The Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) was launched by the Government of India during 1978 and implemented during 1980. The aim of the program is to provide employment opportunities to the poor as well as opportunities to develop their skill sets so as to improve their living conditions.

The Janta administration
The Janta administration created the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) in 1978-79 by combining the Community Area Development Programme (CADP), Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP), Small Farmer Development Agency (SFDA), and Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Labourers Agency (MFALA).

The objectives of this program were to enable rural communities to participate in the development efforts of the government and to improve their social and economic conditions; to provide increased employment in rural areas on local projects not requiring large investments; to create infrastructure such as roads.

Integrated Rural Development is generally seen as a way to improve a community’s “well-being” in social, economic, and environmental terms. In recent studies, it is seen as an alternative to agriculturally-based sources of income by diversifying rural income and reducing the price risk of agricultural production.

The main aim of IRDP was to raise the levels of the BPL families in the rural areas above the poverty line on a lasting basis by giving them income generating assets and access to credit and other inputs.

The basic objective of IRDP is to enable identified rural poor families to augment their incomes and cross the poverty line through acquisition of credit based productive assets. Assistance is given in the form of subsidy by the government and term credit by the financial institutions for income generating activities.

The major activities included in the V- AID program were improvement in crop and livestock production, building roads, bridges, culverts, schools, wells and drains, planting trees and removing health hazards (Malik, 1990).

The Comilla Model was a rural development programme launched in 1959 by the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (renamed in 1971 the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development).

Administrative decentralization, regional planning and local participation are the crucial elements in implementing an integrated approach to rural development17.

IRD projects were often too complex, with numerous components and executing agencies, entering into many sectors simultaneously, demanding too much from weak institutions and leaving little to no capacity building. Countries began to view agriculture as a declining sector and thus unimportant for development.

Eligibility to Apply for IRDP Scholarship The candidate must be a resident of Himachal Pradesh. The family of the candidate must come under the category of Below Poverty Line (BPL). The candidate must be a student of 9th standard or any University or Institute recognized by the government.

1. • IRDP introduced in 1979 for rural poor and weaker sections of society • Earlier Programs relied on delivery systems which suppressed self-reliance • The apparent failure of the CDP was the main reason for the evolution of the IRDP.

So, the development programmes to increase the productivity and quality of life of rural people. These Pakistan and Khushal Pakistan Programme-1. These programmes were partially or fully extended to all parts of the country. The overall objectives of these programmes were the social

The programme is implemented in all blocks of the country as centrally sponsored scheme funded on 50:50 basis by the centre and the states. The target group under IRDP consists of small and marginal farmers, agricultural labourers and rural artisans having annual in­come below Rs. 11,000 defined as poverty line in the Eighth Plan.

IRDP is described officially as a major mechanism for the alleviation of rural poverty. The main objective of IRDP is to raise families of identified target group below poverty line by creation of sustainable opportunities for self-employment in the rural sector.