Public policies: an evaluation of integrated rural development programme

Public policies to alleviate poverty have come to assume vital importance in post-Independent India. Further, number of general as well as specific programmes of development have been taken up to alleviate poverty. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) is one such programme which is designed to eradicate rural poverty and generate more income, specifically for the poorer sections of the society.
The present study is essentially an attempt to describe and analyse the phenomenon on the basis of emperical investigation. The study unfolds that the IRDP has not been successful in enabling the poor to cross the poverty line. Further, this public policy could pave way to startification among the poor and in future it is likely to sharpen the process. To tide over this phenomenon the study emphasis on the expansion of IRDP frame-work-providing land, viable schemes, sufficient financial assistance and loans for consumption purposes. However, this calls for more of structural changes rather than the present incremental policies whose intentions are good but implementation is found to be difficult.