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The rural-urban divide in India

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In India, nearly 70% of the working population is engaged in agriculture and related sectors. The primary sector is dependent on agriculture-related employment which contributes less than 18% to the country's GDP. Rural areas lack modern amenities, services, and necessary livelihood opportunities for decent living. The absence of cash crops, technology, education, and capital results in unemployment, poverty, and poor economic conditions. This disparity between urban and rural areas is evident in every survey conducted by various agencies from time to time. Urban areas are more developed than rural areas, which results in migration of laborers to the urban centers. This migration creates a sub-urban area where only basic facilities are available to them. Illiterate people and unskilled workers migrate and live on subsistence wages provided by capitalists centered in urban areas.


As Mahatma Gandhi said, "The soul of India lives in villages." India cannot be developed until it has developed villages that provide ample opportunities for every single being to fulfill the criteria of living a suitable and fruitful life with no room for poverty, hunger, and social insecurity.


The urban-rural division in the modern era is a major concern for developing countries, especially in Southeast Asia. While some countries have succeeded in bridging the gap, it is not feasible for a country like India, where the maximum population is based on an agrarian economy, to migrate all of its population to urban areas. This creates problems, such as hidden unemployment and the exploitation of workers by capitalists who do not fulfill the principles of socialism mentioned in the Indian constitution.


To make rural society developed, the Indian government has started multiple schemes since its inception, with the aim of providing subsistence wages to workers and subsidies on agricultural products. However, these attempts have not been able to change the global economic scenarios. After 1991, the scope of the global market opened for India with liberalization, but the gap between urban and rural economies remains vast.


India needs to create an atmosphere where every individual, whether urban or rural, can use optimum resources and provide positive results to the nation to fulfill the gap created in the past in economic, cultural, and value generation.

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