy of this ancient city as local say Hindu devouts visit this place from far off places across country but lack of infrastructure prevents them to stay back.
Official records suggest that over 30 lakh pilgrims visit Ayodhya annually – this figure excludes people who gather at melas from surrounding areas. People from across the country – particularly from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bengal and South India — visit Ayodhya for paying obeisance at local temples.
“This is a huge number and can help in reviving the economy of the region,” Dr Paresh Pandey of Saket Degree College says. “Why not develop Ayodhya on the lines of Varanasi and Allahabad? Ayodhya is as important for Hindus as Varanasi is. The difference is Kashi symbolises ‘moksha’ (salvation) while Ayodhya symbolises ‘karma’- which asks people to fulfil their ‘putra dharma’ and ‘karma dharma’.
But Ayodhya lacks the infrastructure required for promoting religious tourism. “The fact is we do not even have proper hotels in Ayodhya despite having such a good footfall of pilgrims. The dharamshalas are of poor quality. Only good hotels are found in Faizabad and they are both few and expensive,” Dr Pandey says. “Imagine having hotels with river facing rooms or rooms facing the Ram temple. This will add to religious tourism and people will start flocking to Ayodhya,” he says.
Local residents claim that the link between Ram and Ayodhya is so strong that of the 6,000 Hindu shrines and temples said to be in Ayodhya, more than 4,000 are connected with Ram. Faizabad had a population of 167, 544 with 50,000 of them in Ayodhya according to the 2011 Census. The literacy rate of the region is around 86.52 per cent which is higher than the national literacy average of 74.04 per cent.
“This is basically an agricultural belt, but agricultural productivity has been steadily coming down because of repeated fragmentation of farmland. Smaller the farm, lesser the yield and this has adversely affected the economy of the region,” says Dr Pandey.
With reasonably good educational institutions in the region, the literacy rate is good. Thriving on the academic excellence of students, hundreds of coaching institutions have mushroomed in the twin cities of Ayodhya-Faizabad. The flourishing coaching institutions have proved to be ‘good business’ for those who run them or those who teach in them. But they are largely ‘outsiders’, lament local residents.
“The economy is actually driven by religion,” says Pradeep Pathak. “Every second month you have a religious festival in the form of melas stretching from Magh to Kartik Purnima. These melas are organised on the banks of Saryu river and provide sources of income for people and small traders,” he said.
He adds the Ram temple is good but the government should look at the possibility of making the local melas more attractive so that these can become money spinning, which, in turn, will help the region to flourish.