What You Learn Living and Working In Villages
70 percent of the people in India live in villages. While people are trying to migrate to cities, village life is still important. It is hard to say which lifestyle is better.
There are good and bad things about living and working in a village in India.
Value of Education
Many children do get access to quality education. Besides the classroom imparted lessons, children usually do not know or do not have access to libraries, knowledge centers and the internet.
Many villages in India do not have a school, but some of them who do, they take pride in it and value it.
After learning about rural education systems, you will be glad that you went to a good school, had access to knowledge and had great teachers.
Respect Everyone
People in villages love having guests and treat you with respect.
They like having outsiders and usually, you are more than welcome to teach them your ways, and in turn learn their ways.
When an outsider needs help they go out of their way to help them. They are more than happy to share their stories and listen to yours.
Physical Exercise
Transportation has improved in villages in India and is well connected to major towns most times.
However, there is little traffic and no access to proper transportation. Some villages are farther to major town.
So, most people walk few kilometers to work. Every other activity in a village, namely, gardening, farming, woodcutting and logistics is done using human power.
So, people do not need to enlist in the gyms. They get lot more exercise than people in the city. You also take fresh in the fresh air than the polluted city air.
Villages are Safer
Crimes, polluted air and road accidents does not make city as safe as villages, which have little or none of it.
There is theft and other crimes. However, a village has a sense of community and people are ready to help each other.
People living in cities are vulnerable to the spread of major diseases and often get lifestyle diseases. These things are less possible in villages.
Peaceful Life
A city life is always busy. People are always in a hurry and often get stressed for various reasons which contribute to sedentary lifestyle.
Vehicles in the city, the construction activities, contribute to noise pollution and turn the quality of air bad.
People in the village sleep peacefully because there are no noises connected to traffic or construction activity.
Only noise you are irritated about are the dogs howling at the moon.
You also spend less in a village than in a city. Villagers do not dream of riches, but a simple life.
Having said these, Indian villages have some disadvantages. Some of the downsides are:
Terrible Healthcare
There are only few doctors practicing in villages. Some villages do not have a health clinic.
People need to travel to a major city or the next town to get treatment.
Hospitals in towns do not have the standards the cities have.
However, I see local governments send health workers to check up on villagers, especially infants and children.
Lack of Amenities
Villagers are usually promised uninterrupted electricity, but get little.
People have to wait for a long time for electricity which is supplied only for few hours in the day on which people depend on, especially for cooking.
Water is something people have to wait a long time for, one week sometimes. This makes life slow there.
Sanitation is also a major concern in a village. India leads the world in open defecation and the government has been trying to improve this situation.
There are many organizations that are teaching people about good sanitation practices.
Village Temple and Politics
The village temple plays an important role. People usually take the advice of the priest before doing anything.
The priests are usually not kind to anyone who oppose their advice or disagree with them.
If you work for the government, you are in the position of power and people will come to you to settle disputes.
People aligned with different political parties might come to loggerheads and usually fail at negotiation.
I saw this first hand when I volunteered at Budubalu, a village near Mysore.
However, they would unite and work together during the village festival.
School Infrastructure
Bad infrastructure in rural schools is one of the evils of rural education. Equipment are usually in a bad condition.
Village schools may not encourage creativity. Students are mostly expected to learn up the alphabets and write it in the tests as taught by the school.
Caste and Discrimination
Rural India has a strong caste systems. Decisions are taken based on this, and is usually ugly.
People from the lower caste are more challenged than the higher caste people even though government is trying to promote equal opportunities.
Caste also plays a major role in politics which is not a surprising.
Conclusion
With more people from cities traveling to villages and educating them of life in cities and because of people from villages traveling to cities for work, things are changing for the better. There are model villages in India that is putting cities to shame.
