Almora district is situated in Kumaon hills of the Himalayan range, in the state of Uttarakhand. It has a hilly terrain with an average height of 1800 m above sea level. Almora and Ranikhet are the two major towns. Almora town is around 365 km from National capital, Delhi. Other than these two major towns, rest of Almora district comprises of big and small villages. 95 per cent of the area falls under rural category. The hills of Almora are beautiful and alluring. The pristine villages, majestic views of the white Himalayas and a host of temples offer a lot for tourists and travelers alike.
Chhani Village in Almora District
View of the Himalayas from Ranikhet town
The famous Katarmal Sun Temple
However, the daily life of people living here, is quite another story. Lack of infrastructure - roads, public transport, electricity, water etc., dismal employment opportunities, non existent medical facilities and lackluster educational facilities are the major challenges faced by people living in the rural areas of Almora district. The further one moves into the interior, the degree of these challenges keep on increasing.
Around 40 per cent villages are not accessible by an all weather road. In many of such places, roads have been carved but not yet paved. Only vehicles with big tyres can ply on these roads during dry months. In the rainy season, even these vehicles avoid taking this risk. During rains, the mud and rocks become slippery and sometimes the road washes away or huge pits appear because of earth shifting below the ground. Some of the interior villages do not even have roads carved as of now. People living here are accustomed to walking long distances daily for going to market, work, bank etc. as these facilities are usually available along the main roads.
Unpaved road to Airikhan and Thikalana villages
Unpaved road to Baraykot village
Even the paved roads are not maintained properly. Every other day, there is news of some road accident in the district. The area is also prone to landslides especially during monsoon. Landslides and washing away of roads causes blockages which can last from a couple of hours to a couple of days.
National Highway Road damaged by frequent landslides ahead of Dhaulchinna
The condition of public transport is equally poor. Though, public transport buses are available to go out of the district, hardly any public transport is available to travel within the district. Private drivers use vehicles such as Tata Maxs, Boleros and Maruti Altos to travel within and outside of district. But, the timing of these are very specific and it becomes almost impossible for people living in interior areas to find a means of travel during early morning or late evening.
Around 35 per cent villages do not have electricity or piped water supply. Even if these facilities are present, there supply remains erratic. Marketplaces are also very limited. Almora and Ranikhet towns have the biggest markets in the district. There are eight to ten smaller towns which lie along the intersection of major roads. They have a small marketplace. Other than these, even bigger villages have a limited number of shops which just cater to basic needs such as grocery, clothing, medicine and hardware.
Other than the limited number of jobs in government and private offices, majority of the population rely on agriculture, contract labour, driving and other vocational professions for their living. Most the of the office jobs are in Almora, Ranikhet and other smaller towns as these towns house majority of the government offices, offices of private banks, showrooms of various brands and so on. People living in the villages mostly depend upon agriculture, husbandry or manual labour for their living.
A house in of the villages
Terraced farms in Supai Village
The villages chiefly have terrace farms of small sizes. Most of the work in these farms is done by hand or by animals. Only in valleys like Chaukutiya and Someshwar, there are comparatively bigger farms and farming equipment and machines are used. The major crops are wheat, mandua, potatoes, onions, mustard, cabbages, gourds, bhang etc. The produce is hardly sufficient for a sustainable living. Most of it is kept for personal consumption. Only the ones with larger farms are able to sell the produce in the market. Since, a large part of the hills is forested, animals like monkeys, wild pigs etc. are not uncommon. Many a times, they eat and destroy the crops.
Mandua crop in one of the villages
People using a scarecrow and cloth barricades to protect their crop
Healthcare facilities are scarce in the district. Almora town has two government hospitals and Ranikhet town has a government hospital and one hospital for defence personnel. There is a block healthcare centre in each of the 11 blocks of Almora district. Other than these, there are few small hospitals, owned by private practising doctors which are again located in Almora and Ranikhet towns. None of the these hospitals are properly equipped for advanced healthcare issues like those of heart, brain, kidneys, liver etc. Nor are these hospitals equipped to handle emergency situations in case of accidents. Most of the patients suffering from serious illness of heart, liver, kidneys, brain etc. and victims of accidents are referred to Haldwani (90 km) or further to Bareilly (200 km). In other smaller towns, one may find some small clinics owned by private practising physicians. People from interior villages do not have any health facilities. They have to visit either the block healthcare centre or some nearby private clinic, which on diagnosis may refer them to hospitals at Almora or Ranikhet towns.
Education remains another big concern in the district. Though, there is a government elementary school in each of the villages, the resources are simply not enough for quality education. Most of these elementary schools have two classrooms and two teachers. These two teachers teach all subjects and grades (one to five), in addition to school management. The learning levels of children in these schools remain quite low as evident in ASER (http://www.asercentre.org/p/51.html?p=61) reports. Almora, Ranikhet and other smaller towns have a host of private schools, but they are mainly business driven and hardly focus on the higher aim of developing critical and sensitive thinkers.
A government primary school in one of the villages
Historically, the people living in the hills have been hard working because of the geographical realities. They have toiled hard and and worked in harmony with nature for their living. If we go to interior areas, we can still find such people. The challenges described above have simply become part of their lives and they hardly ever complain about them. On the other hand, there are cases where entire villages have migrated to urban areas because of the above mentioned challenges. Technology has also penetrated the region, except for some of the very remote areas. Though, it has its advantages, some people here have an opinion that technology like televisions, mobiles and social media has actually made people lazy. They say that it has disconnected them from their present lives by presenting them with a dream of a 'better' 'developed' world. Our politicians often claim that the villages are developing - mobile and internet has reached the remotest village, people have access to mass media and they are participating in nation building. Contemplating these contrasting views, I often wonder about the meaning of the term 'development'. People do not have access to proper education and healthcare, they struggle for their daily meals, but they are developing as they have mobile phones and cable TV?
Except for the unique geography, such realities exist in most of rural India. Indian government and other non-governmental organisations are working to solve these challenges, but are yet to come up with a sustainable and scalable model. At present, most of their policies and strategies fail to address the interconnectedness among the challenges described above and are usually focussed on a single problem. This has led to mass migration towards urban places. Urban India is already struggling to cope up with overpopulation. Pollution, water shortage, traffic, rising socio-economic inequity, crime rates etc. have already become huge concerns. Perhaps, at this point, a holistic model of development combining livelihood (with special focus on agriculture), education (with special focus on vocational education), healthcare, infrastructure and environment needs to be researched, to change the face of rural India.