Socio-cultural issues encountered in the implementation of in-situ rural development programmes

Abstract

The term 'socio-cultural' in this paper shall be used generally to mean or include social practices, religious beliefs and practices, customs, traditions, and other value systems, the combination of which patterns the social interaction and way of life of the community under review. The serious student of sociology or anthropology would probably define the term more sophisticatedly but for our purpose it is hoped that the lay-man treatment of the terminology suffices. In-situ development projects are brought to the people without upsetting their natural environment and social setting. It is one of the numerous rural development programmes adopted by the Government to uplift the standard of living of the rural poor with the prime objective of eradicating poverty. It is an intricate social, technological development process which aims to transform the rural target group from a subsistence level to a self- reliant community. This transformation will interact with their socio-cultural characteristics such as their religious beliefs and behaviour, social practices, customs, traditions, values and needs which have a direct or indirect bearing on the implementation of in-situ rural development programmes. It is the objective of this paper to highlight some of the socio-cultural characteristics encountered by various departments/agencies which should be taken into consideration in the course of implementing in-situ rural development programmes. The examples presented in this paper are mainly based on views and findings of implementing officers at the grass roots. However, there is a lack of socio-economic studies to convincingly verify these views.