Dr. Arvind Kumar*
India is the land of villages as rightly said by Mahatma Gandhi “I would say that if the village perishes India will perish too. India will be no more India.”The notion of rural development has come to be construed as the process of improving the quality of life and economic well being of people living in rural areas, especially the areas that are relatively isolated and entail sparse population. India lives in its villages, and the development of villages will be critical if we want to close the gap between the “haves and have not’s” for better human development. In the Human Development Report (HDR) 2021, India ranks at 131st place and 140th at the Gender Development Index (GDI), a rating classed by the United Nations as ‘medium human development’.
From a traditional perspective, the focus of rural development has often been on exploiting land-intensive natural resources like agriculture and forestry. Nevertheless, the changing character of rural areas in the wake of ongoing transformations in global production networks and rapid pace of urbanization is said to have paved way for increased tourism, niche manufacturing, and means of recreation, and the cumulative impact of these changes has often culminated in the replacement of traditional resource extraction and agriculture as preeminent economic drivers.
About 80 per cent of South Asia’s poor live in rural areas, most of whom depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Agriculture and rural development are the keys to eradicate poverty and create conditions for sustainable and equitable growth. South Asian agriculture faces several new challenges – ranging from a deteriorating natural resources base, climate change, and increasing deregulation of trade. Moreover, the sector is dominated by small farmers often with weak bargaining power and limited political voice.
Gradual pace of transformation in the outlook of rural communities has seemingly proved instrumental in spurring them to approach development from a broader perspective that has engendered more focus on a wide range of development goals rather than only generating incentive for agriculture or resource-based businesses. Achieving the vision of inclusive economic growth set out in the 2030 sustainable development Agenda requires solutions tailored for the challenges of rural communities, starting with unlocking the potential of agricultural productivity. Only with substantial gains in productivity can rural communities create new economic opportunities for firms to provide farm and non-farm goods and services.
Development of rural areas is dependent on multiple factors, such as dissemination of education, entrepreneurship, expansion of physical infrastructure along with social infrastructure as well. Admittedly, emphasis on locally generated economic development strategies play vital role in promoting rural development. Rural regions are distinguishable from one another as compared to urban areas that are prone to entail many similarities. It is owing to this fact that a wide range of rural development approaches are often practiced worldwide.
Rural development is a comprehensive term that primarily focuses on action for the development of areas outside the mainstream urban economic system. The primary emphasis of rural development actions is to promote socioeconomic development and wellbeing of rural communities. Programs designed to promote rural development that had historically been managed on the basis of top-down approaches from – local or regional authorities, regional development authorities, non-government organizations (NGOs), national governments or international development organizations – led to the identification of a crucial ‘organization gap’ during the late 1960s, mirroring the discontinuity between national organizations and rural communities; and the resultant outcome was in terms of increased emphasis on participation of rural communities in rural development agendas.
With the passage of time the notion of emphasis on participation of rural communities in rural development agendas went on garnering international traction, both in developed and developing countries, and some developing countries are now adopting integrated development approaches, and in this context, many approaches and ideas like bottom-up approaches, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), Working with People (WWP) etc., have thrived and are being implemented in many countries.
Rural Development in India
Rural development assumes immense significance for India where majority of the population, nearly about 65% of the people, reside in rural areas. The emphasis of government programs and policies in the realm of rural development has been on poverty alleviation, better livelihood opportunities, provision of basic amenities and infrastructure via innovative programs of wage and self-employment etc. Nevertheless, under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Government of India has adopted and implemented some new innovative programs and schemes to uplift the rural communities from the morass of poverty to make then self-reliant and enable them to be active partners of the mainstream development.
In pursuance of his ambitious project of accelerating the pace of ‘White Revolution’ or Milk Revolution in India, PM Modi recently laid the foundation stone of ‘Banas Dairy Sankul’ at the UP State Industrial Development Authority Food Park, Karkhiyaon, Varanasi. This Dairy to be built at a cost of about Rs 475 crores will have a facility for processing 5 lakh litre of milk per day. The Prime Minister also digitally transferred about Rs. 35 crore bonus to the bank accounts of more than 1.7 lakh milk producers associated with Banas Dairy. While also laying the foundation stone for the Biogas-based Electricity generation plant for the Milk Producers Cooperative Union Plant, Ramnagar, Varanasi, PM Modi launched a Portal and Logo dedicated to the Conformity Assessment Scheme of milk products, developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) with the help of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).
In another effort to reduce the land ownership issues at grassroots level, the Prime Minister virtually distributed the rural residential rights record ‘Gharauni’ under the Swamitva scheme of the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj, to over 20 Lakh residents of Uttar Pradesh. The program also witnessed the Prime Minister inaugurating and laying the foundation stone of developmental projects worth over Rs. 1500 crores in Varanasi. This will further strengthen the ongoing 360 degree transformation of Varanasi.
While underlying the importance of livestock that provided livelihood to over 80 million families, the Prime Minister added that strengthening of India’s dairy sector was his government’s one of the top priorities. He expressed satisfaction at the fact that the milk production in India has increased comparable to recent past years and currently India produces about 22 percent of the world’s milk.
While underlining the role of dairy sector and animal husbandry in providing a new push to white revolution in transforming the lives of farmers, PM Modi attributed four factors in this regard. In the first instance, animal husbandry could become a huge source of additional income for small farmers; secondly, India’s dairy products have a huge market abroad, in which there is a great potential to grow; thirdly, animal husbandry is a great way for the economic empowerment of women to further their entrepreneurship; and fourthly, livestock is a big source of biogas, organic farming and natural farming.
While embarking on a next step of empowering the rural communities, the Prime Minister launched virtual distribution of the rural residential rights record ‘Gharauni’ under the Swamitva scheme of the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj, to over 20 Lakh residents of Uttar Pradesh. He said this will open new vistas of development and dignity for rural poor and will make them part of the development growth story.
War Forward
Policies and programs undertaken by the Central Government and respective state governments in facilitating rural development via various schemes have been instrumental in the improvement of living standards of the rural communities to some extent. Nevertheless, long road lies ahead to uplift rural population out of the morass of poverty, ill-health, educational backwardness and poor infrastructure facilities. Besides, location of most of the rural regions, especially those on coastal areas, are often prone to the adverse impacts of the vagaries of climate change. While formulating policies and programs designed to promote rural development with enhanced participation of rural communities, climate-related factors have to be taken into consideration. And in this regard role and participation of civil society organizations (CSOs) cannot be ignored.
*President, India Water Foundation
