14

Transcript

Hello, friends. In our last class we were discussing about Gandhian constructive program. How Gandhiji thought of the changes to be brought in the Indian context, specially concentrating the efforts in rural areas, for which he has developed good number of institutions and motivated people to be part of those institutional initiatives, so that we can change our lives, living standards. So that is what was the basic objective of extension also. In today’s class we will be discussing about three important initiatives which were launched in different parts of the country. Indian Village Service, Adarsh Seva Sangh and Servants of India Society.

To begin with Adarsh Seva Sangh, which was launched by Col Shitole in the State of current Madhya Pradesh, the then Central Province. The aim of this particular program was to increase the per capita income of the villagers. As we are already aware. The core activity in the villages is dependent on agriculture and various other professions are which are supporting agriculture or the outcomes of the agricultural products. So put together we can say that the entire village economy is dependent on the agriculture and allied sciences, and similarly the national economy. Even though the current situation has changed with the involvement of more about the service sector as well the production sector is dominating compared to agricultural sector. But agriculture is one of the largest employer in Indian context, which is providing opportunities for about 60% of the population. In that context enhancing the per capita income of an individual becomes an important objective. And similarly the current government is also emphasizing on doubling the farmer’s income by 2022. Almost a century back we were also having the similar efforts. But the technology has changed, the situation has changed, the targets have changed over a period of time, but the core issues remain.

To achieve this particular aim the Village Reconstruction Society was formed in every village in the operational area. So in earlier programs also we were emphasizing on institutions, establishment of institutions. Might be a cooperative society or self-help group or village reconstruction society, rural reconstruction society so on and so forth. Again I want to draw your attention on the relevance and importance of group approach to achieve the desired objective. That was another aspect of this particular program. These societies were the institutions which are responsible for diffusion of innovations. In the subsequent classes we will be discussing the concept of ‘diffusion of innovations’ at length. Just I am giving you some brief introduction about the concept of diffusion.

So it is totally different from communication, where in communication we are dealing with the regular messages. But in case of diffusion we are dealing with the innovations. What are these innovations? Innovations are the practices which are perceived as new by an individual, which are being communicated to the members of the society over a period of time. The newness of practice makes the process of diffusion a completely different aspect. And this particular Adarsh Seva Sangh was in search of those innovations which are coming from different institutions, the research institutions and organizations, and taking them to the farmers was the major effort. Then they achieved this particular objective, they also published a magazine known as ‘Rural India’, wherein the process of diffusion and innovation was given due emphasis.

With this background of Adarsh Seva Sangh, now let us move on to the next initiative taken up by Gopal Krishna Gokhaleji in the year 1905. The name of the initiative is Servants of India Society. The efforts that were initiated in those days include the overall development of the village. So Gopal Krishna Gokhale being an activist also, he concentrated some efforts on modification of, bringing some changes in the rural areas. So to introduce this particular change he established the training centers to impart training on agriculture and cottage industries. So now we are moving from the State of Madhya Pradesh to the State of Maharashtra. The society was established in Pune. So the core issue was to impart training. So sometime we said that education and now we are emphasizing on training at different context. So what are the basic differences between the training and education. In case of training we are emphasizing on the skills. But in case of education we are emphasizing on the knowledge. So that’s what is the basic difference between the training and the education. So here imparting skills related to the agriculture and related to the cottage industry, which were the traditional industries operated by the villagers. So the moment we tried to upgrade the skills with the existing thing, so that automatically they will be more efficient introducing the operations. And their income levels are increased.

So even though as I said it was established in the Pune, Maharashtra. But its operational area was in the State of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. It means they went beyond the State of Maharashtra and they moved on to different places establishing these societies. So that the similar efforts that were done in different parts of Pune in Maharashtra, were replicated in different parts of the country, to bring the changes in the rural areas. The beauty of this particular initiative is. Many of the initiatives that we discussed before, so came to an end because of may be the lack of funds or lack of leadership, various issues. But this is the society, which is still active in different parts of the country, as I said in the State of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa, as well as working actively in the State of Maharashtra. To achieve this particular change, they also used to publish the books on basic education, labor education and all those things. With these initiatives the Servants of India Society used to bring the changes.

Now coming to another initiative which was limited to the State of Uttar Pradesh and specially in the area concentrating between Allahabad and Kanpur. That is Indian Village Services launched by A.T. Mosher and B.N. Gupta. The first element in this particular effort was in realizing the best in your own village, which leads to the identification of the resources. These are the things that we have been
emphasizing in a different programs. I hope you are observing these main issues under different discussions. Identification of the resource and management of that resource and development of that resource are the core issues of good number of programs, that we have discussed so far and we are going to discuss in future also. The similar efforts were taken up in this program also. This process helps in demarcating the resources in this particular region. And when we identify these things, we can easily take a decision that what are the things that we that are already at our disposal, and the things that are in, that we don’t have, we can manage it from the outside sources. So that was the core issue that was dealt. And the next element that was emphasized in this particular program was the developing villagers, individuals and volunteers means the human resource development. The methodology adopted was to give them appropriate training program.

So with these things. So to achieve this particular objective, they used the methodology of personal contact. Then informal group discussion. Demonstration and production of audio and visual aids. So again if you look at this methodology. The core issue remains same, bring the people together, form them into different groups, so that they work in groups and achieve the desired changes to meet out the objectives. The operational area of this particular program was about 15 villages near Allahabad, and the financial support for this particular program came from the donors and some philanthropists, so that they could take up these particular activities. So with this coming to the conclusion of these three important programs, wherein we could observe the priority on the diffusion of innovations. Where we are discussing about the latest developments in the technological front. And realize the importance of media in dissemination, wherein we are talking of the audio-visual production. Then publications, so on and so forth. Then adoption of the cluster approach. Making it is not only one village, making it cluster of village, number one and making the cluster of farmers also who are having good number of points in common. We say that it is a homogenous group. And through them the changes were introduced.

Then development dissemination efforts were made by moving to different corners of the country. It is not that we are discussing only about the technological dissemination. They disseminated the concept of development by moving from one place to another place. If this can happen in this particular corner of the country. Why not in other parts of the country. So that is what was the development dissemination idea that these programs took to different parts of the country. And that is how they started getting the response from the people. So the take home message from these particular programs is. Coming together, working together and bringing in the changes in our own living conditions by identifying various resources that are at our disposal. With this we are coming to end of today’s discussion. And in the next class we will be discussing about the Firka Development Scheme, which was implemented in Southern Province, so the province of Madras.

Thank You.