Policy Issues in Rural Transformation (The Indain Scenerio)

Policy plays a significant role in nation building. This paper attempts to highlight the role of policy issues in bringing about rural transformation. India has its own peculiarities in both demographic and economic terms when we closely observe the urban and rural areas and its associated concerns. These peculiarities need to be kept in mind while formulating policies. If we take a snapshot of our history of the last 60 years since independence, we find that many policy initiatives taken by the government have indeed borne good results, albeit largely benefiting the urban population. The paper also highlights another peculiarity of India i.e. the growing disparity in application and use of technology in our day to day lives. The caution is that this growing ‘digital divide’ is not a healthy sign from sociological perspective. If unchecked, it may lead to social and economic fragmentation of the country. We also bring out few recent policy initiatives of the Government to achieve rural development as also the role played by the corporate sector and NGOs. The political leadership of the country has to rise above the ‘names-in-the-foundation-stone’ culture and ensure continuity of policies and implementation programmes. Only then, we can hope to go beyond paying ‘lip-service’ to rural transformation in our country.