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Unlock This CourseYou have now seen strategies to make rural living more sustainable and improve quality of life. But a strategy only works if someone plans it, pays for it and carries it out. This lesson looks at the groups who do that, using rural India again as our chosen rural environment.
Rural areas face three kinds of challenge, and every group has a part to play in each:
Key terms:
The Indian government works at country level. It passes the laws and pays for large schemes, such as the rural jobs guarantee scheme and the rural housing scheme you met in the last lesson. It can also fund roads, electricity and clinics for villages that could never afford them alone. Its weakness is distance: a plan made in the capital may not suit every village.
India has elected councils called panchayats at village, block and district level. The village panchayat knows its own area best. It can choose which families get help and check that work is done, for example deciding where a new pond or road is needed. Its weakness is that local councils often have little money and depend on funding from above.
Government covers all three kinds of challenge. It can pay for schools and clinics (social), create paid work (economic) and make rules to protect water and soil (environmental).
IGOs bring money, advice and expertise from outside the country. The World Bank lends money to governments for projects such as rural roads and water supplies. UN agencies, such as the FAO (the UN's food and farming agency), give advice on farming. IGOs deal with governments, not directly with villagers, and their loans usually have to be paid back.
NGOs are often charities. They work directly in villages and can respond quickly. For example, WaterAid works on clean water and toilets, and Oxfam works to reduce poverty. They can train people, give advice and speak up for villagers who are not heard. But their money often comes from donations, so they can only work in some places and for a limited time.
The people who live in the area know it best, and a project is much more likely to last if they want it and help to run it. Villagers can:
Hiware Bazar, the Maharashtra village from the lesson Making Rural Living Sustainable, is a good example. Villagers worked together to look after their water and land, and this helped the whole village. Without the community's effort, a plan from outside would probably have failed.
The best projects use several groups at once. For example, a village could get a new water scheme like this:
When groups do not work together, things can go wrong: money may not reach the village, plans may not match local needs, or a project may stop when an NGO leaves.
Question: Who would be best to manage a plan to build a health clinic in a remote village?
Answer plan: pick a group, give a reason, then add a limit or another group. The national government is best placed to pay for the clinic and its doctors, because it has the biggest budget. But the local panchayat knows where the clinic is needed most, and an NGO could train local people as health workers. So the groups need to work together, because government money alone will not reach remote villages.
(a) State what is meant by an NGO. [1 mark]
(b) Explain one way in which national government helps to manage the challenges in a rural environment you have studied. [2 marks]
(c) Assess the importance of local communities compared with other groups in managing a rural environment you have studied. [4 marks]
(a) A non-governmental organisation: a group, often a charity, that is not part of any government. (1)
(b) In India the national government pays for a rural housing scheme. (1) This helps poor families build solid homes, which improves their health and safety. (1)
(c) Local communities are very important because villagers know their land and water best, and they look after projects once they are built, as in Hiware Bazar. (2) However, villagers often lack money and training, so they need national government funding and help from NGOs. Communities are therefore very important, but they work best alongside the other groups. (2)
For "assess" questions, give your judgement and a reason, then show the other side. Use the name of your chosen rural environment in every answer.