INVC,
Union Minister of Rural Development Shri Jairam Ramesh has launched the profile book of Prime Minister’s Rural Development (PMRD) Fellows and announced the recruitment of second batch of the ongoing PMRDF Scheme here.
The book profiles the current batch of 138 Fellows spread over 83 districts across 9 States and shares their experiences with the Fellowship in their own words. One hundred forty Fellows will be selected in the second batch through a competitive process starting with an online All India Competency Assessment Test (AICAT) to be held on 15th December 2013.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ramesh said that helping the poor get their place in the society and development of underdeveloped regions remains a major challenge before the country. The task is much more complex than is commonly understood. It calls for a high degree of professionalization of our development interventions and a great sense of empathy while dealing with the underprivileged. He said the country has an acute scarcity of professional human resources in the districts and for working with the poor. This is more so in the underdeveloped regions of our country. The Minister laid stress on the need to expand the pool of professional human resources to confront the challenge of poverty head-on and added that PMRD Fellowship is a unique effort to address this challenge.
PMRD Fellowship is an initiative of the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) where the focus is to reduce poverty and improve the lives of people in rural India. PMRD Fellowship is being implemented in collaboration with State Governments.
The Fellowship is a short term work opportunity for young women and men who already possess academic and/or professional expertise. During the two-year duration of the Fellowship, PMRD Fellows work closely with District Collectors of backward and remote districts in improving programme delivery and interface with marginalized sections, aiming to reduce the developmental and governance deficits. Alongside, through structured learning exercises and events the Fellows get an opportunity to build their capacity in programme implementation, gain field experience and explore self-motivation as well as life goals. Thus the PMRDF scheme has the twin objective of providing short term catalytic support to the District Administration to improve the effectiveness of development programmes as well as to develop a cadre of development facilitators, who will be available as a ready resource for rural development activities over a long term.
PMRD Fellowship was launched in September 2011 and the first batch of Fellows joined in June 2012. Fellows were selected through a highly competitive process conducted by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
