Village Uplift Essay

VILLAGE UPLIFT

Nobody can deny that with the growth of cities the villages have been considerably neglected. Ever since the light of Western civilization came into our country we have been developing a craze for city life. in the beginning of the British rule in undivided India most of the people used to be employed in the cities for the various jobs but now –a-days the people are attracted to the cities for the comforts and luxuries of life which they cannot enjoy in their village homes. So what was a necessity in the beginning is now a luxury but we have formed such a habit of our sense of comfort and ease that it is difficult for us now to go back to our old ways of life. under these circumstances we must try to improved our villages.

The importance of the movement known as’Village Uplift’ or ‘Rular Reconstruction’ cannot be over-rated, considering that Pakistan is an agricultural country and four-fifths of its population lives in village. Many economists and politicians are of the opinion that pahistan should concentrate upon reforming its villages before striving for achieving self-government. They are no doubt, right; for the happiness of the villager is obviously “the happiness of the greatest number”. Their interests of townsmen_ they rise and sink together.

In the Punjab, Mr. F.L.Brayne was first official to think of village uplift. While acting as the Deputy commissioner of Gurgaon, he studied villages at first hand, was grieves and shocked by the deplorable conditions obtaining in them;  and set about earnestly to reconstruct them. He brought home to the people of that district the importance of sanitation, education and of scientific agricultural implement. He experiment met with a great success and within a short period Gurgaon made an amazing progress. Mr. Brayne embodied his instruction in a book called “Socrates in an Indian village”. This book can be aptly described as the Bible of village uplift. It consists of short, easy dialogues on topics concerning villagers, and contains excellent suggestions and proposals. Put briefly, Mr. Brayne’s programme touches four things.

First of all, be emphasizes the value of education. According to him, ignorance, more than anything eles, is responsible for the backwardness of the Indian peasant. Steeped in age-old ignorance, the peasant does not know his own interest. If he ignores the laws of health and sanitation, runs into enormous debts, or follows ancient methods of agriculture, it is because he lacks enlightenment. The remedy suggested is that primary education should be made compulsory for  boys and girls. Adults should be educated through such modern devices as the radio, the cinema and the magic lantern. The  villager should be acquainted with the latest methods of agriculture, with the evils of  litigation, drinking or smoking and should be taught the value of thrift. The principle underlying this suggestion is that when the  villager will be educated, he will be able to ‘see reason’ for himself and , instead of opposing reform or innovation, he will become is warm supporter. The  peasant, in other words, is to be instructed in the principle of  “self help”. He is ti be told that unless he saves himself, nothing else can save him.

The second  item on the programme is health and sanitation. The villager is content with passing his days in unhealthy surrounding. He does not care much if streets of his village are dirty or if houses have no arrangement for fresh air. He allows dirty water to collect in pits and ponds situated in an about the village, with the result that they attract mosquitoes who spread malaria and trouble. Thus the villager is to be exhorted to keep his houses and streets clean by throwing the dung hills and rubbish into pits, (meant for this purpose and situated at a sufficient distance from the village.) he is to be warned against the harm that mosquitoes do and is to be advised to use quinine and cheap mosquito nets. He is also to be asked to visit the free dispensary whenever he or members of his family fall ill. Lastly, he is to be told to use ventilators, not to tether cattle in his sleeping room and to get his children vaccinated before they fall a prey to smallpox.

The third thing that a peasant is required to do is to improve his agriculture. Agriculture is the main profession of the industry in the village; and, of late, it has fallen into a rut. The peasant can make it a paying profession by using scientific implements, by importing bulls of excellent breed, by using better seeds, manures, and ploughs,. They can increase their income by combining agriculture with such industries as dairying, poultry, gardening, and sugaring the pests, and diseases of plants, and make their crops yield better produce by destroying harmful insects and weeds that are dangerous parasites on crops.

Lastly, the peasants are advised to shake off a number of social evils from which they suffer. It is  seen that they spend money lavishly on marriages and births and are prone to be extravagant when they come by  money. In some districts they are excessively given to drinking. Almost everywhere they are enamoured of smoking and idling away their time. They are over-fond of litigation. They commit murders over trifles; and resort to the court so often that they pay the best part of their income to the lawyers. They make their children wear heavy ornaments, oppose female education with the fury of a fanatic; and incur debts which they know not how to clear. The peasant, thus, is to be advised to get rid of all these evils. He is to be instructed to benefit himself from such institutions as the Co-operative Credit Societies, and the panchayat system. He is told not to run into unnecessary debts, not to go to the court for the settlement of petty quarrels, and not to kill his neighbor over a land dispute.

There is no doubt, that if the peasant acts upon these suggestions, he is bound to prosper. He would be able to lead an infinitely better life, if he makes whole –hearted attempts to improve his home and his farm. Only in that case the village will deserve the description given to it in the proverb, “God made the country and man made the town.”