Located on a sprawling 5.89 acres of land at Nongsder village in the Ri Bhoi district and surrounded by the Umiam Lake, the SIRD, Meghalaya is situated at a distance of about 20 km from Shillong the state capital. The SIRD, Meghalaya was established in the year 1986 and became fully functional in 1989. The institute is well connected by road from the Shillong-Guwahati national highway. It was inaugurated on the 6 September 1989 by the ex-Chief Minister of the State, Mr. P.A. Sangma.

The SIRD Meghalaya is an autonomous organization under the Department of Community and Rural Development, Government of Meghalaya. It was established out of the grant received from the European Economic Community (EEC) Aid Programme and is supported by the Ministry of Rural Development Government of India (MoRD-GoI), and, Government of Meghalaya (GOM). The SIRD, Meghalaya was declared the Apex Level Training Institute in Rural Development of the Government of Meghalaya in the year 1994. It is the apex body in the broad field of training and research in rural development.

The S.I.R.D., Meghalaya has also been entrusted with the task of establishment of the Extension Training Centre (ETC) with central assistance. It has 1(one) Extension Training centre (ETC) under it to cater to the training need in a decentralized manner.

The institute was set up to fulfil the long felt need of the state government to provide regular training for the officers,development functionaries, officials, non-official and NGOs involved in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the various rural development programmes and its allied activities. In the early years the SIRD Meghalaya was mainly concentrated on organizing training programmes, seminars and workshops for the officers with the aim of streamlining the delivery system for rural development.

From 1993-94 onwards the SIRD Meghalaya began to diversify it training programmes and reaching out to the grassroots’ population in rural areas. It was realized that streamlining the delivery system alone cannot change the socio-economic scenario in the rural areas. The capacity of the personnel’s and beneficiaries of rural development must be enhanced if rural areas are to develop. With the Government of India focusing its rural development programmes on assisting families living below the poverty line through self -employment and wage employment generation programme it became necessary for the SIRD Meghalaya to acquaint the primary stakeholders i.e. the beneficiaries with proper knowledge about the schemes. Implementing agencies and functionaries were also made aware of the objectives of rural development programmes for implementation of development programmes in letter and spirit. Thus training programmes were suitably designed by the SIRD Meghalaya to enhance the philosophy, knowledge, skills and operational details of the rural development programmes among the implementing officials and non officials thereby enabling them to discharge their responsibilities effectively.

The annual expenditure of the Institute such as recurring heads, i.e. training programmes, salary etc. are borne in the ratio of 50:50 by both the state and central government .The salary of the faculty and non-recurring expenditure is borne by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. At the national level the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) Hyderabad with its North Eastern Regional Centre (NIRD-NERC) located at Guwahati, Assam is the apex institution for training and research in rural development in the country. The SIRD Meghalaya operates and coordinates its efforts with the state department of Community and Rural Development, the NIRD, Hyderabad, NIRD-NERC Guwahati, development departments and organisations in meeting its objectives.

The Director of SIRD heads the institution and is drawn from the state or central civil services for a term of three years. The general administration of the SIRD is vested with the Director. The five core faculty of SIRD are in charge of the design and conduct of training programmes, research and evaluation. The SIRD Meghalaya is headed by the General Council, which was constituted on the 7 January 1994.It also has an executive council with its related terms of reference, powers and functions. In addition, there are also the Standing Committees on Finance, Appointment and Training, Education Research and Evaluation.

The SIRD, Meghalaya also provides opportunity to the faculty members and staff to advance their knowledge and enrich their training experiences in the field of rural development through trainings, conferences, workshops seminar and exposure visits at various institutes within the country and abroad.

Core Functions

Training, research and evaluation activities are the core functions of the SIRD Meghalaya. The institute aims at providing training to all levels of development functionaries.The client groups are mainly senior/middle/junior level officers of various technical/non technical departments including the banking institutions. The Institute has since 1989 begun training the non-official members and the heads of the traditional village level institutions, which exist in place of the Panchayati Raj as well as elected representatives. Training is also provided to the non-government organisations (NGOs) and community based organization (CBOs) involved in rural development activities and assisting the government in the implementation of development programmes at the grassroots level. The institute has also begun focusing on training of trainers(ToT) programmes to build up district, block and village level trainers from among the development fuctionaries.This is aimed at spread of awareness about development programmes and schemes in order to facilitate and speed up the implementation process across the districts blocks and villages across the state.

Aims and Objectives

• To undertake, assist and promote research, training and evaluation studies in rural development of the state.
• To provide capacity building through skill oriented training programmes on management development, technology support, skill up gradation for self employment in rural areas.
• To conduct seminars and workshops on education health sanitation, drinking water, social justice, equity social problems etc. for officials, non officials and representatives of line departments organizations NGOS, CBOs, thus making people aware about issues and probleMs.
• To conduct off campus programmes at field level about various welfare and development programmes launched by the government for the development of rural areas
• To analyze and propose solutions of specific problems encountered in planning and implementation of various programmes of rural development as well as advise concerned department of the state government with matters related to training research and evaluation.
• To established and maintain libraries and information services.
• To established linkages with other organizations, offer fellowship and carry out other such activities in promoting the objectives of the organization.
• To assist the Government of the state in policy formulation.

Thrust Areas of Training

• Poverty alleviation through self employment, rural credit, wage employment and general assistance programme i.e.
  • Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana(SGSY) ,
  • Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP)
  • National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme(NREGS)
  • Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF),
  • Rural Connectivity -Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadhak Yojana (PMGSY),
  • Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme.
  • Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC).
  • National Social Assistance Programme(NSAP).
• Planning and implementation of rural development projects and development of rural clusters.
• Micro credit and micro finance .
• Development of agriculture and allied sectors through technology support.
• Institution building for community development and community groups i.e. SHG, co-operatives.
• Composite training programmes.
• Participatory watershed development, agriculture, agriculture marketing and allied sector.
• Agri -business programmes.
• Training of Trainers (ToT).
• Information Communication Technology(ICT) for rural development.
• Induction, refresher and orientation courses on rural development.
• Training needs analysis (TNA) and project formulation.
• Role of voluntary organization/NGOs/youth in rural development.
• Management programme for cooperatives.
• Technology support services for rural development.
• Computer information system for rural development, training on rural development via satellite communication.
• Financial management accounting procedures for rural development.
• Training methodology, communication skills and extension methods.
• Participatory rural appraisal.
• Disaster management.
• Drinking water and sanitation.
• Gender issues, women development and empowerment, programmes, legal education, leadership training
• Enterprise development programmes
  

Target Groups

• Officials
  • Officials and functionaries of departments at the state, district and block level i.e. Community and rural development department DRDA block development office, soil and water conservation department, cooperative department, agriculture department, animal husbandry and veterinary department, horticulture department, industries departments social welfare department, sericulture and weaving, handloom and handicraft, forest department, health department education department, khadi and village, PHE department, PWD.
  • Bankers and representatives of financial institutions.
  • Extension officers of agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and veterinary department, KVIC, sericulture and weaving.
  • Grass-root level functionaries of all development departments which includes gram sevaks/ gram sevaks, ICDS supervisors and demonstrators,
    
    
• Non Officials
  • NGOs/ VOs/ CBOs including office bearers of social service organizations dealing in rural development programmes.
  • Rural artisan and rural entrepreneurs and rural unemployed youth
  • Representatives of traditional institutions in the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo hills
  • Office bearers of cooperatives societies
  • Non officials members and elected representatives MLA, MDC and other Community leaders
  • Watershed community and members of the watershed associations Members of VEC and AEC under NREGS
  • Selected swarozgaris under SGSY
  • Self –help groups