Paper is an attempt to define agenda for making villages smart in India in order to overcome major problems of urban India. Agenda also suggests how to make Indian villages self-contained and self-sufficient

1. Making Villages Smart in India
*Jit Kumar Gupta
Former Advisor, Town Planning , Puda
Founder Director College of Architecture, IET Bhadda
Making villages smart in India is not an option but a compulsion, if India as a
nation is to be launched on fast trajectory of development, employment,
prosperity and quality of life. Developing smart villages would also be essential
for making cities smart because 69% of India still lives in villages and most of
the urban problems have their roots in rural areas. Rural India will continue to
dominate the population graph till 2050 when urban and rural India will have
parity in population. Various options for making villages smart have been
described in brief below, which would be of a great relevance in the state of
Punjab, which has high stakes in ensuring prosperity, employment, making
provision of basic infrastructure and preserving valuable agri- led economy.
Regional Planning
In addition, to looking inward, new regime of urban planning should also look
outward so as to link the city with its surrounding areas/ rural settlements. No
city exists in spatial isolation. Every city has its periphery/villages to support it.
This zone of influence varies with the size, location, primacy, accessibility,
population, nature of specialisation, administrative status, amenities, services
etc. The existing pattern of urban planning ignores the critical role and
importance of Villages in sustaining/rationalizing the city growth and
development. In order to minimise prevailing urban ills, new regime of urban
planning will involve an approach which would involve inward and outward
looking at both the cities and the villages.
Most efficient cities in the world have adopted Regional perspective inclusive
of villages and not just looking at cities growth. The Regional approach/model
has helped them in promoting co-operation and collaboration; minimizing local
competition and conflicts, over/under investment in infrastructure, infrastructure
optimization between neighboring cities and rural settlements, for the
establishment of locations of strategic facilities, optimization of resources ,
preventing disasters, promoting and protecting ecology and bio-diversity,
providing recreational activities and overcoming confusion over role and
responsibilities of various agencies. In the process, it has promoted higher
order of co-operation and growth, of not only of the city but of the rural
settlements and the region. Balancing the economic and environmental

2. aspirations of the wider area at the regional level, urban planning has to partner
the regional and metropolitan plans to promote the sustainability. Looking
outward can also help in achieving the objectives of integration and
decentralized planning, enshrined in 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992,
which calls for integrated development of the urban and rural settlements
through the mechanism of preparing District Development Plans at the District
level and Metropolitan Area Plans for the Metro Region.
Regional Planning looks at optimizing the regional resources by promoting
synergies between rural and urban areas and connecting them through a well
defined settlement hierarchy based on the developmental potential of each
settlement, to make them more sustainable with least consumption of resources
and energy.
Pomoting Ruralisation
If India, as a nation, has the distinction of being second largest global urban
system, it also holds the same rank among nations in rural settlements after
China ( One million ) . Rural settlements remain critical for the rational growth
and development of India with 6,40,867 villages holding 69.9% of 1.21 billion
population( 2011 Census), providing basic essentials for human survival ;
making fair contribution to national economy, sustaining large chunk of
employment; holding large reservoir of manpower and providing raw material
for industries.
Villages shall continue to dominate Indian scenario in terms of population, food
and promoting industry using agricultural produce as their basic input. Despite
distinct advantages, rural areas are fast losing to urban counterpart, primarily
due to improved agricultural technologies, ever changing industrial technologies
and desire to improve the economic status, which are leading exodus of rural
population to urban areas.
Looking at the entire developmental context, it can be seen that most of the
urban problems have their genesis in the neglect of the rural areas because
Rural-Urban migration constituted more than 21% of the urban population
growth in India (Census2011).
Growth of slums in Urban India has its roots in rural poverty migrating to
urban areas. In India, cities can never become sustainable, rational, and orderly
or slum free, unless planning and development of villages is put on a fast track.
Thus it becomes critical that rural areas are properly planned, rationally
developed and objectively managed.
Mahatma Gandhi, father of nation, had stated the role and importance of
villages in the context of national development, saying ‘India lives in villages.
If villages perish, India will perish too’.

3. Rural settlements also holds the key to reduce the carbon and ecological
footprints of human settlements and promoting sustainable development of
urban areas because of their small size; less population; compact development;
less transportation needs; lower energy and resource consumption.
Villages live with nature, using natural resources causing minimum damage to
air, water, environment and ecology. The distinct advantages offered by villages
must be leveraged to minimize the climate change and reducing ill effects of
urbanization. This would require a new approach and policy framework to be
put in place providing dedicated support to development of villages through
creating synergies between urban and rural settlements.
This calls for connecting all villages, to the extent possible, with adjoining
urban settlements in order to have access to urban infrastructures by eliminating
the existing disconnect between cities and villages. Where not feasible, large
villages should be identified as growth centres where urban amenities could be
provided for the benefit of adjoining smaller villages by adopting a cluster
approach.
India has 4681 villages with more than 10,000 population and 14,799 villages
with population of 5000(2001) and above, which can be taken up for
development and provision of infrastructure on the pattern of urban areas .All
urban villages and villages falling in the peri-urban areas , should be planned
and developed as integral part of the towns/cities, where they are located.
Considering large number of existing villages numbering over 0.64 million,
India needs to prioritize the rural development in order to reduce migration ,
rationalize the urbanization and reduce global warming.
Strategy of rural development must revolve around with preference going to
states having low urbanization, large number of villages, high poverty rate,
large unemployment and maximum share in national rural-urban migration.
States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Orissa, with
more than half of total villages and large share of out-migration needs to be
taken in the first stage to reduce migration and make urban centres more
rational.
National Rurban Mission( NRuM)
Considering the role and importance of rural areas, India has already launched ,
NATIONAL RURBAN MISSION( NRuM) by the name, Shyama Prasad
Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM), for development of villages based on the
Cluster Approach in September 2015.
Mission aims at strengthening rural areas by provisioning of economic, social
and physical infrastructure facilities. Mission calls for identifying potential
Rural Clusters across the country. 300 rural growth clusters across the country

4. will be taken up for development. First phase would comprise of 100 clusters,
thereafter more clusters will be identified based on the progress of the scheme.
‘Rurban cluster’, would be a cluster of geographically contiguous villages with
a population of about 25000 to 50000 in plain and coastal areas and a
population of 5000 to 15000 in desert, hilly or tribal areas. As far as practicable,
clusters of village would follow administrative convergence units of Gram
Panchayats and shall be within a single block/ tehsil for administrative
convenience.
Rurban clusters would be developed by provisioning of training linked to
economic activities, developing skills & local entrepreneurship and by
providing necessary infrastructure amenities.
The Mission recommends fourteen desirable components for an ideal Rurban
cluster: (i) Skill development training linked to economic activities (ii) Agro
Processing, Agri Services, Storage and Warehousing. (iii) Fully equipped
mobile health unit. (iv) Upgrading school/higher education facilities. (v)
Sanitation (vi) Provision of piped water supply. (vii) Solid and liquid waste
management. (viii) Village streets and drains. (ix) Street lights (x) Intervillage
road connectivity. (xi) Public transport. (xii) LPG (xiii) Digital Literacy. (xiv)
Citizen Service Centres- for electronic delivery of citizen centric services/egram
connectivity.
Components pertaining to agriculture and allied activities would be required to
be given special emphasis while developing these clusters
The mission is based on the vision “Development of a cluster of villages that
preserve and nurture the essence of rural community life with focus on equity
and inclusiveness without compromising with the facilities perceived to be
essentially urban in nature, thus creating a cluster of “Rurban villages”. The
Mission outcomes have been enumerated as:
i. Bridging the rural urban divide- economic, technological and those related
to facilities and services.
ii. Spreading development in the region.
iii. Attracting investments in the rural areas.
iv. Stimulating local economic development with emphasis on reduction of
poverty and unemployment in rural areas.
Smart Villages
In addition to adopting state centric and cluster approach, villages at individual
level have to be planned and developed to make them self-sufficient ,

5. sustainable and independent economic entities in terms of employment, basic
infrastructure, services and day-to-day needs.
Every village should be provided with potable water supply, sanitation, shelter
for all its residents and infrastructure to take care of healthcare and education
needs.
Rural industries should be promoted to make value addition to agricultural
produce besides connecting villages with the formal marketing system to
receive optimum returns of the agricultural produce by eliminating middle men.
Skill development and technology centres should be created to create skilled
manpower, generate employment and improve the quality of manpower.
All village internal roads should be paved with drainage provided.
Houses need to be planned and designed to have good air, light and ventilation
through the construction of model housing using local materials and improved
local technologies.
Animals should be separated from human living and placed outside the human
habitation area, for their care and creating milk co-operatives for generating
resources and employment.
All village activities should be managed through a co-operative system with
employment, income and resources provided to all.
Villages should generate its own electricity through renewable sources and bio-
mass available locally to meet its day- to-day needs of agriculture, lighting and
cooking.
Village ponds should be protected and developed to preserve the source of
water and promote recreational activities.
Villages should have community centre for holding public functions,
community deliberations, socialization, creating awareness, promoting
innovations, new ideas and new technologies.
Technical institutions should be actively involved in creating skilled manpower
for promoting the planned development of rural areas.
Such an approach would make ruralisation an effective tool in mitigating global
warming and promoting smart and sustainable villages.