Meaning and Significance of Rural Development

Rural Development — Meaning and Significance

This chapter is part of the Maharashtra HSC (MSBSHSE) Economics syllabus for Class 11 (Std XI) Commerce, and studies rural development — why it matters for India's economy, and the different fronts on which it has to be pursued together rather than one at a time: rural infrastructure, rural credit, agricultural marketing, diversification into allied activities, the co-operative movement, and rural employment and poverty alleviation.

Meaning of rural development

Rural development is the process of improving the economic well-being and overall quality of life of people living in relatively less-developed, mostly agriculture-dependent rural areas. It is broader than merely raising farm output — it covers building physical infrastructure (roads, electricity, irrigation), widening access to institutional credit, improving the marketing of farm produce, creating non-farm and allied sources of income, strengthening rural institutions such as co-operatives, and expanding employment and social-welfare support so that the benefits of growth reach villages and not only towns and cities.

Significance of rural development

• Where most Indians live. According to the 2011 Census, close to two-thirds of India's population lives in rural areas, so the pace of national economic and social progress depends heavily on how villages fare.
• Principal source of rural livelihood. A large share of the rural workforce still depends directly or indirectly on agriculture and allied activities for its livelihood; rural development widens this base into non-farm employment as well.
• Reduces regional and rural–urban inequality. Developing rural infrastructure, credit and marketing narrows the gap between villages and cities and between more- and less-developed regions of a state.
• Checks distress migration. Better rural infrastructure, credit and non-farm opportunities reduce the pressure on people to migrate to already-crowded cities purely in search of work.
• Poverty alleviation. Since a large proportion of India's poor live in rural areas, targeted rural development — employment programmes, credit, marketing reform — is central to reducing poverty nationally.
• Supports the wider economy. A prosperous countryside sustains demand for industrial goods, keeps agro-based industries supplied with raw material, and underpins food security for the whole country — themes this chapter revisits after having looked at the Economy of Maharashtra as a largely agrarian state economy in the previous chapter.