ELRCTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

DEPARTMENT

RURAL DEVELOPMENT:
ADMINISTRATION
AND PLANNING
(KHU701)

UNIT-2

BY- RAVINDRA SINGH

 Sriniketan Experiment

Sriniketan the Rural Reconstruction center of Viswabharati which embodies the ideals of
village improvement as envisaged by the poet Rabindranath Tagore, the high priest of
Indian renaissance, was started in 1922.

Main objectives were the following:

(1) To increase the knowledge of rural people.

(2) To help the rural people in establishing cottage industry

(3) To inspire the people to follow new technology.

Activities
 Sanitation in village
 Adult education
 To arrange campaign for the eradication of malaria , TB and other infectious disease
 To mange pure drinking water.
 To manage saving for famine and flood.
 Development of cottage industries.

Work
 Area of work – Sri Tagore started work in his zamindari villages of Kaligram
Perganna for example Atari, Raghupur, Rani nagar, Tilakpur, Latara etc.
 Method of work
o Survey of selected villages.
o Foundation of social welfare centre in each village. Worker used to bring the rural
problem upto this centre and solutions were provided to farmers. It was two way
process.
o To manage the medicine which may be available to rural people at proper time.
o Demonstration of improved practices.
o Community Centers.
 Gurgaon Experiment
Gurgaon Experiment (1920) The rural upliftment programme on a mass scale was
firstly started by Mr. F. L. Brayne, Deputy Commissioner in Gurgaon District of Punjab
in 1920. According to him the main principle of this experiment was development on
practical basis.

Objectives:
1. To increase agricultural production.
2. To stop wastage of money on social and religious functions.
3. To improve healthy standard of the people.
4. To organize welfare programmes.

Activities:
1. Appointment of village guides.
2. Propaganda through films, folk songs, dramas etc.
3. Rural Economics and domestic Economics Schools.

Work:
 Area of work-
o Agriculture development and increasing food production.
o Health improvement.
o Village sanitation.
o Social improvement
o Emphasis on women education.
o Organisation of cooperative societies.

 Method of work
o Propaganda was done by drama and music, to mould the human thoughts.
o Guides were appointed to express the programme at village level and to help the
rural people.
o The teacher of village schools used to teach the village people the importance of
programme and diginity of labor.
 Baroda Experiment
 This movement was started by VT Krishnachari in 1932 in the Baroda state.
 The aim of the movement as follows:
o The centre should aim at effecting an improvement in all aspects of rural life
changing in fact the outlook of the agriculturists, the target being creating desire
for higher standard of living .
o Village leadership of the best type should be developed.

Firka Development Scheme

 It was government sponsored and aimed at the attainment of the Gandhian ideal of
Gram Swaraj. The scheme was launched in 1946 in 34 Firkas throughout the state and
on April 1, 1950, it was extended to another 50 additional Firkas, at the rate of two Firkas
for each district.

What is Firka ?
Revenue blocks, revenue circles, firka, or patwar circles are the local revenue sub-
divisions of the various districts of the states of India. The revenue blocks exist to
simplify local administration, and each consists of a small number of revenue villages,
governed by a Revenue Inspector.

 Selection of Firka - On the basis of their backwardness.

 Possibilities for creating the production of handloom clothes and other cottage industries.

 Objectives:
o To tackle the rural problem as a whole.
o Formation of panchayats and organization of cooperative.
o Long term plan to make the area self-sufficient through agricultural, irrigational
and livestock improvement.
o Development of khadi and cottage industry.
 Etawah pilot project

 In this project major emphasis was given on increasing agricultural production by the
use of green manure, better seeds, agricultural implements fertilizers, adult education and
reactivation of saline soils.

 This project was started in 1948 by Mr. Albert Mayer of USA who came to India as a
warrior at a village called Mahewa in UP.

 It covers 97 villages round about Mahewa, a small town about eighteen miles east of
Etawah, the headquarters of the Etawah district.

 Objective:
o To develop the mental power of people.
o Arousing their interest and initiative.
o Improving crops and livestock.
o To encourage panchayats.
o To build up the sense of self help in villagers.
 Nilokheri Experiment

 Shree S. K. Dey, was the founder of the Nilokheri Experiment.

 Nilokheri is located in Karnal district of Punjab (now in Haryana). The Nilokheri project
was launched for the settlement of refugees who migrated to Punjab during the riots
which took place soon after independence.

The programme was originally started to rehabilitate 7000 displaced persons from
Pakistan and later integrated with the 100 surrounding villages into what came to be a
rural cum urban township.

 Alongside technical and vocational training, work centres were started in all the crafts
which were taught in the former institutions. Weaving calico printing, soap making,
laundry, bakery, tinsmithy, blacksmithy, general mechanics, leather and a multitude of
other crafts and trades came in as production nucleus.

 Objective:
o Self sufficiency for rural cum urban township in all essential requirement of life.
o Making provision of work and training for the people according to their native
background.
o To check middle men
o To enable transaction between the consumer and the producer, to approach a
vertical order.

 Activities
o Housing and marketing facilities.
o Management of schools , hospitals and recreation centre
o To make the cultivable land of all 700 acre of swampy land.
o Small scale industries were run on cooperative basis.
 Marthandum Project (1928)

 This programme was started by Dr. Spencer Hatch in 1921 at Marthandam (place
nearer to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu) with the help of YMCA (Young Man
Christian Association). The main objectives of this project were five-fold, namely,
mental, spiritual, physical, economic and social development.

 Area covered – 100 villages.

 Objectives:
o Self help and cooperation.
o Opening the demonstration centers.
o There should be an voluntary association.
o Helping people to help in their own work.

 Activities :
o Bee keeping
o Cattle industry
o Cultivated by improved methods.

 Methods of works:
o To bring out the serving habit in people.
o The member of voluntary association were staying in villages for few days
to work with them in same condition
o Rural dramas for recreation
o Tour, camps, exhibitions and meals were organized.
 Tagore Approach to Rural Development
The ideas of Tagore on rural development is nicely expressed in his own words:
“If we could free even one village from the shackles of helplessness and ignorance, an
ideal for the whole of India would be established… Let a few villages be rebuilt in this
way and I shall say they are my India. This is the way to discover the true India.” “We
have to reconstruct our national life with the village as the centre.
To bring completeness of life to the villages has been a dream of mine of longstanding.”
Government’s economic policies may concentrate on large-scale employment generation,
big industries etc; but they should think on a vision of Tagore’s Sriniketan model and
analyse his concept of sustainable development of villages which can generate their
livelihood through their ‘self-inherited ability’ and cooperative efforts.
Sriniketan, an ideal and dream project for the poet may not fulfill all long-cherished goals
of self-help, self-sufficiency, cooperation and life with dignity for the village people.
Activities of various departments may not be organized in such a way that they should
provide maximum benefit to the rural population.
There is a scarcity of properly trained personnel, adequate funds etc. as well as the
changed attitude of people towards the institute, yet it has to be accepted that Sriniketan
is ‘pioneering venture’ in rural reconstruction and community development projects.
Tagore would have been saddened to see that even today basic education and health-care
have not reached the poor people of our country adequately. Poverty, illiteracy, social
backwardness, sectarianism, religious tensions would not have been acceptable to him in
this democracy.
He pioneered in his thoughts and deeds to bring desirable changes in this ‘unjust’ and
unequal world, especially in rural India. In this troubled world, his legacy of values of
‘universality’ and ‘diversity’ is much needed concept that we can imbibe in our thoughts
and actions.
 Gandhian Approach to Rural Development
According to Gandhi ji every person should be provided with bare minimum necessaries
that is, food, shelter and clothing. Gandhi is in favour of the self-reliant village where the
villages will be self-reliant village where the villages be the independent economic unit’s
.In agriculture that techniques will be adopted, which not depleted the soil and pollute the
environment. Farmers should use ecofriendly production technique by using lesser and
lesser amount of fertilizer and pesticides.

Village is basic and grass root level unit of development, importance of self-reliant
village is highlighted below –

1. Ensures inclusive and grass root level development

2. Help in upliftment of marginalized section of society.
3. Employment generation
4. Women empowerment
5. Bottom up approach
6. Effective implementation of policies
7. Improvement in basic services like health , education etc