Dr. Parveen Kumar
Before writing further on this article, let me elaborate that the abbreviation GFSRD in the title of this article stands for Global Forum for Sustainable Rural Development and highlights the role and relevance of this global forum in rural development. It has been rightly said that Rural Development is the first step to National Development. Infact real development is a consequence of rural development. World Bank says that rural development is a strategy designed to improve the economic and social life of a specific group of people i. e the rural poor. It involves extending the benefits of development to the poorest among those who seek a livelihood in the rural areas. Unfortunately all across the globe despite so many programmes and policies for the rural populace, this particular set of population still lags behind their urban counterparts on many aspects. The major issues confronting rural development include problems of rural poverty, infrastructure, rural population outflow and depopulation, prevalence of social evils like untouchability, child and forced marriage, girl education, poor health and lack of adequate public institutions. We can say that despite tall claims of sustainable development, the same still eludes them. Back home, Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi had rightly said that India lives in villages. The same is true even almost 75 years of independence. As per the 2011 census and by a report of the then Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner C. Chandramouli, the rural urban distribution in the country is 68.84% and 31.16% respectively. However the level of urbanisation in the country is on the rise and level of ruralisation is on the decline. Urbanisation has increased from 27.81% in the 2001 census to 31.16% in the 2011 census, while the proportion of rural population declined from 72.19% to 68.84%.
The hard fact is that sustainable rural development is vital to the economic, social and environmental viability of nations. It is essential for poverty eradication since global poverty is overwhelmingly rural. The manifestation of poverty goes beyond the urban-rural divide; it has sub-regional and regional contexts. At the global level, the United Nations has also set up the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), framed as a part of the global collective efforts after the Millennium Development Goals with more focus on sustainability. The SDGs are to be achieved by 2030. It was infact a continuation of the global collective efforts more vigorously by adopting a post-2015 agenda, which included a renewed set of goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The 17 SDGs and 169 targets are part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by 193 Member States at the UN General Assembly Summit in September 2015, and which came into effect on 1 January 2016. These goals are the result of an unprecedented consultative process that brought national governments and millions of citizens from across the globe together to negotiate and adopt the global path to sustainable development for the next 15 years. India too is a signatory to these time bound sustainable development goals. The resolution adopted by the United Nations (UN) has a much broader inter-governmental agreement acting with the new agenda, builds on the Resolution, popularly known as “The Future We Want”. There are 17 aspirational “Global Goals”, with 169 targets under SDGs. Among these, the goals having direct relevance to rural population are: ‘No Poverty', ‘Zero Hunger', and ‘Climate Action', besides the one related to ‘Life on Land'. The achievement of the Millennium Development Goals MDGs by 2030 is at the centre of sustainable development. Different institutes and agencies of different countries are already on the job to achieve the targets set under MDGs 2030. At this point of time when five to six years are left for the member nations to achieve MDGs, It becomes crucial to coordinate rural development initiatives that contribute to sustainable livelihoods through efforts at the global, regional, national and local levels. In thus regards efforts of Global Forum for Sustainable Rural Development (GFSRD) are worthy having far reaching consequences on the rural development scenario of many nations and thus deserve to be highlighted.
Nature and Mission: GFSRD is registered as Not-for-Profit Company under Section 8/15 under Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. GFSRD is also ISO 9001: 2015 certified Not-for-Profit Company with a mission to create a platform to bring and link Rural Development Research, Policies and Practices in one umbrella and advocate for Sustainable Rural Development globally.
Founder: Dr. Jayanta Choudhury presently working as Assistant Professor, Department of Rural Studies in Tripura University, India is founder of this forum. Having led and worked with different research projects in India and Bangladesh funded by World Bank, ILO, UNICEF, IGDC, GTZ, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Ministry of Rural Development, etc. He is also the founder of the North East Training, Research and Advocacy (NETRA) Foundation.
Members: The members of this global forum include academicians, intellectuals, bureaucrats, researchers, scientists, extensionists, policy planners and practitioners, professionals from diverse fields and eminent personalities from all across the globe.
Extent of Spread: Within a very short period GFSRD has achieved so many heights. Its network has now spread to six continents covering about 130 countries with 8500 members and 59 partner institutes located all across the globe.
Global Centers: GFSRD also has 17 global centers engaged in promotion of sustainable rural development policies/programmes. All these centers are headed by reputed personalities. These centers include centers for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security, Rural Urban linkages Study, Inclusive Development, Environment and Climate Change, Social Enterprises and Civil Society, Rural Entrepreneurship and livelihood, Bamboo and other NFTP promotion, Local Government, Youth Development, Micro Finance and Financial inclusion, Science and Technology, Indigenous Peoples, Ensuring Childhood, Gender Equality, Inclusive Development, Education and Skill Development and Global Center for ICT and Rural Infrastructure.
Human Capital: In all the countries where GFSRD is working Country Heads have been appointed who are taking care of various activities as mandated under GFSRD. Similarly except a couple of states/UTs State Directors have been appointed. These Directors have been entrusted with the responsibility of taking this global forum to grassroots level.
Activities of GFSRD: The different activities of GFSRD include trainings, awareness and sensitizations, promotion and documentation of successful and sustainable rural success stories, entrepreneurship development, organizing lecture series/seminars/conferences with different stakeholders involved in rural development, publications and many other miscellaneous activities as deemed to be fit for development of rural masses.
Publications: Besides coming up from time to time with books on important rural development issues and strategies, GFSRD has also started an International Journal of Sustainable Rural Development. Another publication of GFSRD, ‘Ruralist' the newsletter of GFSRD will also soon be available.
At the national level in the country, the ministry of rural development is focussing on sustainable and inclusive growth of rural India through a multipronged strategy for rooting out various issues which still plague rural economy. In this context the role of global institutes like the GFSRD with a vast pool of expertise in the form of development practitioners who had worked in rural settings, are well aware of the real time challenges faced by the rural population and are utilizing this forum for their socio-economic upliftment be highlighted and also duly acknowledged.
Dr. Kumar represents UTs of JK & Ladakh at GFSRD, can be reached at pkumar6674@gmail.com
