Nature and Reality of Disparities:
- Economic development is not uniform over space in any country; some areas are more developed while others lag behind.
- Regional imbalance is an established fact of India’s development experience.
- Even though economic development typically depends upon a region’s resource base, resource-rich regions can also remain backward because development requires technology and investment in addition to natural resources.
- For example, widespread poverty and unemployment have persisted in Assam despite the presence of rich natural resources like oil, tea, and coal, leading to grievances that these resources were drained out of the state without commensurate benefits to local people.
- Geographical isolation, weak communication links with the rest of India, and partition-induced landlocking have historically caused regions like the North-East to suffer neglect in developmental terms and remain economically backward.
Socio-Political Consequences:
- Regional imbalances in economic development directly contribute to feelings of regional discrimination, injustice, and alienation.
- When some states remain poor while others develop rapidly, it generates regional imbalances and drives inter-regional migrations.
- Backward states or backward regions within states demand that their backwardness be addressed on a priority basis, often arguing that central government policies caused the imbalances.
- Such regional economic imbalances have fueled regional political movements and demands for statehood (e.g., in Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh).
Policy and Planning Measures to Address Disparities:
- Role of Public Sector Industries: The establishment of public sector industries and joint sector ventures in tribal and backward areas was explicitly aimed at bringing down regional disparities, modernizing the economy, and eradicating poverty and unemployment.
- Regional Planning: The uneven pattern of development necessitates that planners adopt a spatial perspective and formulate specific plans (regional planning) to reduce regional imbalances.
- Target Area and Target Group Approaches: Recognizing that regional and social disparities were accentuating after about one-and-a-half decades of planning, the Planning Commission introduced targeted approaches to develop backward areas:
- Target Area Programmes: Command Area Development Programme, Drought Prone Area Development Programme, Desert Development Programme, and Hill Area Development Programme.
- Target Group Programmes: Small Farmers Development Agency (SFDA) and Marginal Farmers Development Agency (MFDA).
- Special Area Programmes (8th Five Year Plan): Specifically designed to build infrastructure in backward areas, tribal areas, hill areas, and north-eastern states.
Hill Area Development Programme (HADP):
- Launched during the Fifth Five Year Plan covering 15 districts across Uttar Pradesh (present Uttarakhand), West Bengal (Darjeeling), Assam (Mikir Hill and North Cachar Hills), and Tamil Nadu (Nilgiri).
- The National Committee on the Development of Backward Area (1981) recommended that all hill areas above 600 meters in elevation not covered under tribal sub-plans be treated as backward hill areas.
- Designed to harness indigenous resources via horticulture, plantation agriculture, animal husbandry, poultry, forestry, and small-scale/village industries.
Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP):
- Initiated during the Fourth Five Year Plan to generate employment and create productive assets, focusing on civil works, irrigation, land development, afforestation, and basic rural infrastructure (electricity, roads, markets, credit).
- Emphasizes micro-level integrated watershed development and restoring ecological balance across identified arid and semi-arid tracts.
Integrated Tribal Development Projects (ITDP):
- Introduced under the Tribal Sub-Plan in the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974) to narrow the gap in the level of development between tribal/isolated regions (e.g., Bharmaur in Himachal Pradesh) and other developed areas.
- Prioritized basic infrastructure (transport, communications, potable water, electricity, schools, and healthcare), leading to significant improvements in literacy, gender inequality reduction, and agricultural modernization.
Command Area Development (CAD):
- Large irrigation projects (e.g., the Indira Gandhi Canal Command Area in the arid Thar desert of Rajasthan) aim to overcome severe geographical limitations, transform regional agricultural productivity, expand cultivated land, and diversify the economic base.
- To remain sustainable without causing land degradation (waterlogging and soil salinity), such programs require financial and institutional support for poor farmers and the establishment of functional linkages between villages, agro-service centers, and market hubs.
Reference Ncert Notes
https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/keec108.pdf
https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/legy206.pdf
https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/leps207.pdf
https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/jess106.pdf
https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/hess305.pdf
https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/legy201.pdf
