Of late development, both economic and social, is gaining ground specially in the developing countries. The planning process is also trying to encourage more and more of people’s participation in the programmes sponsored by the Government. The new shift in paradigm has resulted in more of people’s participation with more of government’s co-operation.
In this Volume, the editors have tried to converge the idea of “people’s participation and involvement” in bringing an all-round development with human touch. The important areas covered in this Volume include Rural Development, Women Empowerment, Irrigation and Water Conservation, Literacy Programmes, Food Security and Environmental Improvement. The contributors are specialists who have been working in their respective areas over decades and most of them have contributed their own experiences and/or results of their studies to establish the point. Most of the success stories bring out the single point that if people are empowered and given self-respect, in the implementation of the programmes, the sustainability is guaranteed.
This Volume will be of great help for planners, administrators and researchers who are working in the area of development with human touch.
D.V. Rao is at present working with Council for Social Development, Southern Regional Office, Hyderabad as Senior Faculty. He possesses Masters’ Degrees in Statistics and Economics and Ph.D. in Economics (Rural Development specialisation). He has been working in the field of Development : both Economic and Social, for the past three decades.
Dr. Rao has specialised in the Areas of Regional Planning, Command Area Development, Micro Level Social Planning, Slum Improvement, Poverty Alleviation Programmes and Impact Assessment Studies.
Dr. Rao has published till date 16 books relating to his areas of specialisation. He has presented 80 research papers and articles at National and International Seminars and published in Journals of National repute.
S. Vijaya Kumar, M.A., Ph.D., is working as a Fellow in IMPART Centre of Council for Social Development, Southern Regional Office, Hyderabad, India. He is a widely travelled Anthropologist specialized in Gerontology. With his 15 years of research experience in the fields of Anthropology and Gerontology he has published three books viz., (1) Family life and Socio-Economic Problems of the Aged; (2) Challenges Before the Elderly : An Indian Scenario and (3) Changing Status and Role of women in Indian Society and about 40 research papers in the National and International Journals. He presented 46 research papers in the National and International Conferences/Seminars and also actively participated in different Workshops. He also delivered Keynote presentations on different themes of aging in a couple of National Level Conferences/Seminars. So far he has executed a couple of research projects on Aging and on Social Security and at present his on-going research project is “Quality of Life and Social Security of the Rural Elderly”.
Having been trained by the International Institute on Aging, UN-Malta, he has actively participated in preparing a Draft National Policy for the welfare of the elderly in India.
He is also involved in different research studies related to Rural Development, Migration, District Poverty Initiative Program, Gandhi Block Development Programs, Social Security for Vulnerable Population and most of these research studies are sponsored by the World Bank, UNDP, ICSSR, Ministry of Social Welfare (GOI) etc. Some of his ongoing works are : Social Security Issues in India, Indian Tribes and Sustainable Development and Caring Society.
