The Role of Development Communication in

Rural Development Plan of India

Maria Charles Ph.D

The structuralist paradigm has come to stay in a huge country like India in implementing
huge projects at the national level. The Government’s schemes for the rural poor or poverty
alleviation programmes are often Top-Down approaches which involve a many thousands of
persons to implement the programme down to the panchayat level. But a deeper analysis of any of
these programmes reveal that the Government has never achieved what it had originally planned to
achieve.
Though clear evidence regarding the impact of the SGSY is yet to emerge, whatever little evidence is
available suggests that the impact of the SGSY cannot be too different from that of the IRDP… The
participants are almost reduced to mere beneficiaries, having no potential to contribute in the process
of project formulation. The intent of the participation approach itself appears doubtful and merely
1
rhetorical.

One of the dangers in the participatory process in the rural areas is that the participants end
up as beneficiaries. In this context what is the component of a communication structure for Indian
rural development? Since, Communication is the process of disseminating knowledge, skill and
power, thus empowering people, some of the basic agenda that form part of the communication
structure in the rural development plan in India are:
a. Policy and programmes for the rural poor
b. Institutions (both Government as well as NGOs) which implement such policies
c. The rural poor who are the stakeholders
d. The Outcome: improved assets, skills

Communication here is two way process. One is filling in the gap that exists between all
these four factors while the other process is what is complimentary and learning from each other.
Communication is the inevitable process that interconnects and intermediates each of these factors.
In almost all parts of India, particularly in the remote areas, video viewing has become
popular and has gained an importance that parallels the role of the cinema and with the pervasive
Cable TV network spread all over the nation threatening the film industry.2 The role of Television
Policy in India has been studied and with the mushrooming of television channels in every region
of the nations, a minimum of 40 channels would be available to any Indians who has subscribed to
the local Cable Network. In many cities, it is possible to get about 100 channels in the living room
for a subscription of €2 a month.
While speaking about the Guardians of Culture, Development Communicators or State
Capitalists? Pashupati and Others, say:
A close look at that national policy of television would reveal that they are based on these rationales:
Television is a means of communication to advance development or modernization goals; to build
national identity and pride and promotes the production and viewing of indigenous cultural content
3
protects national cultures against foreign influences or reduces their effects.

1
SHYLENDRA H.S. - BHIRDIKAR K., Good Governance' and Poverty Alleviation Programmes: A Critical Analysis
of the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana in "International Journal of Rural Management" 1(2), 2005, 203-221, 218.
2
AGRAWAL, Cultural Response to Communication Revolution, 31.
3
PASHUPATI et al, Guardians of Culture, Development Communicators, or State Capitalists?: A Comparative
Analysis of Indian and Chinese Policy Responses to Broadcast, Cable and Satellite Television, 252.
Figure 2.1: Components for Communication Structure for the Development of Rural Poor 4

Policy
Develop
ment

Institutio The
ns Rural
Poor

Outcome

Though this concept exists as a policy, the reality is far from the policy. Most of the
Television channels in India are either entertainment oriented or news oriented, There are very few
channels which pass on knowledge to the audience. Most of them just entertain or make the news
more sensational. Many channels also emulate programmes from the west. We shall analyse now
the impact of television on the rural development.

The impact of Television in the rural development

Though the national policy of Television has the national interests and the national pride as
goals yet the reality would be often determined by the advertisers and sponsors and owners of the
Television channels and programmes. On the contrary if the Television has to be looked at as an
opportunity for dialogue this would lead to globalisation. But it has its dangers too. As Baraldi
opines, Globalisation means openness to cultural changes and creates new opportunities for
dialogue5, but it also threatens the survival of cultural traditions. On the contrary, closure to cultural
contamination maintains the plurality of cultures, but it prevents any meaningful dialogue among
them.6
A simple analysis of some statistics on the immensity and the impact of Television is
presented here. Sinha A.K. says:

4
This Figure is based on the National Policy of Indian Government on Rural Development as interpreted by the
researcher
5
Dialogue is the cultural form supposed to abolish ethnocentric boundaries and create cross-cultural adaptation.
Dialogue defines the conditions of openness, exchange between cultural forms and meeting among cultures, permitting
the joint creation of new cultural symbols. Cfr. BARALDI, New Forms of Intercultural Communication in a Globalised
World, 61.
6
Cfr. BARALDI, New Forms of Intercultural Communication in a Globalized World, 54.
 Television is a proven powerful medium to communicate to the rural people for their upliftment
provided it does not involve additional cost to them and the infrastructural facility matching the
7
information input given on the screen is available within the reach of the target audience.

Yes Television is a proven medium to reach out to a large audience and India is no
exception as almost all news, views, entertainment and educational, religious programmes are
available in the living room of the families in India.
iSuppli Corp estimates that India's television market is set to grow to 18.7 million units by
2011, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9 percent from 12.1 million units in
2006. On the revenue side, overall television sales will reach $4 billion by 2011, rising at a CAGR
of 9.6 percent, up from $2.5 billion in 2006.8
In 1983 television signals were available to just 28% of the population, and this had doubled
by the end of 1985 and by 1990 over 90% of the population had access to television signals in
India.9 Post-1990 satellite television in India has become transnational in nature. It coincided with
the entry of multinational companies in the Indian markets under the Government policy of
privatization.
In all, 222 private satellite television channels have been permitted to uplink from India as
on April 30, 2007, besides six channels uplinked from abroad which have been permitted to
downlink in India. Proposals of 71 private satellite television channels from 52 different companies,
awaiting permission to uplink from India, are at different stages of scrutiny. Besides, 54 foreign
television channels have been provisionally permitted to downlink in India, according to India’s
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priyaranjan Dasmunsi.10 They are neither completely
entertainment channel nor exclusively news channel, claiming to be an infotainment channels. We
have over 15 private television channels in the language of Tamil in the state of Tamil Nadu alone.
From the time of liberalisation in India in 1991, private Television Network also started to
“westernize Indian society in several important ways like bringing in consumerism, conservative
nationalism and change in the image of women”.11
Television in India has affected the rural development in three ways. First as Singhal and
Rogers observe that there was no mechanism to legislate public consumption patterns. Now that the
private channels have boomed in India, more considerable and political power is represented by the
advertisers in India.12
Secondly, it is about Indian consumerism. India is experiencing boom in economy. But its
incremental change that always drives powerful macro and market trends.13 The television in India
has not only the commercial competitive edge to attract sponsorship from rich companies but it has
constantly strived to change the consumerist attitude of even the poor person.
Third, Television has become part of the cultural expression of the rural poor. The tele-
serials, the advertisements, the films and various entertainment programmes have altered the way
the rural person thinks and acts in the community. Mass Communication media like Radio and
Television were put to use in India for hastening the process of development.
Speaking about Development through Information Networks, Amarasuriya agrees that,
7
SINHA, Communication and Rural Development: the Indian Scene,68.
8
Cfr. TAYLOR C., India on Track for TV supply and demand growth, Available Electronic News,
http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6443781
2007, (12/3/2007).
9
MAHAPATRA D.P., Booming: Television Newschannels in India, Available http://ezinearticles.com/?Booming:-
Television-News-Channels-in-India&id=83168 2007, (15/12/2007). 2
10
Cfr. http://www.dancewithshadows.com/media/tv-india.asp
11
SINGHAL A. - ROGERS E.M., India's Communication Revolution: From Bullock Carts to Cyber Marts, New
Delhi, Sage, 2003,pp.122-124.
12
SINGHAL et al, India's Communication Revolution, 125.
13
Cfr. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, India Defies Turmoil with Growth of 8.8%, Available
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121213639165032371.html?mod=sphere_ts&mod=sphere_wd 2008, (6/5/2008). 1.
 The requirements for networking are a minimum input of organized cooperation and equipment
which will permit a vastly expanded and optimal use of existing resources. Recent developments in
communications technology and in the transmission of data are making it increasingly easier and
14
cheaper to establish the necessary linkages even across vast distances.

The above comment is apt for Indian masses. It is true that Television and other mass media
tools are not making a deeper road into developing the rural poor. The television in India is more a
tool of entertainment rather than education or development. If the channels have a chance of
making development issue as saleable then they would concentrate on development issues. People
are becoming less sensitive to lack of development news or debates. They have become prey to
consumerism. They are driven by marketing forces and they have not realised that they who make
the television channels successful and it is they who make the companies to sponsor again and
again. They have begun to lose a lot of their money which they see as advertisements in their
favourite channels.

The use of ICT by the Government for the Poor

It is imperative that “without innovative ICT policies, many people in developing countries
– especially the poor – will be left behind”.15 It is true in a developing country that without
motivation and guidance through technology, the poor would lag far behind.
In the latest recommendations submitted to the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh,
the commission headed by Veerappa Moily (in 2007), it observed the Madhya Pradesh government
successfully harnessed space technology under Jhabua Development Communication Project
(JDCP) and created a network of 150 villages and 12 at the block headquarters.16 This is possible in
India as the Indigenous technology of satellite is available for the State Governments to help create
a network of all the districts, blocks and villages.
Take for instance eGovernance in India with regard to health issues and administration. It is
not a mere delivery of government services and information to the public using electronic means,
but it allows direct participation of constituents in government activities.17 This has begun in many
states including Tamil Nadu but a lot of awareness is needed on the part of the people to be
educated in eGovernance.
Information and Communication Technology play an important role in empowering the
disadvantaged groups. Best and Maier convincingly argue that,
ICTs hold great promise for economic development and the empowerment of disadvantaged groups in
the global South. Awareness of the gender dimension of access, need and use of information
technologies, however, is crucial for an effective deployment of new technologies to ensure that
18
women and men benefit equally from the tremendous potential of the information superhighway.

14
AMARASURIYA, Development Through information Networks in the Asia-Pacific Region, 88.
15
MANOHAR, Information and Communication Technology Applications in Development, 47.
16
Cfr. EGOVINDIA, eGovernance in India: Use space technology and IT for rural development, Available
http://egovindia.wordpress.com/2007/12/02/use-space-technology-and-it-for-rural-development/ 2007, (12/3/2007). 2
17
There are four primary reasons why e-health governance is important and has captured the imagination of many in
the government. (a) it encourages the take-up of digital technologies that are crucial to economic competitiveness, (b) it
allows government to redefine its role and become more citizen-focused, (c) it enables us to ‘join-up’ information and
hence govern more effectively and (d ) it can reduce the cost while not compromising the quality of public services.
Cfr. KHANDELWAL A., E-health Governance Model and Strategy in India in "Journal of Health Management" 8(1),
2006, 145-155, 145-147
18
BEST et al, Gender, Culture and ICT Use in Rural South India, 153.
 It is important to know how this process takes place. For example, private organisations
have also joined the process of rural development in India. ITC19 has done much to bridge India’s
vast digital divide. ITC now has the means to reach into some of India’s 600,000 villages, where 72
percent of the people live and where the greatest potential markets lie. Eventually ITC expects to
sell everything from micro–credit to tractors via E-choupals and hope to use them to become the
Wal-Mart of India. Sixty companies have already taken part in a pilot project to sell services and
goods, from insurance to seeds to motorbikes to biscuits, through ITC. 20 These companies sell
tobacco and cause irreparable damage to human beings and to the planet earth, but on the contrary
make huge agrarian project to make people believe that they are pro-development and that they are
pro-poor. It could be also an advertising strategy. Behind all their pro-poor strategies, there are also
huge marketing plans in disguise.
There is another example of how ICT is playing a great role in rural development in a
Southern State of India:
In view of technology/extension gaps in Indian agriculture and to exploit ICT revolution,
International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, A.P., India had developed eSagu
model of extension system and implemented it for the cotton crop in three villages of Oorugonda,
Gudeppad and Oglapur covering 749 farmers and 1041 farms during 2004-05 crop season. The main
objective is to build a cost effective and scalable agricultural expert advice dissemination system to
all the farmers. The three-tier system consists of farmers as end users, coordinators as intermediaries
to obtain crop status through digital photographs and text and communicate the advice to the
21
farmers.

Such innovative initiatives are beginning to happen in India and it is a good sign that they
are targeted towards the rural poor. There is another great tool of mass media available all over
India both for conscientization and participation and that is Television and it is important that we
analyse its impact and role in the rural development of India.

India’s National Policies for the Poor – A Critique

India’s consecutive Five-Year Plans have continually introduced various programmes for
the rural poor. Speaking about India’s effort, Arbind Sinha says,
A conscious effort to develop the countryside was made by drawing up a number of priority
programmes and making separate units and development agencies for rural areas. Community
Development Programme, Integrated Rural Development Programme, Special Group Development
Programme, Tribal Development Programme, Command Area Development Programme, Small
Farmer Development Programme and likewise were formulated and launched. These developments in
India did not occur haphazardly. Since independence, development efforts have been based on a
22
conceptual scheme, their effectiveness evaluated and programmes revised as deemed appropriate.

19
The Indian Tobacco Co. (ITC) is one of India’s leading Indian corporations. The company has initiated an e-Choupal
effort that places computers with Internet access in rural farming villages; the e-Choupals serve as both a social
gathering place for exchange of information (choupal means gathering place in Hindi) and an e-commerce hub. What
began as an effort to re-engineer the procurement process for soy, tobacco, wheat, shrimp, and other cropping systems
in rural India has also created a highly profitable distribution and product design channel for the company—an e-
commerce platform that is also a low-cost fulfilment system focused on the needs of rural India. Cfr.
http://www.echoupal.com/frontcontroller.ech
20
Cfr. MANOHAR, Information and Communication Technology Applications in Development,.49. More information
on E-choupals is available on Cfr. ITC, e-choupal, Available http://www.echoupal.com/frontcontroller.ech 2007,
(22/4/2008). 1.
21
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY, B., The Application of ICT in Indian Agriculture: The Case of eSagu Model of
Web-based Agricultural Expert Advice Dissemination System: Second International Conference on TEchnology,
Knowledge and Society, Available http://t06.cgpublisher.com/proposals/343/index_html 2005, (22/4/2008). 1.
22
SINHA, Communication and Rural Development, 60.
 It is not easy for any Government to successfully implement a development or welfare
programme throughout India, as it poses various ethnic, language and cultural problems. There are
states which lag behind in development, literacy and in awareness of their human rights and there
are other states where the awareness level is high and in such states or districts it is easier to
implement a national programme. Often some programmes make no impact at all in certain regions.
Ascroft and Hristodoulakis insist that,
People designated as beneficiaries of a development initiative –in health, agriculture or industry-have
a right to participate in decision-making on all aspects of the initiative. The problem is that the
responsibility of enabling people to participate in such decision-making has been left to the aid-givers
23
and they don’t know how to do so.

This is an important insight into India’s struggle with participatory decision-making. As

there are no coordination between communication and development scholars the aid-givers do not
make the participants to help liberate themselves but rather make them more and more dependent.
Next, a Critical Outlook of India’s Popular Poverty Alleviation Programmes such as
Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) and Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana
(SGSY) is important to understand what type of communication existed in such a complex structure
of development.
Large scale leakage and the resultant continuation of poverty and deprivation are identified
as the fallout of the poor governance24 of the rural development programmes.25 The Government of
India had identified some strategies to improve the functioning of the poverty alleviation
programmes:
1. ensuring participation of the people of all stages of the programme implementation
2. decentralization of planning through involvement of panchayat raj institutions (PRI)
3. involvement of voluntary organizations/non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to
supplement and complement the efforts of the government
4. formulation of developmental programmes in a more systematic and professional
manner
5. right to information; and
6. empowerment of the marginal and the excluded26

As one can see, the strategies adopted by the Government of India are participatory in
nature and most important of all, the Right to Information Act has paved way for the poor to seek
information from bureaucracy and from the top echelons of the Governance, hitherto unheard of,
and has brought the so called ‘secret information’ to the light and to the media.
There has been a tremendous change in the policy of the Government of India, in changing
the paradigm of development communication by enabling the people to start groups locally to
enable them to be agents of change and to empower themselves socially, politically and financially.
The willingness of the Government to recognise such groups even in the remote corners of the
nation as an important agent of Panchayat Raj is certainly a right move towards understanding the
process of development in such a hugely populated nation.
In Para 3.3 of the Guidelines to Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), the
Government of India says:

23
ASCROFT J. -HRISTODOULAKIS I., Enabling Participatory Decision-making at the Grassroots in WHITE S.A.
(eds.), The Art of Facilitating Participation, New Delhi, Sage, 1999, 305-322, 305.
24
In the Tenth Five-Year Plan, the Government of India (GOI) defined governance as ‘the management of all such
processes that, in any society, define the environment which permits and enables the individuals to raise their capability
levels, on one hand, and provide opportunities to realise their potential and enlarge the set of available choices, on the
other’ See: Cfr. GOVERNMENT OF INDIA (GOI) (ed.), Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007): Dimensions and
Strategies, vol. 1, New Delhi, Planning Commission, 2002, 177.
25
Cfr. SHYLENDRA et al, Good Governance' and Poverty Alleviation Programmes, 204.
26
SHYLENDRA H.S. et al, Good Governance' and Poverty Alleviation Programmes, 204.
 Social mobilisation is not a spontaneous process; it has to be induced. District Rural Development
Agencies (DRDAs) are expected to initiate and sustain the process of social mobilisation for poverty
eradication by formation, development and strengthening of the Self Help Groups (SHGs). Issues
that are keys to poverty eradication should become entry points for DRDAs to organise the poor into
27
SHGs.

Social Mobilisation is an important pro-development activity for poverty eradication and the
method visualized by the Government of India is the Self-help groups. Formation and strengthening
of the Self-help groups are sure means of eradicating poverty. The next step is to analyse how
communication structure failed in bringing development into the rural areas in Tamil Nadu.

India’s Development Programmes: A Communication Failure

In the Government of India’s major Poverty Alleviation Programme Integrated Rural

Development Programme (IRDP), various Government programmes for the poor to alleviate
Poverty was integrated into one programme. Some of the programmes under this huge project were
Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM); Development of Women and Children
in Rural Areas (DWCRA) which began in 1982; Supply of Improved Toolkits to Rural Artisans
(SITRA) which began in 1992; Million Wells Scheme (MWS) and Ganga Kalyan Yojana (GKY)
introduced in 1996-97 to focus on irrigation requirements of small and marginal farmers. IRDP was
in operation for almost two decades28
Why IRDP failed to alleviate poverty among the majority of the people? As a poverty
alleviation programme it could not ensure participation of the poor social intermediation and
absence of desired linkages among these programmes.29 The desired linkages could happen only if
there is a strong community organisation and group formation. That is why in Para 3.7 of the
Guidelines to SGSY by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India says:
Social mobilization and community organization is a process oriented approach as different
from target oriented approach. The group formation should not be driven by any targets but
lend itself to a process approach. The members of the SHGs should fully internalise the
30
concept of self help.

The SGSY guidelines (GOI 2004) also emphasize that the process could help in the socio-
economic empowerment of the rural poor and also improve their collective bargaining power. What
could be done to improve the role of communication process in the development process? One of
the answers is to develop communication plan for the rural development in India.

macha63@gmail.com

27
MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT, G. o. I., Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana: Guidelines, Available
http://www.drd.nic.in/Guide/sgsy.htm 2004, (21/4/2008). 17.
28
Cfr. RESERVE BANK OF INDIA, Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana Guidelines, Available
http://megcnrd.nic.in/forms/SGSY.pdf 2008, (21/4/2008). 1-2.
29
Cfr. SHYLENDRA H.S. et al, Good Governance' and Poverty Alleviation Programmes, 209.
30
The Government of India began Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana since 1999. MINISTRY OF RURAL
DEVELOPMENT, Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana: Guidelines, Available
http://www.drd.nic.in/Guide/sgsy.htm 19.