Tale of a City – Greater Noida: A Qualitative Study

Introduction

From the existing districts of Ghaziabad and Bulandshahar, a new city by the name of “Greater Noida” was established through the Uttar Pradesh Industrial Area Development Act 1976.Greater Noida notified area comprised a total of 124 villages covering an area of 38,000 hectares (Ha).The city lies within the national capital region (NCR) and adjacent to Noida, a large township in India. It is strategically located in close proximity to both Western and Eastern Freight corridors of India. From a group of 124 villages, this new city has transformed to a place, which can be termed as the “smart city.”The once lush-green agricultural patches of land were acquired by the government for the creation of a new residential and industrial area with the promise of the economic development of the society as a whole. Presently, Greater Noida has taken a leap from an agricultural land to the residential and industrial area and depicts a huge difference in terms of socio-economic security perceived by its residents.Huge public spending was done in the form of compensation to the farmers and a plan was laid out for the new city.Once devoid of connectivity, industries, and all other basic amenities, Greater Noida or Gautam Buddha Nagar is now boasting to be one of the first smart cities of India.

The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between the economic growth stages and socio-economic security in the Indian context with the focus on the urban mission policy of the government. The degree of inclusiveness of the economic growth is measured in terms of the perception of socio-economic security of the residents in a suburban area of Greater Noida which has undergone a shift in the structure of its major economic activities. The study uses qualitative methods to explain the phenomenon. To evaluate the efficiency of social policy based on the analysis of the sources of literature (Atkinson, et al., 2002; Atkinson, et al., 2004). and statistical data, eight areas of social and economic policy were identified: social protection, employment, income, poverty, healthcare, education, demography, and economic policy.

Literature Review

W.W. Rostow in The Stages of Economic Growth published in 1960 postulated a theory stating that all societies lie within one of the five stages of development at any given time. These are the traditional society, preconditions for the take-off, take-off, the drive to maturity, and the age of mass-consumption. Progression from one stage to the other leads to development. Rostow (1971) in his development model, says that a country has to go through certain stages of development and when development reaches a level of maturity a certain proportion of public spending will then shift from supporting infrastructure to supporting education, health, and social welfare in the country. These structural changes facilitate economic growth and allow the country to reap the fruits of increased returns and agglomeration economies. Yonehara(2006) explains the necessity for any society to transit from the first stage of “traditional society” as these societies tend to neglect investment until an external capital acts as a motivator, thus preventing the society to progress to the next stage of development in accordance with the Rostowian model. Reallocating people and resources from agricultural activities towards industrial activities through the process of urbanization brings about this structural change (Castells&Royuela,2014). The spillover effect or positive externalities can be induced with the help of infrastructure creation that sets the foundation of growth as required in the different stages of growth mentioned by Rostow (Xin &Xinyu, 2017). Bloom et al.(2008) have compared industrialization-driven urbanization in Asia which is considered as likely to enhance economic growth with urbanization due to population pressure. Henderson (2003) explains “Urbanisation represents sectoral shifts within an economy as development proceeds but is not a growth stimulus per se.However, the form that urbanization takes, or the degree of urban concentration, strongly affects productivity growth.”Economic growth leads to social development and this is also postulated by Rostow in his growth model (Pradhan, et al., 2013).Search for the interdependencies between volume, the structure of public expenditure, and the level of socio-economic development of quantified indices of human development can contribute toanswering the currently discussed question of productive public investment (Semmler et al., 2007;Agénor&Neanidis, 2011; Rao, 1998). Pietak (2014) states that reconstructing the economy from agriculture to industrialized economy would lead to overall economic growth which forms the basis of the growth theory by Rostow.It is stated that stage of “high mass consumption” as categorized by Rostow would entail a quest for a new quality of life (Meričková, et al., 2017). The paper explores the level of socio-economic security associated with these stages of economic development in the Greater Noida city.The International Labour Organization’s Socio-Economic Security Program identifies seven categories of security, viz, security of labor market, employment, job, work, skill reproduction, income, and representation.According to Tsaurkubule (2017), the sole aim of a social policy is to raise the well-being of the population through improvement in the standard of living and the quality of life, which can be achieved by meeting the life-necessities and implementing the principles of social justice which leads to an increased sense of security in citizens.

Table 1depicts the five stages of growth according to Rostow’s 1961 theory in reference to Greater Noida and its journey through these stages.

Table 1. Rostow’s Five Stages of Growth in Reference toGreater Noida

Source: Prepared by Authors

Sampling

In-depth interviews of twenty respondents from the villages incorporating the new city of “Greater Noida” were conducted as a sample between five and fifty is adequate for a study using in-depth interview method (Dworkin,2012).To capture the essence of the phenomenon, two age groups were deliberately chosen. The respondents belonging to the age group of 20 to 30 years were interviewed to understand the perception of the socio-economic development, as they are the ones enjoying the fruits of the land-acquisition and compensation phenomenon. The age group of 50 to 70 years was interviewed as they are the ones who witnessed the whole phenomenon of land acquisition and compensation and are the best judge of the socio-economic development of the area.

Methodology

The paper uses two different ways of qualitative methods, a combination of content analysis and sentiment analysis to fulfill its objectives as mentioned in Table 2 (Huan & Zhanwen, 2018).

Table 2. Qualitative Methodology

Source: Author’s Creation

Thematic Analysis.

According to Daly, Kellehear & Gliksman (1997), thematic analysis is a process of searching for the themes, which are emerging from the description of the phenomenon.This process is based on the careful identification of themes obtained through “careful reading and re-reading of the data” (Rice &Ezzy, 1999).Thematic analysis is a type of pattern-recognition method, wherein the themes emerging from the data form the basis of the categories for analysis.The thematic content analysis could be used both within inductive or deductive approaches—starting from the data to identify relevant themes (Ogrezeanu, Purcarea&Ogrezeanu., 2017). According to Boyatzis (1998), the process of coding involves recognizing a moment and encoding it before its interpretation. He explains the “good code” to be the one which captures the essence of the phenomenon keeping its qualitative richness intact (Boyatzis, 1998).The process of encoding help in organizing the data for theme-identification thereby yielding important themes. According to Boyatzis, a theme is defined as “a pattern in the information that at a minimum describes and organizes the possible observations and at maximum interprets aspects of the phenomenon.”

Sentiment Analysis.

The paper uses the sentiment analysis to explore the idea and perception of socio-economic security of the residents in a sub-urban area of Greater Noida which has undergone a shift in the structure of its major economic activities.It attempts to understand how recipients of compensation from land acquisition feel about the socio-economic development in their lives and surroundings.The paper uses a content analysis method for evaluating the data gathered through DICTION 7.1.3 (Short & Palmer, 2008; Morrish, Pitt, Vella& Botha, 2017). Content analysis, a predominantly qualitative tool, classifies textual data using set procedures (Weber, 1990). It mainly depends on archival data which include videos, photographs, speeches, narratives, and transcripts of interviews. It has been widely used, but not restricted to the area of psychology, nursing research, and health-related research (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). It was found appropriate for the study as the data are in-depth interviews from the respondents and their sentiments with respect to the perceived socio-economic development are evaluated.

Twenty in-depth interviews of the recipients were identified and included. Grounded in the foundation of linguistic research, Diction software is a computer-aided content analysis tool. It uses the elements of the word-count system and artificial intelligence, two different types of content methodologies to arrive at the results (Deffner, 1986; Morris, 1994; Short & Palmer, 2008). This increases the reliability of the software (Morris, 1994).The software uses thirty-one dictionaries to analyze a passage for five semantic features, namely, activity, optimism, certainty, realism, and commonality; each having its own significant value in the passage. The rationale behind the five master variables (MV) was that “if only five questions could be asked of a given passage, these five would provide the most robust understanding.” (Hart, 2001).Each of these variables was intentionally chosen based on the theoretical underpinnings of different social thinker. The five MV, explain the tone of individual data input.The meaning of each of these variables is explained next. The definition of each MV has been taken from the Diction 5.0 user’s manual (Digitext, Inc., 2000).

Activity drew from the works of Osgood, et al. (1957). It meant as follows: “It refers to the words or phrase which means the movement, change, idea implementation, and inertia avoidance.”

Certainty drew from the works of Wendell Johnson (Johnson, 1946): “It refers to the words which mean or relate to the inflexibility, authority, completeness, and resoluteness.”

Optimism drew from the works of David James Baker (Barber, 1992):

“It refers to the words or phrase or text which indicates to endorsing, recognition of element, concept, variable, situation or person.”

Realism drew from the works of John Dewey (Dewey, 1954):

“It refers to the tangible, reality, pragmatic, immediate and recognizable aspects.”

Commonality isdrawn from the works of Amitai Etzioni (Etzioni,1993):

“It relates to the values, agreeableness, engagement and avoiding idiocrasy.”

Apart from MVs, there is a second category of variables that are derived from the analysis. These are calculated variables (CV) whose scores are derived from a specific pattern that the software detects in the data. There are four such CVs.The definition of each CV has been taken from the Diction 5.0 user’s manual.

Insistence is the use of repetitive words.

“It is the measure of code-restriction and semantic contentedness.The assumption is that the repetition of key terms indicates a preference for a limited, ordered world.”

Embellishment is drawn from the works of David Bober (1940).

“A selective ratio of adjectives to verbs is determined based on the conception that modification slows down a verbal passage by de-emphasizing human and material action.”

Variety is drawn from the works of Wendall Johnson (Johnson, 1946).

“It is type-token ratio which divides the number of different words in a passage by the passage’s total words.”A high score indicates a speaker’s avoidance of overstatement and a preference for precise, molecular statements.

Complexity is drawn from the works of Rudolph Flesch (Flesch, 1951). It provides:

“A simple measure of the average number of characters-per-word in a given input file.”It suggests abstractness and ambiguity of the idea.

Analysis and Discussion

The Interviews Are Analysed Through Thematic and Sentiment Analysis

Thematic Analysis

Manual coding yielded four primary themes of socio-economic development, environmental degradation, industrial and infrastructural development, and hardships and exploitation.Primary and sub-themes along with the supporting quotations from the respondents are given as follows:

Theme 1: Socio-economic development [20 out of 20 respondents (R)]

Social Protection

“Since we are farmers and the income from agriculture is so low, we are now able to afford social protection.We have more money now after the compensation.” R3

“More money as compensation has given us a sense of social protection.”R5

“We have seen development and we feel protected.”R13

Employment

“Employment is not generated as it should have been.There are still no industries which will give us employment.”R1

“We cannot go and work in the construction sites.We are land-owners and not laborers.”R12

“Employment for people like us has risen in the educational institutes.I am working in a college.”R2

“My daughter is also working as an attendant in ahospital.We are proud of her.”R8

“There is no employment generation as promised by the government.”R15

“We have no agriculture land.We have to explore our employment options.” R17

Income

“I am earning now and monthly salary is a boon.Agricultural income is not consistent.”R10

“I have invested the money in purchasing another land.My income sources have doubled.”R14

My father did not give me my share of the compensation.The only income is through my job in a school.” R4

“With the compensation, I have been able to open up my own shop and I am earning well.”R19

I took bad investing decisions. My entire income source is lost.”R11

People are above the poverty line.

“My standard of living has improved.”R5

“I have been able to build my own house.”R8

“I have my own car and house.My living condition has improved.” R12

“My father has not given us money.I still have to build a toilet for my family.” R4

“One village after getting the compensation went and bought 30 Scorpio together.There is an improvement but the poor people still face problems.” R8

“People believe that poverty has gone down after getting compensation. This is not true. We are cheated by the authority officials who bought land from small farmers for peanuts and got big compensation themselves.” R16

Healthcare

“There are a lot of hospitals now in our area.” R20

“Ten years back, we had to take our patients to either Sicunderabad or Delhi.But now we have many hospitals which are well-connected with the roads.” R7

“All the hospitals charge more from us.But I am happy that we have a large number of hospitals now.” R18

Education

“Our land was acquired for Knowledge Park and Ecotech Park.There are a lot of educational institutes like schools, colleges.” R12

“I am working in a school. My kids go to school.” R4

“All family members are educated.All my daughters and daughters-in-law are also educated.” R1

“Earlier there was only one government school in our village, but today there are four to five schoolsAll of these are English-medium.” R8

“I used to travel 8 km on foot to go to school. But now my children are going to English-medium school in our own village.” R9

Theme 2: Environmental degradation (16 out of 20 respondents)

Water Pollution

The setting-up of new industries and new construction has led to water pollution.”R3

“Ten years back, the water tasted good. But now there is no taste.” R1

“We have started using the reverse osmosis (RO) machines in the house because the water is not pure anymore.” R10

“The water level has gone down. Earlier we could get water at 20 ft.But now the water is not even available at 40-ft depth.” R8

“Water is now polluted after the land acquisition and setting-up of industries and other things." R5

Air Pollution

“The air is now polluted after the setting-up of industries and increased number of vehicles.” R3

“Now the air quality is so low, there are smoke and smog.” R1

“The construction sites for residential areas and the industrial area emissions have left the air polluted.”R9

“Nothing good has come out of the land acquisition for our environment.” R12

“Our children are now suffering from respiratory problems because of the development.” R20

Misuse of agricultural land

“What is the use of transforming a land which is good for agriculture into an industrial and residential area?” R1

“My land was a good land.But it is now a part of Yamuna Expressway.What is the use? Should have taken barren land for this type of development.” R2

“My land was acquired with the promise of using it for the industrial area which would generate employment.Around 1,200 ha are still left unused.”R19

“I am still farming on our land.Our land is still not used for the purpose the authority paid us the compensation.” R1, R2, R3, R10

Theme 3: Industrial and Infrastructural Development (20 out of 20 respondents)

Roads

“There are only roads in Greater Noida.” R1

“The first thing that we saw as development was the roads.” R12

“The roads are so well-connected that we can roam anywhere.But this is not good also.These well-connected roads help the thieves to get away from the police.” R3

“The roads are good but the people are not smart.They do not follow traffic rules.” R9

“Greater Noida is well-connected.”R14

Residential Areas

“Greater Noida has lots of residential buildings.” R1

“These residential societies and sectors have come. We have got a plot from the government as part of the compensation deal.” R7

“The residential areas are now occupied with people from other states and they are working in the factories as daily-workers.” R13

Industries

“There were only three big factories in 2000—Asian Paints, Moser Baer, and LG.” R1

“There are not many companies in Greater Noida.But we have a lot of small factories in the area.” R3

“We were promised that industrial area will be developed.But where are the companies?” R13

Theme 4: Hardship and Exploitation (14 out of 20 respondents)

Inward Migration

“There are a lot of people from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand.They are settling in our areas.” R2

“These migrants are working on the construction sites as daily laborers.” R11

“The migrants have spoiled our environment.” R5

Left with no land

“Our land is acquired. We have no land to work upon, no job. What to do?’ R7

“No development has taken place. Only roads and big buildings. Our agricultural land is acquired.” R19

Lost Money

“We are not financially literate. We don’t know where to invest.All money is lost.” R6

Sentiment Analysis

The Sentiment Analysis Is as Follows:-

Master Variables.

The scores for MVs as derived from the in-depth interviews are as follows (Table 3):

Table 3. Master Variable Scores

Certainity

The certainty scores within the range reflect confidence and totality (tenacity).It is based on the collective opinion of the social groupings of the respondents (collectives).The semantic contentedness is also observed in such respondents (insistence).Such respondents are also exhibiting less confusion and are willing to commit and are not hesitating in sharing their views. Respondents reporting low certainty scores are probably communicating and focussing only on their own viewpoint (self-reference). High certainty scores may indicate respondents’ avoidance of over-statement (variety).

Optimism

These scores highlight the endorsement of the concept of growth-linked socio-economic security of the local economy.There is an appositive affirmation of the important aspects of social protection, employment, income, poverty, healthcare, education, demography, and economic policy (praise) leading to a positive affective state of the respondents (satisfaction).The respondents exhibit social and economic ideas like education, class, status as well as basic amenities (inspiration). However, few respondents stated unfortunate circumstances like naive financial decisions and unplanned detrimental decisions(blame). Also, some of the respondents mentioned unsavory outcomes like injustice and betrayal as well as unemployment (hardship). Though the study reported negative opinions yet the overall optimism scores were within the range or high due to high scores of praise and satisfaction.

Activity

The activity score of the data set indicates change and successful implementation of development plans of the government. The respondents stated personal growth and social upliftment (aggression). They have been able to construct bigger houses, buy luxury cars, and send their children to good and reputed schools and colleges (accomplishment). The increased infrastructure has aided movement of the respondents to the sectors colony showcasing their improved stature in the society.The conceptualization and development of the knowledge parks have resulted in the mushrooming of educational institutions like schools, colleges in the area(cognitive).Some respondents expressed the sluggishness and unconcerned nature in the implementation of the grievance redressal in the Noida Authority (passivity).

Realism

The respondents are aware that this development is affecting their everyday life (familiarity); they are aware of the geographical development due to the economic policy of the government (spatial awareness) in the years after the notification of land acquisition for the creation of smart city (temporal awareness). The respondent is aware of the present and current levels of development (present concerns) and its impact on themselves and their family members as well the village community. High scores of realism were probably due to their ability to recognize the impact of regional industrial development through economic policies on the present as well as future economic conditions. There were no convoluted phrasings and the level of abstraction was minimal (past concerns and complexity).

Commonality

Commonality scores of 17 were found to be within the range denoting the agreement on the issue under research. There was unanimity in regarding the social-economic development and the expectations thereof (centrality). The association among the residents to avail the collective benefits reflects a high level of cooperation and attitudinal similarity (rapport). The scores of three respondents who were outliers were on the higher side due to low values of deviation (diversity), socially isolated views (exclusion)and liberation.

Calculated Variables

The scores for CVs as derived from the in-depth interviews are mentioned in Table 4.

Table 4. Calculated Variable Scores

Insistence

This score has five respondents with very high scores for the sample population. This is on account of the high frequency of reporting of the phenomenon. Other respondents are well within the range implying a balanced view of the development and situations.However, respondent R 1, 11, 12 report very low scores and can be considered as outliers.

Variety

In the CV, 12 respondents have reported high values of variety indicating avoidance of overstatement in their responses and thus representing a precise perspective devoid of confusion (Table 4).The low values are also not far from the lower value on the normal range implying that the respondents gave a certain picture of their experiences with the issue at hand.

Complexity

The scores are mixed wherein five respondents above and an equal number below the range showing that the implications of this development are still vague in the minds of the respondents.

Embellishment

The scores of embellishment as a calculated variable of all the five respondents lying outside the normal range have low scores meaning thereby that there is no heavy modification of the experience of the respondents and indicate that out of 20 respondents 6 were out of range which portrayed true conditions of their situation.

Conclusion

The study proves the relevance of Rostow’s Five Stage Model of economic development for the Greater Noida region which is turning into an important industrial hub for a developing economy like India. However, in a very small span of time the new city of Greater Noida has been able to glide to the fourth stage of development as mentioned by Rostow, still, the city lacks in certain characteristics as defined in the theory. One of its major drawbacks is the feeling of injustice in the process of distribution of compensation after land-acquisition, which has resulted in minimizing the perceived socio-economic security linked with development.The respondents have unanimously agreed to the infrastructural and industrial development; however, they feel that this development has degraded the quality of the environment they live in. One of the important points that this study brings forth is that the respondents feel exploited as they see the discrepancy in the distribution of the compensation for their land. They have raised a valid point regarding the use of agricultural fertile land for the purpose of industrial development. All of them opine that fertile land should be used for agricultural purpose only, and the industrial development should be done on the barren land.This research case can help the policymakers to take into account the sentiments, which the farmers feel regarding the land acquisition and perceived socio-economic development while formulating these policies.Litvinovaet.al.(2015) conclude in their study that the formation of industrial clusters increases thecompetitiveness of the economy thus increasing economic security demonstrated in improvedquality of life. As Ainabek (2013) states that the evaluation of the level of efficiency of resources, thepotential of the resources, possibilities of development and integrity of economic space leads toassessment of economic security, this study advocates an optimal utilization of the factors ofproduction in the Greater Noida for the development of the city and its residents.

References