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M.R.D.-102
RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES
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Long Answers Questions

Attempt any One of the following:
Q. 1. What do you understand by concept of minimum needs? Analyse the main components of
Minimum Needs Programme (MNP).
Ans. Minimum Needs: Concept and Approaches: Let us now focus on the concept of minimum needs and
also the approaches adopted by the government to fulfil them.
Initially, with the introduction of these programmes, it was assumed that these will improve the social consumption
of people i.e. improvement in facilities like housing, health care, drinking water, sanitation, education, communication,
etc. But, during the first two decades, no improvement was seen. There was no improvement in the access to various
social services in rural areas. There was no improvement in areas like school facilities, health facilities, drinking water
and road facilities, etc.
The Minimum Needs concept aimed at improving the social consumption and also increases in income of the
poor and also in improvement in the availability and the quality of social service to the people. The Fifth Plan (1974-
79) observed that poor will not be able to buy essential goods and services for themselves even after the expansion in
the employment opportunities. The need was for better employment opportunities and good income for the poor
section of the society.
The MNP aimed ‘to identify the priority areas of social consumption and also to lay down for each of these a
minimum norm for attainment, by the end of the Fifth Plan Period. The programme got affected by little integration or
convergence of services and facilities and budgetary constraints. Therefore, the Fifth Plan proposed MNP with an
objective of establishing a network of basic services and facilities of social consumption in all the areas up to nationally
accepted norms within a specified timeframe. The aim of the programme was designing it to assist in raising the living
standards and reducing regional disparities in development’.

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 Initially, there were eight components of MNP, viz., elementary education, rural health, rural water supply, rural
electrification, rural roads, rural housing, environmental improvement of urban slums and nutrition. While adult education
was added to the list of MNP components in the Sixth Plan, rural domestic energy, rural sanitation and public distribution
system were added during the Seventh Plan.
While in some areas of MNP, great strides have been made since the launching of the programme, for certain
other components of the programme, the extent of achievement are below acceptable levels. Further, the inter-State
differences in the levels of achievement still remained very high.
Recognising the shortfall in the achievement of the basic minimum standard of life for all sections of the people,
a bold initiative was taken by the Chief Ministers Conference held in July, 1996 to ensure access of all to certain Basic
Minimum Services (BMS) in a time-bound manner.
The Conference endorsed the seven basic minimum services as of paramount importance in securing a better
quality of life for the people, especially those residing in rural areas. Further, it observed that it would be in the best
interests of the country, if time-bound action plans are formulated to secure full coverage of the country with these
seven basic services by 2000 AD. This was essential for the rapid growth of the economy and for social justice and
hence, these basic services were to constitute the core of the social sector development plan.
The seven basic services identified for priority attention are:
1. 100 per cent coverage of provision of safe drinking water in rural and urban areas;
2. 100 per cent coverage of primary health service facilities in rural and urban areas;
3. Universalisation of primary education;
4. Provision of Public Housing Assistance to all shelterless poor families;
5. Extension of Mid-day Meal Programme in primary schools, to all rural blocks and urban slums and disadvantaged
sections;
6. Provision of connectivity to all unconnected villages and habitations; and
7. Streamlining of the Public Distribution System with focus upon the poor.
PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT COMPONENTS OF MNP
Elementary Education
The literacy rate of a country is a good indicator of the development in a country. Only 16% of the population was
literate at the time of independence. Then the National Development Policy was designed that aimed at elementary
education of children between the age group of 5-14 years. The target of Five-Year Plan was 100% literacy but the
achievements were not of desired level.
During the years 1950-51 to 2001, there was an increase of 3 times in the number of primary schools whereas the
number of upper primary schools increased by 15 times. But inspite of all this, the results were not desirable. A
number of programmes/schemes have been designed to meet these basic needs. One programme is Serva Shiksha
Abhiyaan (SSA) which aims to achieve education for all.
Adult Education
One more important aspect in the field of education was imparting literacy to large number of adults. The
Government of India launched a programme called as National Adult Education Programme (NAEP) in 1978. Also
the Seventh Plan aimed at covering 100% of adults for education. Then in 1987-88, the National Literacy Mission
(NLM) was launched. Out of 593 districts in the country, 163 were covered under the Total Literacy Mission (TLC),
264 under PLC. The objective of these initiatives was to achieve a sustainable threshold literacy level of 75% by
2005.

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Rural Health
The main objective of primary health care is health of all. The basic health facilities were accompanied with
preventive and promotive health care. The MNP covers three-tier system of health facilities i.e. Health Sub-Centres
(HSC), Primary Health Centres (CHC’s) and is Community Health Centres (CHC’s) was as follows:
One sub-centre of a population of 5,000 in the plans and 3,000 in tribals and hills areas by 1990.
One Primary Health Centre (PHC) to be established for a population of 30,000 in plans and 20,000 in tribals
and hills areas by 1990.
One Community Health Centre (CHC) to be established for 1,00,000 population by 1990.
At present there are 1,37,271 Health Sub-Centres, 22,975 Primary Health Centres and 2,935 Community Health
Centres in our country. Also 5,435 family welfare centres are functioning.
Rural Water Supply
Another major area of concern of the National Policy was safe drinking water for the rural areas. It was discovered
that in villages many hamlets were left uncovered. It was found that out of 14,30,543 rural habitats 4,00,000 did not have
safe drinking water. To handle this problem the technology mission on drinking water in villages and Realted Water
Management was launched in 1986. The objectives of the programmes were:
Covering all residual problem villages by 1990
Supply water @ 40L per capita per day and 70 L pcd in desert areas
Evolving cost-effective technologies
Taking measures for sustained supply of drinking water.
For this, 50 Mini-Missions and 5 Sub-Missions were launched.
Also many voluntary organizations were involved in the process. Then Gram Panchayats were given responsibility
to develop and maintain drinking water facilities in the villages. Then Swajal Yojana was introduced for this purpose.
Rural Roads
According to Sixth Plan on all-weather roads will be provided to all the villages population of 1,500 and above and
50% of the villages with population between 1,000–1,500. Later on it was decided that effortss would be made to
connect as many small villages in route as possible.
Rural Electricfication
Rural Electrification can be considered as a symbol of rural modernization in India which means providing electrical
energy to the villagers for domestic, agricultural and commercial use. Under MNP, the priority areas for Rural
Electrification are distributed as follows:
The North-Eastern Hill States and the Union Territories.
Districts with the least percentage of electrification to be covered first and. Areas included in the Tribal Sub-
Plans.
Out of 5,87,000 villages, near about 5,00,000 villages were electrified by the end of 2000.
Rural Housing
The shortage of houses in rural areas was around 1,37,25,000 as per 1991 census. Therefore the Eighth Plan
fixed the target of achieving houses for all by 2000. About 78.65 lakh houses were constructed and distributed from
year 1985-86 to 2001-2002 under the Indira Awas Yojana.
Environmental Improvement of Urban Slums
According to Seventh Plan, the target was of covering 9 million slum dwellers by the Eighth Plan. Also, the target
included providing security of tenure to the slum dwellers to help them improve their habitat. New slums developed

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because of increased inflow of migrants from the rural areas. Therefore, it was difficult to cover the whole population
at a particular time.
Nutrition
In India, a large number of children suffer from malnutrition even today. The nutrient deficiency can be handled
by (a) Medicinal Supplementation (b) Food Fortification and (c) Dietary Diversification.
The MNP comprises of the Special Nutrition Programme (SNP) and also Mid-Day Meal Programme (MDM).
The pre-school children below 6 years, preganent women and nursing mothers are covered under SNP. Under this
scheme supplementary feeding is provided. The MDM scheme covers school children of 6-11 years. There are many
central sector and state sector projects which are operational both in tribal and urban areas.
Rural Domestic Cooking Energy
The non-commercial sources of energy like firewood, animal dung etc. is the main source of energy for cooking
in rural areas. According to the report of the Fuel Wood Committee (1982) the supply of these sources is rapidly
dwindling. For this two schemes of rural fuel wood plantation and second providing of improved chulhas were in
operation in the Sixth Plan. During the Ninth Plan period around 9.7 million chulhas and 2.6 lakh hectares of land
were covered under the fuel wood plantation programme.
Rural Sanitation
Another component of MNP was Rural Sanitation Programme. The objective of the programme was to provide
sanitation facilities in rural areas by constructing rural sanitary latrines for individual households.
Around Rs. 497.29 crores were spend in constructing 43,37,609 sanitary latrines during the Eighth Plan period.
Then about Rs. 527.6 crores were spent to construct 4.7 lakh latrines during the first three years of Ninth Plan.
Public Distribution System
One more important components of the MNP was food security which was the main objective of the Public
Distribution System (PDS) which ensures that daily needs items are to be made available to public at reasonable
prices. The essential commodities include wheat, rice, sugar, imported edible oil, kerosene, soft coke and controlled
cloth which are supplied through fair price shops and are sold at subsidized prices. The Annapurna Programme which
was introduced in the year 2000, provided 10 Kgs of rice or wheat or both free of cost.
Medium Answers Questions
Attempt any Two of the following:
Q. 1. Discuss the main aspects of micro-credit initiative of NABARD.
Ans. National Bank for Agricultural and Rural development (NABARD): NABARD is an extremely
important institution of our country and is an intervention by the government to improve India’s agricultural and rural
development. About 70% of India’s population is dependent on agriculture, 25% on Gross Domestic Product and
future of the poor and the vulnerable. The concern is therefore in the decline in total factor productivity and investment
in rural areas. Another critical problem is in providing services to the poorest of the poor living in the margins of
enironment.
NABARD is a solution to all these problems that provides refinance assistance to commercial banks, state
cooperative banks regional rural banks and state land development banks. If also provides refiance to banks for
financial assistance under government-sponsored programmes like the Integrated Rural Development Corporations
and programmes for the development of non-conventional energy resources. Also the short-term schemes of NABARD
provides credit limits to the state/ district central cooperative banks for meeting their working capital requirements
and working capital to primary or apex weaver’s cooperative societies, industural cooperative societies and rural

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artisan members of the primary agricultural societies. Over Rs. 2 lakhs, NABARD has decided to advance a floating
refinance rate for advances.
Many funds are maintained by NABARD like National Rural Credit Fund, National Rural Credit Stabilization
Fund, Rural Infrastructures Development Fund. In 1982, NABARD was set up as an apex development bank for
which requirenments were to develop policies, programmes and approaches for financing India’s rural development.
NABARD, in all is not only a source of funds but and institution for innovating policies and operation to achieve its
goals. All the innovative contributions of NABARD can be understood by realizing the vast coordinating role it plays
in formulating and grounding its schemes.
Micro-Credit Initiative
In 1992, NABARD got engaged in strategies for assisting rural poor, especially women through the micro-
finance initiative. The requirement of poor was an opportunity to get timely credit in a hassle-free environment. Then
the banks developed the micro- credit initiative through self-help groups.
The objective of micro-credit programme is to promote financial transnctions between rural banking systems in
India with informal self-help groups as clients. The three different models of promoting credit linkages are as follows:
Model-I: Self-help groups formed and financed by banks.
Model-II: Self-help groups formed by non-governmental organisations and formal agencies, but directly
financed by banks.
Model-III: Self-help groups financed by banks using non-governmental organisations and other agencies as
financial intermediaries.
The measures like training in group formation and management of funds help in strengthening of the process.
NABARD has experimented with the volunteer promotion programme and also some leading non-government
organisations are closely associated with the NABARD activities. Also new dimensions to rural banking has been
provided by NABARD.
Q. 3. What do you understand by Village eco-development? Describe.
Ans. Participation of Communities in Conservation of Biodiversity
Village Eco-development
The JFM model is not applicable in situations where villages are situated near protected areas. In these areas the
forestry operations are avoided and also the removal of forest produce. The human habitants live near these areas
are relocation of human settlements was difficult.
These communities face hardships because of loss of employment based on forestry operations, damage of crops
and elimination of life by wild animals, etc. Thus, a conflicting situation arise between the objectives of management
and the needs of the society. In such cases village Eco-development strategy would work out which would instill the
positive impact in the communities and could divert the livelihood pressures from the forests and provide improved
quality of life and positive ecological impact on the village ecosystem.
Concept and Design
The aim of village eco-system is all round development of the village for sustainable use of all the resources. The
livelihood opportunities are created for the villagers and non-invasive services are made available to the deserving
members of the community. Children are involved in nature education and appreciation of natural phenomena.
The Eco-development Committees work with NGOs and PA managers for planning and implementing the
appropriate eco-development plans for village. Seasonal and regular employment opportunities are provided to the
villagers. Also modalities of regulating access to the resources is decided by EDC. Most of the investments that have
been made under the government schemes for PAs management.

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Village Eco-development as a Government Programme
The park management project was started which was based on participatory Village Eco-development and was
started during the plan period in seven Project Tiger Areas under Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the World
Bank. The project will prove to be successful and the steps are being taken to develop a universally applicable model of
Eco-development Approach.
Short Answers Questions
Write short notes on any Five of the following:
Q. 1. Rural Electrification
Ans. Rural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote areas. Electricity is used
not only for lighting and household purposes, but it also allows for mechanization of many farming operations, such as
threshing, milking, and hoisting grain for storage. In areas facing labour shortages, this allows for greater productivity
at reduced cost. One famous programme was the New Deal’s Rural Electrification Administration in the United
States, which pioneered many of the schemes still practiced in other countries. According to IEA (2009) worldwide
1.456 billion people (18% of the world’s population) do not have access to electricity, of which 83% live in rural areas.
In 1990 around 40 per cent (2.2 billion) of the world's people still lacked power. Much of this increase over the past
quarter century has been in India, facilitated by mass migration to slums in powered metropolitan areas. India was
only 43% electrified in 1990 as opposed to about 75% in 2012.
Q. 2. TRYSEM
Ans. TRYSEM i.e. Training of the Rural Youth for Self-Employment was launched in 1979 as a component of
IRDP. The programme was launched with an objective of providing training and technical skills to the rural youth of
18-35 years of age. The goal was to enable them to take up self-employment in different fields like agriculture,
industry, service and business activities so that they can earn sufficient income for the family and can cross the
poverty line. Training was provided not only in technical skills but also in physical skills like attitude, enhancement of
motivation and skills in human relations, etc. The situations of employment include the means in which productions are
owned, hired or taken on lease.
Another objective of TRYSEM was to meet the objective of stopping the migration of rural youth to the urban
areas. TRYSEM was therefore introduced in all the 5000 blocks in the country. Hence, TRYSEM became the self-
employment for youth component of IRDP. Also another goal was meeting the local need with the local resources,
thereby giving a fillip to rural development.
Q. 3. Objectives of SGRY
Ans. Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY): The main objective of the SGRY is providing wage
employment to the rural poor by involving them in manual and unskilled work. The scheme gives preference to the
agricultural wage earners, non-agricultural unskilled wage earners, marginal farmers, women, members of SCs/STs,
parents of child labour and handicapped children, etc. Also the scheme provides special safeguards to the weaker
sections and women. The programme is being implemented through the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). The
responsibility of providing foodgrains and cash component to the States and Union Territories as per the set criteria is
in the hands of the Central Government.
The Objectives of the SGRY
The objectives of the SGRY include:
Providing additional and supplementary wage-employment in the rural areas and providing food security and
improving nutritional levels.
Creating durable community social and economic assets and effecting infrastructural development in rural
areas.

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What Does the SGRY Provide?
The SGRY provide wages in two folds i.e. partly as food-grains and partly in cash. The labourers are paid
minimum wages fixed by the State authorities. The foodgrains are given at the rate of 5 kg per man-days and if a
State Government wishes to give more than 5 kg of foodgrains, it may do so within the existing state allocation, subject
to a minimum of 25% of the wages to be paid in cash. The distribution of foodgrains is either made through PDS/
Gram Panchayat or any other appointed agency. Distribution is done mainly at the work site.
Beneficiaries under the SGRY
The beneficiaries under SGRY includes those rural poor who are in need of wage-employment and desire to do
the manual and unskilled work. Also special safeguard is provided for the weaker sections and women. For them
specific allocations are made on the following patterns:
(a) Around 25% of the annual allocation is earmarked for SC/ST families living Below the Poverty Line (BPL).
(b) Around 50% of the allocation is earmarked for the creation of need based village infrastructure in SC/ST
habitations/wards.
(c) 30% of the employment opportunities for women.
Q. 4. Regional Food Security
Ans. Ensuring Regional Food Security: At the regional level also, we need to maintain food security. For this,
the strategy that can be adopted is removing all the restrictions on the movement of foodgrains from one part of the
country to the other. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) and private trade also plays an important role in facilitating
the movement of foodgrains from one region to the other. Therefore, both international trade and unrestricted domestic
trade together help in bringing the desirable features like transparency and efficiency. It also helps in reducing the
intervention of government in the domestic market to a minimum extent.
One important factor in maintaining regional food security is the extent of costs involved. The regional concentration
of some areas make transport costs and bottle-necks very crucial in the operation of foodgrains trade in the country.
The benefits of operation the PDS have been concentrated within few states like Kerala that have a strong infrastructure
for the PDS and the state enjoys a share of about 12% of the foodgrains distributed through the PDS.
The PDS not only helps in achieving the objectives of food security in food deficit states but also helps in creating
a ready demand for the supplies generated in surplus producing states. One state that benefits least is Bihar.
Now in the recent years, MSP scheme has started encountering certain problems because of the changes in the
agricultural production.
The procurement operation of FCI, as of today is confined to Punjab, Haryana, Western U.P. and Andhra
Pradesh. To deal with this issue, one way is promoting the scheme of decentralised procurement, so that the State
Government carryout their own procurement operations with the financial support of the Central Government. But
most of the states have not shown any eagerness in participating in the programme. These states can be encouraged
to accept the system of decentralized procurement, some of the FCI godowns may be handed over to the states.
Their storage capacity can also be enhanced and FCI manpower can be reduced.
Inspite of all these, there is limitation in extending the coverage of the system of decentralized procurement. A
centralized agency can ensure prompt transfer of food-grains from regions of excess production to the deficit regions.
Also the cost of operating a buffer stock will be less if it is centralized rather than each state maintains its own buffer
stock.

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 Q. 7. Agro Forestry
Ans. Agro-Forestry: Agro-forestry is the system of land use that combines growing of forest trees along with
agricultural crops. Most of the Indian farmers grow crops, rear animals and plant trees on their boundary area. The
farmers’ dependence on forest is reduced because of agro-forestry that also results in a healthy and sustainable land-
use system. Some traditional agro-forestry system is being followed in different regions. Also shifting culture also
termed as agro-forestry system is now considered unsustainable because of short cycles and high frequency.
Slowly and gradually the government also promoted agro-forestry system which are still popular and prevalent in
the country.