Diploma course in Rural Development Planning and Administration is a 6 months micro-planning certificate course specially created for mid-career practitioners who find it difficult to take a break for long duration. This course focuses on context specific development issues of rural areas and equips students to tackle these issues with appropriate strategies and approaches along with the development and use of appropriate monitoring, evaluation and management tools for implementing these projects and programs.
Curriculum
Knowledge from nine major disciplines is integrated into the curriculum: Agriculture, Economics, Geography, Management, Public Administration, Ecology, Research Techniques, Statistics and Sociology. The fundamentals of theories and techniques are introduced and are supported by seminar focusing on issues of poverty and inequality. A laboratory project focuses on preparation of development plans based on fieldwork. Each student undertakes a village project exercise using PRA techniques.
Field Laboratory Project in Micro Level Planning: Rural
To gain an understanding of pluralism in planning while dealing with issues of poverty, income distribution, social attitudes, political forces and management. The basic area of concern is integrated rural development with an emphasis on decentralised governance and participatory management of common property resources.
Village Project (Independent)
A field based village level development project is carried out using Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) techniques and Participatory Learning Methods (PALM). It integrates information, analysis, goal /objective setting, action planning and report writing. Placement with Non-Governmental Development Organisations is possible during this project.