HISTORY OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

History of Community Development Programmes in India

HISTORY OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT'

The concept of community development in India was initiated well before independence. Even during the struggle for independence, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, considerable attention was given to rural development and reconstruction.

 Gandhi advocated for communal harmony, economic equality, social equality, recovery from alcohol and narcotics addiction, promotion of ‘Khadi’ (hand-woven cloth) and village industries, sanitation, health care, education and empowerment of women. The aim was to generate gainful employment in rural areas and to improve the quality of life that would ultimately lead to community development. After the independence of India in 1947, community development assumed higher priority.

 In 1948, a pilot community development project was launched through the Etawah Project in Uttar Pradesh. Community Development (CD) was the first major programme launched in India in the 1950s, which covered all the states. The first Prime Minister of independent India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the then Central Minister of CD, S.K. Dey was fully committed and devoted to it.

 It was a multi-dimensional programme covering all the aspects of development, including human development. For the first time, infrastructure was created from the village to the state level and from the state to the central level.

The CD programme took the shape of a mini-revolution in rural India. Its most prominent feature was the establishment of “blocks”, which were made up of 100 villages. Each block had a multi-disciplinary team. It was a huge success on all accounts. Later in 1952, the Government of India launched 55 Community Development Projects, each covering about 300 villages or a population of 30,000.

This programme was multi-dimensional, but the emphasis was on agricultural production, as the areas selected for launching the project, were located in irrigation schemes or where there was plenty of rainfall.

In 1953, the National Extension Service Project was launched with similar objectives to cover larger areas, including dry regions. This was a three-year project. It demarcated blocks of 150-300 villages as manageable units for initiating community development programmes. The objectives and activities of the Project were modified periodically and continued as a permanent multi-function extension agency in each block. These community development blocks were treated as normal administrative units for planning and development with regular budgetary allocations.

In the year 1957, a three-tier-system of rural local government, called ‘Panchayati Raj’ (Rule by Local Councils) was established. These were Gram Panchayats (village level), Panchayat Samitis (block level) and Zilla Parishads (district level). The aim was to decentralize the process of decision making and encourage people’s participation.

As the programme could not fulfil the expectations of the rural poor, the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) was introduced in 1979, with a specific focus on the weaker sections of the society. By mid-eighties, the Government was able to meet the minimum needs of the poor, which included elementary education, health, water supply, roads, electrification, housing and nutrition.