Which of the following schemes of the Government of India is a part of the ‘Target Group’ approach?

Correct — C. Rural development programmes come in two designs. A target group programme is defined by the people it serves, a target area programme by the region it covers.

The Marginal Farmers Development Agency names its beneficiaries in its own title — marginal farmers — so it is a target group scheme, option (c).

The other three name places instead: hill areas, drought prone areas, and the command areas of irrigation projects.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Hill Areas Development Programme (HADP) — Hill Areas Development Programme is defined by terrain. It applies to designated hill regions and to whoever lives in them, which makes it an area programme.
• (b)
  Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP) — Drought Prone Areas Programme selects districts identified as drought prone, not a class of farmer. The unit is the area, as the name says.
• (d)
  Command Area Development & Water Management Programme (CADP) — Command Area Development and Water Management Programme works on the command area of an irrigation project, closing the gap between the canal and the field. Again a place, not a group.

From the Fourth Plan period onwards, Indian rural development ran on two approaches at once.

The target group approach picked out people — small farmers, marginal farmers, agricultural labourers — and routed credit, inputs and subsidies to them through dedicated agencies.

The target area approach picked out places whose problem was physical: drought, hill terrain, desert, or irrigation potential lying unused.

The two later converged. Group-based agencies were folded into the Integrated Rural Development Programme, while area programmes carried on as watershed and land development schemes.

Key facts

• A target group programme is defined by the people it serves, a target area programme by the region it covers.
• The Small Farmers Development Agency and the marginal farmers agency were target group programmes of the Fourth Plan period.
• HADP, DPAP and the Command Area Development programme are target area programmes.
• The Drought Prone Areas Programme was started in the Fourth Five-Year Plan period.

Common traps

• Reading target group as any welfare scheme rather than as the technical opposite of target area
• Choosing DPAP because it names a hardship, when it still selects by area

No directly related past PYQ was found.