People's participation in the Rural Employment Generation Program in Nakhonratchasima, Thailand
Date
1990
Authors
Narist Khaokeaw
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Abstract
The primary purpose of this study was to determine people's participation in the Rural Employment Generation Program (REGP) in Nakhonratchasima Province, Thailand and some selected factors associated with thier participation. Using multi-stage sampling procedure, 218 rural people (114 from six big districts and 104 from six small districts), were chosen as respondents. Data were collected through a questionnaire.
The results showed that more than one- half (53.7%) of the respondents were old with ages ranging from 15 to 68 years. The "old" participants outnumbered the "young" ones because REGP activities mostly involved heads of families.
Majority of the respondents were males (87.2%), married (81.7%) and came from large families (61.5%). Likewise, majority (62.4%) of the respondents were low-educated. More than one-half (51.4%) of the respondents belonged to the low -income group. Seventy two percent (72%) of the respondents had few members of the family who participated in the REGP. These figures were attributed to the fact that REGP's target clientele were heads of large families with low level of education and low income. More than one- third (39.6%) were satisfied with the REGP. These findings imply that the respondents have very high hopes for a better life and that a better life can be realized through the REGP. Furthermore, among the respondents participating "occasionally" in the REGP, majority (64.7%) were classified as active participants. Impliedly that the respondents liked the activities under the REGP.
Age, civil status, level of educational attainment, level of family income, number of family members participating in REGP, aspiration and staisfaction were significantly related with "identifying problems and determining solutions", "program planning", and "evaluation/ follow-up of REPG activities". This means that the respondents did achieve a better life through the REGP. As a whole, respondents from big and small districts had different levels of participation in the REGP. Specifically, levels of participation in identifying problems/needs and determining of solutions, program planning and in the implementation stage of participants in big districts were sifnificantly different from the levels of participation of participants in small districts. This could have been brought about by the differences in socio-economic and psychological characteristics of the respondents. This finding means that participation in the REGP was positively influenced by the size of the districts.
Five major problems were mentioned by the respondents, namely: low wage rates; insufficiency of REGP funding; incongruence of REGP activities with people's needs; poor maintenance of completed projects and REGP properties; and delayed wages. The following solutions were suggested by the respondents, namely: for low wage rates, consultation, dialogue in order to arrive at acceptable wage rates; for insufficiency of funding, enlist support of private/business sector; for incongruence of REGP activities with people's needs, REGP activities should be based on Tambol Plan; for poor maintenance of completed projects, organize people to take care of completed projects; and on delayed wages, train tambol officials to prepare payroll.