Gram Swaraj: The Sustainable Model for Rural Industrialisation and Employment

Author(s):  
Bhaskar Kumar Kakati

This article discusses the relevance of Gram Swaraj or village self-governance and rural industries in the context of pandemic-ravaged countries like India. Drawing mainly from Gandhian Gram Swaraj ideas and secondary sources, it discusses the impact on informal sector workers, their rural–urban–rural migration and precarious livelihood question, the need for rural industries and the adaptation and application of Gram Swaraj ideas. The analysis has implications for considering these ideas for creating sustainable employment and livelihood in rural areas in countries like India.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evans Taabu Okumu ◽  
Joash Moenga

Abstract The study investigates the impact of urban-rural migration on income and occupation. The research aims to estimate the probabilities and significance of income and occupational change across different socio-economic characteristics and demographic profiles upon return to the rural areas from Nairobi city, particularly after the enactment of the 2013 Kenya devolution policy. The paper draws upon exploratory research using data comprising 69 interviews with the return migrants after they had established a stay in rural areas, two years subsequently after migrating from Nairobi city. By applying the empirical methods of probit regression model, the study finds that significant probability for income change varies across different socio-economic attributes and demographic profiles. Occupational change and associated probabilities are significantly determined by low education level, female gender, the old age, huge rural land size, and low migrant’s job-related expertise level. For both income and occupational change, rural land size more than 2.5 acres is a significant incentive for urban-rural migration; given the likelihood of return migrants shift to agriculture and in a long run establishes a robust source of income. This, after assigning other dummy variables, and setting the baseline at two years.


Author(s):  
Milica Igić ◽  
Mihailo Mitković ◽  
Petar Mitković ◽  
Milena Dinić-Branković ◽  
Jelena Đekić ◽  
...  

Rural areas in Serbia occupy about 3/4 of total country territory and they are home for almost half of total population. These areas are characterized by very heterogeneous environment with not expressed anthropogenic negative influence. Because of a few types of the settlements and very rich rural and natural landscapes, there are great opportunities for development of diverse economies, multifunctional use, and a variety of different activities. This chapter discusses rural tourism development in the Region of the Southern and Eastern Serbia and its impact on the urban-rural synergy. The main goal is to investigate the impact of the tourism development on the connections on the relation urban to rural on the example of this region, and to point out importance of this synergy for future balanced rural and regional development. Rural tourism represents drive for urban-rural synergy and it is one of the key factors of rural development.


2001 ◽  
Vol 40 (4II) ◽  
pp. 519-533
Author(s):  
Nasim Shah Shirazi ◽  
Muhammad Ilyas ◽  
Mehboob Ahmed

There exist a large number of studies related to the estimates of government budgetary redistributive effects and its related problems with regard to different countries of the world.1 Studies of the impacts of government expenditures and taxes in Pakistan have been conducted within the framework of either incidence of taxes or the impact of expenditures across the income groups. The studies carried out by Azfar (1972); Jeetun (1978); Alauddin and Raza (1981) Malik and Saqib (1985, 1989) cover different aspects of taxation—tax incidence, progressivity or regressivity of the tax system across the income groups/individuals and regions. These studies did not discuss the expenditure side of the budget. Shirazi (1996) analysed the impact of government transfer programmes (Zakat and Ushr) across the income deciles. Ghaus (1989) studied the incidence of provincial and municipal government service-related expenditure benefits in Karachi metropolitan and therefore, the scope of her study was limited to one city only. Despite the existence of a rich bibliography on the subject of government redistrbutive budgetary effects and its related problems, no study is available which covers the overall redistributive impacts of government budgetary policy in Pakistan. This study explores the impacts of government expenditures and taxes on the distribution of income across various income groups along with net fiscal impacts in the urban-rural areas of Pakistan. The rest of our study is organised as follows. In the following section, Part II, we describe the methodology and data set. In Part III, the results of the study are presented. The Part IV concludes the paper.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 3997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasa Zenic ◽  
Redha Taiar ◽  
Barbara Gilic ◽  
Mateo Blazevic ◽  
Dora Maric ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing implemented shortly after influence physical activity levels (PALs). The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the changes in PAL and factors associated with PALs among Croatian adolescents while considering the impact of community (urban vs. rural living environment). The sample included 823 adolescents (mean age: 16.5 ± 2.1 years) who were tested on baseline (from October 2019 to March 2020; before COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia) and follow-up (in April 2020; during the COVID-19 pandemic and imposed rules of social distancing). Baseline testing included anthropometrics, physical fitness status, and evaluation of PALs, while follow-up included only PALs (evaluated by a standardized questionnaire through an internet application). The results showed a significant influence of the living environment on the decrease of PAL, with a larger decrease in urban adolescents. Logistic regression showed a higher likelihood for normal PALs at baseline in adolescents who had better fitness status, with no strong confounding effect of the urban/rural environment. The fitness status of urban adolescents predicted their PALs at follow-up. The differences between urban and rural adolescents with regard to the established changes in PALs and relationships between the predictors and PALs are explained by the characteristics of the living communities (lack of organized sports in rural areas), and the level of social distancing in the studied period and region/country.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-153
Author(s):  
Daniel Litwin

A growing literature in international law has examined the backlash against international institutions and norms and its links with the rise of nationalist parties and populism. Some of this backlash have been said to originate with populations in small towns and rural areas socioeconomically “left-behind” by economic globalization. These developments have made salient the growing economic and political polarization between urban and non-urban areas. Nevertheless, this urban- rural divide and its implications for international law have only started to be acknowledged. Aligned with these concerns, this article adopts the urban-rural divide as a geographical scale or frame to suggest a new perspective on the investment treaty regime, its backlash and reform. Outside of the particularly virulent nature of its backlash, the regime’s context provides fertile ground for this frame: it is structured so that urban actors principally located in global or capital cities, such as multinational enterprises, global law firms, or national executive branches, make decisions about foreign investment projects that are often located and impact non-urban areas and populations. As this article contends, this context points to the regime’s potential to impact (and address) through geographical affinities the global growth of political and economic polarization between urban and nonurban areas. The impact of these urban decisions on non-urban areas has so far principally been examined through frames that emphasize impact in terms of the “environment” or “local communities” together with calls for reforms to the regime by allocating more policy space for States. An “urban-rural” frame centers additional impacts in terms of non-urban public interest, local participation, and the distribution of resources, and queries the ability of domestic policies alone to respond to them in the pursuit of socially and economic inclusive investment.


2021 ◽  
pp. 151-168
Author(s):  
T. ZWANE

Savings have been described as a significant fi nancial and economic matter and represent an essential driving force of economic growth and development. Despite this, many studies investigating the determinants of savings in South Africa have looked predominantly at the drivers of savings only at a national level, without focusing on urban and rural differences. This is critical as these localities are structurally different, with different characteristics. It is, therefore, likely that the determinants of savings in these unique geographical localities would differ, given the negative impact of past policies of marginalisation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the urban-rural disparities in savings for South African households. We used data sourced from the five waves of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) observed from 2008-2017. The novelty of this study is in its application of a novel two-stage least square estimation technique which addresses possible endogeneity problems which might have plagued previous studies in this field. It was concluded from the research that the determinants of savings are different across samples (urban and rural). We found that having access to land is an important predictor of savings in rural areas where the poor live (positive and significant), but the coefficient is not significant in the urban sample. Although there was a positive correlation between income and savings across samples, but the income impact on savings is higher in absolute values for households residing in rural areas, compared to household living in urban areas. We also found that, despite the coefficient of employment being similar in the direction of the impact (positive and significant) across the samples, the magnitude of the coefficient was stronger in the rural sample. Based on the higher magnitude of the coefficient, we found that household size has more effect in urban than rural areas. The study recommends that government should design and implement policies that foster job creation, even low-skilled jobs, which will generate more income and reduce unemployment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8329
Author(s):  
Chunqi Qiu ◽  
Yufeng Li ◽  
Alan L. Wright ◽  
Cheng Wang ◽  
Jiayi Xu ◽  
...  

Ditch networks play crucial roles in regulating water fluxes with their surroundings. The connectivity of ditches can have great impacts on nutrient migration and transformations. However, connectivity patterns related to ditch networks have rarely been studied, especially the relationships with water quality assessed through spatial analysis. This paper considered ditch connectivity and water quality indicators comprehensively, using spatial autocorrelation and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models, to analyze the impact of ditch connectivity on water quality from urban to rural gradients. The results suggested that water quality in rural areas and towns was better than in suburbs and transition zones, and the different areas exhibited variable spatial ditch connectivity. The Moran’s I index of the connectivity indicators showed the clustering state of spatial distribution, with ditch connectivity explaining 61.06% of changes in water quality. The circularity and network connectivity of the ditches had the most influence on water quality. However, the degree of influence varied with region. Circularity had the greatest impact on water quality in urban areas, and network connectivity had the greatest impact on water quality in township areas. Therefore, future water improvement projects, based on ditch optimization and management, need to consider the more related influencing factors and their spatial differences.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Christa Matthys ◽  
Jan Kok ◽  
Richard Paping

Systematic research on urban-rural variation in demographic behavior is necessary to overcome dichotomous views resulting from studying cities and the countryside separately. After all, a web of interactions facilitating the diffusion of ideas and behavior connects cities and rural areas. That is why it is especially important to study the comportment of migrants moving between urban and rural environments. In line with this argument five case studies are presented in this special issue that use static or dynamic individual-level data to analyze urban-rural demographic differences and life courses of migrants in Europe (Germany, the Netherlands and Scotland), mainly during the nineteenth century. The outcomes show that the places of residence indeed influenced demographic behavior to a considerable extent, although they do not reflect a simple and strict division between cities and rural areas. Rather, demographic behavior was affected by a diversity of local conditions, including various town sizes, calling for a further exploration of the impact of local demographic, working and living conditions. The studies in this issue also warn against simplified views regarding migrants in the past, for instance, their depiction of being of relatively humble social background. For many migrants, their migration was not a definitive break with the place of origin, and they did not assimilate completely to the dominant behavior in their destination. Instead, migrants often remained embedded in and influenced by trans-regional social networks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-73
Author(s):  
Sangam Chaulagain

This article explores the impact of caste microaggressions in classroom activitiesin the countries like Nepal. It focuses on the study of how caste microaggressions are barriers to lower affective filter and promote inclusivity in the classroom. This is a review article based on qualitative research in which the ideas are derived from different secondary sources and are arranged to support how lower-caste students are the victim of caste microaggressions in Nepali society. This article shows that the students of lower-caste families, especially the Dalits, are greatly victimized by discriminatory activities in the schools of rural areas of Nepal. To promote inclusivity and to encourage lower-caste children in learning activities, it is essential to avoid caste microaggression and to emotionally engage such students in classroom activities that have to be initiated by the teachers primarily. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 274
Author(s):  
Hai Zhong ◽  
Zhen Wang

Basic Chinese medical insurance has achieved full coverage, but the inequality between urban and rural areas is still outstanding. Under this background, the government proposed the urban-rural Integrated Medical Insurance System which proposes two kinds of financing modes. Based on the decision-making theory of medical insurance and the logit regression model, this paper studies the influence of two kinds of financing modes on middle-aged and elderly people’s decisions to participate in integrated medical insurance in China. The two financing modes are “single-standard” and “multi-standard”. The results show that the two kinds of financing methods have positive and significant effects, and the incentive effect of “multi-standard” on the integrated medical insurance is greater than that of “single-standard”. Having an urban household registration promotes the development of the “multi-standard”. However, there are some central provinces are not eable to improve the integrated medical insurance participation rate through “multi-standard”. Improving the participation rate of integrated medical insurance can promote the balanced allocation of resources between urban and rural areas, as well as different income groups and regions. Moreover, it can ensure a smooth transition of medical insurance policies. We should hold and boost the financing method of “multi-standard” to guarantee medical insurance integration’s rapid and steady progress in China.


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