There cannot be a smart city without smart people. The same applies to a state. One needs only to visit a fancy, newly developed public facility and see the corners splattered with ‘paan’ spit to realise this. People will raise or lower the quality of their surroundings according to their understanding of life. It is not necessarily their fault, as it reflects conditioning instilled in them from childhood. A child who sees a parent drive recklessly and without consideration is likely to pick up those habits. So, good habits have to be inculcated from childhood to develop a civilised society.
As a small and viable social and economic unit, Uttarakhand has been able to do better than many other states since its formation twenty-four years ago, thanks to the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. It had many things going for it – an already established pilgrimage circuit that could be developed to enhance revenues; a population that had the ability to work hard and survive in difficult circumstances; centres of school education that provided a good start to its children, which was quickly built upon by establishing institutions of higher learning that reduced considerably the need to go elsewhere for advanced studies. It had the good fortune to have the late ND Tiwari as the Chief Minister in its formative years, whose vision and understanding of government functioning provided the foundation of growth in many directions. While the migration from the hills did continue, the cities of the plains have acted as a check dam in that many employment seekers have not had to go to other states. In fact, the situation now is such that there is inward movement of workers required to keep the economy firing.
However, the pace of growth has brought with it many challenges. The people need to decide what trade-offs they are willing to make for the lifestyle they desire. Dehradun has become the metaphor for this existential question. In the old days, it was a great place for retired folk to come and live, but the youth had to leave for education and jobs. Now that both are available locally, society must adjust for the coexistence of both. That requires a culture unique to the state’s temperament. It must be practiced in everyday life and communicated to all in an interactive way. Otherwise, all the progress will be lost in the morass of urban alienation.
