Promoting small towns for rural development: A view from Nepal

Bhishna Bajracharya

Abstract

The article investigates the nature of urban-rural relations between a small town in Nepal with two of its hinterland villages, examining three major rural-development functions of small towns. Some of the important factors constraining the performance of the small town's rural development functions were identified as small landholdings in the villages, low productive base of small towns, limited power/resources at the local level and lack of coordinated development activities between the town and villages. In the hill context of Nepal, the terrain itself is a constraint for physical, social and economic linkages between the town and the villages. In like manner, ethnicity and place of people are important factors in the access to services and off-farm jobs available in the town. The study concludes with a policy recommendation for integrated urban-rural area development in the hill region.