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January 1-15, 1982
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alsoRural development through ,banks
Need for rural development educationHow I.R.D.P.is changing the rural scene
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Thousands of vilJag~rs are
rtndered homeless by the
fury of floods. Villagers
wading through knee-deep
,-. water.
i,
Floods
Floods have been playing havoc with mankind ever since the dawn of history, 'Flood danger
grew with the increase in IlUmanhabitation along the sides of huge flood-prone ril'ers,. In India, the
p;oblem is dggr~vated by two other vagaries of nature: the cyclones and sea-erosion, Hundred per
cent immunisation from floods is simply impossible, for floods do nol strike at 'the same place every
year, According to 'Rashtriya Barh Ayog,' an area of 400 lakh hectares isprone tofloods in our
. country. Upto the end of the Fifth Plan, Rs, 730 crores have been !fpenton flood control measures.ihe-SixthP(an envisages an outlay of Rs. 1592 crores including 200 croresfor loan assistance.,
FloodJorecasting and warning of floods wasfelt essential toforewarn the people to take timely
and appropriate action to reduce the damage to life and property. Furthermore thefloodforecasting, .
.oganisation (s proposed to be strengthened during the Sixth Plan.,
I, -
A n area of 400 lakh. hectares is
prone to floods in our count,.),.
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Vol . XXX
No . 7
January 1, 1982'
Pausa 11, 1903
Hurukshelro(India's journal of rural development)
CONTENTS
4 RURAL DEVELOPMENT: PLANNING AND
IMPLEMENTATION;
A. R. Patel'
7 RURAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH BANKS
Navin Chandra Joshi
Editorial
R;I.!~AL,DEVELOPMENT has come to be known as
sine qua non of national development. It is so
because the problem of development and eradication
of poverty is not merely one of the rural areas but
essentially of the development of the rural com-
munity comprising three-fourth of our population.
Ever since we undertook development work under
the Five Year Plans, eradication of rural poverty and
backwardness have been assigned the highest
priority. It is true that we have not been able to
achieve as high targets as we desired to but the all-
round progress and 'improvement in life quality is
.there for everyone t< ! see.
10
12
14
17
1 9
21
NEED FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT
EDUCATION
M. P. Borayan
HOW I.R.D.P. IS CHANGING THERURAL SCENE
J. M. L. Mathur
AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO RURAL
RECONSTRUCTION
I. A. Pad,,!anabha Roo and J. Gouripathi
HANDICAPS OF INDIAN HMIDICRAFTS B. Subramaniyan, B. Ramakrishna Rao and
A. Babu Rao
RURAL TELEVISION: ITS PROGRAMMES
AND AUDIENCE
Anand Kumar Jaiswal
THEY SHOW THE WAY ...
EDITOR
(MRS.) RATNA JUNElA
ASSTT. EDITOR
N. N. SHARMA
SUB-EDITOR
PARAMJEET G. SINGH
. COVER '
JIVAN ADAUA
~nquiries'_ regnrd-hi~ Subs~riptions~ Agencies. etc.,
Business M anag e r , Publications Division
Pa"tiata House, New D eJ l . : i - l10 .ooiTel: 387983'
Frankly, shortfall that has come in the. achievement
of targets has been due to a little less than total
invol\'ement of the people as well as erratic imple-
mentation of the programmes. Periodic reviews con-
firmed' this and indicated that the situation required
far Qlore intensive .efforts . to concep:trate on target
. groups accompanied by a number of special measureS.
As a result, the' prindple o f deveiop.ment with social
justice was propounded. and emphasis was. shifted
from mere increase in production to the all-round . -.~' . .. . , . .' .,:..." -
development of rural commumty. Programmes. of
development were recast to reach out target groups and
area.<;. A new vigour was pumped into the implemen-
tation of the development programmes and speedy
betterment of the rural.poot.
The paramou.nt ~mportance of correct and matter-
of-facl planning and proper implementation .are now
accepted as 'the cOre of the dcvelopment effort" by all
concerned, And that is ho,v it should be.
• < "
In. tpis .issue, w~sarry a very learned article on the
subject. of rural development which elucidates the
re i& yan ce and im p 'o r~ an~ e of planning an9 imple-
m:~nti:tionvis.-a-vis'achi~vement of desired results. We
ace' sure out readers will find this exposition of
. EditOrial Office: Krlslii Bhavao, Ne~ Delhi-lIttOn! immense. value ..
Teiephori" ,. 384888 &382406
Editoi-'s Residence: 615920'
","
SINGLE COPY: Re. 1
SUBSCRIP1'ION FOR:ONE YEAR: Rs.20 I'Kin.rukshetra' wishes its esteemed .reade.'.s. a I
happy and prosperous New Year -_. - -- --
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Rural development:planning and, implementation
A.R. PATEL
Bank of Baroda, Central Office, Bombay
GANDHIJI WANTED'TO PROMOTE health and vigour
of India's villages and wanted to develop thcm
as village system, An ideal village of Gandhiji's con-
ception was such as "to lead it~elfto perfect sanitation,
its cottages should have sufficient light and ventila-
tion, they 'should be built of local materials, its lanes
and 'streets should be free of dust. It should have
wells according to need and access, houses of worship
for all, a common meeting place, a 'villagecommon for
grazing, r u co-operative dairy, primary "nd secondary
schools in which industrial education will be the
central factor and its own panchayat for settling dis-
putes. This model village will have its own water
works ensuring clean water supply and a com!Julsory
service of village guards." (Rarijan, January 9, 1937).
Several programmes were undertaken, new innova-
tions were introduced and experimental or pilot l1ro-
jects were launched in past to achieve the objectives of
rural development and modernise our villages. The
more well-known among lhem were the Martandam
project (1921), ,Rural Reconstruction project in
Baroda (1932), Firka Development ,Scheme inMadras (1946), Etawah Pilot Project in Uttar Pra-
desh (1948), the Community Development Pro-
gramme (1952), Intensive Agricultural District Pro-
gramme (1960-61) and other projects covering SFDA,
DPAP, CAD etc. While these programmes have re-
corded appreciable achievements, they have suffered
from many handicaps such as hick of proper identi-
fication of the potential beneficiaries on the basis of
objective criteria; flaws in the implementation process
because of lack of dedicated and committed imple-
menting machinery; and pressure from the relatively
well-to-do and influential sections of the population inthe rural sector to corner the benefits olithese to tnem-
selves. Thus, while few areas have witnessed pros-
perity, a large number of population in roral areas
4
has' been experiencing abject poverty, gross inequality
in the distribution of wealth and income, chrof!ic un-
employment, squalor, want, ignorance and appalling
insanitary and sub-human conditions of living.
'This problem has been so much deep-rooted in
the developing countries where 40 percent of the
population live in absolute poverty and their life is so
degraded by disease, illiteracy, malnutrition and squa-
lor that the attainment of even the basic neces-
sities seems to be difliculi. The United Nation Con-
ference on Human Settlement held at Vancouver,Canada in May-June 1976, recommended that the
developing countries pay special attention to the im-
provement of rural areas where a majority of their
population reside. In general, it backoned member-
countrics to enlarge employment opportunities to the
rural poor; extend public services and improve the
!evels of living of those living in the rural areas. The
Conference also callC!1upon to improve the physical
environment and thus enhance in general the quality
of life. It is against this background an aHempt is
made here to, appreciate the c0l'cept of rural develop-ment and the need for a mechanism to identify the
nceds and problems of rural poor iind by which the
objectives of rural development can be achieved.
R.D. : the urgency
R URAL DEVELOPMENT HAS N OW come to be reali-
sed _as a sine qua nOll for national . develop-
ment and social welfare. The problem is not merely
one of development of rural areas but of the develop-
ment of the rural communities of which our nation
comprises; to dispel ignorance and poverty, and assistthe process of creating self-reliant and self-sustaining
healthy modern little communities. Thus, rural deve- •
,lopment can no longer be identified with mere
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increase in GNP or even per capita income. The in-
crease in income is expected to be so distributed as to
result in insignificant <:WJ:.unltiou"of ;;;eq~alities of
income and wealth. In short, every rural family
should have its reasonable share in the generation of
GNP and increasing per capita income. The major
objective has been to develop and reconstruct the rural '
economy such that incomes Jlowing from the owner-
ship of productivc assets, skills and labour would be
automatically distributed more equitably. This fact
therefore focuses the need, urgency and importance of
building viable rural commnnities of functional rural
clusters with improved dwellings, clean water and
modern sanitation, .a ~ongenial environment, depend-
able and convenient energy supplies, adequate trans-
port and communication facilities that link it to the
larger world, suitable health and educational services,
access t6 credit and markets, culturally invigorated
and no longer compartmentalised by barriers of castes
and feudal distinctions based on land ownership or occupation. Thus, this programme will have a multi-
dimensional approach which would have components
such as (i) multi-sector involving sectors which con-
stitute all the aspects of the rural economy; (ii) multi-
sectional involving weaker sections of the society; (iii)
multi-level requiring planning, at various levels; and
(iv) multi-agency involving the participation of the
Government, Panchayat administration,' financial
institutions, commercial/business/induslri~l houses,
voluntary and service organisations, trusts etc.
Progress under plans
THE ENTIRE PLANNING EXERCISE needs to be
geared up and given so much importance that it
h~s to be weighed in favour of (i) optimum utilization
of the grmvth potential of the area to increase income,
employment and production; (ii) ensuring that a
larger than proportionate gains of development'accrue
to the weaker sections of the population; (iii) fulfilling
the minimum needs programme-health and 'medical
facilities, drinking water, housing, edu~tion, supply
of essential commodities through a public distribu-tion system; (iv) augmenting the duration and pro-
ductivity of employment of-the poor and under un-
employment in their existing occupation, inter alia,
through upgrading of technology, imparting of skills
and setting up of non-exploitative institutions for
credit, marketing and services; (v) alleviating chronic
unemployment through employment on public works
under Nalional Rural Employment Programme; (vi)
building up of a social and economic infrastructure;
(vii) rc-orienting the existing institutions and organi-
sations in order to protect the interest of the poor;
(viii) building up of appropriate organisation of therural poor espccially to protect them from the ex-
ploitation and (ix) promotion of a progressively more
egalitarian structure of ownership of assets,
KURUKSHETRA January 1, 1982
•
PLANNING EXERCISE MAY therefore have to firsu
-identify/locate those villages/rural--areas which
have. acute problems of r~ unemployment and
underemployment have no basic developmental infra-
structure and have considerable development potential
. but no scientific and technological institutions have
so far begun to work. For this purpose, it would be
necessary to (i) compile an integra!ed resource in~ventory on the basis of data available from a variety
of sourc"s/surveys etc., (ii) initi~te a malady-remedy
analysis that c~n pinpoint specilic constraints that
affect the life and work o~ the rural poor, and to indi-
cate the appropriate way by which these con~traints
could be overcome and 10, ,! ,1 resources optimaUy
utilised, (iii), formulate- a draft action-plan through
fillJdvisits to be under!aken by inter-disciplinary teams
and securing the suggestions of the local communities
and (iv) direct the scientific and technological re-
sources to seek soluti~ns of these problems.
THE GROWTH CENTRE EXERCISE, in this endeavour,
can be a powerful instrument for assisting th~
policy-makers and the plamaers in improvi!Jg the
weU-being of the popu4tions. The growth cenlre
project can provide blue-prints iridicating the possible
locations for education, health and such .other facili-
ties. Based on the principle of "equal accessibility"
Ihe, growth ,centre approach can bring several com'
munity facilities like health, education, transport and ,
communication, local administration etc., within easy
reach of all the populations.
These growth centres should necessarily be
equipped with all the required facilities which may
help the rural population to get their work done in
the area itself rather than visiting cities/towns such ,! S
(i) a permanent training centre to impart practical
-training in the area of agriculture, cottage and village
industries and agro-based industries, (ii) a mobile
training-cum-demonstration unit to' provide on
the spot training and rePair, service and maintenance
facilities for agricultur~ and inclustrial machineries,
(iii) a rural service society to provide credit, inputs
of productioo, custom-hiring of farm equipments and
machineries, (iv) , a marketing-eum-warehousing
components-that can provide safe storage and efficient
marketing of farm produce and cottage industries
products, (v) a forest and, grass n~ery for provid-
ing ,fruits, fuel, fodder and forest trees (vi) a develop-
mental-school basep on 'e¥ning while learning' princi-
ple and oriented to develop a cadre of self-
employed'and dedicated workers in the area of human,
animal, plant and soil-health care and (vii) a residen-
tial component to provide basic housing facilities for
workers in the project arca.The growth centres may have to be selected on
the basis of important criteria such as existence of
a -progressive and modern agriculture, (ii) availability
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of irrigation, (iii) existence of a network of roads and
communication, (iv) prevalence of trade and banking
facilities, (v) establishment of small industrial units,
(vi) establishment of cooperative institutions, (vii)
availability of public. health facilities and (viii)
effective local participation.
Developmental agencies
THE GOVERNMENT AND T HE PANCHAYAT RAJ in-
stitutions have a significant role to play in initiat-
ing/accelerating the process of rural development.
However, while the Government has bui1t"inlimita-
tions in pro.~idingthe effective adm4tistration, organi-
sation, operational elliciency and budgetary resources,
the panchayat raj institutions are either non-existent
in most parts of the country' (backward and tribal
areas) or in the moribund state. Thus, the .role of
other institutions and industries becomes all the while
more important nm,; than before at least in supple-
menting the efforts of the Government in these vulner-able areas.
For the first time in the history of .India, the
commercial banks have provided one of the best
and most needed infrastructure in rural and semi-urban
areas by opening a large number of branches, adopt-
ing 74000 villages, sponsoring 912 Farmers' Ser-
vice Societies, 1424 large-sized multipurpose .socie-
ties, prepared impressionistic survey reports and fo~-
mulated district credit plans for each of the blocks.of
all the districts in the country. The credit institu-
tions in close collaboration with the willing industrial/business/ commercial house,s, voluntary and social ser-
vice organisations. Trusts can identify the 'Growth
Centres' in order to initiate the rural development
process. These organisations can set up 'Develop-
ment Agency' manned by experts in the area of agri-.
culture, animal husbandry, rural engineering, social,
education, rural industries, ~anagement, marketing
etc. This agency should provide all the assist<ince.to
the rural poor, secure bank credit, maintain rapport
with the Government departments to draw subsidy
and build up infrastructure, formulate schemes, imple-ment the projects monitor the progress etc. The
first task of tlie agency is to (i) identify families
below .the poverty line, (ii) classify the families in
terms of annual per capita income groups and (iu)
formulate production programmes for each family in
consultation with the head of 'the household with a
view to raising -its income above thE::poverty line.
The agency with the hclp of industrial house can for-
mulate projects of rural development based on scienti-
fic surveys, or can get studies conducted such as techno-
economic studies of agro-based industries, ground-
water potential, cadastral surveys, processing, storage
marketing studies etc. It can promotetlie cooperative
socie~i~which can create community assets. Lift ir-
rigation schemes, community irrigation, water supply,
gobar gas, fodder development, cattle feed, custom
6
service umts for the beuefit of small/marginal farmers,
artisans, labourer, ;tc. 'and can effectively supervise
the working of these societies by providing manage-
ment expertise. These agencies should' be motivated
towards the well-~eing of the rural poor and free
from bureaucratic, political and procedural limitations.
With purely service motive, they can sincer-elytake
up rural development programme on a smaller scale..
Using local resources and talents. they can take upspec.ial interest in the supply of inputs, consumer
goods, organisation of crop demonstrations, imparting
training, educating the people on their problems of
health and social aspects, construction of rmids, wells,
bundhs, semi-weirs, deepening of tanks, afforesta-
tion and fodder development works organise bal.
waris, medical camps etc.
There should also be a Project Review & Moni-
toring COI;l1m~ttee consisting of representatives of the
bank, indu~trialhouse, voluntary/service organisation,
Govermuent departments, Panchayat administration,
Farm Universities/research instituqons to review the
progress under the project and take corrective steps to
improvc the working of various schemes.
Conclusion:
PUBLIC SECWR BANKS SHOULD provide leadership
Jll Identifymg thc potenllal growth centres in the
area of their operation. The development of rural
growth centres and their promotion should constitute
a basic approach to the process of rural dcvelopment.With the active involvement of industrial houses and
voluntary organisations the potential growth centre
sh,ould be developed as a full-fledged growth centre
which can provide all the much needed services and
facilitics to the farmers, artisans and other rural
communities to m;prove their .skill and productivity.
The Development Agency to be sponsored by them
should undertake detailed survey of resources, prob-
lems of development, familywise survey, identification
needs, formulation and implementation of area
specific schemes, building rapport with Govern-
ment and Panchayat institutions for creating socio-
economic infrastructure etc. With the professional
management forthcoming from the banks and industrial
houses the working of the project should be improv-
ed from productivity, profitabijity and production
point of view. This approach may not be considered
to be an academic exercise as the public sector bank
in close cooperation with the industrial house and the
Trust has implemented the projects in the most back-
ward and tribal areas. of Baroda and Btilsar distri,ts
which have shown eucouraging results, Not only the
fan~lics below poverty line have increased their in-come, but a few of them have crossed the poverty line
also. Thus there is no doubt about the efficacy of
'Growth Models' in accelerating the process of rural
development.
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R URAL DEVELOPMENT INVOLVES taking care of
agriculture,- animal husbandry, fisheries and fores-
try, rural village anf:!cottage industries, tertiary sector,
skill development and labour-mobility. About a decade
ago, commercial banks tended to shy away from
financing agricultural operations and anything that
related to rural ,areas and their development. Today,
the situation has changed with the major thrust given
to the development of rural areas not only in respect
of their economy but also in various other spheres of
rural life.
With the lannching of the integrated rural develop..
ment (JRD) programme, a new dimension has been
added to the activities of our conimercia1 bankS, The
significant characteristics of IRD are (i) the enrich-
ment of the total quality of life and the reduction of
disparities in wealth and employment, (ii) realising
these objectives by implementing progriiinmes like the
minimum 'needs programn:i"e, development of social
services and infrastructure, (iii) the creation of a
hierarchy of service centres for the on-going projects
of the Government agencies and (iv) the planning and.implementation of schemes for rural development on
an area basis and with locality' specifics.
IRD is a multi-level, muiti-secto~and multi-section
concept encompassing rural development at vanous
levels in the spatial hierarchy as created by the imple-
mentation of the existing community development pro-
jects. The various sectors iricluded in it are agricul-
ture, industries, education, health and transportation.
As regards the different sections, it covers development
projects for the benefit of the rural poor, landless
labour, artisans, small and marginal farmers and cate-gories of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
It is true that in any scheme of things pertaining to
area 'approach in development or' agriculture, three
KURUKSHETRA January 1, 1982
L
Rural developmentthrough banks
NAVIN CHANDRA JosmMotila! Nebru College, Vul,verslty of Delhi
sectors are principally involved viz., the co-operative
seclor, the commercial banking sector and the govern-
ment sector 'at different levels. ' However, the present'
rural scene presents a somewhat confused picture in
so far as credit is concerned. Due to the large credit
gaps, the multi-agency approach to credit for agricul-
ture is now accepted as inevitable. But then, the
various agencies working at the same time have result-
ed in wastage and misuse of scarce resources due to
lack of co-ordination and proper rapport among theni'.
Institutional finance
THE !NSTITUTIONAL FINANCE provided to the farm-,
ing sector has not been commensurate with the
priority accorded to it. For instance, in Britain about
four percent of the national income comes from agri-
culture and yet commercial banks provide 9.8 per cent
of rural credit. In India, on the other hand, about
50 per cent of GNP comes from the farming sector
but commercial banks meet only 94 per cent of the
rural credit. It is, therefore. imperative that the
Gove(nment should mobilise more financial resourcesfrom the farm sector So that public investments may
be stepped tIP in it.
The Sixth Plan has emphasised rural development
and labour-intensive forms of production. In some
cases good results have been achieved. For instance,
in pursuance of the new textile policy involving shift
in emphasis on handlooms, there has beeb a 50 per
cent increase in the co-operativisation of lIandloom
units. The number of handlooms under c(H)peratives
has gone from 8,10,000 to 12,31,000 societies. With
the establishment of the distriCt industrial centres, pro-spects for decentralised industrial production have
improved though the actual results are yet to be known
and evaluated. It may be noted that the absence of
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the institutional infrastructure for promoting and faci-
litating group action in certain vital areas of agricultu-
ral managentent is a major constraint in improving
crop and animal productivity both in most irrigated
and rainfed areas.
Agricultural management must comprise activities
that an individual farmer can' undertake prolitably as
also the activities that only a group of farmers living
in rural areas can adopt effectively. Harvesting and
recycling, soil-conservation, raising energy plantations
integrated post-management, integrated nutrient supply
and improved post-harvest technology are such where
group or' community action is essential for successful
adoption.
In institutional devices in j,rOl;'lOtingcollective en-
deavour and for helping poor farmers to overcome
their handicaps are not adopted timely and scientific
farm ope-rations are not developed soon in our villages,the agricultural sector will have a low cost-competi-
tiveness and there .will be' a big gap between potential
and average yields. There is,-therefore, an urgent need
for effectively dovetailing the agricultural schemes for
credit ~ith commercial banks and also with credit
schemes fOl~other supporti'og activities in order to
enhance'the be-nelits of loans given to cultivators.,
Expansion, of rural banks
T"HE CREDITABLE .PERFORMANCE OF commercial
' banks in lending to agriculture has been made possible because of the ,]argo.scale spread of branches
of banks in rural areas. The number ~f offices of all
scheduled commercial banks rose from 8262 at the end
of June 1969 to 31889 at the end of March 1980, a
nearly ,threefold increase. The number of offices
opened in unbanked centres was 12,814 or 54.2 per
cent of the total increase during the period. The tempo
of branch expansion in the rural areas was faster with
more than sevenfold increase from 1832 in June 1969
to 14669 in March 1980. The share of rural offices
'in the total number of offices of all scheduled commer-cial banks has increased during the same period from
22.1 per cent to 46.1 peT'cent.
In the context of the aggregate needs for agricultu-
ral finance, the progres~ of such financing seems to be
rather tardy. According to the Report of the Commit-
tee on Functioning 'o'f Public Sector Banks, the tardy
progress has' to be ascribed to a number of impedi- ..
ments which come in the way of banks in deploying
credit to agriculturists. Broadly, these can be grouped
into four major types, viz. (i) those 'which arise from
the traditiohal n~ture of fanning in the country and the generally poor holding power of the' majority of
agriculturists, (ii) those which depend on help or ac-
tion by the State Governments; (iii) those'which arise
from the operations of commercial bankS and (iv)
8
those which arise from the inherent weak structure of
agricultural credit institutions in the country.
The report states that the low credit, absorptiob
capacity of the small agriculturists is a major i'nhibit-
ing factor in the rapid expansion of bank cre(Jit. The
boldings are small and the farmers very poor so that
tbe ten_dencyto spread on consumption rather than to
invest in improvemeht of land is strong among them.Again though intelligent and quick to grasp knowledge
on new methods of farming the India!! farmer has to
be given convincing guidance on profitable marketing
of the products. The Report adds that it is here that
the State Governments' Agricultural Departments can
play a siguificant role to edncate the farmers about
the application of modern !J1ethods of cultivation and
to persuade them to make the best use of the available
facilities for improving the yield from land. It is stated
that very often, the State Government officials are
enthnsiastic in encouraging banks to grant credit with-out formulating bankable schemes, but not co-opera-
tiVe in the follow-up action after lending the money
to the borrowers. This resulted in accumulation of
overdues over a period of years a'nd_co~s_equent un-
willingness on the part of branch managers to make
frcsh loans to the new borrowers. Effective co"ordi-
nation between State Government officials and banks
would help banks in extending credit facilities to a
larger section of rural popnlation than hitherto ..
Implementation of credit schemes
I,. N SPITE OF the impressive increase in the flow
, O f commercial banks credit to the agricultural
sector and the progress made' in evolving arrangements
to provide, increasing qnantum of, credit to agricultu-
rists, there are still a 'number of shortcomings in the
modalities of formulation, content and implementation
of agricultural credit schemes." An expert group on
aoricultural credit schemes of commercial banks (head-
ed by G. M. Desai), in its report to the Reserve Bank,
has emphasised that' many of the present credit 'Sche-
me~ would be valid irrespective of whether the com-
mercial banks themselves directly disburse loans' toagricuiturists or do sci through intermediaries such. as
primary' agIicultu"raI credit societies and' farmers' ser-
vice societies- "The g ro u p h'as' commended' the 'area
approach' in'the 'formulation -of credit sche-mes, tak-
inginto account the functional linkages between acti-
vities financed, the infrastructural support, and other
complementary activitie:s which have a bearing on the
viability of the 'schemes.
The aforesaid group has alSo urged greater involve-
me'nt of the State Governments, the lead banks and
district consultative committees" in the f9rmulatiOll a'mlimplementation of credit schemes, strengthening . of
banks' technical and other staff at the l'ural branches
as well as at the regional and head office levels, and
compilation of adequate and reliable district-wise data
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on loan operations of credit institutions, etc. I! has
also underlined the importance of diversifyingthe pur-
pose for which credit schemes are being formulated
by extending the range of activities covered and deve-
loping credit schemes for unconventional purposes.
With regard to the problem of unemployment and
underemployment in rural areas, it is felt that a perma-
nent solution should be found with the help of modern
farm operations as also through intensive agricultural,
.
development ahd promotion of village and small-scale
ndustries. The linking up of the village eConomywith
urban market centres also needs_ to be strengthened.
As various projects take time to fructify, the unemp-
oyed rural masses have to be provided with some
special schemes of u'nemployment from time to time.
A beginningtowards this was made i'n the form of rural
works programme in the Third Plan (1961-66) but
t was abandoned after the Plan. In recent years,
some employment-cum~producti'on 5Ghemes such a6
the small farmers's development agency, marginalfarmers and agricultural labourers ahd drought prone
area programme were introduced. Since these .schemes
have had a limited scope, it is now feit that a wide
overage and a new dimension need to be given to
eradicate unemployment,from the rural sector. While
a much more imaginative and concerted effort has
to be made, banks' activities should become a second
tring to the bow of the Govermnentin various States
for .solvingthe problem,
Ih 1969, when the major commercial banks were
nationalised, almost 80 percent of the banking system
came under the public sector. The banking system
of the country, therefore, emerged as the most signi-
icant instrument for economic dev(::lopment. Banks
were increasingly involved in the development pro-
grammes launched in the country. They were also
associated with programmes such as SFDA.
MFAL, etc.. directly or indirectly. The performance
of the State Bank' of India has been outstanding in this
direction.
The State Bank of India, in April 1968, laid down
a detailed policy for financing all types ot agricultural
operations-from sowing to harvesting, storage, mar-
keting. ahimal husbandary, dairy farming, etc. The
nitial efforts of the bank revealed the need for an
approach which would ensure systematic as well as
ntensive coverage. It was felt that a pack'age of cre-
dit goes well with other supporting' extension serviees.
The bank adopted an 'area approach' for ensuring
effective and intensive coverage of a large nu~ber of
armers. It in~olves select~on of a compact as well as
contignous area comprising a cluster of villages and
KURUKSHETRA January 1, 1982
extension of need-based credit to all viable and poten-
tially viable farmers in that area .
This approach facilitated the formulation of inte-
could be available to a large mass,of the rural popula-
could be available to a large mass of the rural popula-
tion. The major accent in formulating the area ap.
proach Was on providing the small/marginal farmers
and other weaker sections with a variety of services,
apart from the mere provision of credit. The StateBank of India is now having two major schemes in the
form of the agricultural development branches expan-
sion and the village adoption scheme.
I! can reasonably be hpped that the future growth
of banking in the country would now be in the direction
of achievingthe objectives of the i~egrated rural deve-
lopment schemes that hold so much p<omisefor improv-
ing the economy and the well-heing of our rural areas.
The extension of the public distribution system in the
countryside will also mitigate the hardships of the rural
masse, to a large extent. The banking structure masnow to keep itself in readiness to accept any kind of
challenge in inhking the scheme a great success.
Although it has had an array of policy options so far
the major element in its policy must be rural develop-
ment. In short, the banking infrastructure should he
shaped to support the disperSed pattern of develop-'~
ment.
Some problems
THEREARECERTAINPROBLEMSwhich banks face
in their operations in rural arcas. -For example,there is th,elack of proper and up-lo-date la'nd records.
In the case of tenant cultivators, the problem ,is more- - .\
acute as there are no records of te!lancy righte at all.
I! is, therefore, necessary that suitable administrative
support should come in the shape of updating of land
records, consolidation of land-holdings, r.egistration of
the rights of shanxroppers, etc. The commercial
banks should now strive at making the lowest level of
agriculture a functionally p'roductiveunit. They should
help in creating enough managerial flexibilityfor hand-
ling agricultural and manpower resources. They need
, to help the IRD programmes cast a new mould for
optimising inter-sectoral pay-offs through maximum
production.
The' success of our commercial banks will now be
judged not 'by the amount of money they give as cre-
dit but by whether the outflowof rural people from the
countryside to urban areas has been effectively che-
cked as a result of the many new opportuni-
ties created for them through the instrument of our
banking system,
,9
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Need for rural developmenteducation
M. P. BORAYAN
Rural University, Gandbigram
I N, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES LIKE India the level
and rate of national development is d~~ctly deter-
mined by the level of rural development. Rural deve-
lopment and national development are inextricably in-
terrelated whereby the goals and components of both
are alike. Rural' development is an integral part as
well as a driving force of the entire development pro-
cess and. lies at the heart of national development.
Withou! the support of the rural sector in feeding the
growing population with food and income to fend for the!Jlselves.' Nearly 45 percent of the Indian industry
with' basic raw materials which energise the growth
of economy; national development would be a mirage.
Over. t h e - years, agriculture has established an "orga-
nic-link" with the national economy and formed a
complex nexus inseparable from ,the life of' people.
Piedsely for the above reasons, today rural develop-
ment enjoys wider recognition and' greater importance
in the policies and programmes of developing count-
ries than any time in the past,
The human factor
R URAL' DEVELOPMENT heavily draws from the
strengtiI and ulilisation of natural and financial
resources, skills and ,participaiion' of the people and
the' will ahd action of the government. Compared to
the" availability- of natural and finan~ial resources and
governmental ~ction, the human fac!or weighs heavy.
In 'fact, the skills and participation of people deter-
mine' the utilisation of available ' natural and finan-
cial resources as well _~s initiation of governmental
action. The human input offsets the inadequaciesand adjusts the imbalances in other inputs by diligently
diagnosing the missing links in the process of rural
development and properly filling the vacuum with right
requirements. This demands for a well-developed
10
human resources in the field of rural development with
specialisation in various aspects.
Trained manpower in rural development is a sine
qua non for identifying the intensely felt needs, for-
mulating viable plans, launching effective develop-
ment programmes, rationally investing the meagre re-
sources and implementing the programmes efficielltly
and thereby make the benefits percolate to the intend-
ed target groups. Viewed thus, lack of trained rural
development' manpower is one of the major reasons
for the' deteriorating living standards of the rural poor
and widening disparity between the rich and poor. At
, present, there are woefully inadeqiIat~ number of such
experts which is uot in commensurate with the vast
magnitude of the problem aud massive amoWrtof tasks
to be performed iu order to resurrect and rejuveuate
the sickly rural parts of the country. Educating and
training human resources is therefore, a desideratum
which calls for a fuller uuderstanding of the need for
such humau resources aud thrash out strategies by the
educationists, politicians and the public.
Agricultural uuiversities, veteriuary college~, tech-
uology aud iudustrial iustitutes, medical colleges, social
work, training and r~esearchinstitut~s and a plethora
of colleges aud universities are, no doubt, playing a
vital role in trainiug experts in their respective discip-
lines. But their perception, comprehensiou and per-
formance tend to centre around the narrow bouudary
of their respective specializations in i~olation with each
other,_as a ,result of which their contribution towards
the task of rural development, whicp is a complex
group process and multi-discipliuary in nature, has
been disproportionately low to the actual requirements.
Further, their training and practice which is mostly
urban-biased, make them confiue to only urban areas
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and even agricultural graduates or ruralites pull out
from the rural areas at the first available opportunity.
!herefore, grooming a stock of experts, well-trained
tn all or most of the aspects of rural development and
well-versed with rural realities is an imperative that
should be materialized on a war-footing.
R URAL DEVELOPMENT, now in its infant stage, is
gradua)ly being recognised ~ a .discipline and an
emerging profession which is yet to develop in its
~rea~t.hIand .!ength. ~urald~velopmen~Vs¥ot, .a?-. IexclusIVe:subject but a blend of both'soCial sciences) ~
~~:.~ec?~~~~.s';o~oc!olpgy,~ps;ychology,. politicalsclence,~education, 'dei:nography,.management science .
If.l~.re,c,lJnk1ll.di~iplines like agriculture, engineering,medicine, 'chetrnstry, physics and so on. Policies and
programmes of the government regarding rural deve-
lopm~nt, the problems and difficulties encountered in .their implementation: approa~hes.and' strategies' adopt-
ed by thousands of voluntary organisations and indi-
Viduals,the' overall impact of all the above iiI iinprov-
ing t,he ~uality of life. of the rural people and streng-
heni]1gthe base of the rural econOmy,and' the' nature
and extent of participation by the People form the core
of rural development curriculum. A comhination of
both soitware and' hardware aspects of social 'sciences
and technical subjects, with a heavy dose of practical
experience incorporated in' the subject,.' distinguishes
rural development from other disciplines,"Thus, rural
development is an integrative, practic~l, atid develop-ment oriented subject that needs to be taught. by a
chorus of experts with a slant towards making the
earners participate in 'the actual implementation of the
asks of rural development during the ,course work and" after: "';~~l
AT PRESENT, rural development is offered at the
graduate and post-graduate levels only in a hand-
ful of places throughout India. . In Gujarat, ,South
Gujarat University..(Surat) offers Rural Studies and he Institute of Rural Management of the National
Dairy Development Board (Anand) offers Rural Man,
agement at ..the post-graduate level. .,In .;\ndhra Pra-
desh, the Autonomous. Post-graduate ".Centre of Sri
Venkateswara University (Anantapur)' \lffers Rural
Development at the post-graduate level. In TamiInadu,
Madurai-Kamaraj University offers Rural Develop-
ment Science.in; two' of its affilj,ltellcolleges.(Karum-
athur and Usilampatty) at the 'under-graduate 3eveL
The Gandhigram Rural, University. (Gandhigram), a
pioneer in India, offers-Rural Services at .the graduate
evel and Rural Development, Rural Econ"mics and
Extension Education. and Rurah.Sociology and Pan,
hayati Raj at the post-graduate level, Recently; ,the.
KURUKSHETRA January),,1982
National Institute of Rural Development (Hyderabad)
and Vlswa-Bharati (Sriniketan) offered Rural Deve-
lopment at the M,Phil. level for two batches.
Educational and research institutions require trained
hands to teach the students, train the workers, study
the problems, evaluate development programmes and
suggest viable alternatives. Government machinery
needs experts in formulating sound policies, launching
productive progra=es aud implementing them. care-
fully, Voluntary organisations need workers to carry
out their developmental activities, mobilise people's
IparticiPation, organise the soci••lly and economically
disadvantaged and establish close functional contact
with the villagers in order to escalate their socio-eco-
nomic status.
Considering the magnitude of the problem and
efforts planned for future, the availabilitY of trained
experts .inrural -development;js", grossly •inadequate.
Therefore, at. present the country 'needs to establish
more ~ural Development Institutes in vario~s,aspectS,
at ~atIous places, offering, Rlll'a:l,Development _as . a
S!JbJecL j) ", "I" d.. . _ .~, ,; r:
I':. 'I." ; ,. . r • ;l ..•.
" ...." Rural development education
The University Grants Coi:Iunissionshould urge all
the Universities to establish a Department of Rural
Development, exppse tli, students tp ~uraLrea)ities by
ad,dmgpapers on this subject, taking themto ' villages'
periodically and making them, study auy one of the
c':,'t\caIrural issues and submit a research paper which
will enhance their understanding of the ruraLsituation
and awareness' of the Sf•.te of Indian "';oriomy.: .
R URAL DEVELOPMENT education' aims at imparting
basic knowledge about the rural society, the fabric
of complex inter-meshed social structure, the economic
texture, the huioan ecology and the issues that emerge
out of their, inter-action and injecting them with skills
and techniques by educating them in' counteractingso as to make the .learners comprehend. the rural scene
and,participate.in the tasks of rural development. It
offers au efficacious cure for .the malady plagning the
present (jay. education system .,in the form 'of stereo-
typed theoretical learning, divorced far from realities
which makes the,' products unusable 'a'nd keep them
idle, Rural developm~nt education.is thus, completely
tailored to therealities,need-b~,., acti~u-oriented,
job-orientoo and' development-centred; , Rural .deve-
lopment is basically a function' of trained' experts in
this field apd 'ihe pattern of ,'rural development in! ,7 ~. ,,'.'" _ ~• -,.'-~, .•
l\Jtui-ewill be significantly,moulded .by'rural develop-" ,",. '. . .•' l
. mel)t"education.. '::t:~:~' ~H '. ..f'
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'.
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'!'~; 'I • T. I.}~ ,.~ <~~1i<i.1 '1' .,,~' " I ~'-I
'How I.R.D.P. is changing, , " ' . . L ,, ; : ' • . e,tlle,r4Jra,1 :s (: e n e
" ' .
K~~At1s i tALAY A, AM IDDLE-A GEj) W oM AN of the Depal-. pUr vil'age in liidore district of Madhya Pradesh
was i n deep financial misery only a year back. Her
family was £tom '~e~ker sections of the society. Her
husband, major earniI)g member, after an accident, be:
came handicapped and was throw.!!out of employment.
On being approached by oilida:~bf Sericulture and
Block Development, she agreed for two-months train-
ing in silkworm,rearing. 'Under a scheme jointly
chalked out by Madhya Pradesh Textile Corporation
and Rural Development Departmeilt, landless agricul-
tural labourers, particularly H:arijan families are train-
ed in silkwohn rcaring. the teXtile Corporation has
its .Extension Farms where mulberry .plants are grown,
training is iIhpartedi,and cacoons are purchased.
In January last, Kaushalaya and II other women
of Depalpur and. other adjoining villages were trained
in setlculture. They ;;resupplied silk wohtisl'aised
upto haif 0 \ their llie",yde, free. of cost.. They re~i
these Wotm~;adheiI"owjt"iio1ises. "wiihl15 days, cto'p
or cacooll; ;is 'teady::" Th<!~e:(j~i:6Ohs'~te' ~rin;haSea b y
e;(tenSi6~ fatIDS.at pre-fixed price. At this Stage, 50 pet cent price 'is recovercii agaillst the price of mUl-
bety leaves supplied earlier. Duringthtee monthS from
J4ly to September, 'llJ8i, Ka,)shalaya teaped aboui
7 '3 kg. of caM6ns and on 'saleg6t around Rs. ,50.
Now, she g a happy Indy aDd het monthly !hcome is
about ' RS.240 whl!e before ttailing it wns below
Rs. 100. CU'ttentiy. '22 other womcn,16 of them
Hadjans, are und~rgoing similar training. 'the trained
pets(jii.~ateeiititle\J:t,jCHnafiGial'fujsistfuc'e of Rs; 3,000 .
(Rs. 2400 fOr setting upa rearing'shedand 'Rs. 600
for equipment) under the Integrated'Rural Develop-
ment Programme. .One-third of this .amount is avail-able as subsidy and two-third 'as bank loan.. State
B a n K Onnd6te h'aSpfc;vid&l ioan io mosf;'f the train-
ed women. Not only in Depalpur, but in ail 'the '459
.12
development blocks in Madhya Prade.;h and all the
blocks in the country efforts are going'on to',help the
poor .people of, fjlral ,areas to cross the poverty' line.
Although Integrated Rural Development' Programme
was launched ,in, 197.8"79'.beginning with '2300 blOCks
since 2nd October i9 8 0 ali the Deveioi'ment Blocks
of the' country have' been brought under its purview.
A number 'of programmes like S.F.D.A., KPALfor.
helping rural poors were in operation with muJtiplicity
of implementing .agencies •but none, of, the ,Programme
covered whole of the country and piaoned approach
was' lacking. IRD Programme has been conceived essentially as an anti'poverty programme. It is esti-
mated that of the 350 million people below the poverty
line 'in the country, around 300'million are in the rural
areas. These consist'largeiy of the land;ess labourers
small and marginal farmers, rural artis,!"s and other
workers. Under the IRD programme, 600 families per
year per block are to be covered. Out of which, 400
are. to be covered under agriculture and allied pro-
gt~inmes, lob uilder ltie smali .•n\itislties ana other 100
under setvice anu busineSS sectors. Thus, in Sixth
Five Year Plan period it is proposed to provide specificassistance to 3,000 families an an average in each
block atid IS miGion families in whole courttry to corne
above poverty line. In Madhya Pradesh, 2754 lakh
families are'being coveted this year.cUrtder IRD, the
,?bject is to ,enable poorest families t6 acquire produc-
tive Msets, and skills to inake their economic activityviiiole,. '.i' ...•'o. , • ,'. .
Reaching out to p'oor farmers
1- N DEPALPUll. DEVELOPMENTBLOCK,after a recent
. survey, it is esiiniaied thaI of the 19,400 families of
the' block, 6,otl0 fliiiiilies 'belting to small and marginalfarmers, agtictaltillaJ' hi15bliterS a n d tUtal artisans
groups. Durin,g 1980"81; abOUt 300 families have
bee'n benefited by viirions pr6grnnimes of minor irri-
••...c,.:., •. - - .' ~'~"':"'-i ..~"'.'-~---'
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district. Motor rewinding and tailoring are the popu-
lar trades. In Budni Ghat on the bank of Narmada
river, some youths are also undergoing training at
Gov!. of India's Tractor Training and Testing Station,
Budni, in different aspects of tractor repairing and
repairing of agriculture equipments.
I N DEWASDISTRICT,NOTEWORTHYwork has been
. done in rehabilitating handicapped persons. Perhaps
this is the ouly district in the country where on the
eve of International Disabled Year, a systematic survey
was carried in the district to ascertain the number of
handicapped and the type of help they required. About
30 persp'ns have been absorbed in private or Govt.
employment and about 70 persons have bo..,en given
loans for self-employment. Under the IRD pre>-
gramme, household survey was in progress. However,
under TRYSEM, 21 youths were trained in various
trades and some of them have started their own work.
In 1981-82, upto 30th September, 79 youths have
been helped to start their own trade, which includetailoring, motor rewinding, blacksmithy, carpantry'arid
bricksmaking. Banks have also come forward to help
the poor tostiind on their '6wiIlegs. In a village aboUt• '. J I, v • r". I '..~. _ _' " . , ' .. '
40 kms from Dewas, I met Radha Bai who with the
meagre.wan of ~. 1,000 from bank has increased
he~.wo~k odoc:himgles substantially and now sellst,->" .•;~ ", , -,f , ' •• _, ; ~'<:'_... ' 1.1. i~- - J .'-r,');:", :~ I'": !'.-"V,''-
bangles worth ,Rs. 300 per -month:~' Her' hUsbiUid -~ '.',."_.&c ' , t . , . _ " ~ to. ;t1• ,,,:. '\
m~ves.from villige to :village, to. sell these bangles.
Similai;ly,.k:i.ilashof the saine village has iricreased
his ,trade "fpreparing colourful colton garlands for
cariJ~whk~ are sold in the area 1ik~hot cakes duringDiwali seasO)1. Perhaps inost commendable work i.
going at a village called Siya where 50ptircent popu-
lation is of Harijans. Here, State Khadi Boam runs
a. centre to train "Rarijan women in spinningpolyster
yarn:, CUrrently, 16 HarijanWomen are receiving
training and they earn -Rs. 3 to Rs. 3.50 per day for
eight hOur job.
I N .HOS:r:ANGABAD D~STR:C~ ~ AN interesting experiment
IS gomg on to trJU11tnbal couples. At village Kirath-
pur about.8 kms frpm Itarsi, 14 couples from tribal
areas are undergoing training,in iinproved methods of ~niinal ~usbanilry. These couples are living in pre-
mises .of state Govt's anini31 breedina farms since. ~ .. , . 1:'
Angust 81 are paidRs. 5 per head per day. I talked
to a 0bal you(h Mehtab of about 28 years and his
WifeLila who first,time in their life travelled by tram
to Itarsi ~tiori' to join, Kiratpnr. camp. Mter the
training, these couples will gp back to their villages and
will be given .goats as additional source of income.
Under. IRD,they w W be wven financial assistance of
Rs; 3,090, half of whicIiwillbe loan and hali a s~b-
sidy.. A'bat~h 'of l2co\'pl4 Wastrained iast year and
th~y Uj'ehappy in their villages eqUipped with newtechniques and added incOI'lefrom g(,ats.
• 'I' ;, .01 . " ".,,, '" .• ' ".
. oj •.i.. • ..Training .programmes for rural youth
_.,:~, • '.. ._ ._0," '. _., ;'. '" .•••. , ~
B ESIDESagnculture, tratillng programmes for ruralyouths aud women are -alSo going on in Sehore".!.~,'i.l.~ ' .; .; - ,.
The close tie-up between Development Project
officials and ;Bank'authorities noticed in Indore District
wllSmissing in. Sehore District. . Before .26th January.
-1979,this district was;part of SFDA, Bhopal and since
January'l98l it haS been'.declared as a separate Dis-
trict Rural'.Development Agency.. In Sehore,. each' of
the five'b~ockshave been'divided into four c:usters and
one cluster from each block will be covered each.year.
Action plan for this year is ready. In the District,
4,400 families below poverty line have been identified
for being coveredjJndei various schemes. Sehorebeingnear to the capital city oLBhopal has very.good scope
for .vegetable growing. .
I saw a faTIn~rnha~arji'\';ho wa~ ;m agricultural~I .",
labourer till 1970-71. He purchased ,a plot of about
four and a half acres by .1m.nsfrom his relatives and
got loan under SPDA project forpump-mo!or ahd well
in 1974-73. Through assurea irrigation, he grows
almost .all. the .vegetabies besides r i c e , sugarcane and . . . . + ' _,-_1'''~1_ r: .".. '," .'
papaya. He takes three crops in a year: He 'has paid
off ali his loans.. So is Mahesh Prashad Rai at another
tM ini who' has .e rt g d g e o 'liis tWo Sons!,a .gra'duate'anilanother 'a Higher Secondary boy on his farm. Neither
of them is now willing to take awhite"collar job in
city. They also grow all the vegetables plus wheat
and gram thtough 'Well-irrigation and have installed
electtic"Uy operated pump sets. Recently, Rai sold
diiili~fiowers worth 'Rs: 'S;Ooo.atrd:tomaro (worth
Rs. 8,000. His net income from tbe farm is about
Rs.. 12;1>00a year. '
A NOTHERCOMFORTABLEFEATUREI found in Indore
district is of hofding Credit Camps where the
development and revenue functionaries, as well as bank flofficials and applicants assemble at one place. 'Loan' •
applications are immediately processed and loan sane"
tions'are issned. fAt o n e camp'ill SaW"i BlocJ<;I saw'
State Bank and Development Block officialsprocessing
oan applications qUICklya n d Within two hours 61
appiicants were sanctimi'edlo~nstotalling Rs. 1,12,000.
gation, animal.husbandry etc. During six months of
the current year 130 families have been provided
with assistance. One of the redeeming features of
Depalpur Block is that avenues other than agriculture
and allied activities have been explored. Besides seri-
ulture, Durri weaving and tailoring has been adopted
as trades. In Gopalpur village, a landless Harijan
Hema is happy with buffalo given under IRD. So
are, Kalukhan a blacksmith, Hiralal a potter, MangiIala carpenter and Vasudev a barber.
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Anjntegrate.d'~ DProachto .tural ~recdfistruclion
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'Thi;~prograinnies iIi rural'reconslrndion range from
establishment of schools m villages to the programmes
of national importance." Ii is evident that' the .country
as a whole will not progress unless the 'rural areas
progress. In all the rural reconslrnction programmes,
the rural community has .'to be the basic unit of dey~Iopment. ~ ." ,t. :h
VILLAGECOMMU~rryshould not be viewed as
bemg a beneficiary merely for the programme of
rural reconslrnction but as a "subject and agent of
change.. Th~ people of the village.are called to utilise
the opportunities available 'for them and to be res-
ponsible to build their future. They, are asked to
create for themselves an enviromnent which will help
them in developmg themselves. The people of the
community should be mvolved m the' decision-making
process and m sharing the responsibilities and work.
, -Itis a matter ofcomm~n observation that the peoplechange only' at times of stress 'and stram or if some
external force. compels them (0 accept. Whenever a
programme is launched the time and need of the pro-
gramme launched go a long:way m makillg it success-
.fuL'.. "Whenever'there is a compelling force to.adopt
change,;the change becomes inevitable. People. accept
it. '" So in programmeimplementatioo, one of the im-
portlmt points is the starting pomt and .this is very lrne
in the Indian context. It is not ver!! easy to bringm
changes m our rural society when superstitions and
traditions'rule m"minds.of the people.' Village peopledo not easily accept change unless there is something
whi~h"is realiy compeIiirig.' . " '~. ' 1' ,1 . r" ."' .,"~,.._" I~ ,.;••- ,,'- , 1 - ! . . .
All constructive programmes m the community
should be connected with the existiug value system.
1""N~lIAIS A L~NDOF ViLLAGE~and ~i~ty percent 0 tthe Indians live m villages. Indian villages have
a pr~ominantly agrarian econbmy notWithStandingtJllit
in some, a majority of the mhahiumts 'are 'cowherds,
shepherds or' even hunterS m the case 'of'some tribal
villages. Onr villagers are knoWn for. their unsophis-
ticated simplicity, combined With an 'astuteness . of
observation of strangers and new ideas. They have
frugal way of life contmued witli a calm resignationthat would willingly" accept circumstances' beyond . . " . - .their control as godsent. They follow a slow pace of
life in conso~ance and with the rythm of nature..~. ,: - .
In' any ellort aimed at national reconstruction, vil-
lages become vital" that need to be .first developed.
Rural 'reconslrnction' does not simply.mean mere eco-
nomic development but integrated development' of the
economic, social, educational and psychological aspects
of people living in these 'areas. . . t,I •
F. L. Bryne opmed. that ,runil reconstruction i~nothing more or less than the revival of old fashioned
virtues. of hard work, thrift, self-respect .and mutual
respect. This wou1<1mean revolutionary, change m
the. outlook of' the viilager towards his work and
resources, 'his cattle; his family, his ~arn:', his neigh~
bours and. his. Govermnent, RuraI' Development• • _ .~. , " , ' ~ A _ f
should be linKedwith an overall.national development.
It should at the same time be linked.with sociai justice
aimed at rural reconstruction' and shbcld not be merely
economic development programmes but they: are;,to
b e integrated with ~soci~ecbri,omic activities" tempered
with justice. People 'should' be free. t;' decide what
is best for them to meet the~ needs to liberate the;".
~el~es from hu.nger, disease~ oppression, expIQitation;"
illiteracy, discrimination' and this requires sociai' ~ orkapproach.
" ,.
The vil1~gt:community
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They should be such that they respect the individual
first and then the existing value system and create a
sense of feeling that by adopting such a measure the
iudividual is ouly enhancing the value system.
The programmes designed should be able to rouse
a sense of r>ridein those who follow it and they should
not think that they are compelled into cheap imitation
of urban way of life. With castes, 'sub-castes, and
other petty goups and fractions iu the villages thereare always prejudices, fears and an~eties within the
village cOlllJ.llunity. National unity as a value is to be. .
iuculcated in oroer to enable the villagers to pool their
resources and to work together for nation building at
large. Social recoustructiou cannot be immediately
measured. The villagers should be educated to be in
a position to understand that there is growth and
development and thus help to keep in them the spirit
of participation and invdlvement without getting frus-
trated and withdraw their participation. Some pro-
grammes which attract some immediate attention of
the people also will help in furthering the participation
of the people in rural reeonstruction and eombating
superstitions. Some may not respond favourably to
ehange due to sur>erstitionsand suspicion of their being
exploited by others, who are already well plaeed
socially. In sueh cases what is more important is to
make thorn realise that they will be the beneficiaries in
the end and they should therefore become partners indevelopment.
Leadership
FORTHEOPERATIONof any programme in rural re-
construetion the human element.is of great iroport-
anee. Proper leadership is neeessary for the. ideal
functioning of the programme in rural development. It
can be very eonfidently said that the leadership is one
social faetor. whieh determines the very content of the
programme. Leadership is .again two-fold: formal
leaders consisting of Political leaders and the Goven-
ment personnel and informal leaders comprising the
rest. With Proper leadership, not only will the east be •..
within reasonable limits but the gains also will be
substantial. Proper leadersbij:l is more essential inIndian seene because some kind of enforcement from
the leaders side is neeessary to overcome the force of
superstition and eustom. Some times the identificatioll
of the national leaders in the villages by the Programine
Officials will not help the implementation of tLc pro-
grammes beeause they have be.eomeleaders by virtue
of being rigidly adherent to custom and tradition. Thus
the identifieation of leadership in a village eommunity,
which is essential and without whieh the programme
does not funetion properly, assumes great importancein social reconstruction. .
The pancbayati raj system, formal and informal
edu~ation, medical and health ~ervices,voliuitary agen-
KURUKSHETRA January 1,1982
cies, khadi and Villageindustries, seience and techno-
logy, youth and woman clubs are some of the main
forces which should be the major responsibilities of the
rural reconstruction.
Panchayati Raj
PANCHAYATIRAJ institutions were organised in the
eountry to involve people in rural reconstruction
and development. Panehayati raj ensures socio-econo-mie justiee to all the seetions of the people in rural
areas and especially to the socially and eeonomically
baekward sections. Panehayati raj tries to ereate an
aw!,reness among the people of their rights and res-
ponsibilities through extension of educalion prog-
rammes. The programmes are organised to solve
the problems of the society. But it is often
eritieised that Panchayati raj. administration has been
weak. The reasons for this. may be many.
Some of them are poverty, lack of ednca-
tion, non-availability of funds, trained personnel.Poverty and laek of education result in the lack of
civic sense in lhe people. As the citizen is too poor
and illiterate to appreciate the ideas of reeonstruction,
he cannot discriminate and is not in a position to uti-
lise his vote in the right direction. Sourees of revenne
at the disposal of the local bodies and mass lax evasion
of the rural people are responsible for failure to mobi~
lise funds adequately 'for' the various programmes.
Often trained people are not recruited. The staff'
many'a tiroe lack the requisite orientation towards
these programmes, and may be in a Iielpless condition
to solve the problems of the people. Her'e it may besuggested that people tr'!ined for two years in the field
for graduation be placed in' charge oJ' the affairs in
order to develop the right kind of motivation in the
people to partieip;te' in the programmes'. Added to
these things, Panehayati raj has brought in group fae-
tionalism in the villages. They are often found guilty
of nepotism, favouritism and corruption. The follow"
.ing steps may be suggested in this regard:
1Offieers-in-eharge of. the various departments
should be specially trained, atleast two years inthis field before .they are appointed at various;
levels.
2
. Panehayati raj bodies should be eneouraged to
mobilise more of loea1 resourees than look for
, outside help. Ineentives in the form of matehing
grallls:should be ereated for this.
3Election procedures should be ehanged to involve
the people to participate upto a distriet level and theyshould be conducted in rigl;tt time. . This
will remove the presenee of unwanted elements
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irr the irrstructions from tiine to time and help the
newly ejected bodies to function effectively and
,withou! fault or favour to any. -
Medical and health services
I,T GOES without saying that Health and Development
are closely intertwined. So health is a basic
facility, denial of which is to deny one the right tolive. ' This till very recently did not gain much
import~nce in rural reconstruction. The rich urban
mInorities have mobilised the health services. Medi-
cal edu~ation which is heavily subsidized is only cater-
ingto the needs of, urban minority. This should 'bc
discouraged. and rural health services should be
d~veloped and strengthened.
Health makes possible the effective intake of
ttainillg ~nd its utilisation for the rural g o o d . It
helps in iricreasing the number of working days and
the, productivity. Para-medical staff is to be deve-loped, In view of the work and the imp9rtance of
the work which' the 'para.medical staff does in the
villages, their standard of training and their number
should be geared up. Main aspects of community'
health should' take .jnto consideration, sanitation,
drinking water snpply, immunisation, nutritional
staildard arid supply of preventive medicines.
Regarding family planning, it is observed, that the
individual approach is more appealing than the other
methods as rural people hesitate to discuss problems
openly.
Science and technology
T",HE SKILLS DEVELOPED in the fields of science and
technology are being directed towards rural deve-
lopment. It will be interesting to recall the delibera-
tions of the 63rd National Science Congress which
h'ad' the 'focal theme 'Science and integrated Rural
De~elopment'. Smt. Gandhi in her address said
ihat science should give itself a rural bias
because we live mostly in villages. She also said that rural life should be so enriched as topre,vent the
migration of people and resources from villages to
towns. The advancement of science should contri-
bute to the effective implementation of rural pro-
grammes. Science should' help the, village to ntilise
the indigenous materials and develop the cultivationof more nutritive and cheap foods. Besides contri-
buting to the wgricultural development, Science
should also, help development of technology to suit
the Indian environment and Indian soil.
Industry'I'NVOLVEMENT OF the business community in rural
'developmerii Work asa strategy for improving thesocio...economic conditions of the rural people is now
16
,~idely recogrnsed both by the Goverriment and the
business community. The recerit amendment to the
Finance Act 1961 offerillg fiscal incentives to the
Business Companie<; undertaking rural development
work is a 'positive step in this direction and refiects
'the policy of the Government to involve the busi-
ness community in the belter management of the
transfer of science and technology to the benefit of
the rural people. It must be said to' the credit atthe Business Community thaI, they have risen to the
occasion and are indicating th~ir eagerness to contri-
bute to the qnickening at the pace of rural develop-
ment. There is "intensive realisation everywhere .in
the country; that unless the -rural sector prospers the
nation cannot progre"s. A number of business
houses have, beeu active in undertaking social welfare
measures in the villages,
Yollth participation
THE PARAMOUNT importance ?f the youth parlic~pa-
tion 11 1 the rural reconstruction needs no mentIOn.
The abundant energies and dynamism of the youth
should be utilised for this purpose. Progress in this
respect is very meagre so far. The importance o f organisin.g youth programmes have been recognised
ever since the inception of community development
programmes, Youth have 'always been encouraged
and organised to render servic~ in the villages.
Recent prqgrammes of youth like the youth against
famine, youth against dirt and diseases in the
National 'Service Scheme, have revealed the hidden potentialities of the youth.
Rural unemployment also will be solved by' this.
The probleni of employment in rural areas is mainly
of seasonal unemployment and underemployment.
Fu]]er employment opportunities for the rural work
force will in the main have to be found within the
agricultural and allied sectors themselves through
intensification and diversification of agriculture based
on expansion of irrigation facilities and improved
,technology. However the very dimensions of the
problem call for. multi-pronged strate,gy which 'aims
on the' one hand at resource, development of vulnera-
ble sections of tile population and, on the other, '
provide, supplementary employment opportunities to
the rural poor particularly during lean periods in
a mamler which will at the same time contribute
directly to durable assets for the community. :rro-
grammes- in tile nature _ of Small Farmers Deveiop-
ment Agencies, Integrated Rural Development, Drought
Drought Prone, Area Programme, Desert Development
Prqgramme, Common Area Development Pro-
gramme, TR YSEM and the like; aim at resource
development on individual or area basis. As 'for theobject of providing supplementary employment oppor-
hniities, a b~ginning was made in this directioUo:
(Continued on p. 18)
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HANDICRAFTS represent the synthesis of the culture
of all communities of a country. The growth of
handicrafts in the society is an indication of the culti-
vation of sensitivity and the stirring and mellowing of
humanism. Articles made by hand are known as
handicrafts. They il)clude a wide range of products
such as carpets, hand-printed textil~s, art metalware-s,
cane and bamboo articles, wood work, dolls and toys.
shawls, ivory products, embroidered goods, gold jewel-
lery. silver jewellery." stoneware etc.
The genesis of Indian handicrafts goes back some-
where into the mists of antiquity and the story of man
itself began to be articulated when the capacity of the
~ands t o create was' respected and eVen revered.
Indian handicrafts flourished through the ages stimul-
ated by a vigorous folk tradition. a be'nign culture and
in an age when individualism was cherished and pre-
cision valued. Handicrafts play" a vital role in the
economic life of the country. In Indian economy,
handicrafts 'constitute an importaht segment of the
decentralised sector,; which provide employment to
neady two million artisans scattered all Over the
country. Hardly is there a village or city of any im-
portance without artisans and craftsmen~ The indus-
try is both rural and urban. It tninscends sectarian.
linguistic and communal barriers. Thus the problem
of the handicrafts industry is that of the premier home
industry, national in its ~ignificance .and cosmopolitan
in its range. Indian handicrafts. are also popular in
the foreign markets: The exports from the handi-
crafts sector excluding gems and jewellery reached
Rs. 225 crores during 1979-80 repre"senting about 3.5per cent in the total exports of the country. Further
it ise~timated that the exports have increased to Rs.
232 crores during 1980-?1.
KURUKSHETRA January 1, 1982
r"
Handicaps of Indiap.. handicrafts
B. SUBRAMANIYAN, B. RAMAKRISHNA RAO
ami A. BABU RAO
Andhra University, 'Waltair
Notwithstanding the pre-eminent position enjoyed
by the handicrafts in the Indian ecohomy and
the statutory protection extended by the Govem'-
ment, they are" not at all immune from handicaps at
present. Though their contribution to the exchequer
as well as to the Indian culture prejents a rosy picture.
an observation of the socio-econorpic and working
conditions of the artisans .in the country leaves much
to be desired. The fruits of the industry are actuallygrabbed by the usurious money lenders and exortion-
ate middlemen. A few pilot studies conducted" by
visiting certain important craft-centr~s in the country
brought to the light that a Illiljority of the craftsmen
are not craft-conscious and averse to their present
activity. The return from the craft. is scarcely suffi-
cient to sustain their subsistence. Even with the
combined earnings of the husband and wife, the family
income is t90 low to lift the household above misery,
squalor, dirt and disease. Howeve~, they are conti-
nuing their present activity not be~~use they like 'it
but becanse they have no other alternative. It is hear'
temng to note that a large number of artisans have
"been perpetually on the look out for an alternative
job: A survey conducted on 'Socia-economic con-
ditions 'of craftsmen in Lacquerware toy industry in
Etikoppaka' revealed that a majority of the craftsmen
prefer to part with the craft if they are given employ-
ment elsewhere. The craftsmen have- also expressed
,that they do not favour to put their children in the
same line of activity.
Workin!! conditions of craftsmen~, I
A'.MAJORITY of the craftsmen in the co~ntry are in
fact illiterates albeit adept in their own line of
activity. Because of their inadequate earnings from the"
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craft, they are not financially sound enough to carry
on the business with their own funds. Time and
again, they have to depend invariably on local usuri-
ous money-lenders or master craftsmen both for busi- ,
ness as well as for subsistence. The performance of
the cxisting institutional infrastructure both for financ-
ing and marketing of handicraft items is far from
s~tisfactory. Co-operative movement has also notdeveloped on sound lines. A majority of the co-
operative societies which are founded primarly for
marketing the products are found to be in bad shape
throughout the country.
U- NDERTHESECIRCUMSTANCES,the craftsmen have
Ino alternative but to dispose their entire output
to: the local' middlemen who iu turn sell at higher
prices. A craftsman who makes a beautiful piece 'of
ivory work having, a sale price of Rs. 5,800 and a
margin of profits of 'around Rs. 4000 would get only
Rs. 600 as labour charges. They are sometimes forced to effect distress sale of their output to keep the wolf
from the door, as in the case of individual weavers in
nandloom industry who are often in the clutches of
the 'master-weavers. Further, it is the ubiquitous
money-lender who provides finance to the craftsmen at
usurious rates of interest, both for production and
subsistence. As a matter of fact, the local middleman
is often looked higher, because of his sound financial
status in the village. The local middleman is consi-
dered to bea helping-hand, a job-creater and a money-
purveyor. However, the artisans are not aware of the
(Conld., from p. 16)'The prevalence and content of education decides
not only the economic status of the community but
also the type of society oblaining them. Formal
education is highly institutionalised. It has proved
itself inadequate and irrelevent in the Indian context.
InfomIal education is given through a number of
institutions which vary widely both in objectives and
systems. However, this is not to under-estimate the
importanc~ of formal educatiop.. Training should gohand in hand with education. Froduction' and gain-
ful work should be developed with educational
development. ,Education should not alienate the
student from the rural scene. It should be made to
reach the unpreviliged sections of the Society. Un-
less some radical change is brou~g-ht.about in this
regard, the utility. of the prese~t educational system
is going to be very bleak.
Voluntary organisations
VOLUNTARYORGANISATIONShave become an integ-ral part of our culture. They have a prominent
role teiplay and have played too in the past. They may
nol be organisations of the 'masses always. Gandhiji
once said "Swaraj" is a sorry 'affair if people'look up-
other side of the coin. Owing to their ignorance and
helplessness, the craftsmen cannot assert themselves
in price-fixation. The indebted craftsmen are qnite
often placed under an obligation to sell the output
to the local money-lenders at prices invariably favour-
able to the latter. Thus taking the advantage of their
ignorance, illiteracy and pODr finapcial status, the
dealers or thc middlemen enrich themselves at the
cost of the craftsmen: , Though the various State Gov-
ernments have established a network of their own
emporia to purchase different varieties of handicrafts
produced in the country, the latter are ,not purchasing
directly from the artisans. Since most of the co-
operative societies in the country arc almost in de-
fuuct state, the emporia face handicaps in procuring
the items of handicrafts regnlarly from the former.
Eventually, instead of procuring the items from the
.societies, the emporia have been compelled to pur-
chase directly.from the middlemen. Consequently the'
industry is confronting many jerks and jolts. If themetamorphosis of craftsmen, the Hamlet of the Handi-
crafts Industry, is brought about successfully, its eco-
nomic consequences will be unmixed blessing to tbem.
To know the present state of affairs in detail under
Ihe prevailing conditions relating to the Handicrafts
Sector, there is an imperative need to undertake a com-
prehensive survey of craftsmen covering all aspects,
such as their working conditions, s~urcesof finance,
sources of raw materials, and their supply, production,
process and market outlets.
_on to it for the regulations of every detail of life".
To enconnter such a tendency, Voluntary Agencies
will have to get involved in the development. Gov-
ermnent cannot undertake all the programmes.
Voluntary organisations provide the means for people
to participate in the development programmes. Rural
Youth Class, Youn.g Farmers Clubs, Mahila Mandai;
and other such organisations should help solve social
problems as juvenile delinquency, alcoholism, pros-
Iitution, beggary, etc. Caste Councils, Village Volun-tary Force, Village Cooperatives are some of the
important agencies which will go a long way in helping
the rural development programmes. 'Our history
speaks out' that people mostly have learnt social,
economic and political skills through non-formal educa-
tion. The nature and content of the non-formal
education varies 'according to the situation. In India,
systematic approach to non-formal education has not
been developed. Non-formal education should be
viewed as a part of the integrated approach. It is like
learning by doing. This requires lot of participationfrom the people. Programmes like non-formal educa-
tion have to be planned taking into consideration the
social, family and individual needs of the people
concerned.
' 18 ,~,-~ - - -~:. ., .
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Rural television: its programm esand audience
ANAND KUMAR JAISWAL
National Institute of Rural Dcyelopment, Hyderabad
H YDERABAD TELEVISION WHICH was inaugurated.
in October, 1977, forms part of the SITE' C
Continuity sc-heme, under which rUfal areas previou::Jly
overed by satellite transmission will continue to receive
telecast through a terrestrial system.
The focus of the programme is towards develop-
ment; the purpose is education. SITE Continuity is,
as its name implies, an effort to continue the one-year
experiment (SITE) On mass communication for' the
development of isolated and traditionally backward
ural areas.
The range of the 10 kw transmitter is an area spread
over a radius of 80 kms. arou'nd Hydcrabad. The popu-
ation covered is nearly 4 million, of which half resides
n the city and the other half in 1,600 villages in the
urrounding jive districts: Hyderabad, Rangareddy,
Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Medak and Waranga!.
Within the broad objective of education lie several
pecific' objectives. The hard core instructional objec-
ives are the promotion of improved practices in the
rea of agriculture, health, hygiene, nntrition and
amily welfare.' Catering to such purposes within theurview of education and instruction is an "avowed
bjective of radio' and television in India"."
However, SITE was one of the few first instances
f a medium deliberately planned and executed 'for
ust such a purpose. Though the SITE experience is
oo short to prove 'anything conclusively, it has at least
emonstrated the potential and feasibility of televisioh
*Satellite Instructional Television Experiment.
1. SITE objectives which have been adopted by SITE .Conti~nuity.
2. Working Group on Autonomy for Akashvani and Door- .darshan, February 1978, Vol. 1, Chap. 15.
3. SITE Evaluation through Holistic Study, Space ApplicationsCentre, lndian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad(memeo), 1976.
as a medium of awareness in rural cleve10pment." An
important aspect of it is TV's importance in informinl'i
its audience. The effectiveness of the medium aSi
obser~ed under SITE was a factor which led to SITE
continuity.
A television service needs a steady output of
programmes relevant and interesting to its . audiencc.
For such an efficient flow' of programme, research,
content and production must be constantly coordinated.
In principle, it assumes an efficient and effective service.
In practice, the least it needs'is planning and coordi-
nation among field researches who study audience,
subject-matter experts who provide necessary content
and producers who actually prepare a. programmc.
Keeping in mind the objective of television, an ideal
or efficient programme is one that is relevant in con-
tent) comprehensive in form and, in an instructional
programme, disseminates information th~t is usable" in "-
practice.
With the experience of SITE and SITE Continuity,
the local TV 'station must have acquired a certain
direction towards producing programmes of this nature,Even if a programme is not instructional with regard
to methods of work, an average educational pro-
gramme is one which at least presents information that
is relevant to people's lives, comprehensive an"dCOI11-
plete.
I n order to gather some impressions about the
nature and effect of the educational programmes, three
programm'cs werc studied. One of these was viewed in the actual setting of a village.
The study of various programmes
0"BSERVAnONS WERE MADE ABOUT the precise
nature and content of three progra=s telecast
on different days. All these were educational and one
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was instructional. The three subjects dealt with were
(a) sunflower cultivation, (b) upgrading of local sheep
and poultry and (c) fertilizer for dryland crops.
(a) The programme showed methods of sunflower
cultivation and was evidently intended for farmers who
already grew it. All the processes P!eparatory to cul-
tivation, spraying, fertilizer application, etc., were
demonstrated. The programme was obviously meantto impart detailed knowledge of operation.
The programme did not touch many relevant points
such as plant protection measures, cost and profit,
type of soil required and suitable season for cultivation.
In addition, the sunflower crop was shown to require
good irrigation facilities, which may be difficult to find
in service zone .• Though the runni.ng commentary was
in Telugu, several English words were used. This pro-
gramme was repeated on different dates.
(b) Another programme studied was on upgrading
of local sheep and poultry. The first segment of the programme tried to explain advantages of upgrading
local sheep. The assurance of the programme was if
the procedures shown were followed, lhe quautity of
mutton could be increased as well as the quantity and
quality of wool. The language used in the commen-
tary was simple and understandable as in the previous
programme, certain important details were omitted such
as where crossbr...edrams are available, their cost and
facilities of loans and subsidies.
The, segment on chick rearing also dealt with the
advantages of large scale enterprise and of purchasing
day-old chicks for better results and higher egg-
production. The programme focussed on providing
balanced feed, cleau water and timely vaccinations,
etc. The language used in the program'me was not
easy enough to understand all components of the
message.
MANY PEOPLE IN VILLAGES rear chicks, but on a
low scale less than a dozen birds per house. If'
they are to be motivated to take to this on a large
scale in order to make it income-generating, information
useful to thelJl would be on infrastructure, facilities ahd
procedure. Another aspect lacking in the programmewas how quality chicks can be identified and how best
locally available feed may be utilised in an emergency.
(c) The programme on "Fertilizing Dryland Crop"
was of 20 minutes' duration. It was mostly studio-
based and used a number of charts supported by com-
mentary. The programme began by shots of dryland
for about five minutes, and lapsed into a series of
labels in English. Though the commentary was in
Telugu, many English words were used, such as 'legu-
minous crops', 'centimetre', etc. Many technical words
20
' .
in Telugu used in the commentary were clearly not
capable of being understood by a rural audience.
Examples are zariya paddathi, kendriya eruvu, etc.
One problem in the programme was its timing, it was
telecast after the harvest of dryland crops.
onclusions1
IT IS LIKELY THAT the programme on dryland cro~s
discussed earlier would not have been put out If
its producer had been responsive to the audience pro-
file and local agricultural season. The programme used
words in English as well as charts labelled in English.
Obviously, rural audiences cannot even begin to under-
stood such programmes.2
The burden cast upon Hyderabad Television is un-
doubtedly heavy. The extension services in the state
are not strong enougb to communicate single handed,
and television must support their effort. Fo~ examplein the programme on sunflower cultivation, a reference
to local extension agency promoting the idea could
have helped to make it a more useful. If such
promotion by extension did not exist, the programme
was obviously too ambitious and not very relevant;
the programme on raising sheep/rams and poultry
could have been become more useful and relevant if
tied in with situations obtaining locally, rather than
present a cheerful picture of animal husbandry with
very little practical value.
3
The audience of Hyderabad TV service zone are
not a large part of the national population. They are
only a fraction of it and yet, precisely because of its
"smallness" Hyderabad TV can achieve what many
nationally-spread media' have failed to. Hydenibad
Doordarshan Kendra is an instance ",here a medium
can be predominantly rural. Relevance and meaning-
fulness are well within its scope, if only it is properly
attuned to its role.
It must be remembered that television realises its
development goal when it moves with existing deve-
lopment effort and supports extension. If however,television programmes are found wanting, the state
01'the medium can well be imagined. With all' its
limitations of being a one-way medium without the
advantage of simultaneous feedback, television can
still be used as a potent tool.
The fact that Hyderabad Doordarshan has began
terrestrial telecast as a part of SITE Continuity is a
proof of its rural focus. However, only the use of
regular and qualitative evaluation can eliminate pitfalls
in future programmes.
KURUKSHETRA January 1, 1982
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They show the way •••
This feature is -based Oil success stories viz. achievements gained in various
spheres of rural development by farmers, institutions, experiments and indivi-
duals. There is hardly all. argument over the fact ~hat dedication alld zeal to
put in hard work can achieve anything. And one achievement inspires and shows the way to. others!
.-We hope Our esteemed readers will send us their own experiences in the
. field so that others can benefit by them to 1Isher ill a beuer life for our rural people. (Editor)
I,R,D,P. in Karnataka
THE INTEGRATED RURAL DEVELOPMENT Program-
. me is under' implementation in all development
blocks in the country from 2nd October, 1980. The
District Rural Development Agency is responsible for formulating block plans for providing assistance to
families living below the poverty line. The target is
to assist on an average 600 families in every block in
the course .of a year with a view.to ~aisingthe incomes
of the beneficiaries to a level well above the poverty
line. Project Officers of District Rural Development
Agencies have a crucial role to play in 'achieving these
objectives. In this context, it was felt that these func-
tionaries should have an opportunity to see the work
being d.one under this programme in districts and
states other' than their own. Study tours of Project
Officers drawn from various parts of the country to
selected states are being organised in this context.
The Government of Karnataka readily agreed to host
such .a study tour by a team of officers selected from
other states. 13 officers from the states of Assam,.
Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh participated in' the
study tour along with a representative of the Ministry
of Rural Reconstruction. The participants were mainly
Project Officers of District Rural Development Agen-
cies or state level officers dealing with the IRD ~:()~,
gramme ..
On 29th October, 1981, the team of officers metShri Zafar Saifullah, Secretary, Rural Development,.iri
his office in the Kamataka Secretariat. Bangalore. In
K_UR_UK_S_HE_TRA __ J_an_u_a_ry_,, _ 1 _ 9 _ 8 _ 2 _
a briefing session, Shri Saifullah welcomed the team
of officers to Karnataka and explained the administra-
tive arrangements for implementing rural development
programmes in Karnataka. He mentioned that Kar-nataka was Ol1eof the first states in the country to
set up District Rural Development Societies in every
di,trict for co-ordinating the implementation of
various rural development programmes. These socie-
ties CDRDS) arc now in po.sition in every district in
Karnataka. The objectives of organising the study
tour were explained by the representative of the Mini-
stry. The participating officers were urged to study
the methodology and innovations adopted by the dis-
trict and block level machinery in Karnataka for im-
plementi'ng the IRD Programme. Their attention was
specifically drawn to the procedure adopted for identi-
fying the beneficiaries! steps taken in the formulation
of block level plant and for effective mobilisation of
credit, arrangements for monitoring the implementation
of the programme and for studyillg ihe impact of the
.programme on the beneficiaries and the relationship bet-
ween th e various agencies for providing infrastructur;li
. support of.this programme. The officers asked a nnm-
ber of questions and these were clarified .
THE VISITING OFFICERS were divided into three
groups and they were sent to the districts of
Mysore,Mandya and Bellary. District Officers from
these three districts accompanied the teams to their
respective districts. Local visits and discussions were
21
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arranged by the District Rural lXvelopme'nt Soeieties
.in Mandya, Mysore, and Bellary. The Project Officers
and their colleagues .in these distr.iets took great pains
to explain the activities of the DRDS to the visitors.
The participants got an opportunity to visit rural
arcas and to have discus-si.onswith the beneficiaries of
the IRD programme in their own villages. The parti-
cipants had also a'n occasion to visit commercial
banks, co-operative banks and Gramin Banks and todiscuss with their officers details relating to the pro-
vision of eredi). On the whole, the partieipants ob-
tained some understandi'ng of the current state of the
TRD programme in the districts visited by them.
They also had occasion to identify some of the limI-
, .ting factors in the effective implementation of this
programme.
Thoul;h this was (he first year 'since 'the extension at' "
the IRD Prograimne to the whole country. the Dis-'
triet Rural DevelopmentSoeie'ties,"jn 'Karnataka h:1Ve
already been ablc" fa complete' preparalr>ry' Steps.for providing assistance to the targeted beneficia-
ries, An attempt has been made to identify the bene-
ficiaries on the basis Of detailed household surveys,
with the assistance of village level workers and block
level officers. Families below the poverty-line have
been covered by such surveys and they have been
grouped into various income brackets, The pooresf
among these families are being selected first for pro-
vidjn~ assista'ncc. Each family is provided a "Vikas
Patrika" both as a document for identification and as
a record of, subsidies. loans etc, provided to that familyfrom various sources. Annual Action Plans for pW-
viding assistance: to these families have been completed
and assistance has started flowing. to the beneficiaries.
O NE SIGNIFICANT FEATURE of the implementatio"n
of the IRD Programme in these districts in Kar-
nataka is the cordial relationship prevailing between
the District Rural Development Soeietics al1d the
Development Blocks on the one hand' and banking ins-
titution's o n the olher. Credit camps have been suc-
cessfully organised~ i n Belhiry district in particular.
The' Stale Bl1nk 'of India' (ADB) Bellary a'nd theTiingabhadra 'Grameen Bank are intimately involved
with ihe 'implementation of the IRD Programme in
BellatyDistrIet.. In the credit cam"s, bank's officers
and' potentfal" beneficiaries have 'been present a'nd
passbooks have 'been distriblited to the beneficiaries on
the .spoi. All'the 'documentation, verification etc, are
completed in ' n single 'exeidse and this has enabled the'
be riefi'c iarks - to "obtain cre"dit without -havi'ng to visit
the banks indi'vidualiy with documents Clc.-
. Many" of th e '~neficiaries "are receiving "as'sistanceO
under the Differcntial'Rate of Interest Scheme at anomfnat'inte'rest' -rate~ -Bulk of the 'assistance 'is' provi-
ded t'o'tne"weaKer sec t io~ s~ for pr cj :> ar i'n g .n~'il.ch 0';'i111 als, .
sheep units, bullocks.' bullock carts etc, By acquiring
these assets, it' is expected that these families would
substantially inercase their incomes, The Govt. agen-
cie-s are taking act.ion to provide adequ~te support for
the success of these ventures,
-C. N. S. NAIR
Director,
Ministry of Rural Reconstruction
Grand old man of NeundiTHE VILLAGE OT"D MAN---Shri Dulal Chandra
. D . Mohanta~Neundi village under Cbampua Block
of District Keonjhar, Orissa .is known and respeeted
for' his noble contribution towards the development
of hIS village.
One of such .inlportant contributions is the village
schooL About ,thirty years back there was no school
in this backward tribal village, One had to walk
miles to reach, a schooL So education for the poor
villa".ers \vas 'a matter of dream, Dula] Mohanta also
. suff~~~eda lot to get minimum education in his life. Sohe took upon himself w.ith strong determination the
difficult task of establishing a: school hi his village. 'He
had to struggle a lot 'for this. Individually he aTso
rendered bard manual labour for the construction of
the school building. Thanks to his efforts, the Pri-
niary School which was first started by him turnoo
into a fuU-fledgcd M.E. School in course of time. The
School ba, occupied a place of honour in Keonjbar
District for its regular good results. Every year it
bags one or two scholarsbips.
It is all due to, the vigilance and sincerity of ShriDula1 Chandra Mohanta, He ha.s been the guiding
spirit behind all noble work. He took all' initiative to
organise the village youth. Thus the village Yuvak
Sangha was' formed. The viHage library was also
established. Now the library has a good reading room
where the villagers read newspapers, books, maga-
zines and listen to radio programmes, Two years
back he took leading roTe to deClare the village a
Savings villa'ge.
Without taking any Government help,' he inspired
the villagers to take up a minor irrigation' project. Along Kachha bandha has been built by sbramdan of
villagers to make a 'smaU reservoir of water coming
through ' a small nallah and from tbe nearby hillocks
and uplands.
Stiri Olllal Mohanta is at present on the wrong side
of seventy. Still he is very active. He takes active in-
terest in all the developmental work for tbe village.
H I " ': continues to be the ,yard member. President of
village M: E. Seh~ol, Chief adviser ;~ the Yuvak
Sangha and the Village Mukhia. His advice is sought
for each and everything, He is said to be the friend, philosopher and guide to the viHagers.
-F.P.O., Keonjhat.
22 • KURUKSHETRA January i,1982
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A..erial view of Macllc1lU-l1 Dam.
About 3700 /t of earthen
embankment lwl'e beel!
washed away .by floods.
Flood damage
A very vast area is flood-prone in our coulltry.. The area affected ill any given. year is between
74 lakh and 186 lakh heclares depending upon Ihe exlenl and inlensity of Ihe monsoon i~ Ihat year.
C;op 'area affecled is belween 3 I lakh heclares and 1 00 !akh heclares depending UPOl! Ihe particular
year. Average annual direct damage has been about Rs. 30,700 lakh a year w~ich has risen to over
1,45,500 lakhsin any gil'en year, From 195310 1980, Ihe lolal damage is calculaledlo have been
about Rs.8,30,600 lakhs.
Floods have. played havoc
with life .mid .prbperty.
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(LICenced under U(D)-54 to post without prepay-
ment 'at Civil Lines Post Office, Delhi),
Regd. No. D(DN)/39
RN 702/57
. , . '
Flood control" work ill progress.
,
." t .• • • " : .. . .1 ;- ( ' . . . . :; • • • .
Flood control
The Centml GOl'crnmenf has drawn up a comprehensive and coordinated programme jor flood
... control. The programme taken up in three phases includes investigation Gnd collection of data.
immediate work for the protection of iowns and also some embankments in/he most 'Vulnerablereaches,
construction of embankments, channcl improvement, raising of vil/ages and protection of, more areas.
Upto M aich 1980, some 4,700 vii/ages have beell 'raised bbove jlood level alid 297 to)l;ns 'have been'
afforded reasonable pi'otectiOl~ against jloods. AbO/it 1l',870 kms. of new emballkmel1ls, 21.370
kths. of drainage~.channels have also been built. '. . .
To give natiollal directioll io jlooicolltrol efforts ill tl;e 'co~llIry, a Cei1lr~1F.ood 'C~ntroi '13oard
was constituted. State Flood Control ,Boards assisted b ll Teclmic"al Advis'~fll .COl;miluees ~n~er~.
also cOllstitllted ill alijlood-prolle arcas. Sillce the laiJflchini of the Naiional Food coiiif'oiPrograllime,
considerable l1:ork has beell done by the Staies and variOllS orgallisatiolls [ 1 1 the field of jloodcolltrol.'
, ..
\.. '
CO/lst rfletioll
, .
o f e m ban km el l1S i s ..,
the cheapest and practical
"method of f lood control.
','
~".
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