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Though efforts have been made to introduce initiatives and innovations through rural technology, the main focus of science and technology has remained on urban needs and the needs of the developed world. This is primarily because of the fact that the purchasing power in rural areas is low and the villages are scattered in the form of small clusters and lack the basic infrastructure to support the effective deployment and use of most science and technology innovations. Moreover, the importance of people’s participation in the process of absorbing and sustaining innovations and initiatives in rural technology is yet to be fully recognized as an integral part of any strategy towards rural technology. Establishment of linkages and partnerships with private sector for production and dissemination of relevant need based rural technologies on a mass scale to lower production and marketing costs and make technologies affordable in keeping with the purchasing power of the population should also be an important component of the strategy.
Though Rural Technology is acknowledged to be an important programmatic strategy for poverty alleviation, there are no guiding National Policy Instruments that spell its conceptual content, operationalization strategy, its short term or long term objectives, both in quantitative and qualitative terms.
Rural Technology per se does not find a substantive place in the First and Second Five Year Plans. During the Third Five Year Plan, special emphasis was placed on application of principal technical programmes in sectors such as irrigation, soil conservation, dry farming and land reclamation, seed multiplication and distribution, plant protection for increasing agricultural production. The Fourth and Fifth Five Year Plans do not make any mention of Rural Technologies.
The subsequent period witnessed several new attempts by Government and Non Government Agencies to re-orient Indian Science and Technology (S&T) towards the needs of rural India. Notable among these were the initiatives of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore insetting up the ‘Application of Science and Technology to Rural Areas’ (ASTRA) which became a pioneering institution to evolve and apply Science and Technology to rural areas.
The Department of Science and Technology was formed in May 1971. The Council for Advancement of Rural Technology (CART) was formed in the year 1982 with the objectives of development, dissemination and transfer of appropriate rural technologies. Development Alternatives was formed in 1983 with the same objectives.
A major programme for poverty alleviation called Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) was launched in the Sixth Five Year Plan. (1980-85) Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM) was a facilitating component under IRDP, which provided technical skills to upgrade the traditional skills of rural youth belonging to families below the poverty line. Its aim was to enable the rural youth to take up self-employment ventures in different spheres across sectors by giving them assistance under IRDP. Later, in 1987, the scope of the programmes was enlarged to include wage employment also for the trained beneficiaries.
The Sixth Five Year Plan also states that the “scheme for strengthening of training infrastructure for TRYSEM will be reoriented and replaced by a new scheme to develop Composite Rural Training & Technology Centres (CRTTC) in each district as a nodal institution within a larger system of training and technology dissemination covering the district as a whole. Such centres will be developed around existing ITI s, Polytechnic etc.”
Later, in 1992, Supply of Improved Toolkits to Rural Artisans (SITRA) was launched as a sub-scheme of IRDP, in which a variety of crafts persons were supplied with a kit of improved hand tools within a financial ceiling of Rs. 2000/-, of which the artisans had to pay 10 per cent and the remaining 90 percent was a subsidy from the Government of India. The supply of power driven tools, subject to a ceiling of Rs. 4500/- was also permitted under this scheme.
The Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007) document also emphasized on technologies without specifically defining Rural Technology. It says "Emphasis has been placed on the technologies that are oriented towards human welfare. These include technologies that provide creative and cost effective solutions in health services, population management, mitigating the effects of natural hazards, conservation of land, water and energy resources and their integrated management for sustainable development. While building on the comparative advantage that India possess in the emerging areas of information technology (IT) and biotechnology, special attention would be given to agriculture and agro based industries and infrastructure sectors like energy, transportation, communication and housing. S & T concerns will be integrated into various policies and programmes covering the economic, energy, environmental and other socio-economic sectors. The approach will be to make S & T an essential component in the plans and programmes of development sectors.” The tenth plan document also envisage that the S & T interventions must aim at providing simple, affordable, scientific solutions which help the individual save time and energy and augment income, as per the requirement of the people. This approach would not only ensure acceptability of the technological innovations but would also help in inculcating a scientific temper amongst the masses.
The Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART) was established in 1986 with a mandate to encourage, promote and assist voluntary action and inject new technological inputs in the implementation of Rural Development Projects with particular emphasis on people living below poverty line, ST/SC and other disadvantaged sections of the society and for improving the quality of life of rural people.
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