Mahadeep singh
Based on the density of population, development, amenities, employment opportunities, education, etc. human settlement is majorly divided into two categories i.e. Urban and Rural. The word urban is derived from Latin word ‘urbanus’ and pertains to characteristic of city life “refined and courteous”. We define the urban area as region or area which is densely populated and having the characteristics of the man-made surroundings and boundaries. In this settlement, there is high scale industrialization that results in better employment opportunities. The Urban settlement is not confined to the cities only, but towns and suburbs (suburban areas) are also included in it. There are many advantages of life in urban areas like easy access to various amenities, better transportation facilities, entertainment and education options, health facilities. The life in urban areas is fast and complicated; The Urban settlement includes cities and towns. Although it suffers certain drawbacks like pollution, caused due to large scale industrialization and means of transportation like buses, trains, cars and so on, leading to increasing in health problems in the people living in that area.
Whereas we define the term ‘Rural’ as a region located on the outskirts. It refers to a small settlement, which is outside the boundaries of a city, commercial or industrial area. It may include, countryside areas, villages or hamlets, where there are natural vegetation and open spaces. The rural life is simple and relaxed. The rural settlement includes villages and hamlets. There is a low density of population in such area. The primary source of income of the residents is agriculture and animal husbandry. Cottage Industries also form a chief source of income here. In India, a town whose population is below 15000 is considered as rural, as per the planning commission. Gram Panchayat is responsible for looking after such areas. In the villages and maximum percentage of the male population are engaged in agriculture and related activities but woman folk also share the activities. The fundamental differences between urban and rural can be summarized as that, a settlement where the population is very high and has the features of a built environment (an environment that provides basic facilities for human activity), is known as urban. Rural is the geographical region located in the outer parts of the cities or towns. The cities can be easily termed as ‘jungle of concretes’. The life in urban areas is fast and complicated, whereas rural life is simple and relaxed. The Urban settlement includes cities and towns. On the other hand, the rural settlement includes villages and hamlets. There is greater isolation from nature in urban areas, due to the existence of the built environment. Conversely, rural areas are in direct contact with nature, as natural elements influence them. Urban people are engaged in non-agricultural work, i.e. trade, commerce or service industry. In contrast, the primary occupation of rural people is agriculture and animal husbandry. Population wise, urban areas are densely populated, which is based on the urbanization, i.e. the higher the urbanization, the higher is the population. On the contrary, the rural population is sparse, which has an inverse relationship with agriculturist. Urban areas are developed in a planned and systematic way, according to the process of urbanization and industrialization. Development in rural areas is seldom, based on the availability of natural vegetation and fauna in the region. The political sphere is also dominated by the urban population and the rural population is well exploited by the urban politics and this all is the lacking of educational standards in the rural. When it comes to social mobilization, urban people are highly intensive as they change their occupation or residence frequently in search of better opportunities. However, in rural areas occupational or territorial mobility of the people is relatively less intensive. Division of labor and specialization is always present in the urban settlement at the time of job allotment. As opposed to rural areas, there is no division of labor. Differences in living style is that, the urban dweller opt to live a different life style, that despite having some advantages also has a host of disadvantages such as;
Lack of privacy; The first major disadvantage is that the urban lifestyle necessitates the living in crowded spaces and this leads to reduction in privacy due to the little space. There are always activities taking place even at night. The buildings are close together and living in flats is a common option which means that one is always surrounded by other people which will always lead to reduction of privacy greatly.
Lack of open and green spaces; In many urban settings, there are very few or even totally missing green spaces that a person could use to do some physical activity like walking which is a very advisable activity as it promotes good health. Parks and other open spaces provide the opportunity for the inhabitants to practice health promoting activities which in the rural areas can be done in abundance.
Pollution; Urban clusters are filled with motorized transport and other sources of pollutants like waste from the large populations of people. The plants helpful in reducing harmful presence in the atmosphere are lacking in the cities. The green trees that are natural source of producing oxygen and the clean air we breathe in, in urban we lack them thus we have a shortage of clean air unlike the suburban and rural lifestyles.
Sense of community; The urban population is very individualistic in nature and the sense of community that is very common in other areas is very rare to come across here. People are all concentrated on their own affairs paying little or no attention to their friends and neighbors.
So, with the given discussion, it is easily understood that these two human settlements are very different, regarding the density of human structures and the residents of that area. The standard of living in urban areas is higher in comparison to the rural areas, fast and complicated. Greater isolation from nature, planned settlement exists in urban areas that are developed according to the process of urbanization and industrialization. An analytical deep study, we find that the intra-rural inequality is one of the major causes of migration from rural to urban. The better-off villagers tend to be ‘pulled’ and worse-off villagers ‘pushed’ from the same subset of relatively ‘unequal’ villages. The rural labor productivity is, because of fewer attentions of the Governments, towards employment generation in the rural area and it rests on special definitions and doubtful assumptions. The rural-urban migration is of two types i.e. seasonal and permanent. The seasonal migration from rural is always to utilize the wasteful time in rural lacking any financial generation source. The governments require proper attention towards this aspect to create work opportunities in rural areas to stop this migration as their work exploitation is always there by the urbanites. The wealthier class in urban is self contained to generate the economic resources where as poor population of rural require much attention of governments to create such resources by industrializing the rural to keep a balance between rural and urban areas and drastic steps to equalize the opportunities in all walks of life required to be created in both sectors of population. We have to realize here also that urban life is just a lusty, full of tensions and hollow whereas rural life is simple, relaxed and worth living.
