Voluntary Agencies and Rural Development

The work advocates the case for voluntarism in the field of rural reconstruction. It argues that the task of rural development can be performed better by voluntary agencies than by government departments. No doubt, the government has funds but it lacks the grassroots. This is precisely why much money has gone down the drain. On the other hand, the voluntary agencies suffer from paucity of funds but possess intimate knowledge of local resources, needs, and problems. As such, the correlation between the two can perhaps remove the lacuna in our rural development programme. However, voluntarism too has its limitations. The study takes a panoramic view of the pros and cons of the approaches and deserves to be heeded by those whose concern is rural development-nay India’s development.