Experiments in Rural Development

In a predominantly 'rural-oriented' country like India where more than three fourth of its population live in villages and where a majority of rural population depend on agriculture and allied activities for their livelihood, rural development to a sine qua non with the national development. Hence the development of rural areas has been a matter of abiding concern in Indian planning. Though the government has shown awareness of the existence of voluntary agencies in its various plan documents the desire of the govt. to associate voluntary agencies in rural development as stated in the drafts sixth Five Year Plan had added new dimension to programmes in rural Development. The development works either relief or welfare that are being administered by religious institutions is a new area for research, more so in the context of rural development and community development projects. This study is intended to study the approaches adopted by different agencies including the religious institutions and to evaluate the impact of different programmes in the beneficiaries and community. Evaluation is made of the impact created through religious philanthropy specially on the development of socio-economically excluded communities. Suggestions are made for required changes to improve the results of these programmes in the light of analysis of results.