The Role of Participation in Rural development in Khoshk-e bijar District, Rasht County

Introduction Nowadays, most experts in rural development field agree that reaching to sustainable development is not impossible without all people’s Participation and undoubtedly, the process of development will be facilitated, with more speed and less expenditure. Meanwhile, the historical experience of our country emphasizes on utilizing top-down strategies for development, it shows its failure on the process of rural development. Therefore, based on this experience and increasing overall knowledge and scientific knowledge, it is necessary for the society to pay attention to rural development which is dominated by people’s Participation and this Participation should be the priority for plans and measures. Spontaneous and endogenous development indicated that in all stages and in different circumstances, development is based on Participation of local people for mobilization of resources and institutionalizing local Participation with emphasis on empowerment and capacity building. People’s Participation causes them not to feel alienated with plans and new elements; this makes them to be engaged throughout the planning process and after that in implementation and maintenance of the plans; they feel that the plan and the product belong to them and they cooperate greatly to maintain it and make it dynamic. People’s Participation in local planning may lead to decentralization and it can reduce the limitations of top-down planning. So, these plans and all the expenditures in these villages should result in development, if villagers wants and needs are recognized and they are engaged in villages' affairs; because, on one hand, villagers Participation leads to empowerment of institutions and social organizations in the village so that they facilitate development process, and on the other hand, it leads to usage of capabilities and talents of villages for national development, the sustainability of population and decrease of regional inequalities. Khoshke-bijar district is located in north-east part of Rasht County; in recent years, many construction plans and projects were prepared and implemented in these villages such as preparing and implementing guide plans, equipping and modernization of agricultural lands, gas delivery plans, purified water delivery system, and so on. According to this, the present study aims to answer this fundamental question that how much influence does people's Participation have on the development of villages in Khoshke-bijar district? Methodology Regarding its objective, this is a practical study and a descriptive-analytical one according to its methodology. For studying and recognizing the status quo, descriptive method, and for statistical analyzing in the case of rural services and population, analytical method has been used. Therefore, theoretical and conceptual framework of the study and geographical and demographic features of the study were collected by documentary method and determining the ways that people engage in different areas had been done through field study. Statistical population includes villages of Khoshke-bijar district in Rasht County that have been selected in four categories: small villages, medium size villages, big villages and parts that are a combination of village and town. Study sample is determined 400 villagers, according to Morgan Standard Table that is distributed and completed by using random-quota sampling method in the studied area. Questionaries' validity is determined by experts' comments and those who have expertise in rural planning and its reliability is determined by Cronbach's Coefficient Alfa (0.81). For data analysis in this study some tests have been used including Wilcoxon Test, Spearman Correlation Test, and Kruskal Wallis Test. Discussion and conclusion Participation objective is generally defined as voluntarily participation of people in development plans in all stages- including goal setting, decision making, implementation, maintenance and evaluation. People's Participation can be recognized as a process through that poor and disadvantaged people can be organized and by this organizing they could try development efforts. If all villagers could be directed toward field creation and optimal organization, this filed and organization turn to be an instrument for expressing their wants, through that they could achieve their rational wants. Villagers' Participation in Khoshe-bijar district will be on its maximum level, and can have impact on rural development, if all cited obstacles are removed. It is obvious that removing the existing economic problems in Khoshke-bijar district is not possible without focusing on social, cultural and political problems and when villages lack a desirable level of culture and social attitude, it will be impossible to expect them understand new methods of economic development and take the risk of them. Finally, it can be said that in Khoshke-bijar villages, despite of many different problems and obstacles in the way of Participation and using that for rural development, villagers' desire to engage in affairs and their presence in many development plans can be helpful and it clarifies the necessity of planning for this important matter. The results show that the desire for intellectual, and physical Participation among villagers is in a desirable level. By increasing the economic power of the villagers in Khoshke-bijar district which is possible through their own Participation, we can expect that the level of Participation in plans and projects for rural development increase too. There is no doubt that Participation motivation among villagers depends on using cultural actions and giving awareness to them that are the top priorities. Because the level of Participation and cooperation among villages are at a high level in many villages of the developed countries in the world and they strongly believe in team work activities, the level of Participation is in a desirable level and villages are more developed too, due to widespread acculturation and internalization among rural people. It is obvious that when people of the studied area are aware of the advantages and effective results of cooperative works and they know more about the results of Participation for sustainable profits and interests, their motivation for Participation will increase.