Liberalization Syndrome in Transmuting the Casual Sites into Captivating Destinations, India
ABSTRACT :
The rural and social geography of India has a unique character by virtue of its natural and cultural resources. Despite several invasions and foreign rulers who crafted their ethos and edifices onto this land, it remained undisturbed and verdant, and retained its native ethnicity. However, the ‘liberalization syndrome’ at the turn of the new millennium has had a profound effect in shaping a new economically vibrant India with incoming foreign investments, new infrastructure and increasing per capita income – all resulting in changing life styles, working patterns and family structures. These enigmatic changes, while phenomenally altering the socio-economic parameters by ushering in nouveau lifestyles and cross-cultural have also observed to have a significant impact in redefining the traditional role of Indian women with metamorphosed relations. The dispersions in the family structures are metaphorically demonstrated through the development of a social prism that is giving rise to various personality types and traits corresponding to different economic strata.
The relations between historical perspectives, demographic and literacy levels, and the different sectors of the economy with their supporting infrastructures are now being investigated. Studies have located the factors that have led to a transmutation of destinations in the wake of the ‘liberalization syndrome’. The data is also being analyzed and interpreted vis-à-vis declining conjugal relationships with increasing incomes. These studies necessitated the author in reclassifying Burton four-phase classification to encompass three sector economies by including agriculture and service sectors in addition to industrial sector. These findings go on to show that a phenomenal rise in the income levels is the main cause attributable to the changing lifestyle and dispersion in the family structures in traditional Indian families consequent to the opening up of the economies. These studies further revealed that dwindling relationships led to a search for new attractions and services that resulted in a transmutation of casual destinations into captivating tourism attractions.
Keywords: Liberalization Syndrome, Lifestyles, Personality Types and Traits, Social Prism, Transmutation.
INTRODUCTION
India forms a cozy world all by itself in the entire south Asia. The mighty Himalayas form a natural barrier in the north, and the Indian Ocean in the south, Bay of Bengal in the east and Arabian Sea in the west skirt the roughly triangular peninsula. India shares its boundary with Afghanistan and Pakistan in the west, China and Nepal in the north, and Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh in the east. The fragile, but protected, archipelagos of Andaman and Nicobar in the Bay of Bengal and Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea are also a part of Indian Territory. It is an ethnically unique region may be connected, by inferences through legends, to the pre-historical Vedic era of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and historically through the documented record of Megasethenes, the Greek ambassador in the court of Chandra Gupta Maurya (Dahlaquist and Allan 1996). The indigenous people of the subcontinent – the Dravidians – largely migrated to the peninsular south.
Presently India is the second most populous country after China with the population of over 120 million. The decadal demographic figures from 1950 to 2011, including the statistics for 2005, are presented in Table 1a, along with the percentages of male/female literacy and the population living below the poverty line in the corresponding decades for analyzing socio-economic advancements.
| S. No | Year/Category | Population (in thousands) | Literacy Rate (%) | % of people below Poverty Line | |
| Male | Female | ||||
| 1 | 1951 | 361088 | 27.1 | 8.8 | 64 |
| 2 | 1961 | 439235 | 40.4 | 15.3 | 54.9 |
| 3 | 1971 | 548160 | 45.9 | 21.9 | 51.3 |
| 4 | 1981 | 684329 | 56.3 | 29.7 | 44.5 |
| 5 | 1991 | 846302 | 64.1 | 39.2 | 36 |
| 6 | 2001 | 1027015 | 75.2 | 53.6 | 30.1 |
| 7 | 2005 | 1080264 | 77.1 | 57.2 | 28.3 |
| 8 | 2011 | 1210193 | 82.1 | 65.1 | 26.1 |
a. Percentage of Literacy Rates and People below poverty line, India
| S.No | Lifestyles | Rural | Urban | ||
| 1998—99 | 2005–06 | 1998–99 | 2005–06 | ||
| 1 | Women Education (literacy rate) | 33 | 59.4 | 66.8 | 80.3 |
| 2 | Part played by the women in cash earnings · Mainly wife | 36.5 | 21 | 57 | 33.1 |
| · Wife and Husband | 25.3 | 57 | 24 | 55.2 | |
| · Mainly husband | 31 | 17.3 | 14.2 | 8 | |
| 3 | Part played by the women in household purchases · Mainly wife | 9.7 | 18.3 | 13.3 | 25.1 |
| · Wife and Husband | 29.2 | 34.1 | 35.7 | 40.2 | |
| · Mainly Husband | 35.7 | 30.7 | 28.5 | 23.3 | |
| 4 | Exposure of Women to elements of media, at least weekly · Reads a newspaper/ magazine | 12.8 | 13.7 | 43.4 | 41.6 |
| · Watches Television | 33.4 | 41.9 | 80.6 | 82 | |
| · Listens to the Radio | 33 | 27.3 | 46.3 | 31.7 | |
| · Visits the Cinema theatre | 7.9 | 3.9 | 18.1 | 9.2 | |
| 5 | Not regularly exposed to any media | 50.1 | 45.4 | 12.9 | 12.6 |
b. Characteristics of the Changing Lifestyles of Women in India
Table 1: Changing Profiles of Indian Demography and contribution of empowering Women
It can be observed from Table 1a that since independence, male literacy has trebled, while female literacy has raised six fold, attaining almost 65 percent literacy rate by the 2011. It is interesting to note the reduction in the number of people living below the poverty line from 64 percent in 1950 to 26 percent in 2011 (Census, 2011) indicating that the people have been liberated from a meagre economy tending towards a substantial economy. The uniqueness of the socio-cultural aspects of India is that the lifestyles followed here are noncompetitive in nature with groups harmoniously sharing and pooling their resources within the family. The expanding economy has started to influence people’s opinions, emotions and behaviour as multiple earning opportunities for individuals has led to financial independence. Socially, the lady of the Indian household who is usually noble and magnanimous in maintaining the harmony and providing traditional hospitality services (Bhargava Teja, 2010) without any intermission even unscheduled guest has to modify the core family values resulting from a liberalization syndrome. As a consequence, the nouveau personality types and traits that are emerging are built around individuals (Smith, 1989) and have given rise to a wide spectrum of family types no longer strictly conforming to the traditional hierarchical family structure. This significant transformation of relations has given rise to various push and pull factors (Crompton, 1979) as people have moved away from traditional relationships in their search for new locations; and this has significantly contributing to domestic tourism. The growing infrastructure has facilitated in attracting domestic and international visitors, transforming relatively unknown rural spots into captivating tourism destinations.