Society

Today's Villages are Not Yesterday's Villages

The village is changing. The city is growing. The village population is decreasing. Migration from villages to cities and foreign countries is increasing. Urbanization and centralized development are expanding. Thirty-five years have passed since globalization began in 1991. Children born from 1986 onwards, who were over five years old at that time, are no longer growing up under the control and command of their parents like before. Globalization is leading them. Their loves, marriages, friendships, interests, and opportunities are different. Their world is different.

They say that with globalization, the world has become a global village, but no one seems to fully grasp its true meaning. That's why people are unable to understand why villages are like this. They cannot estimate how human relationships, friendships, loves, and affections are changing. They cannot understand why films like Akkineni Nageswara Rao's "@ Nammina Bantu", which featured two oxen as main characters, and films, stories, and novels depicting rural life, the poor, and their struggles, are not being made today. If globalization isn't clear to anyone, then after the demolition of the Twin Towers in America on September 11, 2001, they might have opened their eyes.

If you observe for just three hours, from 8 AM to 11 AM, at the Jagityal Old Bus Stand, you will understand what is happening in globalization. From that time, the coming and going between villages and the city relationships, banks, government offices, courts, computer centers, and Meeseva centers are bustling.

Rural life is no longer what it used to be. It's wrong to wish it were. Even though agriculture and caste-based professions continue in rural life, the arts that build culture, literature, dish connections, YouTube, TV serials, news channels, vulgar comedy shows, and for those with time, 20 movies and serials combined across all channels daily, TV serials and continuous news broadcasts prevent people from thinking, political mutual accusations, murders, illicit relations, rapes, cooking shows, decorations, fashions, are all being propagated.

Today, even in cities, distances are greater. Forty kilometers from one end to the other. A two-hour journey. For villages, travel time and distance have significantly decreased. The distance from the village to the district center has reduced. Roads have improved. Buses, bikes, and autos are plentiful. From villages, along with milk, flowers, vegetables, grains, fruits, and produce, early in the morning, school children and college students are heading towards nearby cities with modern amenities. Movie theatres run four shows. For bank work, to fill online applications, for work at the Tahsildar office, electricity office, registration office, daily commutes to nearby cities have increased. For the 5th-grade entrance exam for Navodaya Gurukula schools, online applications must be filled. Everything relies on the Aadhar card.

In addition to their beedi-making wages, beedi workers receive a monthly support scheme of two thousand rupees, single women and the elderly receive two thousand rupees under the support scheme, free rice, free electricity, free bus travel, subsidized gas cylinders, five thousand rupees per acre as free aid for agriculture, free electricity for wells, money sent by those who went to Gulf countries, autos, tractors, JCBs, cars, trolley goods transport vehicles, well drilling, protected drinking water, foreign liquor (Indian Made Foreign Liquor) at belt shops for alcohol, increased transportation facilities, buying goods at D-Mart shops and taking them home, police cases, frequenting courts, daily commuting for college education, school buses for private English medium education, teachers from the city to the village and people from the village to the city making trips... increasing number of concrete houses... land prices soaring... extravagant weddings...

All of these have transformed villages into urban, semi-urban colonies for cities. There is no longer the old poverty in villages. If alcohol is controlled, living standards will increase by 30 percent. In every village, locals or others open hotels... Poori, dosa, upma, vada, a plate for just 30 rupees, wet poha, bajjis, mirchis, sweets, available within two kilometers... facilities like PhonePe have increased.

By watching movies with grand sets, beautiful natural scenery, and large casts, people in cities, civilized societies, club dances, loves, crime, social and historical films, used to relax for a while, like Mumbai laborers. Such a culture has increased in popularity. Even in literature, they are adopting these. Religiously, although steeped in communal ideology, there is no shortage of festivals and hatred, but the lifestyle continues with modernity. Women's decorations and clothing are expanding, imitating cities and TVs.

In villages, only agriculture has more slowness. One has to wait until the crop grows. For grains, food crops, commercial crops, etc., one has to wait until they are ready to harvest. Vegetables, flowers, and fruits must be plucked and sold immediately. Toddy and palm sap, milk, and dung must be collected immediately. In other sectors, life continues with increased speed. Thus, a slow pace of life is seen in those who have agriculture, cattle, goats, and sheep. Cattle need time to calve. For agriculture, one has to wait for months for the crop. The old methods of drawing water are gone. The old rope and bucket systems are gone. Switch on and water flows. Or pond water and canal water irrigation continues. Along with the speed of agricultural laborers, migration in life has increased. On average, more than half of the working-age population in a village is migrating. Hundreds of thousands are migrating from nearby large villages to Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bhiwandi, and even the Gulf countries. Due to lack of employment in the production sector, they are finding livelihoods in cities as domestic workers, auto drivers, and in service sectors. Migration to distant lands is happening because there are no industries providing local employment within the district.

Therefore, villages are no longer the villages of the past. In movies and literature, if they show the struggles of the poor now, people don't watch, asking "Is it that again?". Others watch them for enjoyment. Globalization has taught how to enjoy life. Finally, even death is being enjoyed. The nature of reacting to war news and visuals is gone, replaced by a tendency to watch and enjoy it like cricket. The mentality of not caring until it affects them personally has grown, and individuals are thinking self-centeredly. The family system's focus is narrowing. Consequently, alcoholism, bad habits, and wasteful expenditure are increasing. Migrations are creating many problems. Millions are watching old human bonds in folk YouTube songs and plays. But these are also for enjoyment, not to empathize with others or society with compassion. Thus, even in villages, human nature is moving closer to urban civilization and culture. Selling five acres of land (two hundred guntas) and prioritizing two guntas of land, houses, and apartments in cities. In a word, there is a growing tendency to experience and possess the visible development in any way possible. With migrations, villages are drying up, and old houses are deteriorating. Parties and political rivalries are also increasing. Thus, villages are becoming "modern" in globalization. Educated people are increasing. Due to lack of profitability and respect, caste-based professions are being rejected. They are rushing towards modernity. The urban population is increasing. The village population is decreasing. When decentralized development models are implemented at the Mandal, District, and Constituency level, the cost of living decreases, and employment opportunities increase.

04-Jul-2025

More by :  B.S. Ramulu


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