Community Development and National Extension Service Era (1953-60)
National Extension Service was inaugurated on 2nd October 1953. It was designed to provide the essential basic staff and a small fund for the people to start the development work essentially on the basis of self-help. The operational unit of this service was a N.E.S. Block comprising about 100 villages and 60,000 to 70,000 people.
The N.E.S. Blocks were later converted into Community Development Blocks which had higher budget provisions in order to take up more intensive development programmes.
The Pattern of Community Development Programme was further revised (modified with effect from 1 April 1958). According to this pattern, there were four stages:
Participants