Farmer suicides: Urbanisation the only answer to such pressing national concerns

It is indeed sad to hear of farmers taking their own lives. This extreme step is being taken because they see no hope in the business that they are in, which is farming. India has over 60% of its people engaged in activities contributing to less than 15% of the country’s GDP. This is just not sustainable. Therefore, the noble and able-bodied migrate to cities to seek jobs while the less noble head for the forests to become Naxalites. Those who are left in the rural areas try to make the best of a poor deal.

The Government of India as well as the State Governments spend a great deal of resources trying to control the left wing extremists which could be better utilised on more productive and sustainable initiatives.

Those who come from the rural areas to the cities looking for employment have few skills and, therefore, are unable to contribute to their families’ livelihood back home or even to their own livelihoods in the city.

Urbanisation is the only answer. The Government of India recognizes this and has planned to set up economic corridors which should house hundreds of smart cities. These smart cities would provide the much needed infrastructure for the manufacturing and service industries. And these industries in turn would provide employment worth leaving the villages for.

The other day I was privileged to hear Mr. Parthasarathy, Chairman of ILFS, describe what a ‘smart’ city is. According to him, a smart city should provide the following:

• Employment
• Productivity and
  
• Respect for Public Spaces

Of course to provide employment, both manufacturing and service industries need to be established. For these to be established, the ease of setting up business and competitiveness of these businesses needs to be ensured.

On a ranking done by the LKY University of Singapore of the various states of India, Maharashtra comes first and Jharkhand last. Regrettably, the mineral rich states of the Eastern Region are all bunched at the end, whilst the more progressive States of the West, North and South figure at the head of the table.

Unless the people, the industry and the various State Governments of the Eastern Region come together and improve the ease of doing business in our Region, these States will continue to not only lag in their own economic development but will also be a drain on the entire country. 76% of the mineral wealth of the country is in the Eastern Region. The Eastern Region also accounts for 35% of the Indian coastline (if the Andamans are to be considered a part of the Eastern Region). These are merely two of the many reasons that should encourage the growth of the East which would in turn provide employment to the people who live in this region so that the people would stay and contribute to the growth of this region and not migrate to other regions seeking employment.

The second attribute which defines ‘smart’ city as per Mr Parthasarathy was ‘Productivity’. Productivity is extremely important to stay competitive. For e.g. how many days does it take to get a passport? How many forms need to be filled to start a business or shut down a business? It has been calculated that on an average motorists in Mumbai spend four years of their lives looking for a place to park their cars. This is only one recorded unproductive usage of scarce resources. The use of IT system can go a long way in improving the productivity of the people which should make for a ‘smart’ city.

The third attribute is ‘Respect For Public Space.’ The recent agitation by the owners of shops in New Market, Kolkata can hardly be overstated. Unfortunately, pavements are no longer used by pedestrians, but by commercial establishments. Roads are not only used by vehicular traffic but also to be shared with pedestrians. This unfortunate situation is not particular to any city in India but across the country.

Creation of smart cities which is able to provide Employment, Productivity and Respect For Public Spaces must be encouraged to be built. However, one ingredient to bind these three together and to make sure that it happens is ‘visionary leadership’. The leadership which not only is able to understand and provide what needs to be done, but also to take people along to get it done. We cannot enforce change in ways which some of our Eastern neighbours have done where democracy and political freedom have been compromised to achieve economic growth.

We can most definitely look to the Mayor of Barcelona for the visionary leadership that he has provided to make the beautiful city of Barcelona a ‘smart’ city. Maybe the Chief Minister of West Bengal should consider taking a page out of his book and hope to create a Barcelona in West Bengal.