More Menu

Rural Development Programmes

byPosted at

 Content

  1. Introduction
  2. Aspects of Rural Reconstruction
  3. Importance of Rural Reconstruction
  4. Pre-Independence Era (1866-1947)
  5. Gurgaon Project (1920) 
  6. Sriniketan Experiment: (1921)
  7. Marthandam Project (1928) 
  8. Seva-Gram (1920) 
  9. Firka Vikas Yojana (1946) 
  10. Conclusion: 

Introduction 

In the Indian setting, productivity and wealth have increased, but rural populations have not kept pace. The standard of living for a villager is pitifully poor.

In order to improve the overall wellbeing of rural residents, communities must be renovated. Their social, economic, and political evolution is the focus.

The principal objectives of rural reconstruction include (a) eradication of poverty by means of regeneration of cottage industries, establishment of cooperative societies, improvement of transport, (b) spread of education, (c) progress of health, (d) abolition of social malpractices like casteism, untouchability and the like. The non-violent Swaraj of Mahatma Gandhi was based on the idea of rural reconstruction. 

Three schools of thought, The Philanthropic Group, The Reformist Group, and The Revolutionary Group, have all supported rural reconstruction.

The Philanthropists present a practical strategy. They make an argument for improving the state of the rural population while staying within the bounds of the rural institutions and rural structure already in place.

They attach supreme importance to purely humanitarian Endeavour’s like (i) establishment of schools and hospitals, (ii) creation of charity funds to cater to the needs of the rural poor, (iii) moral appeals to landlords or money-lenders to relax their pressures on the peasants and labourers. 

The Reformists believe that rural residents' economic hardship and sociocultural adversity are due to the failings of the current social structures. Therefore, they emphasize the necessity of social institution reformation for the social system's healthy operation in order to promote the rural community's overall growth.

The program of revolutionary transformation of the rural matrix is supported by the revolutionary group. According to the philosophers in this group, social injustice in rural areas is a consequence of the social system rather than the dysfunction of the rural social institutions. These ills are an inescapable byproduct of how the modern social order operates on a daily basis. In order to bring about a dramatic change in the social system, they advise radical restructuring of the rural social institutions.

Aspects of Rural Reconstruction

The three main components of the rural reconstruction program are as follows. They are physical, mental, and moral. Regarding the material side, the rural reconstruction program aims to boost the standard of life and improve the health of the rural residents. The former is accomplished by promoting improved sanitation and by offering medical assistance. But the most important is the moral one. It aims to shock the peasant out of his long slumber so that he might realize his rights in life, overcome his laziness, and cooperate with the government to improve his lot. It attempts to instill in him the drive for self-improvement and self-discipline through both individual and group action in order to help him overcome the limitations preventing him from realizing his potential. It aims to release his stored up energy for eradicating defeatism, superstition, and irrational worries that have been produced by centuries of sadness.

Importance of Rural Reconstruction

It is impossible to overstate the significance of rural reconstruction. Rural restoration ends class conflict, exploitation, sickness, illiteracy, alcoholism, gambling, and other vices. It aims to construct a socialist system throughout the nation, resulting in the social and economic advancement of rural residents. Rural reconstruction addresses the nation's food crisis by building agricultural and cottage industries and saving millions of rupees in foreign cash that would otherwise be used to buy food grains. Additionally, it raises national income.

Rural rebuilding will revitalize Indian culture and propel it forward. Since the majority of Indians live in villages, rural rebuilding would pave the way for the formation of a true democracy in that country. Different individuals, associations, and parties have each seen the enormous challenge of rural regeneration differently. Leaders, organizers, charitable organizations, missionary groups, welfare organisations, governmental agencies, and others are prominent among them.

During British rule some selected social workers had started some programmes of rural development. The evolution of extension programme is described in two stages: 
  • Stage I- Pre-Independence Era (1866-1947) 
  • Stage II- Post-Independence Era (1947-1953)

Pre-Independence Era (1866-1947)

Various attempts were made by both private organizations and individuals during the pre-independence era, including the Gurgaon project in Haryana by Mr. F.L. Brayne, the Sriniketan Experiment in Bengal by Sri Rabindra Nath Tagore, the Marthandam project by Dr. Spencer Hatch under the sponsorship of the YMCA, the Sevagram experiment in Wardha by Mahatma Gandhi, the Adarsh Seva Sangh, Pohr

During this time, the Department of Agriculture was established by the then-Government of India in June 1871, and by 1882, agricultural departments in the majority of the provinces had begun to operate in skeletal form. The then-Government of India also established an Institute of Agricultural Research at Pusa in Bihar in 1905 after realizing the need for new and improved cultivation techniques founded on agricultural research.

Gurgaon Project (1920)

This village development initiative was the first one the government ran in the Gurgaon district. Mr. F. L. Brayne was the one who started it. Mr. Brayne started this initiative of rural upliftment in his district in 1920 after being appointed to the position of Deputy Commissioner in Gurgaon, which later came to be known as the Gurgaon Project. Mr. F. L. Brayne was the one who first initiated the rural upliftment effort on an immense size. He was moved by the people's depravity, plight, and suffering. To serve as a conduit for the villagers to get guidance from specialists in many departments, a village guide had been posted. The main objectives of this project were: 
  1. To increase crop production, 
  2. To control extra expenditure, 
  3. To improve the health, 
  4.  To develop the feeling of women education, and 
  5. Home development work
In the entire district, a program to introduce improved seeds, tools, farming techniques, etc. was initiated. Since the village guides lacked technical skills, relatively little lasting value was really produced. The project was unable to cultivate leadership in the communities that would carry on the work after the village guides had left.

After Mr. Brayne was appointed to the Punjab Rural Reconstruction Commission in 1933, the project once more gained momentum. 1935-36. One crore rupees were provided by the Indian government for various rural projects as a boost. However, because local talent was not used in the development process, the project did not advance very far. Instead of local residents' voluntary engagement, authority is most often exercised over the populace. Additionally, this project was also reliant on F.L. Brayne's opinions, and when he was transferred, this program gradually came to an end as well.

Sriniketan Experiment: (1921)

The young Tagore had initially never seen the exploitation, illiteracy, and miseries of life that the villagers used to experience because he was born into a zamindar family and raised in opulence. When Tagore was in charge of the family's estates in East Bengal, he was exposed to the poverty and oppression that enveloped the rural population, which sparked his passionate interest in village upliftment. He became extremely sensitive to these people as a result of the entire situation, and he made the decision to rescue them from this foreboding omen of doom in order to rebuild India and its communities. A British agronomist named Leonard Elmhirst was inspired by Tagore's worldview and attitudes toward rural life and society, which led to Tagore inviting him to work with him in India where they started to develop strategies for social and economic development. From his statement, Tagore's ideas on rural development reverberated:
If we could free even one village from the shackles of helplessness and ignorance, an ideal for the whole of India would be established… Let a few villages be rebuilt in this way, and I shall say they are my India. That is the way to discover the true India (Tagore, 1928).
The Institute of Rural Reconstruction in Sriniketan was founded as an experiment in 1922 on the initiative of Tagore and Elmhirst to bring Tagore's idea to life. Elmhirst was allegedly the mastermind behind the entire investigation. Rathindranath Tagore and Santosh Majumdar were assigned to study agriculture at the University of Illinois in Urbana in 1906, and as part of the Sriniketan experiment, Tagore later put them in charge of agricultural development. The "village restoration" effort done by Rabindranath Tagore in Sriniketan is not as well recognized as what he did in Shantiniketan. The Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IRR), which Tagore founded in 1922 at Sriniketan, was an effort to put his ideas about rural development into practice.

Tagore has remembered how, as the manager of his family's agricultural estates in East Bengal in the 1890s, he, a "town-bred" person, came to understand the "sorrow and poverty of villagers."

The 15-point Village Reconstruction Charter by Tagore was published in Pabna in 1906. (now in Bangladesh). This paper makes it obvious that he was most concerned with giving villages autonomy. Utilizing "indigenously created things" was essential. Additionally, a village arbitration mechanism was required to resolve all issues inside the community. To prevent famines, a local grain bank was required. The Charter requests that "housewives" receive training in a trade that could increase the family's income as a nod to the requirement of women's autonomy.

While Tagore wanted villages to be autonomous, he did not want them to be alone. He believed that "brotherhood" between "hamlets, villages, and districts" ought to be fostered.

The goal of Sriniketan is to restore the fullness of life to the villages by helping them become independent and self-respecting, knowledgeable about their own country's cultural traditions, and capable of utilizing modern resources effectively for the improvement of their physical, intellectual, and economic conditions.

The objectives of the mission were:

  1. To win the friendship and affection of villagers and cultivators by talking a real interest in all that concerns their lives and welfare, and by making a lively effort to assist them in solving their most pressing problems. 
  2. To take the problem of the village and the field to the class room for study and discussion and to the experimental farm for solution. 
  3. To put the students in the way of acquiring practical experience in cultivation, dairy, animal husbandry, poultry keeping, carpentry, and smithing, weaving and tannery; in practical sanitation work; and in the art and sprit of cooperation. 
  4. To give the students elementary instruction in the science connected with their practical work. 
  5. To encourage in the staff and students of the department itself a spirit of sincere service and willing sacrifice for the people of the surrounding villages. 
  6. To train the students to a due sense of their own intrinsic worth, physical and moral and in particular to teach them to do with their own hands everything which a village householder or a cultivator does or should do for a living, if possible, more efficiently.
A group of foreigners and Bengalis passionately supported the experiment. C.F. Andrews, W.W. Pearson, Kim-Taro Kashahara, Dorothy Straight Whitney, and Miss Jenson were among the foreigners who made a notable contribution to Sriniketan's growth as a model village, both through their own efforts and occasionally by financial support.

Santosh Majumdar and Rathindranath Tagore were Elmhirst's closest friends. Kalimohan Ghosh was another crucial worker, and Elmhirst did a great job of capturing his character: "Kalimohan, with his wide rural experience, created the framework for all the work in the village in his function as primary interpreter and contact person." As Tagore imagined, Sri, Dhirananda Roy, V.S. Masoji, a pupil of Kala-Bhavan, and Gour Gopal Ghosh were additional outstanding soldiers behind the experiment.

The Sriniketan program broadly encompassed four topics: education, village welfare, crafts and industries, and agriculture. The farming efforts were divided into three stages: experimentation, training, and extension. Activities related to extension were given top attention.

To provide training and teaching to all farmers through actual life situations, a demonstration plot was developed. To oversee all efforts, one or two agricultural workers from Sriniketan would frequently visit the communities and farmers. In order to improve the rural resources and the overall development of the villagers, dairy, poultry, pisiculture, and beekeeping were also some of the prominent activities connected with the experiment. the importance of this program

An important component of the experiment was the cooperative movement. A cooperative is an independent group of people who have come together voluntarily to support one another's economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations by co-owning and democratically controlling businesses.

In 1928, the concept of "Dharmagola," which reflects the cooperative philosophy, was introduced for the benefit of the villagers. Later, it was discovered that several communities had Dharmagolas, and they operated them pretty effectively. Every family used to deposit some paddy during harvest so that, in times of need, they might purchase some by paying the lowest amount of interest that they could afford. In a few villages, there were irrigation cooperatives that were in charge of building, maintaining, and making the most use of irrigation canals. Mahila Samities (Women's Association) made a significant contribution to the community's economic and social well-being. Mahila Samities have been very active in Bolpur, Bandhgora, Bhubandanga, Surul, and Goalpara since 1936, and many initiatives have been undertaken to improve the lot of rural women.

Santals, an underprivileged and indigenous community, surround the Birbhum district. They lived in abject poverty as migrant workers. The establishment of the Santal Hitaishi Samiti in 1931, led by Kalimohan Ghosh, was a turning point in the growth of this tribal society and gave the Sriniketan experiment fresh life.

There are several factors to take into account when evaluating Sriniketan's impact. The reports of Elmhirst, P.C.Lal, and others list a number of achievements that can be statistically verified, including increased crop production, soil reclamation and reforestation, livestock improvement, a decrease in epidemic-related fatalities, the establishment of cooperatives, the revival and creation of cottage industries, the opening of schools, higher literacy rates, and so on. Despite Sriniketan's success, Tagore acknowledged some of the experiment's challenges in his own writing. He admitted that the staff's unrestricted flexibility had led to a disjointed program while asserting that "forces are pushing for generating a full diversion from the road which we pursued when we first began our work." He discovered that the "experts'" strategy had made it difficult to build rapport with the people.

Marthandam Project (1928) 

Dr. Spencer Hatch, an American expert in agriculture, started the project in Travancore in 1921 with the help of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). Economically speaking, the settlements in the Marthandam region were underdeveloped, and the native population as a whole had low conditions. In certain areas, only paddy and coconuts were grown by the locals. It was believed that some developmental activity should be done in order to take advantage of this weakness and propagate the Christian faith. As a result, Dr. Hatch entered into a contract for his work with the YMCA and the Church and launched this project in the nearby community of Marthandam. The project's primary goal was to improve rural residents' quality of life. It was meant to represent the three facets of development—not just the spiritual, mental, and physical aspects, but also the economic and social ones. "Self-help with personal professional consultation" was the center's key methodology. Through YMCA centers in the villages, more than 100 villages were reached from the demonstration center in Marthandam.

The objectives of this project were also made on the basis as to how the public of this area could become Christian. The main objectives of this project were:

  • Spiritual development 
  • Mental development 
  • Physical development 
  • Social development 
  • Economic development
The extension secretary was chosen to oversee the group's efforts for this project. The communities were conveniently served by Marthandam. Prize bulls and goats, model bee homes, demonstration plots for enhancing grain and vegetable seeds, prize laying hen runs, a weaving shed, and other things were kept there. Equipment for various cottage industries was also available inside the center, including health charts and honey extractors. Cottage occupations were taught there, and agricultural equipment was put to the test. The need of cooperation and self-help was emphasized throughout. The Egg-selling Club was the project's fruitful product. which became a self-governing organization in 1939. The honey club was another cooperative organization where the locals were taught how to operate contemporary beehives and extract honey scientifically. The honey was cooperatively cured and marketed. Bull clubs and weaver's blub were also present. The center's activities might satisfy the villagers' requirements on a mental, physical, and spiritual level. The project's primary flaws were a lack of funding and governmental support. Village laborers did not remain in their villages, and Marthandam was primarily responsible for organizing the events. Another significant obstacle to the institution's operations was its religious leaning.

Because Dr. Hatch trained workers and motivated the locals to labor themselves, his program persisted for a considerable amount of time. As a result, this endeavor was a huge success. However, because Dr. Hatch was the focus of the entire program, there was a power struggle between the YMCA and the Church Association after he passed away. Because the non-paid employees received no financial compensation, the program was unable to continue.

Seva-Gram (1920) 

Gandhiji dreamed of an independent and self-sufficient rural existence. He was aware of the rural and grassroots issues in India and sought to address them on his own, without the help of any outside organizations. He aimed to use local resources and people to address these issues. Gandhiji is recognized by the public as a social and economic reformer as well as a political agitator and Mahatma. He helped people realize that India is a rural nation and that the improvement of the common man improves the nation as a whole.

The "salvation of India resides in cottage industry," he highlighted in reference to the nation's development efforts. Decentralized production and equitable income distribution are the pillars of his economy, as well as the self-sufficiency of Indian villages.

Instead of using a terrible eradication procedure to distribute money equally, persuasive arguments and appeals to people's better nature were used to win over the owners. He claimed that eliminating middlemen would enable Indian villages to become self-sufficient and ensure that farmers received the full value for their crops. He intended the tiller to be able to eat his own produce, including fruits, milk, vegetables, and other foods. The actual India will emerge only then. Gandhiji established his Ashram in Wardha in 1920 and started the SEVA GRAM welfare programme with these things in mind.

This program's principal goal was to stop the economic and social repression of the people, instill a sense of patriotism in them, and make them believe that this is their own country. Gandhiji created a program known as the Gandhian Constructive Programme to achieve this goal. The project's primary goals were to
  1. to use khadi clothes 
  2. to introduce Health Programme 
  3. the programme of sanitation in the village 
  4. the programme of women welfare, 
  5.  the programme of economic help 
  6. to uplift the backward classes 
  7. primary and adult educational programmes 
  8. to improve the conditions of poor people 
  9. programme of social harmony and 
  10. to popularise the mother tongue and other national dialects.
Gandhiji wishes to empower the villagers to support themselves, as well as help them build resistance to oppression and injustice. The All India Spinner Association, All India Village Industries Association, Gandhi Ashram at Tiruchungodi, Gandhi Niketan at Kallupatti, Gandhi Gram at Dindigal, Gandhi Sewa Sadan at Porur (Malawar), and Kasturba Ashram in Trichr, Kerala were among the significant organizations established to support his ideas. In actuality, Gandhi's restrictive program grew into significant institutions, while straightforward concepts evolved into philosophies. The Charka movement and later the All India Khadi a Village Industries Board were the results of his concentration on Khadi. His ideas against the caste system and untouchability led to the formation of the Harijan Sewak Sangh and other organizations. Using Gandhi as an example, he produced leaders like Vinoba Bhave, Nehru, Jayaprakash Narayan, Mira Ben, and others who hailed from common stock.

However, Gandhi's constructive program was not fully adopted by the majority since the average person was unable to be impressed by the items manufactured by machines, which were more attractive and inexpensive than the products made through these programs. According to academics, industrialization in the nation was the only factor that contributed to the collapse of Gandhiji's mission.

Firka Vikas Yojana (1946) 

The Madras (now Tamil Nadu) government made the decision to work toward the development of villages at the Firka level. In 1946, the first program was launched. The largest Pre-Independence project was this one.

The Madras Government's Firka Development Scheme, which was introduced in 1946, sought to realize the Gandhian ideal of "Village Swaraj" by promoting not only the educational, economic, sanitary, and other village development activities, but also by reviving the spirit of the populace and fostering their independence and self-reliance. The Bombay Government introduced the Sarvodaya Scheme with the goal of advancing Gandhiji's beneficial agenda.

This plan's main goal was to instill in the villages an attitude of self- and mutual-help. The project in Etawah, which had been started in late 1948 with a unit of 64 villages under the sponsorship of the provincial government of Uttar Pradesh, eventually served as a model for Community Development Projects and National Extension Service blocks carried out without coercion among a peasantry known for its conservatism in thousands of villages throughout India.

Conclusion

It was discovered that the aforementioned initiatives were started in various regions of the nation at various points of time throughout the pre-independence era by well-known individuals like Gandhiji, Rabindranath Tagore, etc. It has made numerous contributions and improved the lives of rural residents. A few innovations that deserve recognition include cooperatives, khadi, village sanitation, etc., however these were not sustained for an extended period of time for a variety of reasons, most notably the departure of the founders or initiators and financial concerns. The most crucial aspect of these programs, however, is that they have demonstrated how to define a community development program after independence. These initiatives might be regarded as the foundation for India's rural development program.

Reference

  1. Mukherjee, U (1952), “Sriniketan Experiment in Rural Reconstruction”, Economic and Political Weekly, October 25. 
  2. Sharma, A (2016), Pre Independent Era (Sriniketan, Marthandam, Gurgaon Experiment, Gandhian Constructive programme) slide presentation, https://www.slideshare.net/Arpita615/ 
  3.  Yadav, K (2010), Firka Development Scheme of Madras, http://agropedia.iitk.ac.in/content/firka-development-scheme
Post a Comment
Tag, , ,

Comments

Thank You