Infrastructure Development in Rural Areas: A Case Study of Bhaderwah Tehsil

Abstract

The present study is a generous attempt to find out the infrastructure development in the four selected villages of Bhaderwah Tehsil, i.e., Thanala, Sungli Chinta, and Khellani. For the said paper, the primary source of data has been utilized from the field survey 2022, which is acquired using a well-defined questionnaire. It is found that all four villages, i.e., Thanala, Sungli, Chinta, and Khellani, have transport facilities, wherein Thanala has 100% Kaccha road with poor connectivity to the main road, Sungli has 75% Pacca road with good connectivity to the main road, and the remaining 25% road is still Kaccha or under construction. In village Sungli, 50% of the population owns a vehicle, which is the highest among all the four villages, while the remaining 50% use public transport services as a mode of transportation, i.e., vans or taxis. In village Thanala, 100% of the population uses public transport services as a mode of transportation, and people don't have their own vehicles. In villages Sungli and Chinta, 100% of the population gets drinking water from water pipelines, whereas in Thanala, 58.3% get water from pipelines and 41.7% get water from springs. In village Thanala, 100% of the water pipelines are in poor condition, whereas in village Chinta, 100% of the water pipelines are in average condition. In village Sungli, 75% of people have proper sewage facilities, and almost 75% drain their sewage water into main drains, which is the highest among all the four villages, while the remaining 25% have improper sewage conditions, whereas in village Thanala, 100% of the population has improper sewage facilities, and almost all the sewage water drains into the open fields. In village Thanala Sungli, people don't have proper disposal facilities to dispose of their waste, and 100% of the population disposes of their waste in open fields, whereas in village Chinta, 53.4% of people use dustbins to dispose of their waste, which is the highest among all the four villages. Villages Sungli and Chinta have 100% toilet facilities, whereas in village Thanala, only 25% of people have toilet facilities, which is the lowest among all the four villages. Chinta village has duration of 15–18 hours of electricity, which is the highest among all the four villages, whereas village Thanala has duration of only 5–10 hours of electricity, which is the lowest among all the four villages. Village Khellani has the highest number of primary and middle schools, i.e., 5 and 2, respectively, whereas village Sungli has the lowest number of primary and middle schools, i.e., 1 and 2, respectively, but almost 76% of the people of village Sungli are satisfied with school facilities, which is the highest among all the four villages. All four villages have drinking water facilities in schools, but there is no facility available to purify the water. All four villages also have toilet facilities in their respective schools, but the condition of the toilets is poor in all four villages. All four villages have medical facilities in the form of dispensaries, and village Chinta has the highest number of doctors, whereas village Sungli has no doctor at all. All four villages have telephone line connectivity, but village Thanala has 100% poor network connectivity and internet facility, while Sungli and Chinta have 100% good network connectivity, with 80% good internet facility in Sungli and 66% good internet facility in Chinta. Sungli is only 5 km away from the market while Khellani is 35% far away from the main market which is highest among all the four villages. On the basis of above analysis some recommendation have been suggested like proper maintenance of rural roads to ensure the proper connectivity of these far flung villages with other parts of the country, restoration of public transport service in these villages, quick implementation of water projects in these far flung villages under Jal Jeevan Mission 2024, proper maintenance of water pipelines, to build proper drainage system for sewage water and the installation of community dustbin in these remote villages, electrification of these villages, installation of telephone and internet network towers and deployment of adequate number of medical staff.