Abstract

The Government has been, since country’s independence, formulating policies, programs, projects and schemes and investing significant financial resources through every Five Year Plan to accelerate the rural development. All these programs and schemes being implemented by the concerned ministries and departments of the union and state governments in the area of education, health, drinking water, sanitation, transport and communication and supporting infrastructure, among others, have shown varying degree of response and performance at the grassroots level, and of course, much less than expected in respect of measureable indicators of human development index.. The policy and programs of rural development aim at alleviating rural poverty, generating employment and removing hunger and malnourishment accompanied by the enrichment of the quality of human life as reflected by significantly improved human development index. The problem of rural development, however, is not merely one of development of rural areas but of the development of rural communities to dispel ignorance and poverty and assist the process of creating a self-reliant and self-sustaining, healthy modern little communities. Rural development can no longer be now identified with mere increase in country’s GDP or even per capita national income. The increased income is expected to be so distributed as to result view to achieving the total development of human being and the geographical area, thereby bridging the rural-urban gap. The study focuses on the historical background of Rural Development and highlights the brief summary of Five Year Plans for Rural development in India.