Careers in Rural Management

Related Courses • BBA • Diploma • MBA • PGDBA/PGDBM

India is a country of villages and farmers where more than 60% of its population lives in rural areas. Developmental process without inclusion of rural India is thus lop-sided and unsustainable. Therefore, professional Rural Managers are required to assist the villagers in their process of development, so that the whole nation could achieve progress and prosperity. Recently rural regions throughout the world are drawing more attention than ever before, which in turn has led to expansion of ambitious developmental schemes for rural people involving national, international and local agencies along with Non-Governmental bodies. Thus, it is quite natural that rural management is a bright career options to those who are deeply concerned about nation's development.

Course Details
Degree and Diploma course in rural management are offered by several management institutes in the country. Admission into these courses is made through all India entrance tests conducted by the institute concerned, which follows group discussion and personal interview. The minimum qualification to appear these tests is a graduation or equivalent degree from any recognized institute in any subject.

Career Prospects
Rural management students after passing out from the institute may get appropriate employment opportunity in government’s developmental agencies and Non-Government Organizations. They can also be hired on contractual basis to manage developmental schemes and programmes. However corporate run developmental agencies are favoured destinations for a section of rural managers. Highly talented people can find lucrative job options in UN and its specialized agencies or programmes run by them. International NGOs are also a preferred destination for many rural managers. Rural Managers also can run their own NGO and thereby directly be associated with rural folk.

Institutes Offering
Some prominent institutes offering rural management courses in India are Indian Institutes of Management, at Ahmedabad and Calcutta; Institute of Rural Management, Anand; National Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad; Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya, Hardwar; Rural Non-Farm Development Agency, Jaipur; Rural Research Foundation, Jaipur; National institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad; Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore; Gandhigram Rural Institute, Dindigul District(TN); Indian Institute of Rural Management, Jaipur; Xavier Institute of Social Service, Ranchi and Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai.

Remuneration
A fresh pass out from any rural management institutes can expect somewhere around Rs 8,000-15,000 salary per month. With gaining of experience in this field one can expect higher pay packages. Developmental agencies run by big corporate houses offer very high pay packages including other allowances like house rent and medical expenses. Independent rural managers running their own NGOs are drawing rich dividends in terms of money, popularity and prestige.