Rural Development in a Village: A Case from Manipur

Abstract

Rural development is ‘a strategy designed to improve the economic and social life of a specific group of people – the rural poor’ (World Bank 1975: 3). Various developmental programmes and schemes are implemented to improve the quality of life and standard of living of the people. ‘For proper implementation and fruition of such developmental programmes, leadership and particularly political leadership played a pivotal role’ (Ranjan 2011: 52). The paper discusses how these developmental programmes and schemes are actually functioning in the village and the hurdles faced by the villagers in assessing those programmes and schemes and highlights lack of accountability of the local leaders who monitor and supervise those programmes and schemes in the village.