UGC-NET Rural Development, Local Governance & Livelihoods: practice questions

1 · Meaning and problems of rural development · medium

Chambers' 'deprivation trap' links five clusters of disadvantage. Which list is correct?

1. Illiteracy, landlessness, caste, debt, disease
2. Poverty, physical weakness, isolation, vulnerability, powerlessness
3. Low income, low saving, low investment, low productivity, low income
4. Shocks, trends, seasonality, institutions, assets

2 · Local government and decentralised planning · hard

Kerala's People's Plan Campaign (1996) is best known for:

1. Creating the first SHG federation in India
2. Devolving a large share of state plan funds to local bodies and mobilising gram sabhas to prepare local plans
3. Introducing the first employment guarantee law, which guaranteed 100 days of work to every rural household in the state
4. Replacing panchayats with cooperatives

3 · Livelihood frameworks · medium

Ian Scoones (1998) grouped rural livelihood strategies into which three types?

1. Farming, fishing and forestry
2. Saving, borrowing and insurance
3. Agricultural intensification or extensification, livelihood diversification, and migration
4. Wage labour, self-employment and pensions, ranked by their share in total household income

4 · Poverty alleviation strategies · hard

For the same ten incomes [40, 60, 80, 90, 95, 110, 120, 150, 200, 300] and poverty line 100, what is the squared poverty gap (FGT alpha = 2)?

1. 0.0182
2. 0.1145
3. 0.0573
4. 0.1350

5 · Poverty alleviation strategies · hard

Drèze and Sen distinguished 'growth-mediated' from 'support-led' strategies. A support-led strategy is one that:

1. Relies on rapid economic growth to raise wages and employment first, then funds social services
2. Depends on foreign aid for all social spending
3. Subsidises industry to create urban jobs
4. Expands public health, education and social security even before incomes rise substantially

6 · Monitoring and evaluation of development interventions · medium

An evaluator visits only roadside villages in the dry season and talks mainly to male leaders. Which of Chambers' biases are present?

1. Project, diplomatic and professional biases
2. Spatial, seasonal and person biases
3. Selection, recall and sampling biases only
4. No bias, because leaders represent the village

7 · NGOs and civil society in rural development · medium

In Korten's 'generations' of NGO strategy, the third generation is:

1. Relief and welfare
2. Sustainable systems development, seeking changes in policies and institutions
3. Community development and local self-reliance
4. People's movements