WELCOME TO DR.D.SWAMINADHAN RESEARCH FOUNDATION (DSRF)

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

In a Country like India with its vast Population "human development" should be at the core of all developmental effort. The priority sectors which contribute towards realisation of this goal are health, education, literacy, basic needs including drinking water, housing and welfare programmes for the weaker sections including employment.

Sustainable Development is the internationally accepted goal of the 21st Century. The term implies that all developmental activities must be so undertaken as to ensure sustainable use of the physical and biological resources of the planet, the country and the region. For ensuring this, environmental degradation is to be prevented.

It is ironic that poverty and environmental degradation are inter-related. On the one hand, environmental degradation contributes to poverty through worsened health and constrained productivity of the resources upon which the poor rely. On the other hand, poverty constrains the poor to act in ways which damage the environment. In addition, the poor also lack the resources for alleviating the causes of environmental degradation and for avoiding the impacts of environmental degradation.

Rural poverty is linked with low productivity, unemployment and underemployment. For reaching the goal of full and sustainable employment, the emphasis needs to be shifted from wage employment to building up of productive assets in rural areas with appropriate integration of several development activities and enhanced involvement of people through peoples' institutions.
Integration of sectoral development programmes could be achieved through development of micro development plans in consonance with the state and national level macro- plans. For best results, the micro-plans must be developed, with the involvement of people, around the locally available physical and biological resources, and implemented through people's institutions, development institutions and voluntary agencies. Also, ownership of the resources must be passed on from the governments to the people.

VOLUNTARY ACTION

Development of institutions and organisational capabilities in the backward regions of the country and the delivery system for development programmes require strengthening to deal effectively with problems of development and redistributive justice. The Eighth Five year Plan document of India accordingly considered the scope for voluntary action unbounded as they are able to operate more efficiently than the formal organisations over a wide range of activities including anti-poverty programmes, training of rural youth, promotion of safe drinking water, rural housing, promotion of science and technology, wasteland development, health care and family welfare, education, welfare of women and children and programmes for the weaker sections like Scheduled Casts & Scheduled Tribes.