The Challenge of Integrated Rural Development in India: A Policy and Management Perspective

In 1952, India launched a massive and enthusiastic effort to reach the 360 million people in its 550,000 villages with a national program of economic and social reconstruction. Known as Community Development, the program provided an innovative model of rural development for both Third World nations and the aid-giving countries of the West. Although the program achieved its goal of providing service coverage to the nation, its many implementation problems and the lack of quantifiable cost-effectiveness led critics to label it a failure and resulted in its submergence into the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in 1966. More recently, however, partly as a result of the social dislocations following the "Green Revolution," there has been renewed interest in Community Development as the Indian government searches for ways of effectively implementing a strategy of integrated rural development. It is recognized that a repeat of the CD program is not the answer; but an analysis of the program allows the identification of the elements critical to good administration--and political survival. Drawing on extensive interviews with Indian and American participants, this book critically appraises the Community Development program. Dr. Sussman examines the successful pilot project at Etawah, then documents the many problems--organizational, political, and logistical--that were encountered in the attempt to replicate it on a nationwide scale, and that eventually led to its demise. From his analysis emerges the question of what kind of government strategies can best equip rural populations to participate in development. Admitting the difficulties still to be faced, he concludes on a note of guarded optimism based on recent efforts in both India and the U.S. that combine a systems approach with the use of a range of development strategies.