ABSTRACT
In this chapter a modest effort is made to highlight the role of development institutions considered to include the excluded by the state of India through development efforts started after independence. Besides the review of relevant literature, the discussion made in this chapter is based on the empirical works of the author and some of his students at different points of time. The issues on rural development and PRIs were part of the author’s own field work while work on health issues, education, self-help groups and MGNREGA were supervised for degree programmes in Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. Keeping in view the unsatisfactory outcome of the various development programmes and the increasing trend of exclusion due to market forces, there is a need to rethink and redirect the development process which should help the deprived ones lead a fruitful life and contribute to the nation’s progress. The state should play an effective regulatory role to save the people in general and the needy from all sections in particular.
