Veer Narmad South Gujarat
University Act, 1965 had a provision for Faculty of Rural
Studies that would provide programmes in Rural Studies related
to Rural Development, Management, Planning and Reconstruction.
The Department of Rural Studies was set-up in June, 1970. It
addresses itself to the task of training prospective personnel
in management of institutions in rural institutions of
co-operatives and panchayats, non-government development
organizations, commercial and co-operative banks, financial
institutions, corporate sector dealing with rural products and
services, corporations of the State Government related to rural
output and services, educational and research institutions
wedded to rural education and research institutions wedded to
rural education and research.
The importance of Rural Studies, as a
discipline in higher education, has grown over the last two
decades. The rural institutions play a prime role in building of
nation, is being highly acknowledged. Rural enterpreneurship,
the role and activities of NGO's and Self-employment have vital
implications on the National economy and require large number of
trained personnel. The spread of rural industries and village
based co-operatives call for manpower skilled in the intricacies
of Rural Studies. The revival of Panchayati Raj, the changing
facets of co-operatives and recent developments in liberalized
economy have further enhanced the vital importance of its
department.
Some characteristics of the department are
most distinguished i.e. it has recognized the need of
interdisciplinary character of the programme, it has very senior
and experienced interdisciplinary faculty and it has made almost
a rule to emphasis on "Field visits and experience based
academic programmes. It has emphasized on training input leading
to develop independent thinking, expression and decision making
competence.
The programme in the department is executed
by regular faculty, and is further strengthened by involving the
expert executives of the corporate sector and leading personnel
in Government. For research activities, we collaborate with
National and International organizations.
University Grants Commission has granted a
GANDHIAN STUDIES CENTRE to the department with special
assistance. The Centre is engaged in organizing seminar, talks
and symposium on Gandhiji. It is developed as a Centre for
Resource Material on Gandhian and Rural Studies. It is also
encouraging research in the area of Gandhian Studies. Special
fellowship for Ph.D. in Gandhian study is also proposed to be
institute. It has also planned the self-financed P.G. Diploma in
Co-operative Business Management to be commenced from current
academic year.
The department has enrollment capacity of 30
students in Master of Rural Studies (M.R.S.) from any
disciplinary including B.R.S. It also enrolls M.Phil. in Rural
Studies students for two years Part-time course. It has a
facility for Ph.D. in Rural Studies in specific areas concerning
Rural studies, until now, it has already produced more than 500
M.R.S. and couple of M.Phil's and 8 Ph.D.'s and equal number of
students are registered for Ph.D.
The faculty is having strength of 1
Professor, 3 Readers and 4 Lecturers. The composition of Faculty
is interdisciplinary in character. It has a faculty in
Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Biology/Zoology,
Technology, Engineering and Environment, Agriculture, Extension
and Animal Husbandry, Co-operative and Farm Management.
The department has continuously made its
efforts in research concerning rural studies. It has completed
by now 35 projects of major and minor scale extending the period
of 3 months to 3 years and involving the project consist more
than 5,000 to 5,00,000 rupees. These projects are sponsored and
collaborated by ICSSR, UGC, Department of Rural Development,
National Institutions like NIRD, IRMA, IGDRI, Commissions etc.
and professional organizations like Indian Institute of Public
Opinion (IIPO) and Centre for Media studies (CMS), Delhi. It has
also undertaken collaborative project with National and
International Organizations such as Indira Gandhi Development
Research (IGDRI), Bombay, and East-West Centre, USA (At present
it has been engaged with the major research project on
"Socio-Economic Impact Assessment of Forestry programme in South
Gujarat" sponsored by the Department of Forest under OFCD Aided
IFDP programme.
It has also published more than 300 papers
and 17 books covering different areas of rural studies and four
books are under publication process.
The faculty members have brought the honour
to this department by working on experts' working group of
Planning Commission of India. Member, Planing Commission,
National Commission on Rural Labour, CAPART, Ministry of Rural
Development, State Department of Rural Development, DRDA,
Department of Forest and Environment and Gujarat Energy
Development Agency (GEDA) etc. State Commission on Agriculture
and Standing Committee of UGC etc. and even working as the
Executive Vice-Chancellor for the short tenure. We had also SBI
Chair, Professorship for tenure of 5 years. Faculty Members also
awarded with fellowship to visit U.S.A. and Hawaii etc.
The department has organized number of
National and Regional seminars with the assistance of UGC,
Ministry of Rural Development and Gandhian Centre sponsored by
UGC. (it has invited Indian Society of Co-operative studies to
hold its 18th National convention in November, 1999 at Veer
NarmadVeer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat. It is also
planning to hold workshop on "Environmental status, issues and
techno-economic alternatives for Eco-Friendly Development in
South Gujarat" in March, 2000 with the assistance of Ministry of
Environment.
The department has identified number of areas
of research which include Tribal studies, Gandhian Studies,
Rural Energy, Environment and Rural Technology studies and Rural
Industries, Marketing and Rural Enterprenuarship development. It
has a plan to undertake innovative extension projects including
regular publication of News bulletin for rural people.
Counseling centre for NGO's; Panchayat Training centre and
training cell for watershed management.
