Community organization in India

India is a country of villages. According to the 1961 census out of a population of 43.92 crores 36.07 crores or 82 per cent people live in 5.66,838 villages. The Indian economy is still predominantly agricultural. About half of the country's national income is derived from agriculture and allied activities which absorb nearly three-fourths of its working population. The con dition of the people in the villages, in general, is of poverty, mal nutrition, poor standard of public health, and illiteracy. Since independence the aim of the national government has been to accelerate the pace of industrial development, increase agricul tural productivity and achieve all round progress through national plans. In these plans community development has been given a very important place in the development of villages.

The main objective of community development is to develop village communities by methods which will stimulate, encourage and aid villagers themselves to do much of the work necessary to accomplish the desired goal. A number of programmes of development like building of dams and steel plants do not require the participation of the people who are actually working on such projects in any way other than as wage-earners. But this is not the case with the community development programmes, for they require not only the sanction of the people but their participation. The changes conceived and promoted should have the involvement of the people and should be acceptable to them and put into practice by them.