An aligned mission with United Nation SDG: Sustainable Social Development

With the increase in environmental degradation and degrading social and economic well-being of people, the United Nations came up with the 2030 agenda of sustainable development goals. It was an initiative towards sustainable development while keeping the values of humanity above all. The 17 sustainable development goals are a blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet. The collaborations of the United Nations with other developing and developed countries are the visionaries for a better future. Their comprehensive plans of action are to build a global partnership for sustainable social development to improve human lives and protect the environment. The social ripples are an aligned mission with the United Nation's sustainable development goals.

Dr.Lopamudra Priyadarshini, with her mission towards Sustainable Social Development and founder of the social ripples is inspired by the United Nations sustainable social development goals and with her team of individuals and organizations strives to work towards a better future along with the focus areas -  an inclusive society, rural development, gender equality and women and child development. She works with a vision to end poverty in all forms and believes that sustainable social development strategies must go hand-in-hand with all other deprivations such as education, equality, and stagnant economic growth by tackling all the environmental problems.

Every focus area of the social ripples is aligned to the sustainable development goals and is interlinked to each other. They believe that sustainability is dependent on the three pillars of development; they are social, economic, and environmental development. All the three are interlinked on one another. Hence, they define social sustainability as the activities of human beings to meet their needs ensuring the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.

They aim to bring sustainable development with the following areas of development:

·         Women Economic Empowerment

More than half of the world's population comprises women, but sadly they are facing inequality due to their financial dependence on the male dominant society. The social ripples aim at supporting the financial independence of women by creating and encouraging them with an increase in livelihood opportunities for them.

·         Advancing Tribal Community

Most of the communities are still indigenous in our country. They are underrepresented by the other communities and make them feel exclusive. It affects the mental health and harmony of the country. To make them feel inclusive, the social ripples focuses on creating awareness generation campaigns that empower the tribal people with employment opportunities and occupation ideas that will help them improve their skills and use them in eliminating their poverty and feeling of discrimination within them. 

·         Women and Child Safety

The social ripples, strives to fight against the injustice done to women in terms of social, economic, and health discrimination against them. Also, it is found that many of the children are fighting against malnutrition. Hence, at the social ripples, they take every measure towards ensuring development, care, and protection facilities exclusively for health and safety for women and children.

·         Transgender Inclusion

The social ripples, believes in gender equality and has a focused vision to bring peace and harmony within society not only by empowering women but also they take measures so that transgender and LGBT groups get equal opportunities all over.

·         Improving Health, Hygiene, and Nutrition

It is seen that 40 percent of the world's population is below the poverty line that has lead to health, hygiene, sanitation, and nutrition problems, especially in women and children. With the United Nations agenda of eradicating poverty and all its forms, the social ripples promote improving measures that target sanitation, hygiene, nutrition of women, child, and rural communities. 

·         Rural Community Development

Most of the rural areas are blessed with a great environment and natural resources that can help the rural people to live their livelihoods and raise their economic and social well being. At the social ripples, they create supportive missions targeted to improved education, entrepreneurship, physical infrastructure, and social infrastructure, and overall development in rural regions.  

 

All these measures are taken aligning to the United Nations agenda of 2030 17SDGs that are interlinked. Thesocial ripples want to create an environment where every individual respects other individuals in society along with all the resources that are naturally available for us to create a sustainable society for a better future.

Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini - Her mission towards Sustainable Social Development

 The social ripple is an initiative towards sustainable social development. With an increase in industrialization and a change in the standard of living of people, there are various problems faced by the world. The problems faced by people in the world are not limited to economic or environmental factors, but also they are socially challenged. Hence, the world needs solutions to many of the problems. Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini is on her mission toward sustainable social development. Through social ripples, she urges to find sustainable solutions to universal issues. She has created various development goals, are aligned with the United Nations' sustainable development goals.

She is a corporate management professional having experience of 25+ years, always had a passion for bringing sustainable social development. She has taken all social initiatives to make society aware of the reality of development today and what sustainable development means. Her vision is to empower and inspire the individuals of communities, which is a stepping stone towards the success of sustainable development goals (SDGs), which are inspired and aligned with the sustainable development goals of the United Nations. 

What is Sustainable social development?

The word sustainable development suggests the development that sustains for a longer time or forever. Sustainable social development is the process of sustainable development that promotes the well being by understanding the needs of people from the places where they live and work. According to Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini, the concept of sustainable social development is broader than just understanding the needs of people. In addition to it, sustainable social development is about the ability of the communities to develop processes and structure the paths to meet current needs ensuring that future generations will also be able to use the resources to meet their needs.

Hence, bringing sustainable social development is about taking care of human social and economic well-being by keeping harmony with the environment. Anything that we do at present to meet our needs should be in favor of environmental protection and enhancement says, Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini. If we do so, then only we and our future generations are going to live in a healthy and sustainable world.

Dramatically increase in poverty, and it's all forms that are affecting the well-being of most of the population in the world. There is a need of bringing up sustainable solutions for eradicating poverty. Only raising funds and donations to the poorest people is not going to end up with the problems of poverty. Instead raising employment opportunities for them is going to help them raise their social and economic well-being. At social ripples, Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini, with her team focuses on coming up with the measures that will bring equal employment opportunities for the people. They also promote the ways of living in a socially inclusive environment so that everyone in society is tolerant towards each other and respects the human and fundamental rights of the other person.

In addition to all types of poverty and hunger-related problems, there are various areas where the social ripples, is trying to focus. They want to bring a sustainable society where our environment is protected and enhanced. Their journey towards sustainable social development is aligned to the UN's 17 sustainable development goals, and they say that social sustainability can be achieved if we jointly pledge to focus on the following areas of sustainable social development. 

• Creating an inclusive society- giving every individual equal opportunity to develop the feeling of inclusion

• Sustainable rural development- encouraging the people of rural areas with various employment opportunities to raise their living and meet their livelihoods by effectively using the natural resource

• Gender equality- empowering every individual to contribute to society regardless of their gender.

• Women and child development- ensuring the health and well-being of women and children. Also, empowering women with quality education, skills, and employment. Children's education, nutrition, and well being and finding measures to eradicate the problems related to child labor.

To achieve sustainable social development, Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini partners with individuals and organizations to generate awareness and enlighten people about the need of bringing change in the lifestyle pattern of the individuals. She also believes that only the availability of resources is not enough to bring development. The development process is about changing the public policies, attitudes, and behaviors of the people to improve their lives. If we want to bring positive change in the world, it is important to change our behavior towards our surroundings by respecting everything we already have so that future generations will be able to live a healthy and sustainable life.

How can you support literacy development? what are the inputs we need to take for sustainable social development ?

 

With the foresight of development, humans took different measures of industrialization and technology. Running towards industrialization and development, we forgot to look at the darker side of it. Somewhere we forgot to conserve the present natural resources and, as a result, we are talking about sustainable social development, says Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini, who has a great mission towards sustainable development. With an increase in industrialization and an increase in the standard of living, we have already abused the environment on a large scale. Hence, today we are facing a complex crisis that includes both social and environmental degradation. There are many irreversible effects of the so-called development that are affecting us as well as our future generations. Sustainable development is all about using natural resources in such a way those future generations will be able to use them effectively.

Improving the education levels of the present can help in bringing social development. At social ripples, they come up with an idea of promoting the ways of literacy development that will help the social and economic development of the students and will in turn support sustainable social development. It will help the future generation to understand the importance of maintaining the balance between development and the environment and design a new process of sustainability.

Literacy and development

The reason behind most of the countries to remain poor is their poor literacy levels. With the present education system, it is very important to understand where is the present education system going. Is it helping the country growing or just education is delivered? There is a need for a quality and affordable education system that will help students raise their social and economic standard of living.

Globalization and sustainable social development

Raising economic development is one of the important aspects of sustainable social development. Globalization not only helps the people to improve their economic life but also it helps in decreasing the cultural barriers within different countries. The global market helps the countries to improve their productivity and develop a face for their populations' skills. It helps in improving the connectivity between the people of various countries in various ways. It will help the world to grow as a whole with integrated global activities. For this, we need to improve literacy levels and develop various skills.

Environment change, education, and development

Quality and sustainable education is a way of awaking the young generation of the connection between the development and environment. The environment is one of the global crises which need to be given attention immediately. We think that we are developing but, with growing global environment changes, can we say that? Development in technology and crisis with the environment is not development. Balancing social and economic development with the environment is sustainable social development. For that, education is a must.

Hence, with improving literacy levels and quality sustainable education, we can take initiatives towards sustainable social development. The social ripples, which is an initiative towards sustainable social development, advocates the fact that to bring sustainable development first, we need to have recognition of the problems we are facing and what we can do to improve the present situation of global crisis. Educating future generations on the right path will take them towards sustainable social development. Hence, instead of teaching students, what are the effects of industrialization on the environment? Teachers and educators need to take one step forward and educate children on how they can mend their ways to stop the environment change.

How can a business improve its sustainable social development?

 With growing industries and wishing to live a high standard of living, there are various environmental issues born in the world. It is constantly giving rise to social issues such as discrimination, increasing poverty, and other health and well-being issues. Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini with her mission towards Sustainable Social Development; says that it is a time for the businesses to look into their contribution towards bringing sustainability in the world. The process of social sustainability is a process of creating sustainable successful places that promote the health and well-being of people by understanding what people need from the places where they live and work. Hence, it reflects the concept of socially sustainable development as without proper environmental conditions it is very hard to achieve social and economic development. At the Social Ripples, which is an initiative towards Sustainable Social Development, come up with the measures about what can a business do to contribute to the idea of sustainable social development. 

Businesses and sustainable social development

Yes, businesses and corporations are the main aspects that can be responsible for bringing sustainable social development. In the perspective of businesses, sustainable social development is all about understanding the impact of activities done by the corporation on society and the environment. It is the social responsibility of every corporate business to maintain a balance between corporate and environmental needs. It includes the responsibility of the businesses to give people, society, and the environment its return in which they operate. Social responsibility should mainly focus on preserving natural resources for future generations.

The Social Ripples is an initiative towards Sustainable Social Development and its aligned mission with the United Nations SDG of Sustainable Social Development promotes the following ways for the businesses to improve its sustainable social development. 

With increase business competition and environment, consciousness businesses are coming up with an appreciable job of preserving the environment and contributing to sustainable social development. They are working with the following areas:

Stakeholder relationships

Customers preferably deal with the companies who are giving something or the other to the community and environment. Thinking of social responsibility and stability, the businesses should maintain a balance between the customers and suppliers by fairly and honestly operating with them. Socially aware companies give back to and actively participate in local communities and value their employees along with earning profits for the shareholders.  

Protection of environment

Sustainability and social sustainable development are directly related to the protection and improvement of the environment. They can start with stronger environmental preservation, recycling, and renewal programs. Businesses that are interested in creating a clean and strong environment can do this work by the active involvement of the employees. They can offer them paid off or other incentives for involving in the 'go green activities.’ They can also encourage the employees to reuse and recycle the material to prevent waste. 

Sustainable economic development practices

Economic, social, and environmental sustainability are interrelated to each other. Sustainable social development practices within the businesses can help in bringing the economic development within society. Businesses can do this by enhancing their investment in the suppliers who locally supply more natural resources. The businesses that are having transactions all over the world can establish their businesses in developing or less industrious countries to encourage employment and empower people with great economic opportunities.

The social ripples, which is an initiative towards sustainable social development promote strongly the need of businesses to contribute to creating a sustainable environment for everyone in society we coexist.

what is Poverty, growth, and sustainable social development ?

 

 

With constantly growing development activities by developed and developing countries, somewhere our environment is getting hurt. There is an uneven distribution of resources that will help people to get developed. The developed countries are in the greed of becoming more developed and the developing countries are behind raising their standard towards developed countries. In between, the use of natural resources is somewhere impacting the environment very badly. Along with the environment, another problem that is raised behind the world is increasing poverty which needs immediate attention. The Social Ripples that is an initiative towards Sustainable Social Development found that there are billions of families in the world that are living their lives below the poverty line and are subject to problems such as hunger and malnutrition. It is a pinching scene for the world. Hence, there is an immediate need for the countries in the world to take measures against this growing poverty to grow the economy of the world.

 

Understanding poverty

Poverty basically is the financial crisis faced by a family who is not able to meet their livelihoods. Nearly about 40% of the world's population is seen to have difficulty in meeting their daily needs. They are not at all having social and financial security. There are many cases of inequalities evident due to poverty. People who are below the poverty line are seen not to have enough access to fundamental things such as, food, water, shelter, healthcare, and sanitation. They also refrain from transportation, housing and education facilities, etc. Hence, there is an immediate need to elevate the economic well being of the people or economic growth of the people.

 

What is growth?

Growth can also be called as poverty alleviation. It can be defined as a process that undergoes gradually to increase the economic and social well being of the people. Social sustainable development is a part of the economic growth of the world. The process of growth implies the activities ensuring that families have at least that amount of disposable income so that they can buy the goods needed for their basic needs. The process should also help people to provide their families with good nutrition, health, and education. For this, the world economy should rapidly increase. At the social ripples, they promote various ideas to generate employment opportunities by using the natural resources present in the surrounding.

 

Sustainable social development

Sustainable social development is nothing but a process of eradicating poverty and improving growth and development opportunities without forgetting to keep harmony with the environment. Social sustainable development is nothing but the process of creating successful and sustainable places that promotes well being of people, by understanding the needs of people from their home and work life. Creating a sustainable environment refers to creating pathways for increasing the quality of life by creating equal employment opportunities and decent work.

 

The social ripples, is an aligned mission with United Nation SDG: Sustainable Social Development promotes that bringing sustainable social development can help in improving the economic lives of people by

·         Unlocking new markets

·         Helping retain and attract new business partners

·         Raising employee engagement

·         Improving risk management

 

The increased areas where social sustainable development can be seen are a human right, labor, gender equality, children development, indigenous people, and education. Hence, social sustainable development is a better area of investment.

Is social sustainability more important than economic sustainability?

 

The United Nations came up with an idea of sustainability to bring sustainable development in society. Most of the time, the concept of sustainability is related to environmental issues. It is always defined referring to the environment and the natural resources present in it. But the concept and principle of sustainability are far broader than that. The process of sustainability is the art of using natural resources efficiently to meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to use them to meet their needs. Sustainability is an integral part of the social and economic development of every individual in society. It is responsible for social sustainable development as well as economic sustainable development through the environment. Bringing sustainable development is all about balancing the three pillars of development they are social, economic, and environmental development. 

These three pillars are interdependent and need to have a perfect balance so that sustainable development is effectively achieved. Hence, we can never say that any of the sustainability pillars are more or less important. As we go ahead, we will come to know how social sustainability and economic sustainability are interrelated.

What is social sustainability?

Social sustainability refers to the process where people create an environment that ensures the well being of people by understanding their needs at the places where they live and work. Social sustainability is achieved when people recognize the significance of their relationship with people, communities, and society.

Social sustainability involves social issues such as human rights, fair labor opportunities, gender equality, wellness, safety, diversity, equity, work-life balance, empowerment, and community engagement.

What is economic sustainability?

Economic sustainability refers to long term economic growth without impacting the social, cultural, and environmental aspects of the community.

Social sustainability and economic sustainability

In the context of business, social sustainability is all about understanding the impact of corporations on the people and society. Corporations should undertake social sustainability as stakeholders and suppliers. The economic development of people working in corporations depends on the environment they get at the workplace. Hence, social sustainability becomes an integral part of business strategy and it is important to consider how it affects the people. Social sustainability at the workplace indirectly affects the economic life of the people with the people it is attached to.

It includes the following various dimensions of sustainability.

·         Equity

It helps people with equal employment opportunities and assists the target groups to achieve control over their lives, socially and economically.

·         Diversity

At the workplace, there are diverse people involved. Social sustainability ensures that it promotes understanding and acceptance within the broader community of diverse backgrounds, cultures, and life circumstances. It takes care that they all get equal opportunities to raise their social and economic lives.  

·         Social cohesion

Social sustainability at the workplace and society ensures that every individual experiences the feeling of belonging at their workplace. It will help them to work with more positive energy.

·         Quality of life

The social sustainability ensures to increase the quality of life of the people by providing them appropriate housing opportunities, good mental and physical health, improvement in training, and skill opportunities for the target group.

 

Social and economic sustainability are interdependent. But with social sustainability, every aspect of life can be fulfilled. The social ripples advocate that bringing social sustainability in the communities is very important as it gives opportunities to bring economic sustainability.

what are 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

 

With growing social and economic challenges along with the ecological imbalance and degradation, there evoked the need of transforming the world as beautiful as it is seen in the pictures. The United Nations took the challenge and came up with the agenda to transform the world by 2030. The main objective behind their 2030 agenda was to bring sustainable development in the nation. They aim to come up with a society that is loved by everyone who co-exists. Hence, the United Nations set 17 sustainable development goals that are surrounding primarily three areas of development. They are people, planet, and prosperity. These three aspects are the most important areas of sustainable development. The United Nations agreed to bring sustainable development by collaborating with other countries that leverage the idea of transformation. The active participation of all the countries and stakeholders has made the goals of sustainable development to exist in reality.

 

17 sustainable development goals and 169 targets are set by the United Nations. They are also called as universal goals of development.  They aim to generate awareness about the realization of human rights, to bring gender quality and the empowerment of all women and girls. Their integrated efforts are to bring sustainable development mainly with three aspects social, economical, and environmental development. Their effort regarding sustainable development reflects their concern and importance of humanity and the environment.

 

The socialripples is influenced by these agenda for sustainable development takes effective measures to preserve humanity and environment with social inclusion and rural development. They aim to create a social environment that is loved by everyone who co-exists there. The 2030 agenda for sustainable focuses on the concept that no one is left behind and every human individual in the society should respect the dignity of other person and understands the fundamental rights of each other.

 

Their ambitious and transforming vision focuses to create a world free of hunger, poverty, and all sorts of discriminations and to empower the economic life of the people and increase literacy rates. Their 17 sustainable development goals are surrounding the following different aspects of the world.

 

·         People

They aim to create a healthy environment that is free from hunger and poverty. They also strive to create an environment for people where there is no discrimination and people accept each other regardless of their caste, race, disabilities, and many other social aspects of discrimination.

 

·         Planet

The 2030 agenda for sustainable development related to the planet involves the challenges and problems related to environmental degradation that is presently experienced due to the changed standard of living of the people. It promotes an idea of a clean and sustainable environment with a sustainable technology design targeted to various actions of people that are responsible for environmental degradation.

 

·         Prosperity

It is the aspect of sustainable development where the United Nations takes the determined efforts to ensure that all human beings can fulfill their potential in dignity and equality and live a healthy social and economic life.

 

·         Peace

They aim to create peaceful and inclusive societies where people can live with harmony and the environment is free from fear of violence.

 

·         Partnership

To implement the goals related to the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, there is a need of having global partnerships to attain global peace. Also, the poorest and developing countries can gain stability related to their financial problems. The global partnership helps the government of developing countries to clear their debts.

 

These 2030 sustainable development goals are set to transform the world for the better. The social ripples look forward to implementing various measures to attain sustainable development to bring peace and harmony all over the world.

What can the public do now to have a sustainable future?

 

It is an old saying by our elders that ‘if you want to have a bright future then you have to start working for now.’ In the case of bringing sustainable development, we should start working from now itself. The United Nations integrated with other countries has agreed to come up with a sustainable society by solving the global level issues that are refraining the present to get developed. Organizations and individuals of other countries have also taken active participation in this noble agenda by the united nation that should be achieved by 2020. The social ripples are inspired by the United Nations agenda of developing and changing the world for a better future, advocates that government and organizations can never help completely in bringing sustainability till every individual takes personal efforts to change the things in the surrounding. 

What does it mean to have a sustainable future?

The process of having a sustainable future is all about using the resources to meet the present needs of the people, by ensuring the ability of future generations to use them in the future. It means that the resources should be conserved by using them mindfully and making sure that their present use is not leading the resources to be depleted in the coming future. The concept of sustainable development is not limited only to the environment, but it is altogether about the social, economical, and ecological development of an individual. To make the future sustainable, every individual should start working from now. Nearly 40 percent of the population in the world lives under the poverty line. The United Nations aims to create an environment with which their social and economic well-being is raised.

The following are some measures that can be done by the public to have a sustainable future.

Limited use of resources:

Charity begins at home; if we want to have a sustainable future, we need to use the path of energy conservation so that future generations can use them at best. 

Installing energy-efficient appliances such as solar panels can help you to conserve electricity and use solar energy effectively. In addition to it, turning off the electrical appliances whenever not in use will help to preserve electricity for the future. 

Go green:

Many of the health issues are caused by the toxins released from the trash. The diseases are fatal for the health and well-being of the population. Using disposable products and disposing of the disposables will help us with a clean, clear, and hygienic environment.

Less reliance on transport:

Fossil fuels will be extinct and will make the environment unhealthy for the people living on earth. Hence, the social ripples promote the effects of using public transport instead of private cars that will help with a clean environment and the perseverance of fossil fuels for future generations.

Save water:

Water scarcity is one of the important issues faced by the populations in most of the countries. Sometimes, the reason is a lack of natural resources. Global warming is also one of the reasons behind the scarcity of water. Conserving water outdoors, using water-saving water heads, planting trees, and changing the irrigation system are some of the smaller steps common people can take to save water. 

Depending less on bottled water:

Depending on bottled water is the cause of increasing plastic pollution. Plastic is neither reusable nor disposable. Hence, we should make less use of the bottles water and prefer tap water to quench our thirst. It will help us to reduce pollution due to plastic.

Taking small steps towards a healthy environment will help the present generation to create a sustainable future for further generations.

UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS IDEAS - The Social Ripples

 The United Nations has given the world a new dream of an inclusive society. It has created various goals and objectives that will change the current situation of the society. Its focus is on bringing sustainable development in the world by 2030. For that, it has created 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) that have given a direction towards a better and sustainable society. Sustainable means anything that remains forever or long-lasting. UN's sustainable development goals refer to a long-lasting sustainable along with a happy society. UN has created these sustainable goals that work over 17 different areas. The United Nations recognized the need for development in the world. Hence, the UN has created these sustainable development goals.

The United Nations concerns about the growing chronic environment situation and its ill-effects in society. Hence, it brings together the proposals and ideas in these regards so that other nations could also contribute to their achievement of goals. The united nations have got the attention and encouragement of various countries and some of the countries have achieved their development goals. The sustainable development goals are interrelated to each other and need to be attained together.

The basic principle of the sustainable goals is 'no one should be left behind'; it means that every individual should be equal and should attain equal opportunities of enjoying the activities of society without any discrimination. Hence, it has created goal no.8 decent work and economic growth. Social ripples are influenced by this goal and take measures to create an inclusive society. It focuses on generating awareness among the people about the need and positive effects of an inclusive society. Measures are taken by the social ripples and their team along with the different organizations and individuals in the communities so that they can create a lovable society that is loved by every person that coexists. People live with live, dignity, and confidence regardless of their caste, religion, race, disabilities, economic background, and geographic area. They also want disabled people should also feel included in society.

A sustainable and inclusive society also correlates with other development goals such as gender equality, rural development, women, and child development. All these goals are focused on empowering every individual of the society to raise its economic and social ability and live a dignified life forever. To cope up with each of the poverty eradication goals, the United Nations has taken measures to generate awareness about the need for education for economic growth. It gives employment opportunities and also eradicates inequality, accessibility of human settlements, and reduces illiteracy rates, and eradicates poverty.

Extending the definition of sustainable development, the United Nations is also focusing on environmental conditions. It defines sustainability as 'using natural resources by avoiding the risk of their depletion and ensuring that future generations will make effective use of natural resources and energy resources. Hence, we can say that sustainable development is all about maintaining the balance between the environmental, social, ecological, and environmental needs of human beings.

Some of the focus areas of the United Nations are as follows

• Green jobs, youth employment, and social inclusion

• Energy access, efficiency, and sustainability

• Food security and sustainable agriculture

• Water

• Sustainable cities

• Management of oceans, fisheries, and other marine resources

• Improved resilience and disaster preparedness

The social ripples, focus on attaining sustainable goals and contribute to creating a sustainable, inclusive, and environmentally stable society

Rural Development Approaches and Components

 

Rural areas are an important asset for development in our country. Most of the population in India happen to live in rural areas and their basic occupation is agriculture. Rural development is an important part of bringing sustainable development as rural development ensures the usage of maximum natural and renewable energy resources. The social ripples focus on rural development with a vast number of approaches. The main aim of rural development is to empower the rural population socially, economically, and ecologically so that they can become self-reliant. This approach was used by Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation. He used rural development as an intrinsic part of the national movement for independence and self-reliance. But sadly even after independence most of the population in rural areas is below the poverty line.

The process of rural development is improving the standard of living by raising their social and economic life of people by changing occupational structure, social organization, and settlement pattern. In the case of rural areas development can be brought by extending the improvements in irrigation techniques, improvements in techniques of cultivation, expansion of electricity, construction of school buildings, roads and provision of health and education facilities, etc. According to World Bank, poverty in rural areas is not only limited to access to basic needs that are food, clothing, and shelter but it is also about access to education, health services, and clean water.

Approaches to rural development

The process of rural development is all about finding ways to improve the social and economic well-being of people residing in rural areas. At the social ripples, their teams focus on generating awareness and taking measures so that individuals in rural areas should participate in the process of development. It is because the individual who is living in that particular rural area is going to understand the need and approach of development better than anyone else. Hence they promote individual participation approach towards rural development. Other rural development approaches are bottom-up approaches, participatory rural appraisal, rapid rural appraisal, community-driven development approach, growth center approach, etc.

Components of rural development

The main three components of rural development are

·         Agriculture

We are aware that the occupation of most of the individuals in rural areas is agriculture, and it is dependent on environmental conditions. Empowering the farmers by educating them with dynamic ways of agriculture is one of the components of rural development.

 

·         Ecological settings

It is all about generating awareness and educating people about using and conserving natural resources, for example, educating about soil wetness, solar exposure and wind exposure, biogas combustion, etc.

 

·         Technology

This component includes generating awareness about the significance of technology. Various new agricultural technologies are going to make their work manageable and are going to increase their yields.

 

·         Infrastructure and self-reliance

Infrastructure is an integral part of rural development. It includes facilities such as roads, transportations, communities, power supplies, electricity supplies, water supplies, etc. the people in rural areas, are blessed with great skills men and artisans. Using their art and craft can make them more self-reliant in every aspect.

 

·         Law and order

A distributive law and order can help individuals in managing their tasks effectively. It is one of the vital components of rural development.

 

·         Medical and healthcare

People in rural areas are facing poor health and sanitation due to poverty. Generating awareness and employment opportunities to people can help them to raise their livelihood healthily.

 

·         Education

Education is not only the fundamental right of every individual but also it is a need to bring a better society. Hence, this component of rural development is all about increasing access to education to individuals in rural development.

The social ripples work on these approaches and components to bring sustainable rural development.

The importance of Rural Development

 Rural development is the heart of attaining sustainable development goals. Most of the rural areas are covered with natural resources in India. Hence, the rural area is the soul of India as said by Mahatma Gandhi. Rural development is the process of improving the lives of people in rural areas by empowering their economic well-being and quality of life. The social ripples aim at bringing the development in rural areas with the help of natural resources they already have. They believe that the economic and social development of the country is seen successfully when it reflects the development of every individual in the remotest areas of the country. It is seen that the rural areas are isolated. The main objective of rural development is to improve the quality of life of people in isolated rural areas.

Another the objective behind the rural development that is inter-related to bringing up the social and economic level of the people in rural areas is 'conservation of the natural resources that sits in most of the rural areas.' In past, it was seen that most of the rural areas were prone to the exploitation of land-intensive natural resources such as agriculture and forestry. More than two-thirds of the population's livelihood is dependent only on agriculture and due to reasons such as environment changes they are still below the poverty line. It has led them to diminish their social and economic well-being. Hence, there is a need for change in the agricultural sector that is progressive, dynamic, and healthy. It primarily will help in rural development.

Rural areas are also merely affected by challenges such as poor sanitation and illiteracy. It has a very negative impact on their social and economic lives. Poverty and poor sanitation have affected most of the population's health and well-being. Hence, we can see that everything is loop locked if there is no rural development.  Poverty has also affected the population’s literacy levels. Children are unable to have access to the schools as they are forced to work to earn their family’s livelihoods.

The process of rural development will help the rural population to increase their quality of life by covering the economic, social, political, and cultural components. At social ripples, the team focuses on generating awareness and taking initiatives and measures that will bring rural development. It helps the people aware that coming up with progressive agricultural methods and empowering everyone in rural areas will help them gain strong market linkages. The strong market linkages plays important role in ruraldevelopment, as it brings employment opportunities for most of the people in the rural areas. It will help to improve the village as well as the nation’s economy.

Hence, sustainable rural development is important because

1. ·         It helps in improving public health, safety, and sanitation
2. ·         Education policy will help to reduce the illiteracy levels for future generations
3. ·    Helps in the conservation of natural resources and hence, future generations will not find it difficult to live their livelihoods.
4. ·         It helps in reducing poverty levels.
5. ·         Increase in employment opportunities
6. ·         Female empowerment and gender diversity
7. ·         Helps in infrastructure development to improve income through tourism
8. ·         Helps in creating a sustainable forest management

Social ripples focus on taking measures and initiatives to generate awareness about rural development. It also helps the population to increase their social and economic well-being.