Rural poverty and area planning c.1

The book is a collection of 37 articles by eminent social scientists. The aim of these article is to focus our attention as rural poverty and unemployment as well as measures taken by the planning commission for alleviation of rural poverty and eradication of unemployment. These articles have considered three broad issues:

The First relates to the macro-economic context; the second, the lessons of the programmes and the third, the directions in which the programmes need to be expanded, strengthened, restructural and integrated with process. overall development

The anti-poverty programmes, even if they are well conceived, are not going to confer benefits on the poor unless the institutions meant to assist the rural poor are strengthened. A development oriented administration plays a crucial role in ensuring flow of benefits to the target groups and minimising the leakages. Given the unformable power structure in rural India, the rural poor look to the Government departments for assistance.

The structural transformation needed for this purpose demands a great deal of institution building, strategies, policies and programmes which can only be carried out at the national level. Thus the removal of poverty remained the central theme of the book. But the economic growth alone however rapid cannot solve social problems and banish misery and poverty.