Question

Repost** 2500 Words Max

For centuries, rural development was ignored by economists and intellectuals-- it was thought that industrialization and urban development were the key to economic growth. Today most development economists see rural development as a key component. 2500 WORDS MAX

a). Why did economists change their mind?

b). Design a strategy for rural development. If you want to pick a specific country that is fine, or just come up with a general plan.

Answer 1

Solution

a).As mentioned above,for centuries, rural development was ignored by economists and intellectuals thinking that industrialization and urban development alone were enough for economic growth.

In contrast,these days most economists see rural development as a key component.This is due to several reasons:

1.Demographic changes : Previously the population was very low when compared to the present population. So,the economist were of the opinion that due to limited resources (capital,skilled labour,technology) , it is important to firstly focus on the limited population by improving their standard,So,they focused on industrialization (establishing more industries concentrated in a particular area (town/cities / urban areas) - urbanization as skilled labour is / will be comparatively more easily available in these regions.

2.Speed of improvement : Previously they believed that Industrilization and Urbanization alone would ensure economic growth by translating the development in urban areas from the urban people to the people in the rural areas i.e., dev. would spread from urban to rural areas and specially concentrating on the rural areas is not that important.

BUT now,they have realized that due to high population this process of passing dev, from urban to rural areas will take time and the faster and better way is to also equally focus on rural development.

3.Infrastructure Issues in Urban Areas : It has  become increasingly difficult by focusing on the urbanization and industrialization as it is resulting in huge scale migration of people from rural to urban areas (Mega Cities getting creating) resulting in infrastructure issues in urban areas putting strain on basic amenities to be provided to the population and also resulting in large scale pollution.

Cost of developing and maintaining these mega cities is increasingly becoming complex and very costly.

4.Availability of skilled labour force in the rural areas due to improved literacy rates.

b) Strategy for rural development

Example : Take the case of India

There are different dimensions to the rural development namely - Economic,Human,Science and Technology,Political and Resource and Environment

Economic - Some policies like providing minimum working hours per year are providing livelihood to the workforce over there specially to the unskilled labour.

Encouraging and providing educations to farmers about the different crops (according to trend) that could fetch higher economic value to them.

Human - Policies like " Beti Bachao,Beti Padao" encourage the birth of girl child by providing various govt. incentives for girl child ensuring gender balance by ending social discrimination based on gender.

Political : 1.By adopting GRam Swaragya ( Freedom to  villages ) ,,all the villages will be allocated budget and the population living over there can decide on what tasks / works to be done with the funds with the help of the village head.

2.Providing subsidies to inputs used in agriculture.

Science and Technology - 1.Improving internet connectivity ; 2.Promoting Bio-Technology

Environment - 1.Promoting Bio-Diversity ;2.Changing the land cover