Wednesday, September 7, 2005

Development and Rural Development: Concept and Context

Prof. Ram Kumar Dahal, TU

Development and Rural Development in today’s 21 st century have become the concern of people from all walks of life including planners, development practitioners, I/NGO experts, media persons, politicians, civil society organizations, and private sector organizations, (market and business community) particularly in the developing countries. Before contextualizing development and rural development in Nepal’s particular case, it would be appropriate here to conceptualize these two terms so that it becomes easier to fit them in Nepal’s particular context.

The concept of development and rural development is a matter of prime concern for development experts and practitioners, planners and politicians. Development has been viewed differently by them." Community in social science is a group of people with similar beings and customs living in the same area. Community ranks second after the family and it still is a family too where there are almost common human intentions, members of a community are linked by emotional bands. They share a sense of belonging and feel an obligation toward other members of the group (The world book Encyclopaedia)." "The ultimate goal of community development is to help involve through a process of organized study, planning and action of physical environment that is best suited to the maximum growth, development and happiness of human beings or individuals as a productive member of the society (R.W. Poston)." Sorokin and Zimmerman viewed that rural development is possible only through agricultural development. "Rural development is a strategy designed to improve the economic and social life of a specific group of people- the rural poor. It extends the benefits of development to poorest among those who seek a livelihood in the rural areas. The group includes small-scale farmers, tenants and the landless (Hada, 2061)." "Rural development is a strategy to enable a specific group of people specially the poor rural women and men to gain for themselves and their children more of what they want and need. It involves helping the poorest among those who seek a livelihood in the rural areas to demand and control more of the benefits of development. The group includes small-scale farmers, tenants and landless (Robert Chambers)." "Job creating rather than jobless; poverty reducing rather than voiceless; friendly environment rather than futureless, ensure an active state committed to eradicating poverty." In order to establish linkages between state, government, civil society/NGOs and governance with rural development, it would be appropriate to conceptualize the concept of development and rural development in brief.

Development Concept and Context

Development, after all, is 'growth'. Development is a process by which the members of a society increase their personal and situational capabilities to mobilize and manage resources to produce sustainable and justly distributed improvement in their quality of life consistent with their aspiration. Development, as some view, is one of the various activities of human beings which is closely associated with the existing environment (both physical and biological), and is essential things for the socio-cultural and economic upliftment of the country. Therefore, in general, population factor, environment and development are closely interlined.

The concept of development, as Agazzi (1988:2) views, in most cases, represents the application of the generally accepted concept of progress in existing socio-political sector or sphere. As development is a multidimensional issue, it, as Devkota (2000:26) views, also involves a multi faceted approach in explaining the process of economic development and social change. Development, as UN (962) states, "is growth plus change. Change in turn is social cultural, economic, qualitative."

The concept of development, according to Willy Brandtt (1986:93) "contains not only the material prosperity but also the idea of something more in the way of human dignity, security, justice and equality." Development, in 21st century is a multidimensional issue which is related with many other disciplines like socio-cultural, physical, economic, technological, political, educational and psychological development; the development of science, gender balance, protection of human rights, technology and information system, environment and human resources; protecting and balancing environment; industrial development; improvement of life standard of the people, availability and proper mobilization of physical resources (e.g. petroleum, gas) etc. Development also includes the developmental infrastructures (e.g. human, social, physical and economic infrastructures); the protection and promotion of human rights, social justice, gender equality, decentralized and good governance, institutionalization of democracy; proper improvement in the conditions of health, education, peace law and order. So, development in today's context must be viewed in the light of all factors or in a wholistic manner.

Rural development, as Mirsa and Sunduran opine, would essentially mean desired positive change in the rural areas both quantitatively and qualitatively. It also means development of rural areas within the framework of national goals and objectives and within prejudice to the development of urban areas of the country. Rural development, as Coop (1972) defines, "is a process aimed at improving the well being and self realization of people living outside the urbanized areas through collective efforts." He further contends that the ultimate target of rural development is people and not infrastructure. The objective of rural development should be to widen people's range of choices. Rural development, according to Umalale (1974), "is improving living standards of the mass of the low-income population residing in rural areas and making the processes of their development self sustaining. The self-sustaining requires productive agriculture, mass participation and change in administrative set up." Rural development, as Pathak (1986) views, includes "the development of small and medium sized towns located in the rural areas in an integrated manner so as to achieve a symbiotic relationship between urban and rural settlement." Rural development, for Lassey (1977), has to concentrate on the factors like the preservation of ecological integrity with a view to provide a continuing supply of life supporting resources, efficient and appropriate land use, healthy living conditions, effective social, economic and governmental institutions, improved human welfare in terms of minimal economic social level of existence, physical structure and adopted landscape of pleasing design and comprehensiveness, … range of physical, biological and human factors in rural regions." In the words of A.R. Desai (1992), rural development "intends to systematically and scientifically analyze social organizations stretchers and function and development tendencies." Rural development, according M. Todaro, (1977), "has to focus of number of things including improvement in levels of living, employment, education, health and nutrition, housing and variety of social services, decreasing inequality in the distribution of rural incomes, economic opportunities and the capacity of rural sector to sustain and alert the pace of these improvements." Rural development, as FAO (1995), forwards highlights on the factors that include social integration, unity, traditions, rules and regulation and the relationship between natural, technical, economical and institutions. Rural development, for Johnson and Clark, "is a specific intervention in three key program areas: production oriented intervention for expanding rural employment opportunities and agricultural development, consumption oriented intervention dealing with health institutional structure and managerial procedures." In this context urbanization has also be kept in mind. Rurbanization , a term introduced by Charles J. Galpin 1 (1918) to refer to the blending of urban and rural life through the dispersion of urban populations into rural areas and the resulting development of large fringe areas or mixed rural urban areas that are neither truly rural nor truly urban (Scott, 1999 : 359)." In this connection, the concept of rural urban linkage becomes particularly important. Rural development, in most cases related with rural planning and its implementation and introducing changes in rural areas. It includes natural, technical, economic and institutional relationship, in the context of development which, in most cases, intends to serve the well being of the rural population and brings unity, social harmony and integration. Rural development, according to Sterkenburg, "is a process of change in the rural areas leading to better living condition and greater security of existence of the population." Rural development, as defined by World Bank (1975), is conceived as "a strategy designed to improve the socio-economic life of a specific group of people, the rural poor. It involves extending the benefits of development to the poorest among those who seek a livelihood in the rural areas. The group includes small scale farmer, tenants, landless and other disadvantaged groups." Rural development, as Robert Chambers defines, "is a strategy to enable a specific group of people, poor rural women and men, to gain for themselves and their children more of what they want and need. It involves helping the poorest among those who seek a livelihood in the rural areas to demand a control more of he benefits of development. The groups include small scale farmers, tenants and landless. 2 According to Katar Singh, "the term rural development connotes overall development of rural area with a view to improve quality of life of rural people. In this sense, it is a comprehensive and multi-dimensional concept and encompasses the development of agriculture and allied activities such as village and cottage industries and crafts, socio-economic infrastructure, community services and above all, the human resource in rural area. As a phenomenon, rural development is end result of interaction between various physical, technological, economic, socio-cultural and institutional factors. As a strategy, it is designed to improve the economic and social well being of a specific group of people, the rural poor. As a discipline, it is multi-disciplinary in nature, representational and interaction of agricultural, social, behavioural, engineering and management science." Ram Chandra Malhotra expresses his view as, "An alternative strategy for self sustaining development with focus on participation by the poor at the local level (Planning and Rural Development, 1980: 18-20)." According to R.P. Mishra and Sundarm, "rural development means structural changes in the socio-economic situation in the rural areas in order that human welfare which is the prime goal of all the development is recalled at the earliest and the society is able to absorb change necessary in the field of technology, man-environment relationship, population growth, etc." Shyam Prasad Adhikari says, "the concept of rural development has two elements, the rural and its development. By rural communities we conceptualise a special body which has cohesion, solidarity and a spiritual quality of co-ordination, interpersonal respect and a certain degree of responsibility. The word development, on the other hand implies technology, administration, supply services, methods and procedures, programmes and plans, process and progress." The study of the sociology of rural development is an important aspect in this direction. Rural sociology, as viewed by Sanderson, studies "sociology of life in the rural environment.", "Rural Social relationship," LT Smith words is a, science "in its use in programs of rural social organization, as viewed by Dwight Anderson, and for its 1 C.J. Galpin, Rural life, New York, 1918 2 A number of Nepali sociologists and rural development experts have beautifully defined rural development in Nepal's particular context

see, Bhogendra Aryal, 2060. betterment, "Rural social structures and institutions"; "Rural social life and the existing problems, rural knowledge, planning, reconstruction and technology"; "rural-urban linkages" (Aryal, 2060) are its important factors that have to be studied while studying rural development in real manner and situation. Rural development, as the World Bank (1975) views, "is a strategy designed to improve the economic and social loaf of a specific group of people, the rural poor. It involves extending the benefits of development to the poorest economy of those who seek a livelihood in the rural area. The group includes small scale farmer, tenants and landlines." Nepal is a rural country where more than, according to one government statistics (CBS, 2002), 85.8% of the people live in rural areas where social overhead facilities are almost non existent. As Nepal is predominantly an agricultural country based on 16th century old traditional farming system depending on the mercy of Indra Maharaja for irrigation despite its heavy water resources, the economic status of the rural poor is worse and thus, they are forced to live below poverty line.

The concept of development and rural development found encouragement in Nepal in post 1950 period when the country rid of the century old family or aristocracy and was exposed to the outside world. These concepts were formally accepted in governance when Nepal started experimenting with the system of periodic planning in 1956 in a continuous manner. In the decade of first multi-party experiment (1951-1960), the concept of development and rural development found no priority in Nepal except in the period of first multi-party parliamentary experiment (May 27, 1959–Dec. 15, 1960) due to several reasons including frequent changes in government and political instability, interparty and intra-party conflicts and differences.

Courtesy : Rural Development Politics in Nepal