Guidelines for Preparation of Report

Specimen Title Page

Village Fieldwork Segment
(VFS)
PRM 2019-21

VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT REPORT

Village:
Gram Panchayat:
Block:
District: ___________ State: ____________

Prepared by:

Name (Roll No.), Name (Roll No.), Name (Roll No.)

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the VFS

of the
Post Graduate Programme in Rural Management

[Logo should not be used by students in their reports]

INSTITUTE OF RURAL MANAGEMENT ANAND

December 2019
Content Page
Acknowledgement
List of Abbreviations (alphabetically arranged) List of Tables
List of Figures/ Graphs
Report Outline
1. Identification of the Village and households
2. Brief history of Settlement Patters
3. Street-Wise Facilities Village Institutions
4. Employment
5. Agriculture and Livestock
6. Financial Institutions
7. Education and Schools
8. Health Services and Hospitals
9. Governance and Welfare Programs
10. Shocks and Coping Mechanisms
11. Climate change and village and household response
12. Income and Consumption
13. Conclusion
References
Summary of RAC
Annexures:
Details on the specific methods used; i.e., participants and topic for FGDs, questionnaire/
interview schedule, etc.
Note:
The above given format is a suggested outline for the report. This may be seen as indicating the
minimum information required for creating the report. Students may further elaborate the
sections. Adding sub-sections for further explanation is desirable.
Length of the report should be in the range of 6000 to 8000 words, excluding appendices,
references, cover page and acknowledgement.
Preamble

The Village Development Report, henceforth VDR, will be comprised of 13 sections. These
sections will help you to formulate a unique as well as a comprehensive picture of the village and
the households that are clustered inside such villages. It is important to consider that a village
provides immediate policy environment to the households and therefore you must put conscious
efforts to develop narratives around household behavior in the context of village level
development status. The overall quality of VDR will be governed by your ability to report and
narrate ground realities and if possible provide managerial solutions to problems identified in
these sections.

1. Identification of the Village and households

Please refer to sections 1 and 2 of the village schedule and section 2 of the household schedule to
briefly summarize the identity of the village and surveyed households. Village identification will
include details on village location, village map, and demographic particulars. This section will
also present a discussion on the remoteness of the village from various types of facilities and
institutions such as district headquarter, schools, hospitals, police station, all weather roads, etc.
Household identity will include details on religion, caste, average size of the household,
occupation, and transfers.

2. Brief history of Settlement Patters

This section will detail out landmark events that may have helped the village to evolve. Please
refer to section 1 of the village schedule. You may use this information to comment on the
possibility that distinct settlement histories may have influenced the present day socio-economic
and cultural status of the village.

3. Street-Wise Facilities

This section (please refer section 3 of the village Schedule) will identify street name and unique
street level identification code (that is, the street id). Efforts should be made to understand and
highlight heterogeneous access to public goods and services by each street. You may tabulate
various aspects of street level characteristics such as (a) number of households, (b) their
conditions (for instance kuccha versus pucca), (c) number of cultivating households, (d) access
to electricity, (e) access to toilets, (f) availability of telephone/internet connections, (g)
households with solar pumps, and likewise other facilities. There are other important information
that can be captured in this section that includes details of work done in different streets in
current Panchayat in terms of sanitation, healthcare, rural roads, education and schooling, rural
housing schemes, and employment generation schemes.

Care must be taken to develop sound narratives around your tabulations and link it with possible
sources of heterogeneity in relation to street level development.

4. Employment

The primary study question in this section is to ascertain implications of diversified employment
opportunities on household welfare. You may proceed by undertaking following tasks:

i) Tabulate and comment upon the diversity of employment opportunities, both within and
outside the village (please refer to section 7 of the village schedule)
ii) Construct two types of Village Enterprise Index: (a) Simpson Index 1 and (b) Januszewski
Index2) and clearly interpret these indices and the difference in their information content.
In addition to overall Simpson and Januszweski index, please also compute these indices
for manufacturing, services, and skilled sources of employment. Care must be taken to
identify these types of employment opportunities.
iii) Comment on the size of village enterprise index in relation to remoteness parameters that
you have identified in table C of section 01 of the village schedule.
iv) Tabulate the employment structure of households (please refer to section 2 of household
schedule) and link it with village enterprise index.

5. Agriculture and Livestock

Use section 4 of the village schedule to measure village level information on net and gross
cultivated area, area irrigated by canals, tanks, and other water sources. Also present information
on area under plantation crops, forest, grazing grounds and pastures, fallow land, panchayat land,
etc. Comment on the livestock support facilities and membership of cooperatives and other
associations that are available for growers and producers.

1
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X15307853
2
https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/43002/2/WP2005_01.pdf
Please refer to section 7 of the household schedule to tabulate details of crops grown by
households, use of fertilizers (both chemical and bio-fertilizers), details of leased in and leased
out land, cost of crop cultivation and details of outputs sold and value of sales.

6. Financial Institutions

This section will identify the presence of financial institutions in the village. Tabulate and
present information pertaining to rate of interest paid on deposits and compare it with the rate of
interest charged on loans (please refer to section 9 of the village schedule). Identify preferred
financial institutions for village citizens and stated purpose and use of loans. Also comment on
the possibility that access to credit may influence employment opportunities within the village.

7. Education and Schools

This section (please refer to section 10 of village Schedule) will present details of schools in the
panchayat. Compare the qualification of school teachers, classroom facilities, total enrolments,
enrolments of male and female students in (a) Government (b) Panchayat (c) Non-profit Private
and (d) For-profit Private schools. Also highlight the incidence of absenteeism of teachers by
school type. Tabulate the size of school dropouts and attempt to provide empirical reasons, that
is, is there a relationship between school dropout, school facilities and absenteeism of teachers.

Please comment on the status of sanitation and drinking water facilities by school type. Identify
the reasons for these differences. What is the status and performance of mid-day meal (MDM) in
schools? Please investigate whether there is a significant gap between the displayed menu and
food actually served during school hours.

In addition to the above, (please refer to section 9 of the household schedule) answer following
questions:

(a) Tabulate child performance (please refer to Arithmetic test) and investigate whether there
is a correlation between parental characteristics and child performance (please refer to
section 2 of the household schedule).
(b) Is there a relationship between child performance and school facilities? Provide policy
prescriptions to improve educational outcomes for the girl child?
 (c) Do females outperform male in math scores?
(d) Is there any relationship between household characteristics (excluding income) and
choice of schools and health care providers? Please provide evidence on the extent of
stunting and obesity (that is child Z scores).

8. Health Services and Hospitals

In this section tabulate and report health care facilities in the village, availability of health
facilities and frequency of visits of health workers, doctors and government officials to provide
services such as chlorination of wells, immunization of children, general health education (please
refer section 11 of the village schedule).

In addition to the above, please answer following questions (please refer to section 10 of the
household schedule):

1) Which health facilities do households access in the case of health events?

2) Do households access formal health institutions for child birth and post natal care?
3) What are the reasons for choosing one institution over other in case of a health event?
4) What percentage of all medical expenses is financed through debt?

9. Governance and Welfare Programs

This section is aimed at understanding the governance structure of the village. Identify and report
decision making authorities at the village level in relation to local public goods (please refer to
section 8 of the village schedule and section 8 of the household schedule). If elected panchayat is
not the decision making authority, what are the reasons?

10. Climate change and household response

Climate change has assumed significant importance in policy debates and international
negotiations. It is important for policy makers to understand readiness of rural household to
climate change. This part of the report will attempt to understand the awareness levels of
households around climate change issues (please refer to section 8.3 of household schedule). It is
important to appreciate that this part of the survey has been developed to elicit household
response with respect to contributions (economic and labor time) that they can offer to cope with
climate change. This section may be developed by attempting to address following questions:
 (i) Are households aware of climate change?
(ii) To what extent households are willing to take responsibility for climate change
effects with respect to mitigation and coping strategies and by aligning with the
government?

Based on your analysis please propose the measures to incentivize households to participate in
the process of managing and mitigating the climate change through green governance.

11. Income and Consumption

Income and consumption are the two most important aspects of household welfare. Please refer
to sections 5 and 7 of the household schedule to compute household income. Section 4 of the
household schedule can be used to discuss consumption structure of the household in terms of
food (grains, nutrition value, etc.) and non-food expenditure (such as insurance premium, repair
and maintenance of household, personal care, communication, etc,). Attempt to connect
occupation, education, awareness with income and consumption. Also evaluate if income and
consumption are linked to other village or street level factors.

12. Conclusion

The conclusion section will summarize your key findings (please do not use bullet points but
discuss these in some detail). In writing the conclusion section of VDR, please visualize that
your report is to be read by a committee that consists of potential donors, bureaucrats and/or
policy makers, and CEO of a leading NGO organization. Please present a strong case to highlight
the most significant village level problem in your estimation. Also propose your solutions, seek
funds (indicate the size of fund and justify the same) and sketch a blueprint for implementation.
 Style Sheet for VDR
Logo: You shall not use IRMA logo anywhere in the report.
Spelling: Use uniform style of spellings (British or American) Font: Times New Roman
Font Type: Times New Roman
Font size: Main Text – 12; Headings – 14
Line spacing: 1.15
Margins: All through your report (including the title page), margins should be 1” on all four
sides. Please use mirror margin option and print out on both sides (except for the title page).
Pagination: Use Roman numbers (i, ii, iii etc.) to paginate Acknowledgements, Table of
Contents, List of Tables etc. Use Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3 etc.) to paginate the main text of your
report. The pagination should be on the bottom of the page, and centered. Ensure that the title
page is not numbered. The pagination for the appendices will be in continuation of the main text.
Indent: Indent each paragraph (one tab) in the main text of the report, and after every paragraph,
leave one blank line.
Headings: Use the following style for heading all through the main text of the report.
Level-1: UPPER CASE BOLD
Level-2: Sentence case bold
Level-3: Sentence case underlined
Level-4: Sentence case italics
The sequence of the report will be as follows:
Title Page (see specimen attached) No page number
Acknowledgements (optional)
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations (alphabetically arranged)
Pagination in Roman (eg i, ii, iii etc.)
List of Tables
List of Figures/ Graphs
List of Annexures/Appendices
Main Text
Pagination in Arabic (eg 1, 2, 3 etc.)
References (alphabetically arranged)
Items inserted in the text:
Graphs, Figures and Tables
 These should be close to the discussion in the text, as far as possible. They should be
numbered and have appropriate captions, and presented as follows:
 The table (or graph/ figure) number should be above the table (or graph/ figure), left
aligned, and in bold.
 The table heading should be just below the table number, and left aligned.
 The table (or graph/ figure) should be presented next under.
 The captions (such as note, source etc. to the table/ graph) should be given just below the
table/graph.
 Normal size photographs or illustrations should be inserted into the text with
appropriate captions. (Large tables, graphs, figures, photographs, illustrations,
reproductions of PRA output etc. should not be inserted into the main text; they should be
annexed.)
 Should your report have boxed items, the title of the box should be in bold letters, and
given inside and in the centre of the box.

Format for References

General referencing guide: Follow American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines for
referencing purpose
Format:
 In-text references should be given in the form of (author, year); for example (Reddy,
1993) If institution is the author (name/ shorter name year); examples: (IRMA, 1990),
(UN, 1994), (NABARD, 1992), (World Bank, 1992)
 More than one reference should be separated with a semi-colon: (Jain, 1987; Gupta,
1994) If page number is to be indicated it must come after the year and separated by a
colon. Examples: (Sharma, 1993:20); (Jain, 1987:45-56)

End References
 A list of references (if any) is to be given at the end under the title, References.
The format for references is given below and each type is illustrated with examples.

Books: (title in Italics upper/lower case)

 Single author: (the name of the author should be inverted, and the details of the book
should be presented as under)

Shiva, V (1989) Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development. London: Zed Press.
  Two or more authors: (only the name of the first author should be inverted; the details of
the book should be given as under)

Krishnaswamy, N and Archana Burde. (1998) The Politics of Indians’ English. New Delhi:
Oxford University Press.
 More than three authors: (use et al after the first author’s inverted name)

Chopra, K., et al (1993) Participatory Development. New Delhi: Sage Publications.

Book Chapter: (in double quotes, a comma before the quote completion, and book title in
Italics)
Patel, Ila (1996) “Media, Cultural Identity and Ethnicity: A Review of Literature and
Documents,” in SR Joshi (ed.) Media and Ethnic Issues in India: A Case Study.
Ahmedabad: Development and Educational Communication Unit, Indian Space Research
Organization.
Reports and such other documents not published by commercial publishing houses:
(institute/ organization to be treated as author if there is no individual author. Title in double
quotes with a comma before the quote completion).
World Bank (1997) Annual Report 1996. Washington DC: The World Bank.
If the report being cited is not a published document, then the following format will apply:
Manju, SR and Raju N Vaghela (1993) “Joint Forest Management: Institutional
Processes in Solia,” Ahmedabad: VIKSAT-Nehru Foundation for Development.
Journal/Newspaper Articles: (article in double quotes with a comma before the quote
completion. Journal titles in italics followed by a comma after which volume and issue no.
should be given; if month’ s name has to be mentioned as in the case of some journals then
it should come after volume/issue nos.; page number of the article should be mentioned at the
end).
Iyer, VR Krishna (1994) “Foreign Print Media Incarnating as Indian Fourth Estate,”
Economic and Political Weekly, 29:49, December 3, pp. 30832-85.
Papers Presented:
(same as for journal article; name of the seminar/conference, its date and place where it was
held to be given after the tittle of the paper)
Burde, Archana S (1990) “Nineteenth Century Images of India in English Literature: A Post-
Colonial Interpretation,” Paper presented at ASRC, Hyderabad at a seminar held by Max
Muller Bhavan and ASRC, ‘The English Language and Post-Colonial Thought’, March 10-12.
Electronic copy of a journal article available by search: Bajaj. M. 2004. “Mobile creches”.
Available at:
http://www.indianngos.com/issue/education/interviews/mridulabajaj/fullinterview.htm/ (accessed
on 21 June, 2004.)
Stand-alone document on net, no date: AGROTECH. Towards a mission extraordinary.
URL:http://www.agrotech.org/user/mission.htm/ (accessed September 10, 2004.)