English Language · English

Read the following passage carefully and answer the question that follows. Alleviation of rural poverty has been one of the primary objectives of planned development in India. Ever since the inception of planning, the policies and the programmes have been designed and redesigned with this a im. The problem of rural poverty was brought into a sharper focus during the Sixth Plan. The Seventh Plan too emphasised growth with social justice. It was realised that a sustainable strategy of poverty alleviation has to be based on increasing the productive employment opportunities in the process of growth itself. However, to the extent the process of growth bypasses some sections of population, it is necessary to formulate specific poverty alleviation programmes for generation of a certain minimum level of income for the rural poor. Rural development implies both the economic betterment of people as well as greater social transformation. Increased participation of people in the rural development process, decentralisation of planning, better enforcement of land reforms and greater access to credit and inputs go a long way in prospects for economic development improvements in health, education, drinking water, energy supply, sanitation and housing coupled with attitudinal changes also facilitate their social development. Rural poverty is inextricably linked with low rural productivity and unemployment, including underemployment. Hence, it is imperative to improve productivity and increase employment in rural areas. Moreover, more employment needs to be generated at higher levels of productivity in order to generate high er output. Employment at miserably low levels of productivity and incomes is already a problem of far greater magnitude than an unemployment as such. What can be inferred as essential for rural development besides income generation?