Community Development- meaning, definition, Concept & principles, Philosophy of C.D
Community: A community consists of persons in social interaction within a geographical area and having common centers of interest & activities and functioning together in the chief concern of life.
Development: Orderly movement of individual from lower level of functioning to the higher level of functioning.
Community Development: Community Development is a movement designed to promote better living for the whole community with the active participation and on the initiative of the community ∙ Community Development Is technically aided and locally organized Self-help Community Development has been described as a (Mukherji)
process of change from the traditional way of living of rural communities to progressive ways of living;
method by which people can be assisted to develop themselves on their own capacity and resources,
programme for accomplishing certain activities in fields concerning the welfare of the rural people and
movement for progress with a certain emotional and ideological content
The two essential elements in community development are
1. Participation by the people themselves in efforts to improve their level of living with as much reliance as possible on their own initiative and
2. The provision of technical and other services in ways which encourage initiative, self-help and mutual help and make these more effective.
Some Assumptions underlying the Philosophy of Community Development
1. Communities of people can develop capacity to deal with their own problems
2. People want change and can change
3. People should participate in making, adjusting or controlling the major changes taking place in their communities
4. Changes in community living that are self imposed or self developed have a meaning and permanence that imposed changes do not have
5. A 'who lisitic approach' can deal successfully with problems, with which a 'fragmented approach' cannot cope
6. Democracy requires the people's cooperative participation and action in the affairs of the community
7. Frequently communities of people need help in organizing to deal with their needs
Basic Philosophy:
Basic philosophy of community development programme was
1. Individual development
2. Development of family.
3. Awareness of the responsibilities and self motivation among the people
4. Community development
5. Development of Cooperativeness among the people
6. To create confidence towards science and technology
7. Development of rural leadership
8. Development of rural institutions
9. Development of other resources for community development
The social, cultural and economical development of rural societ
Principles of Community Development
The United Nations Economic and Social Council has been trying to define such principles and concepts of Community Development as well acceptable to all its-member-States and which they should agree to implement as far as possible.
1. Activities undertaken must correspond to the basic needs of the community, projects should be initiated in response to the expressed needs of the people.
2. Local improvements may be achieved through unrelated efforts in each substantive field; however, full and balanced community development requires concerted action and the establishment of multipurpose programmes.
3. Changed attitudes in people are as important as the material achievements of community projects during the initial stages of development.
4. Community development aims at increased and better participation of the people in community affairs, revitalization of existing forms of local government and transition towards effective local administration where it is not yet functioning.
5. The identification, encouragement and training of local leadership should be a basic objective in any programme.
6. Greater reliance on the participation of women and youth in community projects. 7. To be fully effective, self-help projects for communities require both intensive and extensive assistance by the Government.
8. Implementation of community development programme on a national scale requires adoption of consistent policies, specific administrative arrangements, recruitment and training of personnel, mobilization of local and national resources and organization of research, experimentation and evaluation.
9. The resources of Non-Governmental Organizations should be fully utilized in Community Development Programmes at the local, national and international level.
10. Economic and social progress at the local level necessitates parallel development on a wider national scale.
Objectives of Community Development Programme
The fundamental or basic objective of Community Development in India was the development of people. It’s broad objectives were: (i) economic development (ii) social justice and (iii) democratic growth.
Basic objectives:
i. The all-round development of the rural community.
ii. To develop the feeling of communitarian life style among the rural people.iii. To develop the feeling of responsibility, to create confidence, to create inspiration for working by self decision among the rural people and establishing local leadership and institutions this can tackle the problems of that area.
Objectives:
1. To increase the agricultural production
2. Community and integrated development
3. The extension of the new scientific knowledge
4. Development of small and medium irrigation projects
5. Development of co-operative organizations
6. Construction of roads.
7. To increase the adult education and primary education
8. Facility for entertainment.
9. Development and construction of primary health care centre and the public health service.
10. To inspire the youth for the development programme.
The response of the villagers to Community Development Programme was tremendous, hence the Government of India decided to expand the coverage of the programme to other parts of the country. Limited resources, however, did not permit a rapid expansion of the Community Development Projects, with somewhat less intensive approach than CD project a programme named as National Extension Services (NES) was started in October 2nd 1953.
The Idea behind NES was to cover entire country by the year1960. Operational unit in both C.D and NES was development block. Activities under NES programme were less intensive than those of C.D. Basic idea of both CD and NES is same. Both are complementary, interwoven and run concurrently. Each NES block covers 100 villages with 65,000 population. Each block is headed by Block Development Officer (BDO) who is in turn assisted by Extension Officer with 10 Multipurpose Village Level Workers (MPVLW).
NES was thought of as the agency and CD is the method to bring about socio-economic transformation of the rural people.
SIMILARITIES BETWEEN EXTENSION EDUCATION AND CD
1. Both the processes are essentially educative
2. For both central objective is the “Growth of people”
3. Both processes are inter disciplinary in chapter
4. Both aim at bringing about change
5. Both are involvement processes
6. Both are relatively slow processes
7. Both are government sponsored and supported organizations.
8. Both emphasize on cooperation
9. Both are concerned with social and economic development
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EXTENSION EDUCATION AND CD
S.NO. | EXTENSION EDUCATION | COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT |
1. | Place emphasis on individual development | Emphasizes cooperative or group action for the benefit of communities |
2. | More indirect approach to help people to help themselves | Direct government approach to help people. |
3. | Aims to bring about changes by leaving decisions for change of individuals | Decision are taken by group or representatives |
4. | Extension education is h ighly specialized and concentrates on agricultural changes | Concerned with various elements of human concern including health, sanitation etc |
5. | Mono purpose approach | Multipurpose approach |
6. | Extension education is concerned with improving social organizations but not attack problems at this level | C.D. is directly concerned with developing social organizations |
7. | It is the Means | It is the End |
