Importance Of Social Capital In Rural Development

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Introduction The paradigm of rural development has shifted its focus from the structures and institutions to the collective action, trust, cooperation and reciprocity among the people. This trust, cooperation and the relationship of reciprocity are actually the features of social capital as envisaged by Robert Putnam in his study of Italy in 1993. According to him, social capital is the features of social organization such as networks, norms, and trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit. The paper discusses the significance of social capital for development of rural areas along with reflecting the propositions of Robert Putnam. Here, are the prepositions of Robert Putnam about social capital and the development …show more content…

Social capital is significant in many aspects of local level development and poverty alleviation. This can be cited from the example of Joint Forest Management in Adilabad district of Telangana. In JFM, it is the joint responsibility of villagers and forest department to protect and conserve the forest. For this, Vana Samrakshana Samitis(VSS) were formed to protect and manage the forest resources. In Behroonguda panchayat, after the formation of VSS villagers under the technical guidance of forest department were able to carry out several development project such treatment of 500 hectares of degraded forest land by Silviculture, relabilitation of degraded teak forests, planting of new saplings and digging of contours trenches to prevent running water and soil erosion between 1999-2001. VSS, the store house of Social Capital also helped in bringing the people out of poverty. For example, now timber is available both for consumption and selling which has led to increased income and savings and also non-timber products such as fruits, gum and nuts are accessible for their own consumption. Sometime they can also sell them and make …show more content…

In Kerala the emergence of broader solidarities among several groups is rooted in the history of conflict (Heller, 2000). And this solidarity resulted in the formation of many civil societies in the Kerala. For example, the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad(KSSP), a pro-left non-governmental organization played very pivotal role in the literary campaign to the rural areas. It has led many experiments for the collective and local level synergistic action for local development and planning in some panchayats. In addition to that social capital or associational life also facilitates the civic engagement for meeting the demands. For example, in kerala after the emergence of NHGs, now there has been greater interest in celebrating local festivals together. Further, there has been an enhancement of participation in marriages and during death ceremonies in recent

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