Inclusive Rural Development Under Neo-liberalism and Gandhian Strategy

The Concept of Inclusive Development has already occupied the centre- stage of development discourses today throughout the world. So far as India is concerned the all-pervasive poverty in its rural areas is the major stumbling block in the way of achieving the goal of inclusive development. The fruits of growth could not be distributed equitably and the major impediment was the hierarchical, unequal socio-economic structure in the rural areas. So there was a need to have more equitable distribution of the fruits of growth. This means that there was a need for inclusive development. Rural people comprise the vast majority of the population in the developing world and virtually all of them need development that is inclusive. No problem is of greater concern in the world today than the poverty. The economic gap between the rich and poor nations is one dimension of this problem. The gap between the urban and rural areas is another and the gaps within the rural areas are yet another. Attacking poverty is at the level of providing food security and not giving access to resources or power or breaking the chains of inequalities and exploitation. Here inclusive rural development assumes the significance. But this should be different from existing notions of rural development. An inclusive view of rural development was reflected in the UN second development decade goals. It equates rural development with the far reaching transformation of the social and economic structures, institutions, relationships and processes in any rural area. It conceives the goals of rural development not simply as agricultural and economic growth in the narrow sense but as balanced social and economic development, with emphasis on equitable distribution as well as creation of benefits. The discourses on rural development need to be situated in the context of the power structure, power relations and power struggles in the rural areas.