Roads and electricity transform rural life

According to villagers in randomly selected villages across agro-ecological zones in Bangladesh, food security has improved to the extent that rural people do not any more have to eat non-edible vegetables or look confusedly at strained-off water from boiled rice (ekhon kechu-ghochu khaite hoina, ba fener jonno fal fal kore takae thakte hoina). If not anything else, at least three meals a day are now available. The grain of truth in this feeling of comfort by the rural people is also supported by contemporary writings on food. For example, the fiery poems of the earlier decades - truly reflecting the acute food crisis - are hardly heard of these days. Verses like 'when acute hunger haunts, the moon appears as a flashed bread' (Khudar rajje prithibi goddomoy, chad jeno jholsano ruti), and 'Give me rice, bastard, else I shall swallow up the map' (Bhaat De Haramjada, Noiley  Manchitro Khabo) have seemingly vanished into thin air possibly because those lines don't reflect the realities of today. On the other hand, the most malignant seasonal food insecurity (monga or mora kartik) no more captures newspaper headlines.
The villagers further reveal that the strength of the hero called Modern Varieties (MV) was greased by infrastructural development such as roads, markets, electricity and irrigation. The reason that rural areas could shave off many of the early features are adducible to the development of infrastructure. Tarashankar Bandopadhyay in his novel Rai Komol also referred to the implications of expanded infrastructure:
That time is no more. Time has radically changed. Railway line passes through the fields. Kutcha roads have turned paved. Motor buses breathlessly run through roads. Canal has been created by embankments on the river. People have replaced raw tobacco (Hookkah) with bidi cigarette. The younger generation has become civilised by shedding napkin on shoulder, wearing small in place of long shirts, and having haircuts of 6 -10 anna fashion. The attitude and gestures of gentle farmers has changed (Translated).
  Roads have reduced the distance between rural and urban areas to increase mobility and malleability with access to inputs becoming timely and cost-effective and marketed surplus has gone up. Expansion of communication network, led by roads, has also helped spread of NGO activities and extension services in every nook and corner of the country. People view that extension networks on family planning, literacy, health and sanitation etc. have positively impacted upon fertility reduction, increased school enrolment and falling infant mortality. As Shamsuddin Abul Kalam puts in 'Poth Jana Nai': "It isn't a road per se….. It's a road to a new life of happiness and affluence. The vegetables pass through the road. Even thankuni pata (a herb used in medicine)  never valued or looked at in rural areas - fetches a fair price in towns…Slowly all commodities move towards cities. People become busy in earning more money; running between village and towns intensifies" (Translated).
Another player in the drama of rural transformation is mechanised irrigation. Modern irrigation has turned barren lands fertile. There was a time when farmers - distressed by severe drought - had to shed tears for want of water in their fields. But, irrigation machines now profusely pour water in paddy fields; leaves get green in dry season. Initially the 'water lords' monopolised the water market by virtue of their control over procurement of irrigation equipment and credit market. An inclusive water market failed to grow due to monopoly price and 'whims' of the so-called water lords. With deregulation in distribution and import liberalisation of irrigation equipment, water market grew competitive and easily accessible. In many farm households in most of the villages, there is a shallow machine. The fertiliser market also underwent radical reform as the market was deregulated and privatised. For the same reasons, availability of fertilisers has become timely and cost-effective. By and large, under a competitive input market regime, the productivity of lands has gone up yielding 20-30 maunds of paddy per bigha per season. Farmers now shed tears of joy! On the other hand, and in tandem with increased yield, the Green Revolution has also created space for crop diversification. Transformation of subsistence into commercial agriculture is rapidly underway; single cropped lands have turned into multiple cropped ones leading to increased cropping intensity.
Access to electricity played another role of a side-actor. Two-thirds of the villages are now reported to be covered by electricity. Once fallen in pitch dark after the dusk, most of the lightless households in rural Bangladesh have got lighted. Electricity has brought radical change in irrigation facilities, entertainment, expansion of economic activities and education of children. Rural areas witnessed long and dreadful nights in the past; now night has become short and fearless. In the East Laguna village of the Philippines, as revealed by Yujiro Hayami and M. Kikuchi - fertility level has been reduced following electricity with couples spending more time watching television than enjoying their times in bed. May be, the same has been happening in the villages of Bangladesh. It isn't unusual either as radios and televisions carry out special awareness programmes on family planning, education and social development. The impacts are immensely positive: average current fertility level (child-woman ratio) is now 35 per 1,000; household size is 4.2. Proportion of children fewer than five is 10 per cent and the share of working population is about 60 per cent. The days of high dependency ratio is almost over, and a scope for dividend apparently stands in the wing.  The reduction in fertility and household size, according to the farmers, are important driving forces in the transformation. Rural people seem to be swelled with happiness as reduction in household size has generated surplus for spending in non-food items such as education, health and housing. In their view, with less numbers of eaters (Khaoner lok kom), it has become easier to meet food demand from meagre quantity of land.
By and large, expanded access to roads, electricity, and MVs has led to the spread of non-farm activities. Infrastructural development has positively led to mobility to keep rural people on the move. One-fifths of rural households have at least one migrant member and the share of remittance to total household income stands at 20 per cent. The impact of the infrastructural development has changed the sources of income also. For example, income from non-agricultural activities now accounts for about two-thirds of household income with agriculture contributing one-thirds. A few decades back, the ratio was just the reverse.
The writer is a former Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.
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