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6.
Transport policy initiatives
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Narrator 11:
Around Thiruchuli, new
livelihood options are opening up to villagers as new transport
facilities become available. A road building programme is
improving access to villages, which means more opportunities
for employment as well as better access to healthcare and
education.
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Roads have
been built and improved over a number of years, but rural
road-building accelerated under the DMK-led state government
until May this year, when they lost office.
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Interviewee 8
MALE VILLAGERS
Before the road
to the village had been built, the men would have had to sit
at home during off-season times but now they can travel to
earn money from construction work as well as easily travelling
to and from the neighbouring villages to do farm labouring
work. The road has also meant that the village children can
attend school in the towns to gain a higher level of education
than they could have done in the village. Nowadays, if there
is an emergency, a villager can receive medicines and attention
more easily. Pregnant women are more confident now that they
can be taken to hospital. For social occasions too, a marriage
or funeral, people can come and go until the last bus at 11
o’clock at night. Women are learning to ride bikes so
they can go shopping in nearby towns and villages. The road
is the backbone of the village.
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This interview
actually happened while a PRA exercise with a group of village
women to ascertain the effects of the road was being carried
out. In order to increase the impact of the material below
on gender differences and the benefits of development initiatives,
and because the material actually filmed worked better, the
men’s interview was used. The results of the PRA exercise
were largely the same as the material in the interview.
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Narrator 12:
But improving transport
doesn’t only mean building new roads. The state government
has recently begun to licence new minibus routes, bringing
public transport to people’s doorsteps.
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This minibus
initiative had been established in the cities at the time
of filming and was just starting to make a difference in the
rural areas.
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Interviewee 9
BALA
The minibuses
have had a great effect in my home town. Before, I had to
walk ten kilometres from the nearest bus stop in order to
visit my parents but now the minibuses stop at my door. The
Government have made it possible for private owners to register
new routes that have benefited many villages. These minibuses
travel to places the larger buses did not reach. It really
is a very good scheme because people have gained access to
employment, health and education. The minibuses allow people
to transport their vegetables to market, women can get around
more easily with a greater feeling of security and the prices
of the other buses have also fallen.
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In policy
terms, the minibus story is incredibly successful. On the
face of it, enormous benefits have been gained for very little
outlay by the state, little more than a regulative change.
The reality is as usual more complex, and we could have explored
the down side (eg. the allegedly criminal connections of many
of the operators, loss of income for the state bus companies
etc.).
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Narrator 13:
A significant benefit of better transport is that less people
are forced to migrate to the cities during the off-season.
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7.
Migration
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Interviewee 10
ERSKINE
As an NGO, SPEECH
offer programmes to decrease migration because when people
leave the villages many complications can arise. In some cases
the women who are left behind face social problems and have
to work very hard to survive. If the land is not used and
is overrun by weeds it will develop into a wasteland. It also
becomes harder for the villagers to resolve communal clashes
when the fabric of the community has been affected. The migrants
themselves might improve their skills and earn money but these
do not benefit the community as a whole. The migrants can
also find they are in a weakened position to claim their rights
with access to mainstream health and education denied.
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During the
dry season there is little casual employment in the villages,
and many of the landless migrate for employment. SPEECH have
picked up on the issue, because of the connection to natural
resource management and to communal clashes.
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Narrator 14:
However, migration isn’t always a bad thing for individuals
and families. There are different kinds of migration.
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The idea with
these interviews is to show that migration has different facets.
It can be necessary for individuals to survive, although it
can threaten the survival of others. It can benefit a community
as a whole, or destroy its fabric.
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Interviewee 11
RENGASAMY
When villagers
use their collective intelligence to permanently migrate to
cities they can be very successful. Certain rural communities
know about specific employment opportunities in cities that
urban people remain completely unaware of. In the city of
Madurai, where I live, all of the peanut sellers come from
the same few villages. Maintaining a strong link with their
community, they take up this occupation with a pattern and
wisdom to their choice and do very well. Others who migrate
to the city without these links can flounder in the slums.
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Professor
Rengasamy has a different view, because his work with urban
communities in Madurai brings him into contact with people
who have migrated. SPEECH, on the other hand are biased towards
those who might, or who have been left behind.
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Narrator 15:
In Thiruchuli, investing in transport is successful, because
it multiplies the effects of all sorts of other investments.
If people can get to education, healthcare and other government
services, then you don’t need to build a school, a hospital
and an extension office in every village.
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This wraps
the section on transport and migration up, and links to the
material on the gendered effects of development initiatives.
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Annotated
script for use in conjunction with the video:
