Rural development strategy and perspective

The increasing interest of Indian planners in the spatial aspect of development planning in the last decade has largely been led by the widespread problems of disparities among different regions, increasing incidence of poverty on rural masses, lack of infrastructures at local level, unwarranted and unchecked growth of big metropolises and urban centres, non-transmission of growth impulses to rural hinterlands, failure to generate growth of Industries and other economic activities and the absence of locational dynamics and inter-regional linkages in the process of economic planning. What is felt by most of the planners and policy makers is that it is only the micro-and multi-level planning which could ensure a desired pattern of location of industrial and other economic activities as also a balanced growth process in backward regions through the establishment of growth poles, centres and points and an integrated development of the economy as a whole. The present study clearly shows that in the Indian context the basic task of regional planning is the deliberate promotion of growth and service centres as an instrument of rational rural planning and this strategy can go a long way in reducing both regional disparities and poverty of the rural masses. It attempts to find necessary preconditions for a meaningful and self-sustaining rural and regional development.
The Tarai Region of Eastern Uttar Pradesh has been chosen for the present study on the basis of its geographical, topographical and agro-climatical contiguty and specific area development approach. It is more or less a homogeneous region with respect to resource base and level of economic development and has got administrative feasibility.