Altering structures Innovative experiments at the grassroots

Voluntary action in India has been demonstrating a vibrant dynamism variously operationalised by action groups committed to the cause of the poor and the disadvantaged. The activities of four such groups - the Banwasi Sewa Ashram, Rural Development Association, Mysore Resettlement and Development Agency and Mahiti-are discussed in detail through the personal observation/field study method. It is the author's objective to highlight how, by organising the rural poor, they have been enabled not only to improve their economic position, but also challenge the power structure that has exploited them over the centuries.

The differing patterns of methodologies at work, at four different places, offer an interesting perspective into the dialectics of action. The Gandhian, the Church-inspired, the Marxist and the Eclectic-how these groups work along with the people, are detailed in four studies under the recurring and comparable topic heads of background/evolution, affore station, other economic programmes, opposition of vested interests, people's organisations. women's participation, ideology and the possibility of replication.

The Introduction by Vidya Rao contextuais voluntary action within the development framework, giving an analytical guide to students of social welfare administration.