Empowerment of the rural poor has become a major problem of rural India over the last 100 years. In 1930s when Mahatma Gandhi took the reigns of the freedom movement, about 300 millions rural poor were suffering from chronic poverty for 120 days during the lien period of agriculture and were relegated to subsistence living for the rest 245 days in a year. The situation of the rural poor over the last 70 years had further worsened in spite of our continuous efforts to alleviate rural poverty.
Under these circumstances, a close look at the Gandhian approach for empowering the rural poor is highly essential.
