R ural areas, also known as the countryside, are those where population density is quite low and settlements are in open swaths of land. Agriculture and other related activities form the occupation of most people living in these areas. Infrastructure and facilities that are common in urban settings are generally missing. The size and proportion of rural areas varies from country to country. As per World Bank estimates, the worldwide rural population (as percentage of total population) has decreased from 66.4 per cent in 1960 to 46.1 per cent in 2015. Health facilities and indicators in rural areas are poorer when compared to the urban areas in most parts of the world. In India people are migrating to urban areas in search of better pastures. Rural development has a lot of effect on the structural transformation of the economy. It can extensively drive overall consumption in a country and provide the much-needed impetus for industries to operate profitably. Rural economies also provide a lot of agriculture-based raw materials to different industries. More challenges Like the MDGs, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are also focussing on rural development in many ways. Totally, 15 of the 17 goals are related to rural development directly and/or indirectly. These take the form of direct welfare goals and activities and/or opportunities for the rural economy to improve economic prospects. As per the 2011 Census, nearly 69 per cent i.e. 83.3 of the 121-crore people lived in rural areas. The state of rural India is by no means encouraging, be it education, healthcare, sanitation, infrastructure or other indicators. As of February 2017, only 1,51,451 of the 640,867 villages have been declared open-defecation free. The average sanitation coverage in rural India is 58.75 per cent. Rural households across India still have no electricity. A village is considered electrified if electricity is provided in public places such as schools, Panchayat offices, health centres, dispensaries and community centres, and at least 10 per cent of households. In a nutshell, a village can be considered electrified even if 90 per cent of its households do not have electricity! Across India 25 per cent (4.5 crore) of rural households still have no electricity. In Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland, Jharkhand and Bihar, fewer than 50 per cent of rural households have electricity. According to data, 74.5 per cent of rural households have an income of the highest earning member below Rs,5,000 per month. Only 8.3 per cent of rural households have an income of the highest earning member above R10,000 per month. The Economic Survey 2016-17 reveals that the average annual income of a farmer in 17 states across India is Rs20,000. Accordingly, the average monthly income can be worked out to be Rs1,666 and the daily income at R55. The number of farmer suicides makes the scenario even more depressing. A farm household needs to have at least 1 hectare of land to make ends meet every month. But around 65 per cent of households have less than one hectare of land. This means that 2 out of 3 farm households are struggling to make ends meet. The data also shows the hand-to-mouth existence in large parts of rural India.
