The pictures in this series I got from a cousin of mine just as a humour. I had quite a laugh when I first looked at those pictures. But later, when I gave a serious thought, those pics were not funny, they were satarical to me. I posted those pictures as just other regular posts. I think some people are offended by it. As I had said in my previous post as well, they are actually to depict in what dire situations are the rural regions of the indian subcontinent. Now I think I have to change the title into "It happens only in SAARC".
In the past fifty years, the world has seen great lot of changes - whether it may be in the field of politics, industralization, education, medicine - you name it, everything has changed. They are not the same as they used to be.
By this wind of change, the South Asia subcontient is also affected. The urban areas started growing rapidly, massive industralization started in the region, in short, development (as termed by the modern people) came to the region. This is a good thing to happen. This region has always been mystic to the west. The orient was regarded as the dark region. But now, with the introduction of western technology and modern ideas, the orient is no longer mystic as it was before, but now it is on the run to take over the world. As I think about it now, I get happy as we are now on the verge of becoming the leaders of the world.
This happiness, has come with some dear cost. We are loosing our originality and forgetting our fellow people. The pictures I posted in the series, they depict the actual situation in the rural areas of the subcontinent.
With rapid urbanization, people from the villages swarmed into the big cities in search for work and food since everything got centered in the big cities only. This is still happening in Nepal, and India as well. This way, the rural areas started getting emptied from their able workforce and in the other hand, the big cities are getting flocked by people of all kinds. Too much crowded are the big cities now. Check Bombay, Banglore, Delhi, Kathmandu or any other cities by people migrating from the villages far and near. This has lead to high crime rates, increase in slum areas and poor living conditions in some parts of the big cities. I think this the biggest problems that most of the developing countries are facing.
The reasons for this, as I think, is improper or unplanned development or urbanization. This has affected the south asia region the most. While development is being planned, due to some reasons, rural areas have been left out or the projects are only focused in the urban areas (this is the condition here in Nepal, all the good things are here in Kathmandu only. So thats why I am here). All the new technologies are replacing the age old methods that the village people are using to cultivate their land, or make different goods (eg. plastic replaced mud utensils in the start of the last century) and so on. So the jobs are getting cut from the village. Due to lack of employment (hence lack of fund), people rush to cities with big dreams in their head. What they get is suffering and fight for survival.
I think this is the biggest problem persisting in this world right now (except George Bush's "War against Terrorism"). We humans, being social animals, should focus on such social issues more than following a bastard fanatic. This problem is not only of south asia, but of the whole world. This is happening everywhere.
As I think, there is very great need to solve this problem and stop this migration. We need to go back to our villages and establish our solid grounds there. As King Gyanendra says, "development should start from the grassroot level." I strongly agree with him (but I doubt if he will do what he says!). We should go back to the villages, take the modern technology, blend it with the age old traditional methods. The products of the rural areas should be provided market in the big cities. For this, I have already wrote my ideas in my previous post. We need to take roads everywhere. If all goes well, as in my dreams, then in the span of few years, people won't leave their home in villages in search of work in big cities. They will have a happy life and peace will prevail on earth.
I am not a strategist or planner. I am just a small time guy with ideas that may work or not. Of course, even if the countries follow the path I just described, there is much bureaucracy involved (and corruption as well). And it will take ages for things to work out.
If all things go smoothly, then the pictures I posted will be a history (and I want this to happen).
I hope you guys agree with me on this.
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