However, the people's sector has not only survived but grown in the last few decades, she said, while speaking on ``Building Peoples' Organisations'' which was the first of the Indian Institute of Management's lecture series for 1999-2000. She said that what was required were liberal laws which allow scope for many different types of member-based socio-economic organisations to take root and grow. These laws should ensure maximum control to the members of the socio-economic organisations, with the government playing the role of an effective facilitator, she said.

Elaborating on the various hurdles faced by the people's sector, Bhatt said the sector was still hamstrung by heavy bureaucratic control. ``Raw material can only be obtained by licenses. Cooperative banks are not allowed to operate in rural areas, forest produce is still owned by the State and is inaccessible to gatherers and producers, village water resources are managed by the State in spite of people's ability and willingness to manage them,'' she pointed out.

She also laid emphasis on formulating policies so that new techniques and ideas flow into this sector. ``At present, the technical universities are funded by the government to do research and training which do not reach the people's sector. These policies should be changed to encourage researchers and trainers to reach enterprises in this sector and hold hands to lift them up to be on par with other entrepreneurs,'' she said.

Also, infrastructural and management support which reaches this sector very seldom should be funneled into the people's enterprises, she said. Another road-block, according to her, was the credit policy which almost discouraged small borrowings.

But the most important policy change would be to recognize this sector, its vast size, its employment potential and its people-centred enterprises, she felt. ``Once it is recognised and given a place in the national economy, full and better employment will flow,'' she stated.