Catalysts of development : voluntary agencies in India

This book offers a synthetic overview of the activities, motivations, and special features of voluntary agencies in rural India. This description provides a benchmark against which can be compared the works of PVOs in other Third World societies. Although comparisons across societies with widely different social, economic, cultural, and political histories can be treacherous, there are valuable insights to be gleaned from judicious and rigorous comparative analysis This volume is useful in such analysis as a summary of the idiosyncratic aspects of PVO operations in India if those unique features are viewed as evidence. of adaptation to Indian conditions.

Comparative study may also be undertaken between the social and economic organizational problems identified in this study (see Chapter 2) and those found in other Third World nations. The degree to which voluntary agencies are best suited to address these key development components is another field for comparative analysis by Third World specialists.