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Capacity building essential for quality improvement in village life: Chaudary Birender Singh
Feb 10, 2016

For the development of backward districts, a focus on quality education, health-care facilities, training/skilling in order to build capacity and empower people to compete is the need of the hour, stressed Chaudary Birender Singh, Minister for Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation. He was speaking at the first national level Workshop on Backward District Development: Changing Discourse on Poverty Eradication, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi today. 

Urging industry/private sector to think deeply – and differently – about the definition of economics and the economic disparity that exists, he said that while data was essential and could point towards solutions, it was important to understand the situation from different perspectives to find a workable and effective solution for the issues. Farmers, for instance, he said, require support by way of infrastructure and in irrigation facilities rather than fixing the MSP for their produce. Moreover, they need to be made a more integral part of the economic activity that takes place, largely, in urban areas and given the opportunity to participate in and prosper in non-agriculture based activities as well. Today, he said, a large number of youth from an agriculture background are no longer interested in pursuing agriculture – one needs to think about the economics of the situation to address such issues. While the Government is taking steps for the development of the backward districts, the private sector/industry has a critically important role to play in this, he stressed. 

Earlier, Mr Manoranjan Kumar, Economic Adviser, Ministry of Rural Development, said that development requires a change in mindset and processes. He shared important data from the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011, saying that this could be used effectively for industry to plan its interventions in the development of backward districts. While appreciating industry’s participation in the development process, he said that industry could play a critically important role in educating and skilling people to ensure that the next generation is well educated and skilled and has more opportunities than the previous generation. 

In his welcome address, Mr Sudhir Deoras, Chairman, CII National Committee on Backward District Development and Managing Director, TRF Ltd. said that CII has been dedicatedly working towards inclusive growth and encouraging its Member companies to focus on skilling, education, healthcare, livelihood, water resources, among others. He spoke of CII’s Skill Development Centres and CII’s work in the other areas he had mentioned, and said that going forward, three ideas have been identified for a major thrust: promoting the concept of rural BPOs; addressing the challenges posed by malnutrition; skilling people to bridge the demand-supply gap in jobs in areas such as security.    

Sharing the experiences of his organization in the areas of backward district development, Mr Ramana Prasad Alam, Chief Executive Officer, Amara Raja Electronics Ltd, said that local community involvement is very important in developing backward districts. He spoke of the company’s manufacturing facilities in a notified backward district - Chittoor District in AP – and that 75% of their employees have a rural background, showing by example backward development initiatives that have helped transform the area. The organization has focused on affordable education, employment generation, healthcare, infrastructure development and environmental sustainability & protection, and opened educational institutions and healthcare facilities, to name a few, in the backward areas, underscoring the link between economic growth and backward district development. 

Mr S R Gupta, Executive Director, Lupin Foundation, also shared his organization’s work and experience in backward district development. He said while India is still rural, it is moving away from agriculture. He spoke of his organization’s ‘cluster-based’ approach towards development and the ‘Change India Programme’ which was launched in 2010 and how it is boosting inclusive development. He said that efforts are on to boost the economic development of the non-farm sector by way of skill development, micro-finance and job placements. He emphasized that the mismatch between economic indicators and Human Development Index (HDI) - India is the 6th largest economy in the world but ranks a poor 130 as per HDI – needs to be addressed and corporates can play a vital role by adopting backward districts to boost inclusive growth.

February 10, 2016
New Delhi

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