Planning and sustainable development

The essentials

Planning involves thinking out a programme of action and implementing it to achieve goals. Sectoral planning focuses on sectors like agriculture, irrigation, industry and services. Regional planning aims to reduce regional imbalances. India used Five Year Plans to guide development.

Target area planning focuses on areas lagging behind, while target group programmes focus on particular groups. Examples include the Command Area Development Programme, Drought Prone Area Programme (begun during the Fourth Five Year Plan to provide employment and create productive assets in drought-prone areas), Hill Area Development Programme, and agencies such as the Small Farmers Development Agency and Marginal Farmers Development Agency.

Key points

• Bharmaur tribal region (Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh) is home to the Gaddi tribe, traditionally transhumant herders. It was notified as a tribal area, and the Integrated Tribal Development Project improved schools, health care, drinking water, roads, communication and electricity. Literacy and the status of women improved, and dependence on pastoralism declined.
• Indira Gandhi Canal (Rajasthan Canal) begins at the Harike barrage in Punjab and runs through the Thar desert. Its Stage I command area covers Ganganagar, Hanumangarh and northern Bikaner; Stage II uses lift canals to reach drier western districts.
• Benefits of the canal: increased cultivation, new crops (wheat, cotton, groundnut, rice), afforestation and pasture development.
• Problems: intensive irrigation and excessive water use have caused waterlogging and soil salinity.
• Measures for sustainability: strict water management, protective irrigation, avoiding water-intensive crops, lining canals, afforestation and shelterbelts, and land development.
• Sustainable development became widely known through the Brundtland Commission report "Our Common Future" (1987): development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Exam tips

Be ready to list both benefits and environmental problems of the Indira Gandhi Canal, and the social changes in Bharmaur.

Common mistakes

Target area planning addresses backward regions; it is not the same as sectoral planning, which deals with economic sectors.