Excessive urbanization: Road-map to disaster

There is a growing tendency to glorify every small thing that benefits the very rich and the chattering middle classes who have access to good education and jobs (this writer included), at the cost of the poor.

The story of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) is one such. These zones push the cost of housing far beyond the reach of the middle-classes and only the upper middle-classes and the rich benefit from the so-called development. The already rich capatalists are very happy since they can get a plethora of benefits, thanks to special rules that apply to only SEZs.
Thes leads to what any industrialist would call "competitiveness", but would spell disaster from all others. In other words, this is a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Ever since the SEZ craze caught on in India, rural India is no more what it once was: the poor who were hitherto unexposed to the vulgar ways of the rich in the cities, have now learnt the tricks of the trade, and apart from giving away their lands to the rich capatalists, have also struck attractive bargains with real-estate sharks who have made their life a little better, but have laughed all the way to the bank, when they sell the land at a premium.

This excessive urbanization that is going on will do no good to agriculture, since hundreds of acres of fertile land are being given away -- sometimes happily and sometimes under various threats -- to factories and real estate capatalists. This will simply turn India's focus upside down, as small farmers will be simply driven out of business and will become agricultural labourers or temporary casual labours doing unskilled jobs in the new factories that often come up their immediate neighbourhood.

There is one city that is seeing this happen like never before: Chennai. The Government of Tamil Nadu is trying its best to disperse the industries far beyond one hundred kilometers from Chennai,but this does not seem to happen at all. What has instead happened is that hundreds of fertile agricultural lands have been given away to rich capatalists in places as far as eighty kilometers along the highway that leads to Vellore and then Bangalore. Since rapid industrialization has already happened in a place called Sriperumbudur,which is around forty kilometers from Chennai, and has excellent connectivity, all the agricultural land has been cornered by capatalists who will sell it like gold to the industrialists when idustrialization happens beyond forty kilometers. This is slowly happening, but the cost of housing is around Rs.250 per square foot (for the land only) in the most ridiculous locations, where there is not even a single house.

Similarly,in and around the first ever Special Economic Zone of the country -- near Chengelput, which is sixty kilometers from Chennai, land prices have gone through the roof, thanks to the hundreds of IT professionals, who now prefer to live nearer Chengelput. Further development is going on in small villages near Chengelput, but the cost of housing at Rs.300/- per square foot for a plot of land, is beyond the reach of the common man.

However, a town like Villupuram which is two hundred kilometeres from Chennai, has absolutely no industry, inspite of its excellent connectivity. IT is unknown here, though it is district headquarters city. Since Chennai is bursting at its seems, a special Economic Zone could have done a world of good. But this has not happened.

Excessive urbanization has taken away the charm of rural life, and if the so-called SEZs do have their say, in ten years from now, India will become one of the largest importers of rice, wheat and a whole range of other food items. Whatever little is left of agriculture will be cornered away by the highly-organized food processing industry, which need not bother anything about passing on increased costs to the customers. This is exactly why we have a huge variety of "ready to eat" varieties, at fairly high prices, and such goods can, of course, sell only in the huge malls in the cities.

What has happened to Chennai, might as well happen to similar cities. Our Government should wake up and do something serious about helping our farmers lead far better lives and also feed us. Yes, we will still buy one kilogram of good raw rice at Rs.40/- ten years from now, but only if it is available. Or perhaps one kg of wheat at a similar price.

We often talk about two Indias. We never even imagine what it takes to make one India so rich and the other so poor. One would have to just go the old Mahabalipuram road near Chennai and look at the fancy apartments that cost not less than forty lakhs and are meant only for the super rich. They have now been built on the most fertile lands of some agriculturists, who would never ever do agriculture for the rest of their lives. We would instead see swimming pools, landscaped gardens, designer kitchens, and shopping malls, not so far away from these houses, where the brightest of MBAs would be writing their thesis on the retail revolution in India.

Yes, we need industrialization and urbanization. But definitely, not of the kind we see today. We would only see more crime, more insecurity, more violence, and a revolt by the have-nots in the years to come. Let us wake up and put a full stop to mindless urbanization. Otherwise, we will have to just forget agriculture, and get chocked to death in our cities, which are centers of urban chaos, even today.

Technorati Tags: Opinion/Views

Vote Result

Score: 0.0, Votes: 0