Author: Ms. Pranjal Mehta
Abstract: Rural development should not be regarded as a narrowly defined set of agricultural development and improvement projects; rather it is a multi-faceted process which can be seen as a process of rural people increasing their economic opportunities, capabilities, voice, security and access to public goods. Social transformation is the transformation of institutions, social relations, gender roles, aspirations, mobility, technology use and patterns of participation. In this chapter, we have sought to integrate an evidence-based account of the relationship between rural development and social transformation with special reference to India. It covers the shift from production-oriented rural policies to the mix of factors including employment security, collective institutions led by women, housing, roads, drinking water, sanitation, education, health, digital connectivity, decentralised governance, and climate resilience. There is clear evidence of significant progress: India has seen a dramatic decline in the multidimensional poverty ratio of its people, rural women's labour-force participation is on the rise, over ten crore women have been registered in self-help groups under DAY-NRLM, the availability of rural housing has grown, all-weather road connectivity has improved, and household tap-water coverage has increased, while MGNREGA continues to deliver a massive employment safety-net programme to rural populations, propelled by the greater contribution of women to workdays. In parallel, social change has not been fully realized. Low productivity, high informality, and inequitable non-farm employment creation continue to be a reality for rural livelihoods, with wide disparities in learning outcomes and capacity-building in the health system, while gender-based inequalities in unpaid care and the asset gap remain. The chapter concludes that a scheme-wise approach to rural development delivery must be replaced by place-based convergence, productive diversification, enhanced local institutions, universal and good quality public services, women's economic agency and digital inclusion and climate-resilient local planning, in the next phase of rural development. The core argument is that sustainable rural change is only achieved when there is a combination of income and infrastructure changes with distributions of capabilities, voice, and opportunity and institutional power.
