Day 24 – Q 1.What are the effects of globalisation on the rural population of India? Illustrate.

1. What are the effects of globalisation on the rural population of India? Illustrate.  

भारत की ग्रामीण आबादी पर वैश्वीकरण के प्रभाव क्या हैं? उदाहरण देकर स्पष्ट करें।

Introduction: 

Since 1991, when the new industrial policy of India came into force, globalization started taking momentum in India. Globalization means an uninterrupted flow of trade, capital and technology across the national borders by considering the whole world as a big market. Globalization has converted the whole world into a single society.

Body: 

Globalization is a double-edged sword. It is a powerful vehicle that raises economic growth, spreads new technology and increases living standards in rich and poor countries alike but also an immensely controversial process that assaults national sovereignty, erodes local culture and tradition, and threatens economic and social stability.

Two-Third of Indian population lives in rural areas and almost half of the total population is dependent on agricultural activities. The impact of globalization on Indian rural life has a tremendous influence which is both positive as well as negative.

Positive effects of globalization that relate to rural life or its development includes:

• Commercialization of agriculture and expansion of agro-industries.
• Liberalization of international trade and marketing for food and other agricultural products.
• Intensification and internal labour migration. Labour migration to cities from rural areas in search of employment is a common phenomenon.
• Standards of living have increased. 
• Increasing privatization of resources such as coal mines led to more employment opportunities.
• The wider use of ICT led to better service delivery like Common Service Centre (CSC) and better health services using e-Health.
• Technical education is provided to most of the students from rural areas to secure employment.
• The farmers in the Indian village now have access to the advanced equipment and seeds for agriculture, which leads them to better yields and higher earnings.
• Globalization also provides better exposure to the agricultural produces and ensures the farmers that they get the correct value for the produces due to globalization.
• Impact of globalization, mass media and education directly or indirectly encourage the current generation to abandon traditional social conservative norms and taboos.

Negative effects:

• Rural population is still suffering from unemployment as rural labour is mostly uneducated and unskilled. Machines and latest technologies have reduced the number of manpower a lot.
• Globalization has caused intermingling of cultures. Though it has curtailed narrow mindedness of humans, it has caused cultural degradation also.
• As most of the villages don’t have adequate electricity and modern means of communication, so the benefits of globalization didn’t reach the hinterlands.
• Imports make the farmers’ position worse as they are not able to compete with imported goods in terms of price and quality.
• The position of artisans is also bad in villages. They are also not able to compete with machine-made goods.
• As the competition has become global, so it has become quite difficult for small, cottage, handicraft & medium industries to maintain the pace.
• Western perceptions are not aligned with local perspectives, they encouraged consumerism amid extreme poverty in India.

Way Forward:

There are some measures which may be fruitful in the neutralization of the evil effect of globalization-

• Latest information and technology facilities should be provided and developed in rural areas in an intense manner. ‘BharatNet’ and ‘Saubhagya’ are good steps in this direction.
• Govt. officials and NGOs, both private sector and public sector, should encourage rural mass to use the latest ICT facilities in developing their entrepreneurial activities.
• Positive aspects of globalization should be imitated like green consumerism, eco–friendly techniques of production etc.
• The high degree of globalization should not affect the small cottage industries and handicraft industries prevailing in rural India.
• MNCs should be allowed to enter the Indian market only after studying their effect on environmental degradation, small-cottage industries, Indian buying habits and on Indian social values.
• Globalization should be a two-way process and not a one-way flow. ‘Make in India’ and ‘Export Promotion’ to be implemented in its full potential.
• For globalization and transformations in rural areas governments have to provide proper rural-urban road links through PM- Gram Sadak Yojna.