MY VISIT TO TRIBAL AREA AND INTERACTION WITH FARMER

One day I went to visit the forest areas in Vizag district in Andhra Pradesh, along with my friends. What was actually to be a pleasure trip became an eye-opener for me. During the visit I was able to come in contact with the local inhabitants and observe them closely. We interacted with them and tried to deduce the problems they faced. As the inhabitants were uneducated simple folk, they were not aware that something called Electricity, which could potentially turn their lives around, even existed. Many of the residents were malnourished and were found to be suffering from various illnesses. As access to the innermost areas was difficult due to the lack of proper transport facilities, they lacked the basic amenities a village required. We had visited nearly 10 villages with comparable living conditions in the area. Six months later, I had a conversation with a stranger during a bus trip to Visakhapatnam. I slowly got to know that he was a farmer who was forced to leave his land as inadequate rainfall, an increase in the production expenditure, lack of proper electrical supply and a lack of proper government intervention presented him huge losses and forced him to seek a more secure job in the construction sector in the city to survive. These experiences, along with a few other moving instances provoked me to carry out a small research of my own on these areas as I felt the huge weight of responsibility to change around the unfortunate situation I could perceive around myself.

Halfway through my humble research, I was able to find out almost thousands of tribal villages in India face problems similar to those which I mentioned above, one of the main issues being the lack of proper electric supply which I see in both the cases mentioned above. Also, the lack of proper awareness among the masses regarding their rights is another shackle that binds us and pulls us backward. We need to break free of these constrains by letting

loose our younger generation, who are the symbol Indias hope for a better future. By harnessing the abilities of the younger generation to the right level, we could effectively locate the problems of the society and come up with suitable corrective measures. India is a nation where we consider villages as the base of the society. The highly developed towns and cities are merely built up on this base. Today there are 6, 38,596 villages in our country. The majority of the population looks towards agriculture and agriculture related activities for support. But sadly, the agricultural sector in India is on the decline. The farmers of the nation are not paid proper attention. The policies of the government which close their eyes on the pitiable conditions of the farmer and provide incentives for the development of industries strike a nail in their coffin. As a result, the choked cultivator is left with no choice but to leave their lands and migrate elsewhere, even abroad for that matter, seeking more lucrative jobs. In this way, the base of our nation grows weaker by the day. We need to take adequate measures to curb the drain of our most important resource, the human resource. The preponderance of the Indian population is its youth. But while they throw in their bit to developing these cities, hardly any of them contribute to the progress of the village. Even the students of these villages who are fortunate enough to acquire the benefits of education seek jobs outside their habitats and escape from their miserable environment. For instance, a doctor who passes out, would not want to work or practice in rural areas, as he, unsurprisingly, look forward to work in a big hospital with thicker paychecks. Similarly, a management graduate would search for a job in a prestigious corporate instead of working for rural upliftment. Hence, we see that these individuals ascend up into the topmost floors of our nation, migrating from the very base, thereby making the whole arrangement more precarious. They are unwilling to work in rural areas as they pine for air-conditioned offices, artificial atmosphere that reflects back an image of prosperity and well-being and a luxurious life. People hardly feel responsible towards their societys development as they are hell-bent on making the greatest sum for their own well-being while the society gets neglected. We cannot fault them entirely as they would want to make themselves secure in life. But for how long will we be able to ignore our rural mainstream? For how long will these people not respond to the problems of the society?

The main reason behind the weakening base (rural India) of our country is undoubtedly the lack of proper awareness among the rural folk. They are, for the most part, ignorant of their rights and the grants provided by the government, and the officials who are in charge of providing them these funds, keep them in the dark. So I would like to suggest to the young

generation of India, a return to these villages, whereby we can help confront the tribulations faced, eliminate these issues and hence improve their sorry state. By this I do not imply that everyone has to walk down to rural areas. But the young commencement is needed in a small scale, at the very least, wherever it is necessary (such as doctors to bring in healthy living standards, engineers to help develop infrastructure, managers to market the agriculturerelated products, teachers to mould the personalities of the next generation and make them alert, responsible citizens and others). It is widely known that a strong, observant opposition in the parliament would force the ruling party to perform to the mark. Similarly, as the community is awakened, they constantly question the authorities in charge and relentlessly demand the best from them, which they will have, no other option but to provide. They have to use their education for the development of those areas as well as to strengthen the base (rural India) of our country. The governments, both at the state and the central levels, have to encourage students to come forward and contribute to the development of rural areas. What our father of nation said "India lives in its villages - Mahatma Gandhi

Thanks Kiran Konkipudi