Introduction
India is a vast country where ninety percent of the people live in villages, where agriculture is the main industry and where standards of work and labor are old fashioned those of living very low judged by the civilized and progressive countries of the world. Economists say that India is a rich country where people live. The wealth of the country lies buried in the bowels of the earth. Besides these, India is a land of extremes of riches and poverty. Some people are opulently rich while some are pathetically poor. India is and old believer in moral and spiritual values
Vices of Indian rural life
Indian rural life suffers from serious defects and vices. These defects and vices have always stood in the way of our progress. Illiteracy, want of sanitation, a spirit of litigation, indebtedness, old and hackneyed methods of labour and industry, wasteful practices in religious and social ceremonies, superstitions, fatalism, idleness, unwillingness to adopt modern methods of agriculture and exploitation by middlemen resulting from. lack of transport facilities are the major ills of the Indian rural life.
Various reforms suggested
Indian villagers are illiterate. Illiteracy is the root cause of all vices of Indian life. Education should be free and compulsory for boys and girls in villages. Night schools should be opened for adults. Villagers should be asked to be neat and tidy of living. They should be properly educated to improve health and sanitation of villages. Their rude and mud cottages, wells and pools of dirty water surrounding those cottages present an ugly scene of in-sanitation.
Hospitals should be established in villages for medical relief. Medical doctors are unwilling to work in villages and the Government is equally unwilling to open hospitals. There should be an immediate change in the outlook of the doctors and the Government. The importance of family planning should be impressed upon the villagers. In cities people want to have few children but in villages people look upon children as the gifts of God and want to have as many children as possible. This is one of the main reasons of their misery.
Scientific outlook towards life
In spite of the quick progress of science, villagers have failed to realize the contribution of science to agriculture. They should be asked to adopt scientific methods of agriculture to improve their economic condition. Traditionally, Indian villagers are fatalists. That are satisfied with what they have and they do not try to achieve what they do not have. They should be inspired to work as hard as possible shaking off idleness. They should be asked to be Progressive in outlook, not Conservative, Superstitions have undermined the major part of the energy of villagers. Faith in superstitions and fate can be shaken off only by means of literacy.
Consolidations of holdings, Self Government and Cottage Indus tries
The process of rural reforms is a long one. It cannot be completed within a month or year. Small land holding should be consolidated. Co-operative Societies should be established. Villagers should be encouraged to avoid litigation and should be trained in Self Government. They should be made conscious of their duties and responsibilities in free India. For some months between two crop sea sons, the villagers do not have any work to utilize their time. Cottage industries should be started in villages to keep the farmers and laborers busy throughout the year. Vocational training centers should also be opened in villages.
Conclusion
In free India, conditions have changed favorably. The Five Year Plans have been completed and India has launched upon her Sixth Five Year Plan. Indian villagers are not to be poor and miserable now as they had been in the past. Our National Government and State Governments have done great work in this direction. Indian villagers require complete reorientation Indian villagers should be given sufficient means of irrigation, good seeds and fertilizers. They will solve the problem of food permanently.