Target group planning
Topic: Regional Planning and Sustainable Development in India · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 6 "Planning and Sustainable Development in Indian Context"
Meaning
Target group planning sends development to disadvantaged people instead of backward places. The Planning Commission brought it in together with target area planning. By then, after about 15 years of planning, regional and social gaps were growing, not shrinking. The idea is simple. Some groups, such as small farmers, marginal farmers and landless labourers, stay poor wherever they live. So they get credit, inputs and support aimed directly at them.
Example
The Small Farmers Development Agency (SFDA) helped farmers with small plots. The Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Labourers Development Agency (MFAL/MFDA) helped farmers with even less land, and farm workers, in villages across India.
Don't confuse with
- Target area planning: it aims at backward places, through programmes such as Command Area Development, the Drought Prone Area Programme, the Desert Development Programme and Hill Area Development. SFDA and MFAL are group programmes, not area programmes.