Rural Industrialization - Indian Agriculture, Indian Economy | Indian Economy - B Com PDF Download

Introduction

Rural industries play a pivotal role in the development of India. It is generally held that economy in rural industrialization not only raises per capita income and living standards of the people by providing gW employment opportunities but also reduces income disparities between rural and urban areas. Moreover, promotion of nual industries provides an ample opportunity for optimum utilization of local resources to serve the local needs, Rural industrialization has become one of the major economic and social goals of economic development and formed part and parcel of planning and development of India. The objective of rural industrialization implies widely dispersed on a small scale with as high an employment potential as is compatible with an efficient technique and the nquimmeat of process of development.

In India, industrialization with urban bias resulted in haphd development betwttn agriculture and industry on one hand and the nugl and urban area on the other. Fu~ther, the relationship between traditional agricultun and modern industry made the rural sector at a greater disadvantage in appropriating the gains of development leading to increasing disparities in the level of income between rural and urban areas. Rural industries developed on proper lines can serve as an effective means of reducing imbalances and also play a prominent role in providing subsidiary occupations and supplementary incomes especially to personnel engaged in the agriculture besides facilitating a more intensive economic utilization ofmaterial resources and man-power .

Nevertheless, nual industrialization which does not benefit the nual population is not the best way of rural development, though it may lead to a wnsidarable growth in industrial output. Rural industrialization facilitates shifts in work force from primary to secondary sectors. Industrialization promotes an economy fundamentally relying on agriculture into a more advanced industrial economy. The issues of industrialization are different at different levels of growth with political goals. Economic growth, equity and welfare, national independencc etc. dominate industrialization. The strategy of industrialization immensely depends on the theoretical framework and ideological betting. It is impossible to develop everything simultaneously and therefm priorities are to be identified. The right choice has dimensions like relative roles of public and private sectors, heavy industry and light industry, import-substitution and export-promotion labour-intensive and capital-intensive etc.

Significance Of Rural Industrilisation

Industrialization in rural areas properly appears would have been more success when the local character had been stressed. However, it is not pursued as a policy in isolation. It should rather be seen as the outcome of a combination of strategies for various industrial sectors on one hand and for integrated rural development on the other. Industrial sector strategies aimed at expanding the lower ends of the spectrum can be nothing more than the part of an overall policy to develop rural areas. It is contented that any programme of industrialization must necessarily cover the rural dimension for protecting and promoting the nual interests. The social and economic costs of rural-urban migration are considered too high for developing countries. Rural development strategy whether it is technocratic, reformist or radical, envisages rural industrialization from the point of economic growth, regional balance and social equity. It is the favourable technical co-efficient based on their own resource endowments that add an additional support and drive for a strategy of rural industrialization. It is characterized by labow-intensive, energy-saving and foreign exchange saving technology and organization which will not adversely contribute to environmental pollution. These structural characteristics and technical co-efficient of rural industry have compelled the attention of planners for according a prominent place for these units under the umbrella of planning in India An important reason which has hindered the development of a rational and growth oriented approach to nual Industrialization in India is lack of systematic information on the structure, functioning and potential of these industries. In the absence of such information certain assumptions have been made about various aspecte of these industries and often such assumptions have been treated as if they hold good for different industries and different areas

Rural industrialization may be considered as an aspect of spatial diversification of industries and is treated as a part of the problem of the location of industries in general. On the other hand, rural industrialization may be looked upon as a process confined to the development of village industries. Rural industrialization fulfills several mnomic and social needs of nual areas such as inorcasing employment oppostunities, diversifying rural occupations, raising income and living standards of rival communities, reducing exodus to urban centres, elig regional and economic imbalance and ensuring social justice''. But rural industries need not merely location condition. A large industrial establishment located in rural areas and employing some thousand labom all coming from their village homes to work in the establishment, cannot be called a rural industry, The word has, therefore, to be treated as conveying the additional idea of the industry, an enterprise of rural people carried out mainly in nual environs as distinct from urban or industrial environs. A household industry located in a big town or large factory located in rural mas ahr creating an industrial colony would not be technically a rural industry. It implies a widely decentralized growth of industries with as high an employment potential as it is compatible with an efficient technique and the requirement of the process of development. However, there are doubts as to what the term "rural industry" does actually stand for and what exactly the concept of nual industries is.