The 700 Million
India lives in its villages. 700 million plus people reside in the rural backwaters of the
And, yet, the focus of development and growth policy has long been on urbanization,
big industry, migration from the rural to the cities with consequential urban congestion
and slums, poor quality of life, breakdown of rural society and families, crime, violence
and more urban unemployment.
1.3 Billion people just cannot be supported to live in urban areas. It is crucial that rural
areas are developed with roads, housing, schools, hospitals, governance, etc so that the
700 million, and more, can be living in their natural habitat and enjoying a life of simple
India has to look at itself, District by District, Block to Block, to create the physical and
social infrastructure for the 700 million. There is no alternative and this priority has
been neglected for decades.
In this model, grass-roots governance, the District Magistrate is key and needs to be
supported with an administrative and governance team, competent and capable, so that
the District grows and prospers. If this “Base” is taken care of, the foundation would be
strong and the 700 million properly supported.
Automatically, the pressure of migration to cities would lesser and a new balance would
develop in the country.