Villager's contribution to the programme 21. The pattern of the project as drawn up includes major items of works normally implemented through Government agencies. This is bound to involve higher expenditure through elaborate administrative staff, middlemen's fees and possibly in certain cases, questionable practices. If the people are to be trained to be the builders of the future, the works have to be entrusted, even at certain risks, to the people themselves through their representative agencies, the Governmental Organisation furnishing the technical assistance and the essential finance. It is intended that a qualifying scale of voluntary contribution, either in the form of money or of labour, should be laid down and this contribution will be a condition precedent to development schemes being undertaken under the Community Development Programme.
In all these cases, contributions may be in the form, either of voluntary labour or of cash. In respect of backward areas and areas predominantly populated by scheduled castes and scheduled tribes it may not be possible for the villagers to make any financial contribution. In these areas, the villagers should be asked to contribute by way of labour effort required for executing the works programme under various heads. The agency of the Bharat Sevak Samaj is hoped to become a major avenue for the Organisation of the voluntary effort on the part of the villagers.
Finance 22. The estimated expenditure on a basic type of a rural community project, i.e., a project without the provision for an urban unit, is Rs. 65 lakhs over a period of 3 years. Of this amount, about 58.47 lakhs will be rupee expenditure, and Rs. 6.53 lakhs will be dollar expenditure.
The estimated cost of an urban unit (which it is intended to provide in a few projects) is Rs. 111 lakhs. Of this amount, the estimated rupee expenditure is about Rs. 95.55 lakhs and the dollar expenditure is Rs. 15.45 lakhs.
In order to enable expansion of the programme in future years, the Central Committee felt that some reduction in the estimated cost of a rural community project, basic type, should be made and, after examination of the question, has now decided that all community projects
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should be operated on the basis of a reduced total of Rs. 45 lakhs per project. So far as the existing projects are concerned, this would mean that the area of operations under each project on a population basis of 2 lakhs per project should be so revised or adjusted as to conform to the new expenditure pattern.
The Community Development Programme imposes financial obligations on the Centre as well as on the State Governments. Broadly, the proportions which have been fixed are 75 per cent for the Centre and 25 per cent for the State in respect of non-recurring expenditure, and 50 per cent each for Centre and States in respect of recurring expenditure. This applies to `grants-in-aid'. Loan amount is totally found by the, Centre. After the three year period, the Community Project areas are intended to become Development Blocks on the lines recommended for adoption in Chapter VI of the Grow More Food Enquiry Committee's Report. It is expected that in so far as the Community Project areas are concerned, the expenses of such development blocks will be borne entirely by State Governments after the third year. The expenditure, mostly recurring, is likely to be about Rs. 3 lakhs per project.
Supporting projects 23. The Community Development Programme is related to and supported in part by most of the other projects under the Indo- American Technical Cooperation Programme. The fertiliser required by the Community Development Programmes will be acquired and distributed in accordance with the Operational Agreement No.1 which deals with the "Project for Acquisition and Distribution of Fertilizer ". Similarly, the iron and steel needed for farm implements and tools will be acquired and distributed in accordance with the " Project for the Acquisition and Distribution of Iron and Steel for Agricultural purposes". The tubewells to be constructed in the project areas will be allocated from the "Project for Ground Water Irrigation". Information and services with respect to soils and fertilizer application will be made available from the "Project for distribution of soil fertility and fertiliser use". Assistance in Malaria control in the project areas will be forthcoming from the "Project for malaria control planned under the Technical Cooperation Programme". The training of Village Level Workers and Project Supervisors will be carried out under the " Village Workers Training Programme".
Evaluation 24. A systematic evaluation of the methods and results of the Community Development Programme will, no doubt, make a significant contribution by pointing up those methods which are proving effective, and those which are not; and furnishing an insight into the impact of the Community Development Programme upon the economy and culture of India. In order that it may be useful to those administering the Community Development Projects and serve as a basis for informed public opinion regarding the programme, the evaluation work is being arranged to be conducted by the Planning Commission in close cooperation with the Ford Foundation and the Technical Cooperation Administration.
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III-NATIONAL EXTENSION SERVICE In setting out our proposals on the subject of administration of district development programmes, we have already attempted to analyse the organisational features of extension work in the district. The entire subject has been carefully reviewed recently by the Grow More Food Enquiry Committee. After examining the results of the campaign for increased food production, which has been in progress for several years, the Committee state the problem which extension workers have to meet in the following words :
" No plan- can have any chance of success unless the millions of small farmers. in the country accept its objective, share in its making, regard it as their own, and are prepared to make the sacrifices necessary for implementing it. The integrated production programme has failed to arouse enthusiasm for the reasons we have given. The food problem is a much wider one than mere elimination of food imports. It is the problem of bringing about such a large expansion of agricultural production as will assure to an increasing population progressively rising levels of nutrition. In other words, the campaign for food production should be conceived as part of a plan for the most efficient use of land resources by the application of modern scientific research and the evolution of a diversified economy. In its turn, agricultural improvement is an integral part of the much wider problem of raising the level of rural life. The economic aspects of village life cannot be detached from the broader social aspects; and agricultural improvement is inextricably linked up with a whole set of social problems. The lesson to be derived from the working of the G. M. F. programmes thus confirms the experience of States and private agencies engaged in village development. It is that all aspects of rural life are interrelated and that no lasting results can be achieved if individual aspects of it are dealt with in isolation. This does not mean that particular problems, should not be given prominence but the plans for them should form parts of, and be integrated with, those for achieving the wider aims. It is only by placing this ideal-of bringing about an appreciable improvement in the standards of rural life and making it fuller and richer--before the country and ensuring that the energies of the entire administrative machinery of the States and the best nonofficial leadership are directed to plans for its realisation that we can awaken mass enthusiasm and enlist the active interest and support of the millions of families living in the countryside in the immense task of bettering their own condition."
2. This analysis led to the Committee to propose the establishment of a national extension organisation for intensive rural work which could reach every farmer and assist in the coordinated development of rural life as a whole. The detailed proposals of the Committee on the organisation of the extension network at various levels have been described earlier. The programme envisaged by the Committee, for which the necessary provision has been made in the Plan, is that the Central Government should assist State Governments in establishing extension organisations so as to bring their entire area under extensive development within a period of about ten years. During the period of the Plan, about 120,000 villages are to be brought within the operations of the extension, that is, nearly one- fourth of the rural population. The Central and the various State Governments are expected in the near future to frame detailed programmes for reorganising the existing extension services, arranging for further recruitment and preparing training programmes.
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In drawing up these programmes the Central and State Governments will have to examine the necessity for providing the basic training in agriculture and animal husbandry to the village level workers and the various supervisory subject matter specialists. Where existing facilities are inadequate, steps will have to be taken to augment them with a view to ensuring an adequate supply of extension workers for each major linguistic region. There is little doubt that the implementation of these proposals can give a new and powerful momentum to an rural work and, in particular, to the programme for increaeds agricultural production.
3. The organisation of extension services with the object of securing increased production and raising the standard of village life is a new undertaking. Extension is a continuous process designed to make the rural people aware of their problems, and indicating to them ways and means by which they can solve them. It thus involves not only education of the rural people in determining their problems and the methods of solving them, but also inspiring them towards positive action in doing so. It is, therefore, of the highest importance that for this task, personnel of the right type should be obtained who will take to their work with zeal and enthusiasm. The qualities required are not only the ability to acquire knowledge but also dedication to the task of serving the rural people and the development of a will to find solutions for their problems. People from village surroundings with experience of practical farming are likely to prove of special value as extension workers.
4. The training of extension workers requires the closest attention and must be related to the serivces that they will have to perform. They have to understand rural problems, the psychology of the farmer, and offer solutions to his various difficulties. They have to try and find out the felt needs of the people, and the solutions that they offer must be demonstrated by acting in close cooperation with the farmers. They should be able to discover leadership and stimulate it to action. Their success will depend on the extent to which they gain the confidence of the farmers. Their duties have thus to be educative and demonstrative. Their training will thus have many facets. Periods spent in gaining a thorough training will be a good investment. If the period of extension training is to be shortened, so as to be able to cover a larger area than may be otherwise possible, care should be taken to see that it is preceded by adequate opportunities for basic training in all aspects of rural development. Their conditions of service should also be such as are calculated to keep up their zeal and enthusiasm and ensure the continuous maintenance of high standards of performance. There should be considerable scope for promotion for men who start at the bottom. In order to develop the true extension approach much might be gained if all extension workers, whether graduates or field level workers, were to start at the field level and only those who proved their worth, received promotions to higher positions. A fair proportion of these positions should also be open to village workers who display the necessary qualities of leadership and ability. For this purpose, courses should be provided at different levels to enable the promising extension workers who start at the field level to reach positions of greater responsibility
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5. It is important to secure that the extension service retains its character of continued utility to the rural areas which they serve. This factor should, therefore, be particularly borne in mind in judging the work of officials who man this service. Local opinion on the extent to which an extension worker has made himself useful should be an important criterion in assessing his ability.
6. The confidence of the villager is gained with difficulty and lost easily. It is, therefore, of the essence of extension that the initial start is made with items whose usefulness to the cultivator in increasing agricultural production has been well established. It is only after sufficient confidence is gained that comparatively untried measures can be put forward, and even these should be held out as experiments until the people have found the answer for themselves.
7. The immediate effect of the first impact of an extension organisation is to increase the demands of the cultivator for credit, supplies and implements. The satisfaction of these demands is a necessary consequence of extension activities and they will succeed to the extent this responsibility is handled efficiently. Extension activities will be adversely affected if arrangements cannot be made for supplying the needs which they-generate.
8. Finally, it may be pointed out that extension workers have to be supported effectively by research workers to whom they can bring their problems and whose results they carry to the people. Special arrangements are, therefore, needed to ensure the closest cooperation between extension and research.