Public service delivery systems for the rural poor

With the implementation of the five-year plans in India, the spurt in development efforts in the rural areas resulted in a substantial build-up of public services embracing almost all aspects of rural life, including health, education, drinking water, co-operatives, banking, agricultural extension and many others. It was assumed by the planners that this widespread network of services would benefit the entire rural population, including the poorest and economically weakest sections.
But, as later experience has shown, the mere existence of public services potentially capable of reaching down to the poorest by itself has not ensured the accrual of benefits to all segments of rural society in equal measure. Our development history, confirmed by similar patterns in other developing countries, would indicate that the more deserving sectors are unable to share in the growth process to the degree projected primarily because the access they have to the public services is inadequate.
If only a small segment of comparatively more affluent people benefits from the development process simply because it happens to have easier access to the public services and the majority, lacking equal means of availing themselves of these opportunities, continues to live as before, the resultant disparities in growth will only result in heightened social tension and strife and, if unchecked, will almost inevitably lead to disruptions in the process of orderly growth and the breakdown of the prevailing social, economic and political milieu.