Government of Tamilnadu

Department of Employment and Training

Course : TNPSC Group I Mains Material

Subject : Social Issues in India and Tamil Nadu
Topic : Community Development Programmes

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 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES

Community:

The term community is a group of people, who live in a geographical area and have an
interest in each other for the purpose of making a living.

“A community, while in it consisting of several parts, is also a part of a larger social

system. It is a dynamic social unit which is subject to change of internal or external
origin”.

Development:
The development connotes growth or maturation. It implies gradual and sequential
phases of change. According to MacIver “Development” to signify an upward course in
a process “that is, of increasing differentiation.

Community development:

“Community development is a method by which people in villages are involved in

helping to improve their own economic and social conditions and thereby they became
effective working groups in the programme of their national development”

Analysing the term-Community Development:

Community development is a continuous process of social action by which the people

of a community:

a) Define their common and group needs.

b) Organize themselves formally and informally for democratic planning and
action.

Objectives:

• Agriculture and improvement of agricultural production, Setting up of cooperative

societies in each village
• Animal husbandry, Public health, Rural education, Improving the means of
communication and transport in rural areas.

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Community development programme Elements

This programme was formulated to provide an administrative framework through

which the government might reach to the district, tehsil / taluka and village level. In
India, the objective behind the community development programme is to develop the
resources of the people numbering about 640 million who form the rural population.

The elements of development are:

General: Farm, home, public service and village community.

Specific: To bring improvement in the production of crops and animals, living

conditions, health and education of the people.

Elements which need change are: People-men, women and youth.

Change agents:
Voluntary local leaders-members of Panchayats, village and Block Advisory
Committees etc. Professional community development workers- Village Level Workers,
extension officers, block development officers etc.

Implementation
All the districts of the country were divided into “Development Blocks” and a “Block
Development Officer (BDO)” was made in charge of each block.

Below the BDO were appointed the workers called Village Level Workers (VLW) who
were responsible to keep in touch with 10-12 villages. So, a nationwide structure was
started to be created.

Thousands of BDOs and VLW’s were trained for the job of carrying out array of
government programmes and make it possible to reach the government to villages. Top
authority was “Community Development Organization” and a Community
Development Research Center was created with best academic brains of the country at
that time.

Subject Matter of CDP:

The Community Development Programme (CDP) was the first major rural
development programme launched after independence in 2nd October 1952.

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It constitutes the first organised effort at rural reconstruction. The CDP was conceived
as an instrument to transform the social and economic life of the village community as
a whole cutting across caste, religious and economic differences.

Initially, it covered 55 projects with a wide range of programmes for developing

agriculture, animal husbandry, rural industries, education, housing, rural
communication etc. It was, however, soon realised that covering the entire country
under CDP was not possible due to shortage of funds and personnel.

Aims and Objectives of CDP:

The main aims and objectives of CDP are as follows:
1. CDP intended to promote rural welfare through the improvement of education,
public health and sanitation, medical facilities, housing, drinking water,
hospitals, community centres and sports and cultural activities.
2. To secure total development of the material and human resources in rural areas.
3. To develop local leadership and self-governing institutions.
4. To raise the living standards of the rural poor by means of rapid increase in food
and agricultural produce.
5. To ensure a change in the mind set of people instilling in them a mission for
higher standards.
6. It intended to create an interest among the rural people for better economic,
social and cultural life and make them satisfy their interest by self-help.
7. It also aimed at encouraging community thinking and collective action.
8. It intended to increase people’s participation in developmental programmes.

Overall CDP intended to improve the many-sided development of rural life.

Basic Features of CDP:
The CDP exhibits several basic features:
1. It is focused on the development of the rural people.
2. It is a process, not an event.
3. It is a dynamic unified problem-solving approach.
4. It is an attempt to bring about a socio-economic transformation of village life
through people’s participation.

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 5. It develops self-reliance in the individual and initiative in the village community.

The CDP is instrumental in raising the standard of living of the rural people and in
reconstructing the rural India. The basic objectives of CDP in India are the
development of people or “Destination man”.

Its broad objectives are:

1. Economic Development
2. Social justice
3. Democratic growth.
Elements of CDP:

1. CDP is the integrated development of whole community.

2. No outward agency exercises constraint or enforces the people to be involved in
this developmental programme.
3. People’s involvement must be spontaneous.
4. CDP aims at securing people’s participation from planning to execution.
5. It is a process of administration.
6. CDP is a national progress as a whole.

The main part of CDP was the establishment of Programmes Evaluation Organization
under the planning commission.

Its main functions were as follows:

a) Current appraisal of the ongoing projects.
b) Identification of the projects which made successful stories.
c) Plugging the programmes which are accepted or rejected by the people.
d) Providing explanation for the response given by the people to the projects which
are implemented.

The main achievements of the CDP were as follows:

1. For the first time an organised administrative set, up was established at the
national, state, district, block and village levels. Its developmental functions were
totally different from the revenue collection functions of the existing administrative
machinery.

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2. Development was considered to be people centric.
3. Due recognition was given to the importance of planning and inter-disciplinary
approach to development.
4. Recognition was also given to recruitment of trained personnel and the
introduction of technical and technological Inputs.
5. It introduced modern technologies in agriculture with a view to demonstrating that
they could perform better than traditional technology.
6. It resulted in the establishment of institutions such as agriculture credit societies,
primary schools, hospitals and dispensaries, maternity and child welfare centres
etc.

Role of CDP in Rural Reconstruction:

1. Role in agricultural development.

2. Role in industrial sector.
3. Role in the development of human resources.
4. Role in solving unemployment problem.
5. Role in national income.
6. Growth in national income/economic progress.
7. Increase in standard of living.
8. Change in the psychology of the rural mass.
9. Other welfare activities.
10. Development in education.
11. Development of transport.

Failure of CDP:

1. Failure from the side of people:

a) Non-involvement of people.
b) Stratified village.
c) Conflict is more than co-operation.
d) Corrupt officials.
e) Uneducated, illiterate and bias people.

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2. Failure from the side of administration:
a) Gap between the expansion of programme and efficiency of the people.
b) Lack of co-ordination among different departments.
c) Lack of co-ordination between government officials and rural mass.
d) Limited Fund.
e) No proper vigilance from the side of the government.
People’s participation is slow and uneven. In spite of the causes of its failure, CDP is
considered as a method as well as a process.

It is a method:

i. Of helping local communities to become more aware of their needs.

ii. To assess their resources more realistically.
iii. To organise themselves and their resources in such a way as to satisfy some of
their needs through action projects.
It is a process:

i. In that it is a dynamic sequence which being set in motion, supplies its own
motive power so that villagers are enabled through their own efforts to move
steadily towards the goal of self-improvement.
ii. It has been described as a process of change from the traditional way of living of
rural communities to progressive ways of living.

Weaknesses in the community development Programme:

A Critical analysis of the Programme with regard to the objective shows that the
programme has some weaknesses there are discussed as

1. The Programme has remained largely a government administered programme

without people's participation and has not yet become a people's programme
with assistance from government agencies no single agencies operating in the
field is responsible for this weakness.
2. There has been too much emphasis on end result and less emphasis in following
the correct methods and process to bring about change in the attitudes of the
people.

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 3. Due to lack of understanding of the objectives of the CD programme there has
often been lack of adherence to the real objectives of the C.D Programme there
has not been much concentration on essential items.
4. Extension education methods which are so essential for a democratic approach
remained mostly as a claim.
5. Lack of uniform understanding about the concept principles methods role
function etc, at all levels from village to national level.
6. Lack of proper and adequate supervision and guidance both administrative and
technical at various levels.
7. Establishment of superiority by providing democratic leadership is very much
lacking to replace autocratic authority.
8. The C.D workers feel unhappy at all levels their moral is not very high unhappy
workers or change agents can not a make a good organization.

Questions:

1. What is community development programme? Why it is need to implement it?

2. What are the role and achievements of community development programme?
3. Explain CDP with its aims & objectives in India.

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