Nuh(Mewat)- A Rectifiable Miscalculation of Development
In 2018, NITI Aayog declared a list of 117 Aspirational districts which are affected by poor socio-economic indicators. I belong to Osmanabad (Maharashtra), one of these aspirational districts. With the years of experience of living in Osmanabad, when I was posted in Nuh as a CMGGA, I thought that it won’t be difficult for me to live in Nuh. When districts were allotted, many people started advising me “jitna ho sake utna yahi se le lo, Nuh mai kuch bhi nahi milta hai”(Carry all the possible essential items with you as you won’t get anything in Nuh). I took it as an exaggeration and believed that I will surely get everything at district headquarter, after all, it’s the headquarter.
On the very first day, I was looking for shoes and a clothing shop. I spent an hour looking out for a good shop and to my surprise, the market of district headquarters disappointed me. My notion of “district headquarter is a bustling economic center of the region” was destroyed on the very first day. Later in the first week, we were supposed to interact with officers and employees of the different departments for introductory meetings. But more than half of the chairs were empty as substantial administration working in Nuh is deputed in Nuh with additional charges from other districts. After initial interaction, people opened up and a notion arose that Nuh doesn’t provide whatever a livable built environment demands. Concept of a livable built environment in town planning describes the place where physical attributes of the area such as the structures, environment, proximity, infrastructure, and service dimensions make that area good to live and work in. If we take these parameters into consideration, Nuh is perceived as a backward district with less variety of products in the market, not enough school infrastructure and human resources, water scarcity, less lush green environment, less cleanliness, and what not (Needless to say that positive factors are often ignored). Coming from the background of town and country planning, I tend to look at the areas from the perspective of a town planner. I realized that I have studied maps of a good number of districts and we always introduced districts like “XYZ district is located in this part of the state and is connected by this/these NH(s) and state highways by road and at KMN railway station by railway. River EFG flows through the district. ABC are the important urban centers famously for these trades.” Each time district changed but the outline of the introduction remained the same. But to my surprise, I couldn’t describe Nuh on the same line.
I started thinking, and the word “why?” helped me a lot…
Why is Nuh called aspirational and perceived as backward? Because as per Niti Aayog’s report, the quality of life and economic productivity of the district is poor and low.
Why is it low?
Because Nuh doesn’t have a livable environment and doesn’t offer a good number or quality of economic services.
Why doesn’t Nuh offer a good number and quality of services?
On the supply side, there is a shortage of skilled human resource and on the demand side, locals don’t create demand in the market
Why is there less demand?
The district is dominantly rural and local people don’t have a variety of demands. Working population which can generate demand resides in the surrounding districts.
Why don’t they stay in Nuh?
Why would they? After all, Nuh doesn’t have a livable environment and doesn’t offer a good number and quality of services…….
It is a vicious cycle that should be broken somewhere, I thought.
Another important major concern that struck me(can strike anyone who knows Nuh’s location) was how can the most backward district exist in the backyard of the millennium city of Gurgaon? Is it even possible? Doesn’t the prosperity of a city trickle down to its hinterland? After spending some months in Nuh, now I could visualize why Nuh is stuck and proceeding slowly in the journey of growth and development. What I can conclude from my personal experience and professional background so far is that the working population love to stay in a livable environment with their families and start building their lives by consuming the area’s resources. More the consumption of resources more is the demand and so is the growth. This growth then transforms into social development, high government expenditure, better societies, and a better-built environment. All these attributes help to retain the people in the same society. On the other hand, broken social fabric, inhabitable built environment, absence of resources, and facing hardship in finding fundamental facilities push them away.
Restoring the broken cycle of development
Now, this cycle also cripples the government machinery. The majority of people do whatever they can to stop their transfers to Nuh, they do whatever they can to get transferred from Nuh and Nuh ends up registering more than 50% vacancy in almost all of the departments. But many government champions are trying hard to perform the herculean task to develop the aspirational district with less than 50% staff of sanctioned workforce. When I look at these champions and volunteers from society, I cannot deny that this self-reinforcing cycle of backwardness can be stopped. An “Aspiring Nuh’’ can definitely become an “Inspiring Nuh”. So where to start?
I believe let’s start on all fronts…
Let’s get as many people we can get on board, maybe through handsome perks or the most passionate one … But let’s get them and make them stay here and spend here.
Let’s lift as many people out of poverty as we can so that they can help themselves in lifting their region and build the human capital that can sustain the growth.
Let’s build demand and push start the rusted engine, initially might be through government expenditure.
Let’s do it and let’s do it on as many fronts as we can because it’s the region’s destiny that we are dealing with and we got nothing to lose but everything to gain!!
