Mahatma Gandhi National Rural University in Odisha

Odishanewstoday.com, Feb 14, 2011
News Desk (By Dr. Digambara Patra): For various socially challenged or weaker groups, the Union Government has been establishing specialized Universities. Then why not a Mahatma Gandhi National Rural University in rural districts of the country?


They included Aligarh Muslim University for the minority, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University for tribals, Women (under proposal), etc under central university act. On the other hand, institutions such as IITs, NITs, AIIMS, IIM, Central Universities, proposed Innovative Universities, etc have been being established towards generating high quality human resource and research in the country.

Majority or most of these high quality institutions are located in either state capital region or large urban area. India has higher percentage of rural than urban population, the number of urban students qualifying into high quality institutions such as IIT, NIT, AIIMS, IIM, IISc, Central Universities etc compared to their rural counterpart clearly shows that the urban population has an upper hand to enter these institutions due to (i) easy access to these institution for reference and guidance, (ii) various available coaching centers in the urban area to train and qualify for the national entrance test, (iii) better awareness and economic condition of urban population to support their children through coaching, and last but not the least (iv) Government apathy towards rural and backward cluster while establishing such high quality institution across the nation.

Due to lack of accessibility, awareness and economic condition, large section of rural populations irrespective of communities are relatively left in void compared to their urban counterparts when it comes to access to quality education, bringing differences in economical conditions and opportunities, which finally encourages large rural migration to urban areas from rural and backward cluster of India.

Large part of rural Odisha in South Western part is known for rural mass migration, whereas major cities in the nation are getting increasingly populated and polluted due to large rural migration, some of the report claims these rural migrations to urban area in India could be one of the highest in the world.

National integration would not work, if periphery would remain dependent on metropolis in far off place for University education and research.  The problem of place like Kalahandi, Nuapada, Nabaragnpur etc to depend on far off place like Bhubaneswar, Berhampur, Sambalpur etc for University education is quite disheartening as many poor but talented students can not avail such opportunity due to economic reason.

There has been a demand for a University in backward place like Kalahandi since more than two decades.  But still in Government level such demand is being undermined. Local disappointment is growing after state Govt. denied the Central University opportunity in Kalahandi in the last moment.

Additionally, large part of the nation is rural areas and existing methods and technology applied to solve rural problems is equally non-reliable and inefficient like found to solve urban problem, which justify the need for modern new technology, creativity and innovation to solve rural problem through Rural University.

Due to inadequate & poor quality of human resource generation, social imbalance is increasing in backward clusters of the nation which is encouraging Maoists activities and other social dissidents. This is being growingly witnessed in Kalahandi and neighboring backward cluster since past decade. Whole KBK-Kandhamal districts are present Maoist affected.

Similarly, large part of the rural area, especially backward pockets and cluster in the nation, need quality human resource generation to boost local development by triggering growth of local economy.

Economists also agree investment while establishing National/Central Universities mainly goes to construction sectors which directly boost local economy. Such investment is always given to metro or large urban areas like Bhubaneswar of the country by totally ignoring rural India like Kalahandi, though quality can still be maintained while establishing such institution in rural and backward cluster.

For solving rural problems and generating high quality human resource in the socially backward rural pockets, India should build “National Rural University” in the line of Central or Innovative University in each rural, backward and economically poor pocket and cluster across the nation.

The father of the nation was a great advocate of rural economy and development; he had visualized and dreamt to develop the nation through rural development programs and rural economy. To begin with, an institution in the name after father of the nation such as “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural University at Kalahandi” could be made in the 12th plan period starting from 2012-13.

The proposed “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural University at Kalahandi” can be established though Governmental initiative or Public Private Partnership (PPP) as Odisha has higher percentage of rural population and KBK-Kandhamal region is most backward rural region in the nation. Kalahandi is the central location of KBK-Kandhamal, which is most backward rural pocket of India and all the districts are prone to Maoists and poverty.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural University (MGNUR) should be first established at Kalahandi and subsequently, the branch or off campus of the proposed University can be established in the other rural pockets and clusters in various other states distributed across the nation.

Since rural economy of backward cluster is in general agriculture and forest based, the economic condition is not lucrative towards establishment of PPP based institutions. Therefore, emphasis can be given to establish such institution though Ministry of Human Resource Development or Ministry of Rural Development or partnership of both the ministries.
Dr. Digambara Patra is the Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry at the American University of Beirut.