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The disparity tantrums

25 January 2008

All of us know and acknowledge the existence of disparity in living conditions between rural and urban areas in Bhutan. What many of us do not think about is the extent of the disparity, the concern it raises and its implications. It is now time to redirect our national policies to play down the disparity and strengthen the existing policies towards the direction. The recent Bhutan Living Standard Survey (BLSS) 2007 reiterates some stark differences in the living conditions of rural and urban lives. Statistics reveal that urban people are far more advantaged than rural people which might be the reason why their outlook of life is discrete.

The survey reveals rural people prioritising basic infrastructure like road, electricity and water supply to improve their welfare while urban people consider employment, housing, and land and resettlement to improve their welfare. The needs are different. The wants are different. The priorities are different.

Poverty analysis shows that 23.4 percent of the Bhutanese are poor which constitutes 30.9 percent of poor rural people and only 1.7 percent of urban poor. The survey implicitly does not state but shows dzongkhags further away from Thimphu like Zhemgang and Samtse to have high poverty measures followed by Mongar, Lhuntse and Samdrup Jongkhar. Thimphu also has the highest literacy rate of 72 percent with Gasa on the other end with 40 percent.

The survey show that 32 percent of the urban people never attended formal schooling while the figure doubles in rural areas. Why is it relatively difficult to attend schools in rural areas? On the health front, teenage pregnancy in rural areas is twice as much in urban areas. A review of women who gave birth in the last 12 months (prior to the study) shows 80 percent urban women to have availed medical care during childbirth while it was less than half of the women in rural areas.

The average monthly household expenditure of urban households is almost double than a rural household indicating a higher spending capacity of urban people which is a derivative of higher income.

While 68 percent of the households have access to electricity nationwide, the figure is 97 percent in urban areas and 56 percent in rural areas. With such stark differences, we need not look far to identify reasons for rural-urban migration which the government has noted to be a concern.

With 70 percent of our population living in rural areas, it is imperative that rural development has to precede urban growth in the short-run to balance development. In March, Bhutan will have the first democratic government. It will be important for our new leaders to acknowledge, understand and then take measures to address the disparity between urban and rural lives. It cannot be done with one particular project. It has to be a wholesome development policy, in other words there has to be an equitable and balanced socio-economic development as envisaged by Gross National Happiness and not only socioeconomic development.

The new leaders could start by thinking twice before starting projects like the muchdelayed and criticised Nu. 530 million 6.2-kilometre Thimphu-Babesa expressway, the money for which could have otherwise been channeled to provide electricity to 5,300 rural households (BPC estimates the cost of providing electricity to one rural household to be Nu 100,000).

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