NEW DELHI, Sept 26 – India needs to implement a twin-tracked development programme if it aims to bring in rural prosperity that ensures employment potential and holistic socio-economic progress, former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam said.
The main programme is Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA), which has to be supplemented with a feeder project that would become the backbone for all the sustainable empowerment missions.
Dr Kalam said this while inaugurating an international summit at Amritapuri, Kollam, Kerala, on the occasion of the 60th birthday celebrations of spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma).
Explaining the two concepts at the summit on “Our villages, Our World: What can we Offer?,” he lauded the Mata Amritanandamayi Math (MAM) for launching a programme to adopt 101 villages in the country.
He noted that the Amrita University should focus more on developing a model for sustainable development of villages through implementation of PURA systems.
Amrita University is a multi-campus, multi-disciplinary research university in India started by Amma. It is ranked as one of the best research university in the country.
Dr Kalam, who dwelled on the topic “Possible methodology for Amrita institutions to contribute for rural development”, stressed the need to have a comprehensive model for the development of villages.
“India has 600,000 villages where 70 per cent of the people are living. Bridging the rural-urban divide is closely interlinked with the mission of overcoming poverty and inequity,” he noted.
He pointed out that about half of the world’s extreme poor live in the villages and rural areas.
“Hence, driven by the need of education, healthcare and better income, the rural population is migrating to urban areas with a hope to get a better chance to opportunities, but they often meet with despair. This further contributes to urban poverty as well as leading to stresses and societal turbulence,” he said.
This makes it imperative to empower the villages by bringing sustainable development, he said, emphasising on core competence of the villages and creation of right solutions to suit the needs of the particular village cluster, which is the essence of PURA – that has been a proven success in certain belts of western and central India.
Later, answering questions posed by the audience, Dr Kalam said aggressive economic development was the only way to bring in peace and prosperity in the regions, which were infested with insurgency, and militancy.
– BERNAMA
