Equality-Oriented Rural Development in India- Its Origins, Shaping and Consequences

A review of the rural development of independent India suggests that it has gone through some phases. In the 1950s the basic infrastructure for rural development has been created. In the 1960s, the main concern of rural development was to achieve rapid growth through intensive cultivation. In the 1970s and 1980s, there has been an emphasis to achieve growth-with-equity in the rural sector. Thus, the rural developmental attempts in independent India can be viewed in terms of infrastructure building, growth and equity phases.