Professional research · 2025
Why a public service reaches one community and not another
What produces uneven last-mile delivery inside the same district.
- Where
- Transform Rural India / Village Square
- Role
- Consultant, Transform Rural India
- Period
- 2025
- Methods
- Semi-structured interviews · field and archival synthesis
- Output
- Fourteen interviews across six states, synthesised into published analysis for Village Square.
The question
Why does a district-level public service reach one community and not another, even inside the same administrative boundary? Transform Rural India asked that across six states, in fourteen interviews with SHG members, panchayat representatives and practitioners.
SHG membersWomen who use, wait for, or give up on a service that officially exists.
PanchayatRepresentatives sitting between the block office and the hamlet.
PractitionersPeople who watch delivery from the mission or NGO side, and know where a file stalls.
What those rooms showed
Unevenness was familiar. The argument was about cause: the gram panchayat’s relationship with the block, the density of a local organisation, or a scheme’s paperwork. Those are categories of explanation, not results. Sampling was purposive, organised around TRI’s work. The state list stays with TRI.