Rural Development: Meaning, Significance, Process and Evaluation

Rural development is the continuous and comprehensive socio-economic process of improving all aspects of rural life. Traditionally, rural development has been focused on the exploitation of land-intensive natural resources such as forests and agriculture. However, growing urbanisation and changes in global production networks have changed the character of rural areas today. Rural development remains at the core of the country’s overall development. More than two-thirds of the country’s population depends on agriculture for a living, and one-third of rural India is still below the poverty line. As a result, it is important for the government to be productive and provide adequate amenities to raise their standard of living. 

Significance of Rural Development 

Rural development is important not only for the majority of the population who live in rural regions but also for the nation’s overall economic growth. Rural growth is believed to be of higher importance in the country today than it was in the past in the process of the nation’s growth. It is a strategy aimed at achieving increased productivity, greater socio-economic equality and aspiration, and stability in economic and social development.

1. The primary goal is to alleviate the famine that affects approximately 70% of the rural population and to provide adequate and nutritious food.
2. The secondary goal is to ensure the availability of apparel and footwear, as well as a clean environment and home, medical care, recreational provision, education, transportation, and communication.

Rural development seeks to improve remote people’s lives sustainably, both socially and ecologically. This is maintained through improved access to natural, physical, human, technological, and social capital assets and services, as well as control over productive capital (in its financial, economic, and political forms), which allows them to reinforce their livelihoods equitably and sustainably. Rural development programmes have primarily focused on reducing poverty and unemployment by establishing basic social and economic infrastructure, training unemployed youth in rural areas, and providing jobs to marginal farmers and labourers in order to discourage seasonal and persistent migration to cities. To bridge the gap between local governing bodies and the central authority in order to improve economic communication. Furthermore, rural development seeks to give panchayats executives, the power to carry out expert-created policies.

Finally, the goal of rural development is to maximise economic advantage for residents by utilising natural resources within a region. This also involves significant land reform measures aimed at improving agricultural production and efficiency for all individuals involved.

Process of Rural Development

1. Human Resource Development: The quality of human resources must be improved through: 

• Proper attention to literacy (particularly female literacy), schooling and skill development,
• Better health facilities for physical growth, and
• Sanitation facilities in homes and workplaces.

2. Infrastructure Development: Infrastructure development involves improvement in electricity, irrigation, credit, marketing, and transportation facilities, and improved agricultural research, extension, and information dissemination.

3. Land Reforms: Its objectives include the elimination of exploitation from land relations, realisation of the ‘land to the tiller’ objective, widening the rural poor’s land base that improves their socioeconomic circumstances, and improving agricultural productivity.

4. Poverty Alleviation: Approximately 22% of the total population is still poor or below the poverty line, and approximately 75% of the total poor (approximately 27.82 crores) reside in rural regions. Specific measures/schemes for poverty relief must be implemented.

5. Development of Productive Resources: Productive resources in each rural location are to be identified and developed so that existing resources can be used to their full potential and opportunities for investment and employment in farm and non-farm areas can be developed.

Evaluation of Rural Development

The rural sector of the country will remain backwards until the authorities make some spectacular changes. Some of the changes that are required for rural development are as follows:

1. Stress on Diversification: Rural areas should be made more vibrant by diversifying into poultry, dairy, fishery, fruits, and vegetables.

2. Better Facilities: It is essential to make proper efforts for the development of state agricultural departments, infrastructure elements such as marketing and credit, farmer-friendly agricultural policies, and constant appraisal and dialogue between farmers’ groups.

3. Rural and Urban Linkage: It is also necessary to make efforts to link up the rural production centres with the foreign and urban markets in order to realise high returns on the products’ investment.

4. More emphasis on Sustainable Development: The need to invent or procure different alternatives of eco-friendly technologies leading to sustainable development in various circumstances has also developed.