It is said that there are 23 important characteristics that define India’s village system. Over half-a-million villages today sustain the lives of about 80 percent of the country’s total population, and hence, its future very much lies and is linked with development of villages.

The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is no exception to this time-tested truth.
Rural India’s biggest occupation is agriculture. It is an essential way of life, determining daily routine, habits, attitudes, and social norms.
So, when the UT’s Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, instructs districts and relevant departments to prioritise rural development to ensure the region’s continued prosperity, it is only right that it should be seen as pragmatic to harness the untapped potential of villages.
When it comes to rural development, it can never be confined to being just about achieving self-sufficiency in crop production. It must also be about increasing agrarian yields and farmers’ income, and empowerment.
Seventy percent of J&K’s population lives in the villages and, therefore, the common-sense aim should be to act as development facilitators to enhance both capacity and scale.
The UT administration is confident that by focussing on factors like providing financial support, improving market linkages, and ensuring timely delivery of special knowledge, the face of rural J&K can change for the better.
Lt Governor Sinha’s emphasis on strengthening the economic relationship between the farm & the market and making the benefits of innovation and technologies available suggests that there is huge scope and opportunity for rural reforms at various levels.
It is a demand of modern India that rural products and crafts need to be promoted better and commercialised to ensure sustainable growth.
Rural development is a universal phenomenon and widely acclaimed by both developed and developing countries.
Under the present ruling dispensation India, rural development is being prioritised both at national and state levels, with sizable funds being invested in projects under the program. The aim is to bring the poorest of the poor above the poverty line.
The UT administration’s emphasis on encouraging the public-private partnership to increase the income of rural folk and to incentivise both the farm and non-farm economies is praise-worthy, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that there is still a lot to be done to improve the quality of rural life, notwithstanding challenges like increasing birth rates, declining death rates and pressure on distribution of economic resources.
Rural development is the flavour of the season in J&K and it is only through proper asset distribution, income generation, timely knowledge and training that we can hope for a better future for rural folk.