SOCIAL WELL-BEING and ENVIRONMENTAL STRUCTURE of VILUGES in MEERUT DISTRICT Mnittt of S^^Iloiop^P

SOCIAL WELL-BEING AND ENVIRONMENTAL STRUCTURE OF VILUGES IN MEERUT DISTRICT DISSERTATION SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF Mnittt of S^îloiop^p IN GEOGRAPHY MOHAMMAD TAHIR DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH 1987 DS1223 C 0 I] T S II T S ACKMOWLEDGSI'iEIIT (i) LIST OF TABLES (ii) LIST OF MAPS (iii) INTRODUCTION 1 Q-IAPTER I Conceptual Framev:ork of Environmc'-!t and Social We]1-beino CHAPTER II Revj.ev; of v70rlc don!5 so far 27 CHAPTER III Historical and Geographical settinu .... 33 of study area QiAPTER IV Social v;ell-beina and environment.J structure 61 ChAPa?£R V CONCLUSION 80 BIBLIOGRAPHY 84 * Vr Vr Vr ** ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I offer my sincere thanks to my supervisor Professor' Abdul Aziz, for his critical comments/ valuable suggestions, encouragement and sustained interest in my work. I also extend my thanks to Professor Mehdi Raza, Chairman Depart ment of Geography, Aligarh Muslim University, Aliuarh, to provide me a chance of doing v;ork in the department. I am also thankful to my senior colleague Dr. Fakhruddin, Lecturer in Geography Departmont, for his able guidance from time to time. My thanks are due to my parents for their constant financial support. I record my gratitude to the Librarians of Seminar Library. I am also grateful to my research fellows for their help during the preparation of this v;ork. ( Ma-IAI-n/i^\D TAKIR ) : 11 : LIST OF TA3LES TABLE I Elements of environmental structure 63 TABLE II Elements of environmental structure in villages of different size. 55 TABLr^ III Elements of environmental structure accor ding to their distance of villages from an urban centre, 59 TABLE IV Composite scores of well-being accorcinc to size of villages. 73 TABLE V Composite scores of v/ell-teinrj accorcinc to distance from, city. 77 * 7." * * * Ill LIST OF MAPS Pa ae No. Fig. 1. District Meerut - Sample villages by size and distance. 62 Fig. 1. 1 Kleerut District - Well-being in small size villages. 72 Fig, 1. 2 Meerut District - 7fell-being in cediun; size villages. 75 Fig. 1,3 Meerut Distirict - Well-being in Irrge size villriges, 7 6 Fig, 1.4. Meerut District - Dist?.nce from the city and v/e 11— be ino. 7 3 Social v/ell-bein" ircludec IGVGI of living, the qi:.^lity of life, social satisfaction and the standard of living. Vfcll- being is a state of good health, happiness, satisfaction and the development of hurn-T-n resoijrces. Environrriental structure of villages mainly relates to education, medical facilities, drinking water, povver supply, housing conditions etc., and the availability of these facilities determines t'r.e v-ell-being of the people. Human environment consists of n-.tural and man-made elem.ents, which constituae man's territorial habitat. It is vvitiiin the fram^vôrk of this environment that m:n leads his life, lives, v.'orks, -^.nd seek intellectual f';! ;:ilm;ont. The well-being of a people, is therefore, l-.rgelv t;:e reoalt of the environmental structure of the pl:ce, v;nere a n-n or a community lives, ^t in v;-th this viev; that one aut--or proposes to study the social well-being and environm.ental struct'^rre of villages in Meerut District. The present' study is an 3ttem:pt to outline in brief tiie ti-.ecretical and • conceptual frame-.;ark- CLnd to identify the main components of quality of life in vill? oes• Lately, there hoc teen a great thrust, in r-'",:" ••rch, on the socio-economic and technCcgical chr^r.c.es taiiin- gl^ce in the villages under the impact of urbanisation .?nc i: bastrili- sation. Little and insufficient inve • tioation has been under taken, here in India, where there is a great need tci findout the social well-being in the villages. In India, there are nearly 600,000 villages, v;here nearly 77% of country's 600 million people live. Very little is kno\-.'n atout the environ mental structure of the villages and fev; studies have been made of ths human environment that obtains in these villages and the effect it has on the quality of life of the inhabitants, In such a large country as India no area can be typical of tlie whole country and so Meerut can not be a reprcscntctivc area but it certainly is an important area lying as it does in one of the most populous regions of the country and particularly the western Ganga plains. This problem has been selected for rcsearcFi to get an insight about the environmental structure and the significance it has in the life of the villagers. The problem is also significant because it undertakes the study of an aspect which effects millions of people, who are living in rural areas. In order to analyse the spatial plural-ity of environ- m.ental structure and vjell-being of the villages, nine variables are selected which the author thinks are indicative of social well-being. These variables reflect j^rocesses, states and facts of the environment of villages. The variables are - (i) Junior basic school, (ii) Senior basic school, (iii) Higher Secondary School, (iv) MedicaJ facilities (v) Po\./er supply, (vi) Pot?ble '.^ter, (vii) Kuccha road, (viii) Pucca road/ and (ix) Post and telegraph offices. The above elements are some of the important elements of the environmental structure of the villages. These elements seperately and collectively perfect tlie v;ell-being of the people to a great extent. Education and l.he level of education has a great deal of bearing in the v;ell-being of o people both directly as well as indirectly-. In India \ihcre there is a mass illeteracy, education is a sign of sociOu-economic status. Literacy and the level of education characterises high status of social group. Sducatirn is also directly relevant to' the satisfaction of many other nec^s. Education is the process of developing .intellecttial abilities, of shapping cultural attitudes, of acquiring awareness, knowledge <'iii.d useful sicills. Education therefore, must be regarded as a major parameter of s oc ia 1 'A'e 11-r be inc. Medica^ facilities are also an important element. A sound mind, in a sound body, in a sound famiily is importent for the well-being and health of the people. Absence of medical ^w-ilities geogardises the environment or" health and therefore, they should bo regarded an a useful element of environment in measuring trie well-being of a people. Similarly power supply namely electric .'.utpply, presence r,-r roads, unmetalled (Kuccha) and motall-^d (Pucca), pot.nble v/ater, and post and telegr-'^ph aorvices ore import'jnt elements rnd they are to a great deal determine the well-being. 'i ^'hr-re aire nea-ny 1 son V\\}^ges -^r. ri^-.r-,rl ••! -'-ji;t. -'lo cnvironiriGnt of those vill-c_.t;3 h's tv/o cor-: v'rr-nt:: - ;:i / •Jonc:i3tc of- t^Ke lâtruTS I elen;ents orid tho othor of nr-.n-nioOo clomonts. ^-h-. ;^v^l\^0" hrs Gcloctofl tlic riv.n-i;:'cio clerc-icnts. Although data is not avcîloblc for all thc:ae cl'-:r;-.cnt3 yot for c. lorOG numbor of them data is p v.-î l.c";:.'lo and it is authentic. A3 tho niinibo"' ff vibl"'jr-3 is very 1 --o, it IG proy;!Csr!d to .oeloct tv?enty percent Garr.ple villaccs far Gn--'?.yGis, The inform,-.tion is taken from tlie census hand book of Meerut district 1971, on the basis of sampling. The sampling procedure r-idoc-ted can bo described assoiria v.'hat stratified random, stratum i;oing a village. Of tiie villages, tv?enty percent villages -.--er" selected at random,u.aing random •numlc^rs. Data then \vere tabulritod and classified. The strati- ficati^^n is V^"'sed on th'^ si:ô of t'ne villa as and thair distance Erom urban centres (hg,vinc trie .jooulat'cii EO, 000 and above). C^ ah'^ basis o" Lha also three .. '-ta^ f - .1 r.-;, nidde namely "small' (belo-.v 1000 population), 'medium' (1000-2000 population) and 'large' (2000 and above popula.tion) . Tiie distance based strata are 'near' and 'far*. The 'near' and 'far' villages arc measured from Meerut, Ghaziabad e.nd Hapur, these are the Urban centres having the above mentioned population. For the discussion of the v/ell-being, the unit score is given to each indicator, ^t means if there are two facilities available in a villacje for example, so 2 scores of well-being are given to that village. As regard tl"ie range of well-being, the median score of every strata was siggled out. The five class intervals of well-being were determined by applying standard deviation technique. The well-being scores \;ere calculated at a range of one standard deviation from the mean. The scores are standardised measiores of the villages divided into five class intervals; 'very high*, •high', 'medium', 'lov^7' and 'very low'. The material is organised in ffvC chapter: Chapter I is concerned with the conceptua:i frame vjork of environment and social well-being. In this chapter^ Various definitions and concepts of environment an^J well-being have been presented by Vririous scholars. The main components of natural, social and cultural environment and social v;ell-being are also listed in this chapter. Chapter II includes reviev; of worlc done so far. t examines'critically the various studies which have been done by the researchers. Chapter III gives a brief account of the historical and geographical setting of study area.

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