Question

Write an essay on working of community development programmes in india

Answer 1

Community Development Programmes are defined as developmental initiatives, which are aimed at the development of the communities at all levels, including economic, cul­tural and social. The desired outcomes of these programmes are complex, and may not be known at the outset, but typically include increased self-reliance, and decision­ making powers resulting from the process of community development.India inherited a rich legacy of experimentation with rural development pro­grammes, which drew inspiration not only from the Gandhian vision of a rural com­mune, but also from various philanthropic and missionary movements from the United States and the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Northern Ireland), as well as the late colonialist attempts to revive the stagnating Indian agriculture by drawing on the lessons of various foreign experiments, such as the Raifeissen rural credit schemes in Germany and the agricultural extension services of the United States.However, it was Nehru’s strategic and centralized planning policies, which not only established the community as a ‘site for the privileged agency of the rural poor’, but also provided the full backing (including domestic and foreign funding) of the Community Development Programmes (CDP), which were launched in 1952 on the fourth anniversary of Gandhi’s death.