Rural development
| Philosophy of Social Sciences |
Concept Map
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Additional References
How the topic is discussed in NCERT Books
Rural Development, NCERT Text Book Class 12, Chapter 6 is much more detailed and richer and hence worth reading.
For eg. rural development is explained as follows:
- Development of human resources including
- literacy, more specifically, female literacy, education and skill development
- health, addressing both sanitation and public health
- land reforms
- development of the productive resources of each locality
- infrastructure development like electricity, irrigation, credit, marketing, transport facilities including construction of village roads and feeder roads to nearby highways, facilities for agriculture research and extension, and information dissemination
- special measures for alleviation of poverty and bringing about significant improvement in the living conditions of the weaker sections of the population emphasizing access to productive employment opportunities
which is a detailed explanation of the various aspects relating to rural development.
The Rural Development, NCERT Text Book Class 12, Chapter 6 in addition to explaining how crucial the development of rural areas is for India’s overall development, also explains the critical role of credit and marketing systems in rural development, the importance of diversification of productive activities to sustain livelihoods and the significance of organic farming in sustainable development, which is not covered in the Karnataka chapter.
There is a need for improving the quantity and quality of infrastructure in rural areas such as banking, marketing, storage, transport and communications etc. to realise its true potential. Diversification towards new areas such as livestock, fisheries and other non-agricultural activities is necessary not only to reduce the risk from agriculture sector but also to provide productive sustainable livelihood options to our rural people. These additional discussion sub-topics help broaden the understanding of rural development. Thus the Rural Development, NCERT Text Book Class 12, Chapter 6 is a MUST read.
Useful websites
Government sites
- Government of India website on rural development
- [dwcdkar.gov.in Department of Women and Child Development,Karnataka]
- [wcd.nic.in Ministry of Women & Child Development, Govt. of India]
Wikipedia pages
- Wikipedia page on rural development
- Wikipedia page on decentralization
- Wikipedia page on women and developmen
- Wikipedia page on women and rural poverty
- Wikipedia page on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, a global declaration for gender justice.
Journal on rural development
Schemes for Rural Development
- Journal on rural development
- Rural development schemes and programme
- Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Scheme
- Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellows Scheme
- Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana - Prime Minister Village Road scheme
- Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY)
- Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP)
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, a special bank setup for rural development. NABARD was created from Reserve Bank of India and has focused on rural banking to support rural development.
The above programmes will give an idea about the plans, programmes relating to rural development carried out by Government of India and Government of Karnataka.
Many non governmental organisations also work for rural development, for eg. Shri Kshethra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project, MYRADA, Bijapur Integrated Rural Development Society work in Karnataka
Reference Books
- Rural Development, putting the last first, by Robert Chambers. Robert Chambers is an authority participatory rural appraisal.
- Talukas can provide critical mass for India’s sustainable development, Anil K. Rajvansh, detailed discussion on various aspects of developing talukas to reduce imbalanced growth]
Teaching Outlines
Key Idea #1 Rural Development
Though population in India (and rest of the world) is rapidly urbanising,India is still largely rural. While Urban India has developed in the last two decades, rural India is lagging behind even more. Agriculture, the main occupation in rural India, has become a more difficult occupation and difficult for the large number of Indians to sustain on. Hence there is a critical need to focus on development of rural India, by adopting various approaches.
Learning objectives
- Understand the importance of rural development for overall development of India
- Understand reasons / causes for lack of rural development as well as challenges
- Understand the possible approaches to support rural development
Notes for teachers
Can show a trend of urbanisation of population in India and Karnataka over the last hundred years (using last ten census figures). This will give a picture of the increasing urbanisation in our country and state.
Comparison of growth in population in urban and rural areas
The number of people working in agriculture can be compared with the National Income share from agriculture. While number of people is still a large percentage of total population, the share of agriculture in national income has dropped in percentage terms. This means that the people depending on agriculture are relatively worse off, compared to people in manufacturing and service sectors.
The trend of farmers suicides across the country should also be discussed as a pointer to need for rural development. Many farmers do not know of alternatives to farming and agriculture has become less remunerative. Costs of production have increased, while prices often are not remunerative. Crop failures due to various reasons create poverty. High health costs are another reason for rural poverty, due to lack of reasonable health facilities in rural areas.
Providing amenities and infrastructure in rural areas is seen as an important method to reduce rural poverty and reduce migration to crowded urban areas. The PURA idea of ex President Dr Kalam is one such.
Activities
- Activity No #1 rural development rural development activity1
- Activity No #2 rural development rural development activity2
Key Idea #2 Decentralisation
A key factor for rural development is decentralisation. Power centres tend to locate in urban locations - national, state, district capitals are all urban settings. Moving power and authority from urban settings to rural settings is critical for rural development
Learning objectives
- Understand the concept of decentralisation and different kinds of decentralisation - political, economic, administrative etc
- Understand the need for decentralisation in India - political, social and economic
- Be aware of the steps/processes for decentralisation in India - political, social and economic
- Specifically the role of the PRI legislation in promoting political decentralisation
Notes for teachers
Decentralisation is the empowerment of the peripheries and hence to be seen as a spectrum. The powers of the central government being devolved to state governments is decentralisation. So is the devolution of powers from state governments to local governments. The recent processes of the PRI legislation and programmes like MNREGS which have provided significant funds to gram panchayats have been a support to decentralisation in India. Yet lot more needs to be done, to make decentralisation real, rather than just on paper
Activities
- Activity No #1 rural development decentralisation activity1
- Activity No #2 rural development decentralisation activity2
Key Idea #3 Women and rural development
The efforts of women have traditionally been devalued in all societies. Even now, the domestic labor of women is not considered in our computation of National GDP. Women have contributed hugely to development in many ways. For eg. occupations like animal husbandry, sericulture have seen high participation of women.
Secondly, in many areas, women lag behind, such as literacy rates, nutrition / health status etc. Women also form a strong component of the rural labor force, yet the wages paid to them is lower than that paid for men, though the output may be the same. Such kinds of discrimination needs to be countered both by enforcing the existing regulations and also by creating social awareness.
There are many programmes and schemes to promote womens empowerment and they need to be successful to enable women to play their rightful role in development.
Learning objectives
- Understand that women have a critical role to play in development, specially rural development
- Understand how women are still discriminated against in many ways
- Become aware that women are rapidly entering into male dominated professions and making their mark.
Notes for teachers
This is an important section that can help students to reflect on their own internalised gender biases.
Activities
- Activity No #1 rural development women and rural development activity1
- Activity No #2 rural development women and rural development activity2
Assessment activities for CCE
Understanding that rural India needs to develop for ensuring social justice and equity.
Project Ideas
There is still a lot of discrimination against women and girls in India. Collate instances of such discriminatory practices from news papers and news items. Write a photo essay on 'discrimination against women and girls in India'. Review one programme for womens empowerment and comment on its work
Community Based Project
Collect information about the status of your village/town and changes over the last 3-4 decades, by interacting with local community members. What changes have been beneficial and can be considered as 'development'. Write a photo essay on 'development of my village/town'
Textbook Feedback
Chapter 3 is very well written and gives a good picture of the need for rural development.
Errors
Spelling errors
censes - should be census
can be explained better
'Development techniques enabled only urban development'. Saying 'only' is too severe and incorrect, better ot say 'Development techniques largely enabled urban development'