To rebuild a new India we need visionaries who are good at comprehending issues and problems that will challenge us tomorrow. Unfortunately, most of the planners we have today can’t see beyond the obvious
I was in Azamgarh last week researching for a book. We visited three villages and spoke to people at length about their lives. We faced a few minor hiccups that will become major problems for the next generation that will choose or be circumstanced to live in the countryside. The fist village we visited is near Thelma town on the Jaunpur-Azamgarh road. Our motive was to meet upper caste landlords and measure their consciousness on issues they were confronted with. Then the problem arose. It had rained heavily and our local contact was unsure whether we would be able to reach the village without stepping out of our vehicle. We had made a mistake of hiring an Innova. The village, however, was barely a kilometre-and-half from the main road and there was no problem in walking that distance.
“You might have to take off your shoes,” warned our local contact. “Is it because we are headed to an upper caste localityIJ” I wondered. But I was wrong. I was visiting the locality on the Allahabad-Jaunpur-Azamgarh after a gap of some eight years. I have relatives in that area. Being ‘an upper caste locality’, I thought this village would be connected with a road where an Innova could move through easily. But I was proved wrong. I realised my biases and I regretted.
While our car proceeded, a biker came from the opposite direction. Only two vehicles on the road but a traffic jam followed. It was a great feeling that the biker rode back so that the Innova could proceed. The second village was some 30 km away on the Varanasi-Gorakhpur road; we entered almost another two km from the main road for the village. And we encountered the similar problem there as well. We had to wait for about 20 minutes as our car and a tractor coming from the opposite direction had to negotiate and re-negotiate the ‘terms of moving ahead’.
The third village had a bigger problem. This village was connected to a booming local market. And dozens of shopkeepers had bought land along roadsides and built their own tiny houses. Now, this was ironical. Houses that these shopkeepers had built did not leave any space in front of their houses for parking. They built structures that touched the street.
let’s consider a situation: What if a fire broke out in the villageIJ There was no way the fire tenders could reach the three villages we visited. Only a small van could reach these villages. likewise, proper ambulances equipped with necessary life-saving systems could not make it to any of the three villages. What if a natural disaster like earthquake struck the countrysideIJ
Rebuilding needs planners who are visionaries as well. We need planners who can see beyond the obvious. We need planners who can build infrastructure for tomorrow and not just for the day. India underwent a land settlement exercise called Chakbandi in the Hindi heartland in the 1970s which nearly ended the anarchy in land ownerships. Such was the chaos that there were no lanes between two plots of land and hence, no tractors or bullock carts could find ways.
Officers settling the issue saw the problem and scripted solutions accordingly. They could never think that there would be a day in future when an Innova would come into being and some would try riding the same to villages. Or, they couldn’t envision an Indian countryside where fire-tenders or ambulances might be needed. Circa 1970, they watched only a few bullock carts and bicycles crisscrossing the villages and carved streets as per the needs of the day.
But, why blame poor officials of the 1970s. Being well-travelled and exposed to the emerging modern world, architects and town planners in cities like Mumbai and Delhi designed group societies and colonies thinking that flat-owners would have only bikes or a few Maruti 800 cars. Today, residents of these apartments and colonies often fight over parking space. Even the architects and town planners of the 1990s could never comprehend or visualise a situation that there would be a time when a single household might come to own three cars and a SUV as well. Thankfully, the officers presiding over Chakbandi operations or the architects and town planners were not Dalits. Most of them were members of the upper castes. To rebuild a new India we need visionaries who are good at comprehending issues that will challenge us tomorrow.