VI - World Planning Schools Congress

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Browsing VI - World Planning Schools Congress by Author "Agrawal, Sandeep"

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    Rural planning: comparing India and Canada
    (AESOP, 2016) Agrawal, Sandeep
    Rural communities help fuel economies of many countries and in some cases the national character. Most importantly, they carry the weight of feeding the world. But their issues and challenges do not get the attention they deserve. Rural economies, large and small, all over the world are dealing with the same issues – pressures of urbanization, international trade, environmental stress, and out-migration. This study compares rural areas in two countries, one is developing and the other is developed, namely, India and Canada, respectively. The Canadian focus is on one province i.e. Alberta as the situation varies considerably from province to province. Despite varying levels of urbanization, rural communities remain critical to the economic, social and environmental fabric of both countries. Interesting sets of similarities and differences that we find can help us understand the rural communities better and potentially derive some helpful lessons and policy solutions. One important common thread between the two countries is a strong governance system in their respective rural areas. India’s 74th Constitutional Amendment created a Panchayat Raj system, which is a strong system of governance in which gram panchayats (village councils) are the basic unit of local administration. Canada’s rural governance has two tier system of local government: one is upper tier regional government which consists of several municipalities including rural areas in between, grouped together under a single regional administrative and political structure. The other is rural local government that is responsible for physical and social services, housing, taxation and other local economic development. The most common form of rural municipality in the province of Alberta is a municipal district, also known as counties in other parts of Canada.