Write a short note on Rural Development.
Majority of people in our country, as is well-known, live-in villages. The living conditions of villagers are far from satisfactory. Anything that is done in the direction of improving their living conditions is welcome. The Government of India is doing a yeoman service in this direction under its need to be supplemented by business establishments, because the task of Integrated Rural Development Programmed (IRDP). The efforts of government making living decent and comfortable for villagers is stupendous, considering the number of villages in our country and their geographical
spread. What
specific activities business can undertake in the name of rural development?
There are many urgent and important facilities to be provided such as good
roads, drinking water, employment, medical aid, family planning, housing,
schools and nutrition programmed.
Many progressive business houses have adopted certain villages for all-round development. Particular mention may be made of the public sector giant BHEL which has carved out a name for itself in this direction.
There are other instances also. An IMRB study conducted recently reveals that 83 per cent of the 150 sample companies are active in rural development. On top is Tatas who had set up Tata Steel Rural Development Society, way back in 1979 itself. Mafatlal’s were also one of the first industrialists to set up rural development organisation, viz., SeatGuru Seva Sangh. Many companies are active in playing a facilitative role in implementing World Bank sponsored projects or the government's Integrated Rural Development Projects. Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers, a UB group company, has been involved in socio-economic development work for several years. In 1975, the United Kingdom, under what is known as the Colombo Plan, granted aid for overall growth of villages in the developing countries. As part of the aid, 2,700 million tons of fertilizer was supplied to MCF by the UK government to undertake overall development activities in the underdeveloped regions of Karnataka. MCF sold this and with the proceeds created a corpus of Rs.40 lakh.
MCF surveyed several villages in the districts of Bellary and Raichur keeping in view the irrigation potential, agricultural practices followed, adequate representation of small and medium land holding farmers as also rural artisans and selected Sang Ankal village of Bellary district and Herer village of Ganapathy taluka of Raichur district for implementation of the project.
The project name is rather a mouthful: UK-MCF-TGB. Introduction of double cropping, use of balanced fertilizers, between water management, etc., are a few of the achievements which have increased the income of farm families from Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 10,000. Further down south, Spic's Argo-Service Centers (ASC) are yielding similar results. 10 ASCs were setup in Tamil Nadu. Today there are 21 and extend to the neighboring states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Pondicherry. Each ASC has 10 villages attached to it as satellite villages, located within a radius of 10-15 km from the main center.