Rural Development: Socio-Economic Perspective

India lives in villages. Economic growth of the country is largely dependent on the economic prosperity of its villages. Governments both at the centre and in the states are trying its level best for bringing economic upsurge in villages. A number of rural development programmes have been initiated and some of them have the potential to revolutionize the rural economy if implemented properly. Long history of class struggle in India had prompted the makers of the constitution of India to earmark privileges to some specified castes mentioned in the respective schedules. This Scheduled Castes community represents members of the underprivileged section of the society. All the rural development programmes set aside allocation of certain percentage to this class. It has been interesting to see whether the rural development programmes could actually bring economic growth to this society. This book is a summary of the findings of an in-depth study carried out by the authors in the state of Assam. It shows the actual state of affairs of the programmes. A thorough investigative survey at the grassroots level has revealed pros and cons of various facets of implementation procedure of rural development programmes. On the basis of the findings and observations, some important policy prescriptions have been made. The book will be helpful to the students of rural development, academicians, researchers apart from policy makers.