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“A
developed India by 2020, or even earlier, is not a dream.
It need not even be a mere vision in the minds of many Indians.
It is a mission we can all take up – and succeed” The President - Dr.A P J Abdul Kalam |
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A key element of “Vision 2020” would be “Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas (PURA)”. More than two-thirds of India’s population lives in rural areas. We need to give a new thrust to their all-round development through a mega mission for their empowerment. This is best achieved through provision of four critical connectivities: |
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Physical
Connectivity by providing good roads, transport services and
quality power; Electronic Connectivity by providing reliable
communication networks; Knowledge Connectivity by establishing
more professional institutions and vocational training centres,
schools with high quality infrastructure, teachers who are
devoted to teaching, production centres for rural artisans,
primary health centres, recreation centres, etc; and Economic
Connectivity that will help realize the best value for the
products and services of rural people, and constantly expand
and enrich employment opportunities for them. The model envisaged
is a holistic habitat that would improve the quality of life
in rural areas and also help in de-congestion of urban areas. |
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The President's dream THE President, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, urges everyone to dream, and PURA is one of his own. PURA is a strip of habitation about 500 metres wide on either side of a ring road linking a loop of villages. Hence, every point in PURA will be within walking distance from open farms on one side and a modern road transport system on the other. Places of work will normally be within walking distance. It will have broad uncrowded streets; gracious pathways. PURA will restore the joy of walking. |
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Dr Kalam has talked about PURA day in and day out. At long last he has made a convert of even the Prime Minister who, in his Independence Day speech, promised to establish 5,000 of them. In that case, virtually every village will be within 5 km of one ring road or another. That many PURAs will offer so much dwelling space that no family need suffer from lack of shelter. Slums in cities, and huts in villages, will disappear. Thus, the dream of PURA is: |
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From slums or huts to garden houses. | |
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From congested streets to gracious paths. | |
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From manual labour to knowledge occupation. | |
Many hard-headed businesspersons have similar dreams. They are donating large sums as charity for rural development. However generous they may be, charity will always come in driblets. On the other hand, if PURA were to become a commercially profitable proposition, the sky will be the limit. Then only will PURA become a reality, and not remain a dream. |
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| Dr Kalam's six-point plan | ||
| Dr Abdul Kalam has chosen six: Value-addition in agriculture, education, health, connectivity, strategic industries and composite rural development according to plan PURA, as the thrust areas for making India a developed nation. | ||
| The ambience for rural development has changed significantly! | ||
The country has visionary schemes and enabling acts; it has the requisite physical and social technologies; it has opened up the possibility of civil society’s participation and corporate sector’s partnership; above all, it has the most precious raw materials: a vision and a will! A set of synergising concepts and forces, however, need to be brought in. For example, we need |
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Convergence of schemes | |
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A mechanism of public private partnership in ‘area development’ and | |
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A recipe for employment led growth realized through appropriate technologies that could bridge the rural-urban divide. | |
| PURA (Provision of Urban-amenities in Rural Areas) has become a new ‘mantra’ to incorporate all the above ideas and their implied actions. | ||
| The greatness of Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam lies in identifying this as a basic approach in his crusade against backwardness. No wonder the concept of PURA was part of his “Vision 2020!” and further became a fundamental theme for which Dr.Kalam, the President of India, became a prime spokesman, guide and campaigner. | ||
| PURA Vision | ||
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To develop, launch, and replicate scalable strategies for transformation of India and its people into a developed society by the year 2020, yet rooted in its rich cultural, environmental and spiritual heritage. | |
| PURA Mission | ||
| PURA(Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) envisages economic empowerment to a cluster of villages through the provision of physical connectivity, electronic connectivity and knowledge connectivity. | ||
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To launch workable and sustainable PURA models for transforming India’s vast landscape into a developed region | |
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To act as a Unifier between corporate partners, government and social organizations for the successful execution of PURAs | |
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To generate leaders and managers for effective running of PURAs | |
| Knowledge Powered PURA (Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas) | ||
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More than two thirds of our billion population live in the rural parts of India. The vision of transformation to a ‘developed’ India can only be realized if we launch a mega mission for empowering the rural people. My visits to the rural parts of India have confirmed that the problem of rural India depends on the extent of connectivity available there. The connectivity that I refer to, would include four components. | |
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Physical connectivity by providing roads in rural areas, electronic connectivity by providing reliable communication network and knowledge connectivity by establishing more professional institutions and vocational training centers. Schools with best infrastructure and teachers who love teaching, primary health centres, silos for storage of products and markets for promoting cottage industries and business, employment opportunities for artisans are some of the elements of PURA. | |
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All this connectivity needs to be done in an integrated way so that economic connectivity will emerge leading to self actuating people and economy. Such Model of establishing a circular connectivity among the rural village complexes will accelerate rural development process by empowerment. I am sure that removal of poverty will call for Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas (PURA). | |
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The model envisaged is a habitat design that would improve the quality of life in rural places and make special suggestions to remove urban congestion also. Instead of village population coming to urban area, the reverse phenomenon has to take place. | |
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The PURA has to be a business proposition economically viable and managed by entrepreneurs and local people and small scale industrialists, as it involves education, health, power generation, transport and management. Government’s support should be in the form of empowering such management agencies, providing initial economic support and finding the right type of management structure and leaders to manage and maintain. |
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