 Definition of Rural Development

• Helping rural people set the priorities in

their own communities through
effective and democratic bodies, by
providing the local capacity;
investment in basic infrastructure and
social services. Justice, equity and
security; dealing with the injustices of
the past and ensuring safety and
security of the rural population,
especially that of women.
• It seeks ways to
o Involve rural people in decisions that affect their
lives through participation in rural local
government
o Increase employment and economic growth in
rural areas
o Provide affordable infrastructure
 q Emerging issues in rural development
 The paradox:

• The majority of the poor still live in rural

areas, and support for agricultural and other
rural development has slumped.
 A diminishing urban-rural divide:

• Rural and urban livelihoods are inter-

dependent. Rural development strategies must
take account of the urban links and context.
 Diversified livelihoods

• Support to the non-farm rural economy and

to migration are as important as agricultural
support.

 Small-holder farming in less-favoured
areas faces new challenges:
• Targeted assistance is needed where small-
scale farming can be competitive.
 Reverse state compression:

• A strong state is needed to underpin the

market and enable private sector development.
Public interventions are needed to increase
access to new opportunities (agricultural or
nonfarm) specifically by the poor, and to
establish the institutional framework for
effective market development.
 Technological targeting:

• Technical change is biased against the poor.

Policies to target technologies need to be
  Rethinking institutional capacity and
governance:
• Many recommended measures for rural
development cannot be effective without significant
capacity building and institutional support. In some
areas, decentralisation should be promoted to
reinforce positive trends for increased accountability.
 Growing divergence between low and high
potential areas:
• Less favoured (low potential) areas have very
different needs to (high potential) areas where
modernisation is already underway. Policy must adapt
to context.
 Rural risks and vulnerability:
• The rural poor face new risks due to increasing
natural disasters and rapid economic change.
External support for risk-mitigation and coping
strategies is generally insufficient. Public and private
roles in supporting insurance and risk-coping need to
be strengthened.
 Preventing and managing conflict:


• Conflict has a debilitating impact on rural

livelihoods, and increasing levels of conflict
threaten the achievement of poverty reduction
targets. Programs should focus more on
conflict prevention than relief.
 Aid modalities:

• As a topic, rural development fits well with

ideas about the Comprehensive Development
Framework and with Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers. However, it does not sit so well with
Sector Wide Approaches, which are hard to
implement in the agricultural sector.
•

•
q Problems of SGSY
 Constraints in implementation
Ø Banks are not enthusiastically participating due to NPA(Non
Performing Assets)
Ø Primary stakeholders not participating whole heartedly
 Design related issues
Ø Assumption of the program are not consistent with the
present economic development stage and international
experience
Ø What the poor basically need is increase in their
productivity and remunerations, not additional
employment hours and days.
Ø Evidence suggests that self employment is neither
preferred nor superior options for the poor, esp. poorest
of the poor.
Ø SGSY has detrimental effect on repayment even in regular
SHG banking
Ø NPA- 1.69% in states where SGSY constitute less than 25%
of the total groups
Ø NPA- 8% in states where SGSY constitute over 75% of the
 Problems of SGRY
Ø Lack of Awareness about the Scheme Guidelines
Ø Construction of Community Assets Instead of
Individual Assets
Ø Lack of Monitoring
Ø Lack of Reporting of the Performance of Individual
Beneficiary Programs
Ø Improper Selection of Assets/Works
Ø In AP,
§ Political Interference , district authorities arenot able
to implement the program as per guidelines
§ Nellore district SGRY not implemented for the year
2002-03
§ Implementing authorities are not aware about the
guidelines
§
q Problems in PMGSY
 Even after five years since the ambitious
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)
was launched in December 2000, the
achievement has been only 24 per cent of
the target of connecting 1,41,085
habitations.
 Shortcomings in planning, fund mobilisation,
ineffective monitoring and operational
deficiencies
 The programme suffered from drawbacks like
unrealistic estimation and inadequate
mobilisation of funds
 In Karnataka, districts have been found
delaying the tender finalisation under the
scheme. The programme was initiated on
the basis of data of unconnected habitations
that were not quite reliable and without
firming up the guideline. Upgradationworks
q Problems of NREGP
 Most people do not access the scheme, as they
have not heard of the programme
 Almost everyone wants more work form the
scheme and better facilities at the work place
 There is enough evidence of fudging and
mismanagement of records
 Large number of works relating to water
conservation has been taken up
 Minimum wages are still not paid in many states.
Most of the states continue to pay wages based
on old irrigation department norms
 Delays in wage payments go against the Act but
there is evidence of such delay already and
needs to be done away with
 The implementation of the Act has now thrown up
issues of leakage and corruption and this need
to be plugged by making the implementation
truly decentralised and based on self selection
by wage earners.
q Problems of Desert Development
Programme (DDP):
 Area development was not taken up on

watershed basis.
 Involvement of the local people was virtually

non-existent, both in planning and execution

of the programme.
 Inadequacy of the funds.

 Non-availability of trained personnel.

 Taking up off too many activities, which were

neither properly integrated nor necessarily

related to the objectives of the programme,
were also identified as contributory factors
towards reducing the impact of the
programme.
q Problems of Drought Prone Area
Programme (DPAP):
 Implementation of programme activities over

vast areas in a sectoral and dispersed

manner.
 Inadequate allocations to the program and

programme expenditures thinly spread over

large problem areas.
 Program implemented through government

agencies with least or no participation of the

local people.
 Taking up of a vast array of activities which

were neither properly integrated nor

necessarily related to the objectives of the
programme.
q Overall Problems of Rural Development
Programmes in India
 Experience suggests that availability of funds

is not a panacea for tackling the problems of

rural poverty. The determining factors seem
to be the capability of the delivery systems
in the field to absorb and optimally utilize
increased funds.
 More attention needs to be paid to two crucial

aspects: strengthening the delivery system

infrastructure and the equally important
issue of effectively managing the rural
development programmes.
 A steep increase in funds without

simultaneously strengthening the delivery

system leads to distortions.
 Management in terms of proper planning,
preparing a shelf of projects, identifying the
proper implementing agency, executing the
work in a qualitative and time-bound
manner and then monitoring the process is
an imperative for successful
implementation.
 Managing the convergence of the various rural
development programmes at the cutting
edge is also major requirement which would
optimise the utilisation of funds.
 The spirit of the various rural development
programmes has been to decentralise
financial and management powers to the
village levels. The experience has also been
that the funds have been better utilised by
the village Panchayats than by the
government departments
 The impact of any rural development
programme depends on the output
achieved. Measurement of output is
considered difficult, if not impossible, since
there are few concrete output indicators in
this sector. This in fact, is the real
management challenge: measuring output
in the various rural development
programmes.
 For this a management control system has to
be devised and the focus has to shift from
the availability of funds to managing them
for optimal utilisation in a qualitative
manner
 A change in orientation of the planners and
implementers of the rural development
programmes in favour of the small group
approach is also essential.
 In the past, rural development programmes
had not achieved desired results as the rural
poor were taken to be one homogenous
group.
 It is apparent that there are differences among
the rural poor due to social, economic,
political and location factors. The poor thus
have to be segmented and the programmes
designed for them would have to be location
and sub-group specific and not cast in a
general mould only.
 Experience shows that economic activities
under the various rural development
programmes have been more successful in
case a group approach is adopted.

 Thank You.