Academics and Rural Development - Lessons from the Dharampur Project

There is a growing demand on the educational institutions to contribute to the development process, particularly in the rural areas. The academicians have responded to this demand in a favourable manner. In the IIMA a faculty group is working on an action research programme titled ‘Rural Development for Rural Poor’. The experiences of this project have brought in relief the comparative advantages and handicaps of academics as ‘activists’. Acceptability by bureaucrats and public at large, objective and independent approach to problems, freshness of outlook and approach in resolving issues, possibility of building bridges between different institutions, and capability of mobilising young and enthusiastic support, constitute favourable features of an action programme that is sponsored by the academics. At the same time the academics have serious handicaps. These include a conflict between career goals and ideological predilections; their difficulty in working as a member of team, inability to relate simultaneously to multitude of agencies and actors, reluctance to take decisions which have political connotation, and, desire to approximate the realities in the framework of a model. Some of these handicaps can be minimised and the comparative advantages be enhanced if the academicians’ action is organised in a well conceived institutional framework.