Integrated Innovations in Development

Using a conceptual framework Prof. ranjit gupta suggests ways to address poverty and development.

T he challenges confronting the development of rural India are varied and complex. So are the problems impeding its development. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that numerous and varied approaches, strategies and programmes, both conventional and innovative, are underway in various parts of the country.

However, the search for innovations in development must continue because otherwise it is likely that we may get bogged down to doing more of the same, notwithstanding the changing complexity of the macro-micro interface. Therefore, it is desirable and important that along with existing models of development, attempts to explore, design, test and fine-tune alternative paradigms of development should continue—a paradigm that may accelerate the development of the rural economies in general and of the disadvantaged groups in particular.

I recall my first Village Stay six years ago in Khunti, Jharkhand. I had stayed over at a village called Chukru. It was tough and my mind was in a tizzy with a dozen existentialist questions: What I am doing? Why? Is this my cup of tea? Today, after so many years of working in the field, I am facing the same problems but with a small difference. The experience of the last six years has instilled confidence in me and I have a pragmatic attitude to new hardships. However, some questions still haunt me: What is the way ahead of this quagmire called poverty? What are my approach and strategy?

This would involve experimentation and the patience to observe, learn and adapt. In well-established and growing organisations such as Pradan and DHAN Foundation, it would also demand the ability to take risks, commit and spare the required resources and create space to experiment with untested concepts and designs.