Rural development has considerable importance as around three fourths of India’s population lives in rural areas. Around fifty percent of India’s population get employment through agriculture. Bulk of raw material for industries comes from agriculture and rural sector. Increase in industrial production can be justified only in rural population’s motivation and purchasing power to buy goods can be increased. Growing disparity between the urban elite and the rural poor can lead to political instability.

Rural development has been defined as a strategy to promote  the social life of village people in general and particularly to extend the economic and social benefits to the rural poor. Rural development filters down to a primary goal of providing an opportunity for decent living to the masses of low income population residing in rural areas on a self-sustaining basis. It is the very process of the planning to implement rural development programs through an appropriate strategy to realize the desired results. Not only it is important to raise agricultural productivity and the rate of overall economic growth in rural areas; equally important is to ensure that the poor and weaker sections share in the benefits of development to bring about a greater socio-economic equity. This is also important to bring about a spatial balance in social and economic development. To bring about improvement in the ecological environment so  that it may be conductive to growth and happiness, and to develop broad based  community participation in the process of development has been the major themes on the basis of which various rural development programmes have been formulated. The concept of integrated rural development is very much used in different studies on rural development. The frame work of rural development based on this concept aims at removal of poverty, inequality and unemployment by area planning in two ways.

Community action

A community or group action is also suggested for realizing the objectives of integrated rural development program at the grassroots level. The Ashok Mehta Committee’s report and latter committees has underlined the importance of panchayati Raj Institutions in making the rural development program community or group action-based. Moreover, the report has also mentioned that one of the important activities of Zila Parishad as also Mandal Panchayats could relate to the promotion and development of growth centres and derive the benefits from these centres.

Pre independence efforts

The first attempt for rural development in India was made in 1885 with an ultimate objective of bringing immediate relief and development of rural areas in Baroda.

In 1922, the Swaraj Ashram was established in Baroda by Magan Lal Gandhi. The Ashram aimed at preparing for non-cooperation and the civil disobedience movement launched by the Indian National Congress under the leadership of Gandhi. The resolution for non-cooperation was passed earlier in September 1920 at the Calcutta Congress under the president ship of Lala Lajpat Rai.

This resolution included mainly two things — boycott of foreign goods and mass publicity for use of home made khadi clothes. It was thought that boycott of goods in particular might not affect adversely the British trade. But spinning and weaving as an instrument for training in the qualities of self-reliance and self-confidence would definitely bring about a favourable impact on rural development.

Post Independence Efforts

Rural development became a planning concern as it became clear that the strategies adopted in developing countries remained largely ineffective in alleviating poverty and

inequalities in rural areas. It became increasingly clear that apart from an effort to increase agricultural and industrial production, it was also necessary to address directly the problems of education, health services and employment and to attack the problem of poverty in rural area. Rural development programmes attempt to bring about changes in a wider area impacting a greater number of people.

Community Development Programme (CDP)

The First Five Year Plan conceived the National Extension Service (NES) as the agency and community development as the method through which it was envisaged that the successive Five-Year Plan would create a better, richer and fuller life for the teeming million living in thousands of rural communities in India. The National Extension Service was started in 1952 by the Government of India with the establishment of 55 community development projects across the States in the country.

The Community Development Programme (CDP) intended to involve popular participation in rural development. It laid emphasis on the building of infrastructure in rural areas with the participation of rural communities.

The CDP sought to promote rural development in a phased manner in different parts of the country.

A block of villages was identified as the development unit and an infrastructure of technical and administrative staff provided to implement development programmes in different sectors. But we may note here that the CDP, however, did not lead to a noticeable impact on rural poverty because those who were powerful in these rural communities were able to corner much of the gains derived from this programme.

A development block consisted of about 100 villages and covered a rural population of about one lakh. It was the lowest administrative unit and one of the constituent parts of the district. The headquarters of the block provided a concentration of administrative functions and the block boundaries were decided purely on the basis of administrative conveniences. The staffing pattern for implementation of developmental programs included specialists of various departments/disciplines and they had to work under the supervision and leadership of Block Development Officer. The programs aimed at achieving the all round development in block. The various programs launched for this purpose included :

(a)  Substantial increase in agricultural production.

(b)  Improvement in systems of communication.

(c)  Improvement in rural health and hygiene and

(d)  Improvement in village education.

Though those programs it was aimed at initiating and directing a process of integrated cultural change which could transform the social and economic structure of the rural society in India. This was the most applied program of rural development in India. It was apprehended that this newly setup block development agency at the local level would better ensure the people’s participation in the overall development of rural India. However, the experience of the first decade of community development witnessed only partial achievements and several deficiencies were gradually noticed, the most glaring among them was the total compartmentalization between urban and rural areas. In sum, the program failed to make a significant dent on the rural setup and rural economy.

In the field of rural development, we notice the cooperative movement made most remarkable progress and the number of cooperative societies rose to about 35,000 by the end of 1963. But members of these societies never took keen interest in making the societies a great success.

Area development programmes

The area development programs aim at the development of entire area by taking up works like water and soil conservation, watershed development etc. These programs help in greater availability of water which is crucial factor for increase in productivity of land and production of crops. The focus of these programs is overall development of backward areas like desert areas, drought prone areas, wastelands etc. which ensure improvement in the income levels and economic wellbeing of the people in that area.

The Department of Land Resources in the Ministry of Rural Development is administering three area based watershed programmes for development of wastelands/degraded lands namely Drought Prone Areas Programmes (DPAP, launched 1973-74), Desert Development Programme (DDP, launched 1977-78) to mitigate the adverse effects of desertification and Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP, launched 1989-90) to check the diminishing productivity of wasteland and loss of natural resources.

The soil and moisture conservation and watershed development works are highly labour intensive works and generate direct employment in the construction phase and also enhance income of the poor. The DPAP and the DDP have been designed to restore ecological balance through soil and moisture conservation on watershed  basis within the framework of area development plans. While under the DPAP, the expenditure is shared between the Centre and the state governments on a 50-50 basis, DDP is 100% Central Sector Scheme.

The Department of Land Resources has brought out a new initiative called Hariyali with an objective of empowering PRI’s both financially and administratively in implementation of Watershed Development Programmes. Under this initiative, all ongoing area development programmes namely, Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP), Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP) and Desert Development Programme (DDP) are to be implemented through the PRIs. New projects under the area development programmes are being implemented in accordance with the Guidelines for Hariyali from 1 April 2003.

In the new arrangement, Gram Panchayats shall implement projects under overall supervision and guidance of Project Implementation Agencies (PIAs). An intermediate panchayat may be the PIA for all the projects sanctioned to a particular Block/Taluka. In case, these Panchayats are not adequately empowered, then the Zilla Panchayat can either act as PIA itself or may appoint a suitable Line Department like Agriculture, Forestry /Social Forestry, Soil Conservation, etc., or an Agency of the State Government/ University/Institute as PIA.

Failing these options, the ZP/DRDA may consider appointing a reputed Non- Government Organization (NGO) in the district with adequate experience and expertise in the implementation of watershed projects or related area development works as the PIA after thoroughly examining their credentials.

Sectoral programmes

Landreforms[1]

Land Reforms as rural development and poverty alleviation measure aimed to break the old feudal socio-economic structure of land ownership, eliminate exploitation by providing security of tenure and regulation of rent for tenants and share croppers, bring direct contact between the tiller and the State and give social and economic status to the landless by distributive measures.

Green revolution[2]

In the year 1961, a new strategy primarily for agricultural development was evolved. The districts which could best promise for food production, were required to be selected for intensifying the agricultural activities. These districts were expected to have a considerable amount of assured means of irrigation, predominance of cereal cultivation, experienced peasantry, better transportation facilities, besides the network of mandies and markets. The full package of services comprising improved seeds, fertilizers, pesticides/insecticides, implements, extension advice and credit based on a farm household plan was planned to be provided on priority basis with a view  to promoting the introduction of modern practices in the principal cereal crops and induction of modern practices in the principal cereal crops and finally augmenting the overall cropping and land use patterns; and

The program incorporating this strategy was termed as Intensive District Agricultural Development Program (IDADP) and was started on experimental basis in 37 districts in 1961 with the assistance of the Food Foundation. The results of the program were quite revealing in some of the selected districts like Ludhiana and Tanjore, whereas in some other districts the results were not so attractive. But in sum, a potential promise was demonstrated.

During the year 1965-66, the Hybrid seed varieties or High Yield Varieties (HYV), which were already supported with proven research results, were chosen for wide spread diffusion along with the package approach and infrastructure of intensive Agricultural Area Program (IAAP) was, therefore, launched subsequently in as many as 117 districts with a view to widening the coverage of maximum possible area under High Yielding varieties. The new approach was followed with such a grand success that the period of its implementation was termed as Green Revolution. In spite of this the program could not play any significant role in rural development. Rather, it quickened the process of economic polarization in rural areas and contributed to increasing social antagonism between landlords and tenants and land owners and laborers.

Bharat Nirman

This programme, which was launched in 2005-06 for building infrastructure and basic amenities in rural areas, has six components, viz. rural housing, irrigation potential, drinking water, rural roads, electrification and rural telephony. Bharat Nirman has received a budgetary outlay of Rs. 24,603 crore in 2007-08 as against Rs. 18,696 crore (including NER component) in 2006-07.

Integrated rural developemnt[3]

The major emphasis in the first three five-year plans was on agricultural development and the other aspects of rural development could be given partial treatment only. Therefore, with the advent of the Fourth Plan in 1969, it was realized by the Planning Commission that ideology of equity in spatial development could not be achieved through adoption of adhoc and piecemeal planning for urban and rural areas separately. Further a clamor was raised by the geographers, planners, policy makers and social scientists for an urgency of introducing an integrated approach to planning.

Consequently realizing that the benefits of various development programs were being taken by those better endowed in terms of land resources. The program especially designed for the development of small and marginal farmers and the landless and agricultural laborers were taken up in the early seventies.

A National Program of minimum needs was also started during seventies to secure to the rural areas with a reasonable time certain basic amenities in the field of education, health, drinking water, clarification, roads and house sites.At the close of seventies, it was however, realized that the size of the problem which above program had to deal with, was enormous. The manner, in which the problem of rural poverty was tried to be solved, left much to be desired both qualitatively and quantitatively. It was only a small fraction of the rural poor (mainly land owners) that was covered effectively by the various anti-poverty programs. Among the rural poor artisans) were left untouched. The major constraint with these programs was not of finance but organizational inadequacies and lack of clear-cut plan of development. Besides, the territorial overlapping of these programs and their different funding patterns created considerable difficulties not only in effective monitoring but also thwarted achievements of the program. In view of these, it as decided to combine these programs into one and a signato it as the integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP). Target-group oriented programmes, such as the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), are meant for the upliftment of specific sections of the rural society.

Recent trends

Local level participation

• Since the late 1980s, local level participation has been given a new thrust in India. The 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments in the early 1990s were of particular significance in this regard. Also, many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in many parts of the developing world including India, are now working towards promoting participatory development. The main objectives of these efforts include Suppression of elitist elements in rural areas so that the process of development is shaped actively by the poor; Stressing the importance of the felt needs of people at the local level, and harnessing their energy and vision in designing appropriate programmes;
• The use of education as a tool in people’s perception towards change in rural societies. Education is used so that it enables people to organize themselves to change society.