People’s Participation: A Medium of Empowerment in RDPS

For the success of any development programmes, people's participation is a must. This paper deals with people's participation and their awareness concerning two selected rural development Programmes (RDPs) mainly Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) respectively. Government of India has introduced several RDPs since independence of India. It basically focusses now on inclusive growth and hence inclusiveness of rural people as majority 68.84% of total population of India belongs to rural population (Census 2011). RDPs have installed a remarkable process for the empowerment of the economically deprived people from rural area. The prime objective of this study is to analyse to what extent rural people are conscious about various RDPs and how energetically they participate in rural developmental activities. This paper has tried to interpret the data and statement of approved primary i.e. field study and secondary sources. A sample survey of 240 respondents was conducted in four villages under two districts namely Dibrugarh and Sivasagar of Assam State in India. The results have major implications that rural people are mostly notconscious about the benefits of RDPs.