Rural development : some themes and dimensions

The history of rural development in India has been full of aspirations and platitudes, strains and stresses, contradictions and controversies. It has undergone many vicissitudes and is a subject of continuing debate. The focus of the present collection of articles is on rural development with its many-sided problems of conceptualisation. coverage, implementation and socio-economic impact.

It is recognised that for operational and conceptual purposes, while we do try to distinguish the two aspects of development between rural and urban, development does constitute a continuum. Morton R. Davies, in his perceptive contribution, tries to sum up the experience of development strategies during the two development decades and also indicates the lessons that his analysis throws up. This does pro vide a general perspective for the study of the principal theme.

Apart from ideological or conceptual questioning of the validity and credibility of the programme of rural development. the discus sion as regards the issues relating to administrative, organisational and managerial aspects of the programme in the country continues in various forums. The administration of rural development, including the crucial arrangements for horizontal and vertical coordination, requires restructuring, changes and improvements. This is well brought out by M.G. Shah, Iqbal Narain and P.C. Mathur, Ashok Subramanian, Madhukar Gupta and others. Again, we have articles by H.K. Asmerom and Madhab Prasad Poudyal which provide some comparative insights into the operationalisation of rural development policy and strategy in the light of the experience of two other develop ing countries. It is not difficult to visualise the commonalities and contrasts in the management of human affairs.

Some contributions deal with specific schemes or projects. Samuel S. Lieberman examines in some depth the Employment Guarantee Scheme, T.K. Jayaraman explores the important area of irrigation projects to identify the socio-economic determinants of the participa tion of farmers who' obviously are the intended beneficiaries of these schemes. Public participation has come to occupy a key position in the successful implementation of any scheme of development but a shadow falls between profession and reality. C.V. Raghavulu and E.A. Narayana dilate on the issues of implementation of a development programme at the grassroots level through the case study of Sangam Dairy. Many of the dilemmas of planning from below make their appearance and merit further probe through research studies. The integrity of purpose of the programme and its implementors does not always inspire the necessary confidence.