Rural industrialisation in India : strategy and approach

The green revolution in India has made the country self-sufficient in food grains. But instead of contri buting to economic expansion and employment generation, which could revitalise the stagnant rural economy, it has led to proletarisa tion of the peasantry by accentua ting the problems of landlessness and unequal income distribution.

The concentration of poverty and underemployment in rural areas also resulted from the aggravation of the centre-peripheral conflict through a development strategy which led to the lop-sided develop ment and over-development of a few cities and towns leaving a vast multitude of population in the countryside untouched by modern development stimuli.

This study, based on a research project undertaken in Norway at Chr. Michelsen Institue, Bergen, examines the growth model pur sued Indian planners and suggests an alternative to deal with the problem of poverty at a time when unemployment and under employment are projected to assume alarming proportions.