Yojana February 2011
Transcript of Yojana February 2011
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YOJANA February 2011 1
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Ferr 2011 Vo 55
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YOJANA February 2011 1
C O N T E N T S
FLAGGING THE RUPEE ..............................................................36
Naveen Jindal
NORTH EAST DIARY ...............................................................38
J&K WINDOW
PANCHAYAT ELECTIONS IN J&K .......................... ..................39
Kavita Suri
BEST PRACTICES ....................................................................41
THUMBS UP FOR THIS CASTE PANCHAYAT
Usha Chowdhary
NATURAL RESOURCES AND VILLAGE
INSTITUTIONS: A CRITICAL LINK ................ ........................ ..43
Sushant
SHODH YATRA ..........................................................................47
TIPS FOR RURAL HEALTH.........................................................50
M A Haque
GRASSROOTS LEVEL DEMOCRACY IN INDIA :
AN ASSESSMENT...........................................................................5
Mathew C Kunnumkal
NEEDED-A NEW DEAL FOR PANCHAYATI RAJ ....................10George Mathew
DO YOu KNOW? ......................................................................14
TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE SANITATION IN
NORTH-EASTERN REGION........................................................15
Agatha Sangma
A PLACE TO CONVERT NOISE TO VOICE ............................ ..20
G Palanithurai
WOMEN IN PANCHAYATS: A REVIEW ...................... ..............24
Atonu Chatterjee
PROTECTION OF RURAL LIVELIHOODS ...............................28
Awanish Somkuwar
SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF LOCAL RESOURCES ...32
N Lalitha
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YOJANA February 2011 3
T
he year 2009 marked fifty years since Nagaur in Rajasthan saw the
foundations of Panchayati Raj institutions being laid in India. Fifty long years
in which this institution has grown from strength to strength, bringing a largecommunity of hitherto left-out people into the folds of governance. Fifty long years in
which the common Indian from the remotest corner of the country has proved that he
knows what is best for himself, his family and society, and that given a little support,
he can think, decide and act for the collective good of his community. Fifty long years
that have helped us rediscover the collective strength of the people at the grassroots after
we almost lost it under the torturous period of subjugation by the British. Observing
the year 2009-10 as the Year of the Gram Sabha was a reconrmation of this strength
of the people.
The Gram Sabha had been visualized as an institutionalized forum of villagers that would ensure that every
voice in the village was heard, the needs and concerns of every quarter of the society was addressed and that
the elected representatives of the panchayats performed their duties as expected of them. If we look at the last
eighteen years since the 73rd constitutional amendment came through, we nd a lot to be happy about. Regular
and serious panchayat elections, an increasing representation of women and people from other marginalized
sections of the society, many forceful voices rising from the grassroots, forcing the powers that be to sit up and
take note, a host of innovative development initiatives that have come to fruition under the able stewardship of
the people at the grassroots. In fact, in a bold move the India government has also decided to stitch the Gram
Sabhas into the industrial fabric of the country. In bits and pieces at rst and now regularly, the Gram Sabhas
have been given the authority to decide if a particular industrial project should be located in the area where the
Sabha operates. If an industrialist has to set up a project, he has to inform the Sabha, give them an opportunity
to call a meeting, explain the details of the project and ask for their permission to buy land from the area. Onlywhen the Sabha has approved the same can the project go through.
While all the above is true, it is also a fact that the true potential of the Gram Sabha as an instrument of
participatory governance is yet to be realized. The incorporation of the marginalized sections of the society
into active governance is facing multiple hindrances, issues of accountability are yet to be settled, a sense of
ownership and belonging has not yet developed fully. The Gram Sabha is yet to become the powerful organ of
peoples empowerment that it was meant to be.
In the current issue of Yojana, experts in the eld bring to you their views on the issue. q
YOJANA February 2011 3
February 2011 A DEVELOPMENT MONTHLY `10
ISSN-0971-8400
Abot the Isse
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YOJANA February 2011 5
R A S S R O O T S
D E M O C R A C Y i s
neither a new concept
nor is it an expression
of western political
thought operationalized in Indian
soil. The origin of grassroots
level democracy dates back to
the Vedic Age and has been fairly
well documented in ancient
scriptures such as the Rig Veda,
Aitareya Brahman, Paninis
Astadhyai, Kautilyas Arthasastra,
inscriptions on Asokan Pillars and
the writings of Buddhist and Jain
scholars. The available literature
clearly points to the fact that
republics functioned and elected
representatives participated in
Janpadas (regional bodies) Paura
Sabhas (City Councils) and Gram
Sabhas (Village assemblies) in
ancient India. People in republics
Grassroots Level Democracy in India :
An Assessment
GRaM Sabha
Mathew C Kunnumkal
OVERViEW
The performance
levels of the PRIs
have been directly
proportionate to
levels of transfer
of 3 Fs viz.,
Functions,
Functionaries and
Funds
were funct ioning through a
decision by majority which was
regarded as inviolable and not
to be overridden. Issues which
required more deliberations and
serious thinking were referred
to a special committee elected
from among the members of the
assembly.
Under the British Rule local
self government did not make
much progress. These panchayat
institutions were unable to function
effectively due to organizational
and fiscal maladies. However
with the emergence of Gandhiji
on the political arena, grass root
level democracy slowly started
regaining importance. Gandhijis
advocacy of village democracy
brought the issue to centre stage
and laid the foundations for grass
root level democracy in modern
G
The author is Director General, National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad
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India. In his article (Harijan, 26
July, 1942) on Village Swaraj,
Gandhiji had envisaged a village as
a complete Republic, independent
of its neighbor for its vital wants,
yet interdependent, for many
others in which dependence is
a necessity. These views got
reected in the non-justiciable part
of the Constitution in the Directive
Principles of State Policy, as
Article 40.
Soon after Independence, both
the Community DevelopmentProgramme and National Extension
Service were launched to address
rural reconstruction efforts. The
focus of these programmes was
on improving agriculture and rural
development and bringing about
socio economic transformation
among the rural people. The
Balwantrai Committee which wasappointed to study the Community
Development Programme and
National Extension Service stated
that the community needs to be
involved in planning, decision
making and implementation
process. However Panchayat Raj
Institutions (PRIs) across the
country faced resistance from
bureaucracy, lacked capacity and
were often captured by certain
elitist sections of the community.
T h e r e a f t e r A s h o k M e h t a
Committee appointed in 1978
described the post 1959 period
in three phases; a) Ascendancy
1959-64; b) Stagnation -1965-
69; c) Decline - 1969-1977. The
Committee recommended that the
district should be the basic unit for
planning, coordination and resource
allocation and should be supported
by technical expertise. The GVK
Rao Committee (1985) was of the
opinion that PRIs need to play an
important role in rural development
programmes thus building up a
gradual momentum in favour of the
local self government institutions.
In 1986 the Committee for theConcept Paper on Panchayati
Raj Institutions recommended
that these inst i tut ions need
constitutional backing. The gram
sabha was identied as the base
of decentralized democracy and
PRI as units of selfgovernment
promoting peoples participation.
Although this was opposed by
the Sarkaria Commission the late
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
introduced the 64th Constitutional
amendment bill in 1989. As the
Bill was defeated in the Rajya
Sabha, it was introduced again in
1992 and was passed as the 73rd
Constituted Amendment. This Actis a landmark legislation which
has brought empowerment of the
Panchayat Raj Institutions and
has ensured the transfer of power
from the State to the panchayat
raj institutions to be exercised by
the people.
India lives in its villages is
the oft quoted statement of the
Father of the Nation. In reality
however the people of India were
far distanced from the seat of
power and the Government at
the Centre and in the States.
The greatest strength of grass
root democracy reected through
the Panchayat Raj Institutions
is its proximity to the people.
It is an important step towards
the realization of Gandhijis
dream of vi l lage swaraj .
Grass root level democracy
has a tremendous potential for
establishing a people centred
delivery system which is essential
for sustainable development. The
village assemblies/Gram Sabhas
can emerge as a platform for
expression of peoples needs
and aspirations. This in turnwill help to effectively utilize
the local resources and pave the
way for need based development
which would br ing vi s ible
benefit to the local community.
These institutions also provide
opportunities for the marginalized
and socially excluded groups to
participate in decision making.
Fundamental requirements for
personal advancement such as
access to health care and education
can be better provided by judicious
assessment of needs and allocation
of resources. With the people
being actually involved in decision
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making the scope for corruption
and misuse of resources and
authority get reduced. Close
monitoring and social audit are
possible for taking corrective
action which was not possible in
the erstwhile top down approach
that was in vogue. The vesting of
powers of taxation with the Gram
Panchayats has enabled them to
increase their resource base for
accelerating development. At the
panchayat level, there can be very
imaginative and pragmatic pooling
of resources and convergence of
schemes which will bring larger
good to the community. Micro
level planning which was virtually
absent hitherto enables to translate
peoples aspirations into need
based programmes.
Since the Panchayat Raj
Institutions are still in the earlystages of development they are yet
to overcome several weaknesses
which have not enabled them to
reach their full potential. First and
foremost, the Gram Sabha which
is considered as the life-line of
PRIs by directly reecting peoples
views and voices has to see a much
higher level of participation by the
entire community. There has also
to be much greater involvement
and articulation of the needs of the
entire community particularly the
deprived sections. Secondly there
is considerable discretion vested
in the state Governments. PRIs
falls under the state subject and the
legal language of shall and may
and other connotations has led to
various levels of conformity by the
state Governments. It is seen that
several non obligatory provisions,
like the representation of legislators
and members of parliament in PRIs,
is affecting the true expression of
village democracy. Adequate
training and sustained handholding
efforts are not extended to elected
representatives. Hence there is a
lack of professionalism in handling
administrative, nancial and other
related issues. Devolution of
three Fs Funds, Functions and
Functionaries which is imperative
for effective public service delivery
has not yet taken place in many
states.
The District planning committee
has been constituted. However itsperformance levels needs to be
improved by making the District
Panchayat Chairman as its head
and reducing the role of in charge
Ministers.
The weaknesses which are
highlighted are structural. A greater
amount of political will is essentialto enable these bodies to function
as true democratic institutions.
N o t w i t h s t a n d i n g t h e s e
weaknesses it is very heartening
to note that in many parts of
the country the Panchayat Raj
Inst i tut ions has emerged as
powerful vehicles for social
transformation. Some examples of
best practices are stated below:
1) K a r n a t a k a h a s v e r y
i n n o v a t i v e l y u s e d t h e
Panchayat Raj system to
improve revenue realization
in the power sector. Under the
Participatory Rural Energy
Services in Karnataka, Gram
Panchayat (GP) members
w e r e t r a i n e d t o o f f e r
electricity support services
and transfer best practices for
water farming and electricity
management.
2) Integrated Rural Accessibility
Planning (IRAP) is concerned
with improving access in
rural areas of Orissa (ILO).
IRAP comprises a set of
planning tools for use at Gram
Panchayat level to identifyand prioritize interventions
to improve accessibility. The
process responds to the access
needs of rural people and
interventions to either improve
mobil i ty (roads, t racks,
bridges, transport services) or
bring the services and goods
closer to the people (markets,
schools, health centers, water
supplies).
3) Indira Kranthi Pathakam
(IKP) in Andhra Pradesh has
evolved a strategy for enabling
the Village Organizations in
700 Gram Panchayats in 259
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Mandals to facilitate all the
poor households to secure their
Rights and Entitlements under
MGNREGA fully and also to
ensure that the Employment
G u a r a n t e e S c h e m e
investments are secured to
develop the lands belonging
to the poor. The strategy is to
position a team of Community
Resource Persons in select
Gram Panchayats to provide
grass root level support to
the Village Organisations.
It is expected that these 700
Gram Panchayats will emerge
as EGS Model Villages for
demonstrating a framework
for implementing NREGS in a
manner that all the Rights and
Entitlements guaranteed to the
wage seekers are fullled in
letter and spirit.4) In Uttar Pradesh Mid Day
Meal programme is managed
by the Gram Panchayats.
Information on menu, the
quantity of ingredients needed
for feeding 100 children
and funds received for the
programmes are disseminated
through the Gram Panchayats
through wall writings, etc..
The funds for the programme
are deposited in a separate
account in village fund so that
account of expenditure can
be maintained. Food items
are supplied on a monthly
basis in advance. A committee
has been constituted at gram
panchayat level to supervise
day-to-day cooking at school
level with Gram Pradhan,
and representat ion fromparents. This intervention
has improved the quality and
delivery of the Mid Day Meal
Programme.
5) Understanding the actual
cause of the heavy school drop
outs among tribal children,
Vellamunda Panchayat in
Wayanad district has used its
resources imaginatively to
arrest the drop out rate and
increase retention of children
in the schools. It hired ve
jeeps and launched its own
transport service to ferry
the children to and from the
school and introduced a free
breakfast and noon meal
scheme to retain the children
in the 18 schools within the
panchayat limits as part of six
projects costing Rs.22 lakh
annually.
The decentralized governance
system ushered in through the 73rd
and 74th constitutional amendments
in 1993-94 have not been able to
pick up the required momentum
on account of several challenges
confronting the PRIs. Some of the
challenges are listed below:
1. Constitution of certain types
of Committees not in line with
the spirit of PRIsespecially
for several donor driven
programmes, is moving away
from the objectives enshrined
in the Constitution. Similarly,
the strengths of Self HelpGroups need to be integrated
for improving the capability
of the Panchayats.
2. An organic linkage between
g r a m s a b h a a n d g r a m
panchayat is yet to be forged.
Consequently resolutions
p a s s e d i n G r a m s a b h a
generally do not get reected
in the identified needs of
Gram Panchayat, both in
terms of human resource and
infrastructure development.
3. In many states GPs do not
constitute viable administrative
units due to their geographical
areas and physical distancesfrom potential growth centres
and sheer inaccessibility due
to lack of proper infrastructure
such as roads and connectivity.
Delimitations on the basis
of population distances and
access need to be done in
some States.
4. The higher outlays and number
of programmes require a much
higher level of capability and
professionalism for delivering
the desired results.
5. Physical infrastructure also
needs to be substantially
improved at the Panchayat
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level for data maintenance,
record keeping etc.
Despite these challenges, the
PRIs have been playing a role as
institutions of local governance
in the changing scenario of rural
development. Some of the positive
trends are as follows:
1. P R I s a r e i n c r e a s i n g l y
recognized as the best available
alternative to implement
s e v e r a l d e v e l o p m e n t a l
programs and of late GPs are
made to play a pivotal role in the
planning and implementation
process. Direct funding is
also being made available
for speedy implementation of
programmes.
2. Since various Ministries and
donor agencies have started
adopting the Saturation
approach in developmental
programmes by extending
the delivery to the last man,
PRI institutions have started
to play an enlarged role in
identication, planning and
implementation.
3. Social audits at PRI level
have shown that peoplesp a r t i c i p a t i o n i s b o t h
qualitatively and effectively
resolving local problems.
4. Performance of the PRIs is
evaluated both by national
and international agencies
(Google) and they are given
awards, which has led to
increased motivation on part
of PRIs. Due to this, over
the years, one comes across
several performing GPs who
are recognized as BeaconPanchayats and role models
for others. They have been
successful in converging both
human and nancial resources
and have been successful
in promoting social and
economic equity.
To conclude, grass root leveldemocracy has come to stay in
India through the instrumentality
of 73rd and 74th Constitutional
Amendment. While on the one
side of the spectrum there are very
active and strong PR Institutions,
at the other end we have a large
number of PRIs which a re
not in a position to performeffectively. The performance
levels of the PRIs have been
directly proportionate to levels of
transfer of 3 Fs viz., Functions,
Functionaries and Funds. Since
the devolution of the powers and
functions are within the ambit of
the State Government and the Act
does not make it mandatory for
full-edged transfer of powers,
the PRIs have not developed
uniformly across the country.
With the implementation of more
rural development programmes
through the PRIs and increase
in the budgetary outlays (e.g.,
MGNREGA 40,000 crores,
NSAP 3000 crores) the resource
base of the PRIs has increased.
The challenges to translate
these schemes very effectively at
the ground level for the benet
of the common people have also
brought pressure on the PRIs to
play their role more effectively.
The efforts made by institutions
such as the National Institute of
Rural Development and the State
Institutes of Rural Development
and other agencies for capacitydevelopment of the functionaries
is also showing positive results,
in terms of improved delivery by
the PRIs. Increased participation
of women in PR insti tutions
resulting from higher percentages
of reservation is slowly changing
the face of PRIs. More acceptable
and sustainable developmental
trends are emerging through the
interventions of PR Institutions
with more participation of women
elected representatives.
The establishment of Self
Help Groups in many States,
the participation of NGOs and
CBOs working together withthe PR Institutions is a promising
trend which, if guided properly,
can improve the delivery of
governing systems at the grass
root level. q
(E-mail : gemathew@ yahoo.co.in
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O THE people of
India let us ensure
maximum democracy
a n d m a x i m u m
devolution. Let there
be an end to the power brokers.
Let us give power to the people.
These were the words of Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi on 15 May1989 when he introduced the
rst ever amendment (64th) to the
Constitution to give constitutional
status to the panchayats. More
than twenty years have passed.
We have amended the constitution
and created the new generation of
panchayati raj. But has power been
devolved to the people? Where do
we stand today?
It is universally accepted that
the parliament or state assemblies
constitute the super structure
of democracy and the local
governments, which are nearer
to the people, are the base. In
Needed-A New Deal for Panchayati Raj
GRaM Sabha
George Mathew
ViEW POiNT
The shortcomings
that the panchayats
face today call for
a new deal. Only
then they can open
a new chapter forthe eight hundred
million people living
in our villages
order to give power to the people,
strong vibrant local governments
(panchayats and municipalities)
are a necessary sine qua non. It
took more than 110 years after the
Ripon resolution (1882) gave the
status of self-government for local
bodies and 84 years after Gandhiji
began to champion the cause of
Gram Swaraj, for panchayats
to get constitutional status on
24 April 1993 through the 73rd
(Constitution) Amendment Act,
thereby becoming the institutions
of self-government.
When the Lok Sabha and Rajya
Sabha passed the two amendments
to the Constitution (73rd and 74th)
on 22 and 23 December 1992,
it was hailed as historic and
beginning of a silent revolution.
By all accounts it was a radical
piece of legislation in form and
content. Where does it stand now
after about 18 years?
T
The author is Director, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi
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To begin with, this period has
not been altogether disappointing.
Given the severe social and political
constraints social inequality, caste
system, patriarchy, feudal setting,
illiteracy, uneven developments within which it had to function,
the new pachayati raj had set in
motion a silent social revolution
that would transform India.
Today elections to the local
self-government institutions every
ve years have become a norm
although in the initial years almost
all the states irrespective of the
party in power had defied the
constitutional provision with all
the power at their command. As
the civil society organizations
took the initiative to fight the
anti-constitutional approach of
the states by ling public interest
litigations (PILs), the judiciary
at different levels effectively
intervened.
Constitutional bodies like the
State Election Commission, State
Finance Commission etc., in all
states are now rmly in place. The
SECs have taken up the panchayat
elections seriously giving a lot
of credibility to the grassroots
level democratic process. In some
states like Bihar, UP, Uttaranchal,Maharashtra and Gujarat, SECs
have gone a step further. Taking
the cue from the Supreme Court
order of May 3, 2002 relating to
the Right to Information of electors
regarding criminal antecedents,
assets and liabili t ies of the
candidates, the State Election
Commissioners have issued orders
in conformity with the Supreme
Court Order. After all, the voters in
the panchayats and municipalities
also have their right to get the
information about the candidates.We have also witnessed a
steady progress as far as the
inclusion of excluded sections
of our population in the decision
making process from village to the
district level is concerned. Women
have got the maximum mileage.
Today more than 10 lakh women
are elected to these bodies every
five years and more than three
times that number are contesting
elections. This is not a mean
achievement in a hierarchical
and male dominated society like
ours. The common refrain that
it is the men folk in the families
who control the women elected
members may be partly true but
studies show that the situation israpidly changing. One-third of all
the panchayats and municipalities
at various levels have women
presidents. As years go by, the
number of women getting elected
from general constituencies is also
increasing. The Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes are equally
securing their due share in the local
bodies.
As local self-government
bodies have come into existence
throughout the country, their
functioning has come under
scrutiny. A congenial climate for
taking governance to the doorsteps
of the people is slowly being
created. A major achievement of
this process is that patronage and
clientelism are slowly shifting from
traditional castes and families to
political parties and ideologies.
Many states, taking advantage
of the prevailing situation, have
gone for innovative and creative
experiments in local governance,
planning and rural development.
The peoples participation in local
plan in Kerala is an illustrative
case in point.
B y c r e a t i n g a s e p a r a t e
Ministry of Panchayati Raj, the
UPA government has taken the
correct and much needed step. The
Ministry has done exceptionally
well in its rst ve year term to
keep the banner of panchayati raj
aloft. The seven round tables the
ministry organized in 2004, the
activity mapping it initiated, the
charter of demands prepared bythe panchayat representatives for
presenting to the Prime Minister
and President of the Congress
party on 24 April, 2008, and the
documents the Union Minister
signed with 22 Chief Ministers
were very special. All this has
come after a long slumber of 11
years.
However, as a close observer
of the working of panchayats
during this period, I nd serious
shortcomings as well. The fact that
the local government system in this
country, which was inaugurated
with great enthusiasm, is facing
enormous problems and powerful
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12 YOJANA February 2011
enemies are a matter of serious
concern. The intensity of the
negative forces varies from state to
state because panchayat is a state
subject. Many state governments
are riding roughshod over the localgovernment institutions.
A t a d e e p e r l e v e l , t h e
negative forces are feudalism
and patriarchy. So long as these
remain the organizing principles
of rural society, little good can
be expected from self-governing
panchayats. For, they will only
give more power to those who
are already powerful in social
and economic terms. Control
over the instrumentalities of self-
government will further strengthen
their hands. Out groups of one
kind or another, especially the poor
and women, may well come to feel
the weight of oppression more than
before. For them, decentralized
governance could turn out to be acurse rather than a blessing.
A section of our bureaucracy is
not at all happy to see panchayats
emerge as institutions of self-
government. Our administrative
culture is to retain the powers of
the line departments and not to
give power to the people. In 1995,
I conducted a study at Shadnagar inAndhra Pradesh where Jawaharlal
Nehru had inaugurated the rst
panchayat in South India on
October 11, 1959. When I asked the
reason for the failure of panchayati
raj, an old guard said: the ofcials
worked against giving power to
the non-ofcials and especially the
peoples representatives from the
villages. In this, they were hand in
glove with state level politicians
(The Hindu, 7 July 1995). In order
to sabotage the new generation of
panchayats, they create parallel
bodies which have devastating
impact on democratically elected
local bodies.
In a socially stratied society
like ours, even today in the rural
areas the landlords and upper
caste people control everything.
Except in a couple of states land
reforms have been implemented
on paper. Studies show that if wetake a typical village panchayat
of about 8,000 population, 70 per
cent people have no land, and the
30 per cent control everything
from gram sabha meetings to
panchayats and inuence assembly
and parliament elections including
NREGS implementation. The
gram sevak to BDO and other
officials happily work with theleaders of the 30 per cent village
landowners. In such villages about
15-20 per cent people are the
Scheduled Castes and they do
not own land. In such situations,
elected panchayats function for
name sake. It is the landlords who
get elected as mukhia/sarpanch/
president. If Dalits, courageous
women, people with idealismquestion their actions or when get
elected and try to bring changes
through the panchayats, they are at
the receiving end of the landlords
or upper castes ire. The bloodbath
caused by grassroots democracy
since 1994 is horrendous. Leela
Devi of Madurai, Dhoola Ratnam
of East Godavari, Sukhia Bhai of
Betul, Madhya Pradesh, Murugesan
and Mookan of Melavalavu, Tamil
Nadu and many others have become
martyrs because of their passion to
devolve power to the people. But
the government prefers to sweep
these tragedies under the carpet or
refuse to recognize what it means
for the oppressed when panchayats
are at work.
The power-brokers about whom
Rajiv Gandhi spoke continue to
hold sway. They appear in various
ways as contractors, middlemen,
lobbyists, maa and so on. Theyalways prefer centralised corridors
of power and not decentralization.
The contractors are omnipresent.
The much acclaimed NREGS
which is to be implemented by
panchayats has banned contractors.
But the collusion between ofcials
and contractors has given sizeable
space to the latter.
There are numerous elaborate
mechanisms at Central and State
levels to ensure accountability and
efcient utilisation of public funds.
There are time tested institutional
mechanisms for audit. So also
vigilance committees sponsored
by the government and supported
by civil society organisations.
At another level, India has the
unique distinction of creating a
constitutional forum for direct
democracy - the Gram Sabha - with
special powers for overseeing the
local development and expenditure.
The concept of `social audit has
emerged from these innovative
steps. All these are not working
the way they are expected to.
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YOJANA February 2011 13
The shortcomings that the
panchayats face today call for
a new deal which is the need
of the hour. Only then they can
open a new chapter for the eight
hundred million people living in
our villages.
l This new deal should make
panchayats institutions of
local government as envisaged
by the Constitution.
l It must ensure ways and
means to make panchayats
and municipalities (the district
and below), the third tier of
government in the country.
Thus we can say goodbye to
the Collector Raj and bring in
District Governments.
l It must ensure autonomy
to implement the policies
and programmes to eradicate
poverty in this country at the
earliest but not later than 20
years so that by 2025 poverty
line becomes totally irrelevant
for India.
l
Since we have a federalsystem, the governments and
political parties must show the
political will to give power to
the people at the centre and
state levels; cosmetic actions
will not work.
I feel that the new Ministry
of Panchayati Raj should have
been the Minist ry of Local
Government bringing the urban
and rural under one umbrella.
Now with a powerful Ministry
of Rural Development and two
ministries looking after Urban
Affairs, very little is left for
the Ministry of Panchayati Raj
to do. Moreover, one Cabinet
minister is in charge of the two
ministries since May 2009. A
full time cabinet minister of
Panchayati Raj is a felt need
today because of the enormous
tasks ahead.
I would like to underline the
fact that if we slacken our efforts
to keep the institutions of local
self government at the centre stage
and as a top agenda of the policy
makers and practitioners, the best
chance we got through the 73rd and
74th Amendments will be in peril.Let us move forward with a strong
commitment for decentralized
governance. There is a long way to
travel. q
(E-mail : [email protected])
YE-2/11/2
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14 YOJANA February 2011
DO yOu KNOW?
What is WikiLeaks ?
WikiLeaks is an international
w e b s i t e t h a t p u b l i s h e s
anonymous submissions and
leaks of sensitive governmental,
corporate, organisational or
religious documents. This website
WikiLeaks.org was launched on
4th October 2006. The website
was unveiled and published its
rst document in December 2006,
claiming a database of more than1.2 million documents within
a year of its launch. WikiLeaks
founders are a mix of journalists,
mathematicians, and start-up
company technologists from the
United States, Taiwan, Europe,
Australia and South Africa. Julian
Assange an Australian internet
activist is generally described as
its director. The site was originally
launched as a user-editable wiki,but has progressively moved
towards a more traditional
publication model and no longer
accepts either user comments or
edits. WikiLeaks also develops
and adapts technologies to support
these activities.
Where is WikiLeaks located ?
The WikiLeaks Headquarters
has surprised everybody withi t s ext raordinary loca t ion
and conditions.The Turkey-
based WikiLeaks office was
constructed during the cold war,
and reconstructed by the Pionen
company in 2008. This could be
the most strong and wonderful
ofce thats established in the past
WIKILEAKS
ten years. Though the ofces of
social networking service Facebookand Search engine giant Google
were already in hot discussions
the WikiLeaks Bunker pictures
shows how powerful and unique an
ofce can be.
Some astonishing facts about
Bahnhof AB ofce interior where
WikiLeaks data is safely stored:
l Originally built in cold war
years to survive nuclearattack
l It is buried deep under a granite
mountain
l There is only one entry and
exit
l Generators of German U-Boat
submarines work as a backup
power
l Fish tanks, fountains and plants
are beautifying the ambience
Who are the people behind
WikiLeaks ?
WikiLeaks claim it has a
volunteer group of about 1,400
people, but these numbers have
expanded. The group basically
includes journalists, software
programmers, network engineers,
mathematicians and others.
How does WikiLeaks fnction ?
WikiLeaks has combined high-
end security technologies with
jo urn al ism. Like other media
outlets conducting investigative
journalism, WikiLeaks accepts (but
does not solicit) anonymous sources
of information. When information
comes in, journalists analyse the
material, verify it and write anews piece about it describing its
signicance to society. WikiLeaks
then publishes both the news
story and the original material
in order to enable readers to
analyse the story in the context
of the original source material
themselves. If the main site
wikiLeaks.org is not functional
then WikiLeaks also currently
has 1426 up-to-date sites .
W h a t i s t h e s t a t s o f
Wikileaks ?
The legal status of WikiLeaks
is complex. Assange considers
WikiLeaks a whistleblower
protection intermediary. Rather
than leaking directly to the
press, and fearing exposure and
retribution, whistleblowers canleak to WikiLeaks, which then
leaks to the press for them. Its
servers are located throughout
Europe and are accessible from
any uncensored web connection.
The group has located its
headquarters in Sweden because
it has one of the worlds strongest
shield laws to protect condential
source-journalist relationships.
WikiLeaks has stated that theydo not solicit any information.
However, Assange used his
speech during the Hack In The
Box conference in Malaysia to
ask the crowd of hackers and
security researchers to help nd
documents on its Most Wanted
Leaks of 2009 list.
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YOJANA February 2011 15
ACK OF adequate
sanitation is a pressing
cha l lenge in both
rural and urban India.
Sani ta t ion-re la ted
diseases take a heavy toll of
lives, especially childrens lives,
loss of productivity and income.
Inadequate sanitation leads toindignity of open defecation
especially for women and young
girls.
Despite the fact that India has
impressive development indictors
like growth of over 8%, a dynamic
industry and a vibrant democratic
governance system, one third of
its population has to still bear the
shame of defecating in the open.
The challenge that India, with its
large population, size & different
hydro-geological regions faces in
the area of sanitation is unique and
unparalleled in the world. The
Towards Sustainable Sanitation in
North-Eastern Region
RuRal SaNiTaTiON
Agatha Sangma
OVERViEW
The secret of
the phenomenal
success in Sikkim
has been the top
priority given by
the political andadministrative
leadership of the
state
Department of Drinking Water
and Sanitation, Ministry of Rural
Development, Government of
India has taken on this enormous
challenge by pledging to provide
sanitation facilities in all rural areas
through its agship programme
Total Sanitation Campaign
(TSC). TSC has been successfulin changing the rural sanitation
coverage from a mere 21% as per
2001 Census to 67% of households
in the current year with over 22,618
PRIs becoming open defecation
free Nirmal Grams.
TSC has resul ted in the
construction of 7.07 Crore
Individual Household Latrines
(IHHL), 10.33 lakh school toilets,
3,47,077 Anganwadi Toilets,
19,509 community sani tary
complexes with a total project
outlay of Rs. 17,885 Crore. The
Department has set the target to
L
The author is Minister of State, Ministry of Rural Development, Govt of india
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16 YOJANA February 2011
provide universal toilet coverage
in rural areas by 2015.
Recognizing the enormous
economic, health and social
benets that sustainable sanitation
brings to the rural communities
TSC is being implemented in all
the eight North Eastern Indian
states of Arunachal Pradesh,
Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya,
Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and
Tripura. While overall the North
Eastern region scores fairly well
on the rural sanitation map as
compared to other states there arewide variations in the sanitation
coverage.
S i k k i m h a s m a d e t h e
commendable ach i evement
of becoming the first Open
Defecation Free Nirmal State of
India. The secret of the phenomenal
success in Sikkim has been the top
priority given by the political and
administrative leadership of the
state and decentralized mechanism
of implementation by active
involvement of local governance
State-wise percentage physical performance is given below
S.N. State IHHL-
BPL%
IHHL
APL%
IHHL
TOTAL%
San.
Comp%
School
Toilets%
Toilets for
Anganwadi%
1 Arunachal Pradesh 36.77 59.53 39.88 18.55 97.16 87.57
2 Assam 39.79 20.96 33.32 9.95 92.41 62.64
3 Manipur 13.24 28.84 17.29 55.7 73.51 75.1
4 Meghalaya 33.83 49.7 38.33 25.17 33.12 21.83
5 Mizoram 66.38 88.86 70.3 87.86 100 59.11
6 Nagaland 39.03 19.32 36.11 64.73 61.74 61.37
7 Sikkim 100 100 100 100 100 100
8 Tripura 94.32 80.96 90.7 71.68 67.2 91.55
46.60 32.28 42.15 69.17 79.18 68.24
Case Stdy of Bal PanchayatYong Sanitation Champions
An Ideal Example of Grassroot Democracy and Eqity
under BAC WOK Sikkip, Sikkim
Rights come with responsibilities. BAC Sikkip launched the concept
of Bal Panchayat in the month of February 2010 in 12 Schools. Settingan example before the adult members of the Gram Panchayat (village
council), children of schools under BAC Sikkip are running a parallel
self-government body, asserting their right to education, health,
entertainment and leisure.
The village children have constituted the Bal Panchayat through a
general election under the supervision of school authorities. Besides
the President, the Bal Panchayat has ministers for education, health,
environment, cultural affairs, sports, etc. These ministers are charged
with the responsibilities of ensuring the well-being of the children
by bringing to the notice of the elders and authorities concerned, the
specic problems and needs of the children.
A Self Help Drive was organised by the Block Administrative Centre
for moving towards better toilets and better hygiene at Sanganath
Secondary School, one of the remotest Gram Panchayat Unit. In the
construction drive of the toilets, material component was used from
the fund provided by the Government and the labour component
was covered totally through participatory mode by school students,
teachers, community, Panchayat and Block Ofcials. This ultimately
built a sense of ownership of the asset created in their area which wasmissing earlier.
systems, local communities,
Womens Self Help Groups and
Youth Groups. Having obtained
the Nirmal State status Sikkim
is now planning to take up next
generation sanitation activities
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YOJANA February 2011 17
like Menstrual Hygiene and Solid
& Liquid Waste Management
(SLWM). The Government of
Sikkim is collaborating with Indian
Green Services, an NGO to take up
a pilot project on Solid & Liquid
Waste Management (SLWM).
Tripura i s another s ta te
which has made commendable
achievement in achieving over
90% sanitation coverage. TSC is
implemented as a comprehensive
concept, which includes waste
disposal, food hygiene, personal,
domestic as well as environmental
hygiene.
In Manipur, while coverage of
school sanitation is good, progress
in IHHL coverage has been rather
slow. The major concern in the state
is that owing to the hilly terrain
the leach pit toilets are difcult
to construct and Ecosanitation
is proposed to be promoted in
the state under Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme.
In Meghalaya there has been
intensive campaigning on access
and usage of toilets under TSC
in all the 7 Districts. TSC is
implemented through the District
Water and Sanitation Mission
and Village Water and Sanitation
Committee. The state has been
able to upscale the TSC by building
effective partnerships with Water
and Sanitation Programme-South
Asia. The state has made therecommendation that to scale up
TSC , population figures from
2011 census and revised BPL
figures need to be considered
for assessing progress on TSC,
integration of sanitation with
other development programmes
through convergence with other
departments like Education and
Health.
In Mizoram, TSC was initiated
in 2002 and is being implemented
in all the districts. Efforts are
being made to convert the dry
pit latrines to pour ush latrines.
While sanitation coverage received
attention in the state, a hygiene
behavior such as hand washing
was not focused upon. The unique
feature of the state is that TSC
is implemented with support
from local NGOs particularly
for d ra inage c l ean ing andmaintenance.
Nagaland has initiated TSC
only in 2005 and currently the
Campaign is being implemented
in 9 out of 11 districts in the
State. IEC activities in the state
have been intensied to accelerate
sanitation coverage The State
suggested nurturing strong social
capital, increase the involvement
of women for behavior change &
IEC and initiating Campaigns on
sanitation with the involvement
of local leaders and MLAs and
making a clear time-frame for
achieving TSC goals.
The overall progress in TSC
in Arunachal Pradesh has been
slow. Major challenges in the state
are remoteness of habitations,
difcult mountain terrain beyond
the reach of road connectivity and
low income of people. Moreover,
transition from wiping with straws
and cloth to use of safe sanitation
Sccess Story of Total Sanitation Campaign
Implementation in Soth Tripra
Rural Sanitary Marts have been set up and managed by women
SHGS in all the 11 blocks of the district for production of sanitary
materials like squatting plates, mosaic pan/siphon etc. A number of
smaller production units/ manufacturing centers at Gram Panchayat
level and ward/para level have been set up for ensuring 100 percent
achievement in time.
Rajibnagar and Ratanmani, two Gram Panchayats of Satchand
Block and West Jalefa and Bankul Mahamani GPs jointly under
Satcand and Rupaicharri block achieved full coverage of sanitation.
The 1st three GPs in the District making 100% coverage of targeted
families were also awarded by the Chief Minister. Awards consisted
of additional allocation of development fund to the block as well as
to the Gram Panchayats. This really acted on the morale and boostedthe enthusiasm of the implementing agencies of RD programmes in
the District.
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18 YOJANA February 2011
and washing with water requires
time. So far, 16 Gram Panchayats
(GPs) in the state have won the
Nirmal Gram Panchayat award
and continue to maintain the NGP
status without any slippages. Thestate has proposed introduction
of special package to popularize
Ecosanitation models in selected
districts, State, and incentive
for APL families also, as the gap
between Above Poverty Line
(APL) and Below Poverty Line
(BPL) families in Arunachal
Pradesh are marginal.
In Assam Kaccha toilets
are a major challenge. Efforts are
underway to convert Kaccha
toilets into safe ones. Provision
of sani ta t ion fac i l i t i es for
Anganwadis is also problematic
due to space constraints and their
location in private buildings. In
four districts of Assam there are
Village Council Development
Committee (VCDC) instead of
the PRI and in 2 hilly Districts
there is a Member of Autonomous
Council making it difficult to
implement TSC.
Policy/implementation isses
Recognizing that the North
East States, particularly the poor
performing ones have specific
issues that need special attention
to upscale TSC, the Government of
India has taken several initiatives.
Some of the policy initiatives
and the issues of concern for
sanitation promotion in North
Eastern region are :
1. As per policy of Govt. of
India, 10% funds are allocated
for North Eastern States. In
the current financial year,TSC allocation is Rs. 1580
cr. of which Rs. 158 Crore is
reserved for NE states.
2. An additional incentive of
Rs 2000 is given by Central
Government to BPL for
IHHL in the North East
and Hilly states (as against
Rs. 1500 in other cases) whilethe state and beneficiary
contributions remain the
same i .e . Rs. 700/- and
Rs. 300/- respectively.
3. Additional incentive is given
by Cent ra l Government
for construction of school
toilets (38,500/-for Hilly and
Difcult Areas as against Rs.35,000/- in other cases). and
for construction of Anganwadi
toilets (Rs. 10,000/--for Hilly
and Difcult Areas as against
Rs. 8,000/- in other cases).
4. Sus ta inab le technolog y
options in sanitation keeping
in view the special geo-
phys ica l fea ture of the
North Eas t region need
to be cons idered whi le
implementing sani ta t ion
projects in these sta tes .
Many of the states have
suggested initiating pilot
projects of technologies like
Ecosanitation particularly
in those hilly areas where
leach pit toilets are difcult
to construct.
5. The G.O.I. has set up several
institutions like WSSO, Block
Resource Centres (BRC),State Water and Sanitation
Mission (SWSM), District
Water Sanitation, Health
Committees (DWHSC) and
increased the number of Key
Resource Centre (KRC) which
would be providing support to
states to undertake capacity
building and IEC activities
to accelerate sani ta t ion
promotion and address the
challenges being faced in
sanitation promotion.
6. Many states are also prone to
disasters, particularly oods
in Assam which impact
the sanitation facilities in
these areas. Technologies
and response mechanism to
address these needs to be
focused upon.
7. For those North Eastern states
where toilet coverage has
almost reached a peak, viz.
Sikkim, Tripura there is a need
for developing a post Nirmal
State policy which should
include capacity building on
next generation sanitation
activit ies l ike Solid and
Liquid Waste Management,
Ecosanitation, Menstrual
H y g i e n e M a n a g e m e n t
etc. q
(E-mail : [email protected])
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YOJANA February 2011 19
Gandhis Vision of Democracy :His Will and last Testament
Every panchayat of ve adult men or women being villagers or village-minded shall form a unit. Two such
contiguous panchayats shall form a working party under a leader elected from among themselves. When there
are one hundred such panchayats, the fty rst grade leaders shall elect from among themselves a second-grade
leader and so on, the rst-grade leaders meanwhile working under the second-grade leader. Parallel groupsof two
1hundred panchayats shall continue to be formed till they cover the whole of India, each succeeding
group of panchayats electing a second-grade leader after the manner of the rst. All second-grade leaders
shall serve jointly for the whole of India and severally for their respective areas.
The second-grade leaders may elect, when ever they deem necessary, from among themselves a chief who
will, during pleasure, regulate and command all the groups.(As the nal formation of provinces or districts
is still in a state of ux, no attempt has been made to divide this group of servants into provincial or district
councils and jurisdiction over the whole of India has been vested in the group or groups that may have been
formed at any given time. It should be noted that this body of servants derive their authority or power from
service ungrudgingly and wisely done to their master, the whole of India.)2
1. Every worker shall be a habitual wearer of khadi made from self-spun yarn or certied by the A. I. S.A. and must be a teetotaller. If a Hindu, he must have abjured untouchability in any shape or form in his
own person or in his family and must be a believer in the ideal of inter-communal unity, equal respect
and regard for all religions and equality of opportunity and status for all irrespective of race, creed or
sex.
2. He shall come in personal contact with every villager within his jurisdiction.
3. He shall enrol and train workers from amongst the villagers and keep a register of all these.
4. He shall keep a record of his work from day to day.
5. He shall organize the villages so as to make them self contained and self-supporting through their
agriculture and handicrafts.
6. He shall educate the village folk in sanitation and hygiene and take all measures for prevention of illhealth and disease among them.
7. He shall organize the education of the village folk from birth to death along the lines of Nayee Talim, in
accordance with the policy laid down by the Hindustani Talimi Sangh.
8. He shall see that those whose names are missing on the statutory voters, roll are duly entered therein.
9. He shall encourage those who have not yet acquired the legal qualication, to acquire it for getting the
right of franchise.
10. For the above purposes and others to be added from time to time, he shall train and t himself in accordance
with the rules laid down by the Sangh for the due performance of duty.
The Sangh shall afliate the following autonomous bodies:
1. A.I.S.A.
2. A.I.V.I.A.
3. Hindustani Talimi Sangh
4. Harijan Sevak Sangh
5. Goseva Sangh
FINANCE
The Sangh shall raise nances for the fullment of its mission from among the villagers and others,
special stress being laid on collection of poor mans pice.
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20 YOJANA February 2011
R A M S A B H A i s
equiva lent to Lok
S a b h a a n d R a j y a
Sabha as long as it
is able to exercise
the powers conferred on it by
the Act of Panchayati Raj. It
is a constitutional body with
tremendous potential. Yet, evenafter fifteen years of its existence,
we do not find substantial impact
of Gram Sabha in the rural polity,
society and development. It does
not mean that Gram Sabha has
sunk into oblivion. It does exist
and is certainly functioning.
But it is not functioning in the
way it was expected to. Hence,
time and again we are faced
with the question as to why this
institution is falling short of
expectation.
L o c a l b o d i e s p r o v i d e
opportunity to people to work for
A Place to Convert Noise to Voice
GRaM Sabha
G Palanithurai
OPiNiON
To make GramSabha more
effective, the wholePanchayati Rajsystem has to be
strengthened. TheGram Panchayat
should be
empowered enoughto be able to carryout the decisions
taken by theGram Sabha
the welfare of their communities,
thereby participating in the
process of governance and
d e v e l o p m e n t . T h e y h e l p
change the character of the
democracy from representative
to participatory. Through the
institution of the Gram Sabha,
the centre is connected to thecommunity at the grassroots ,
which is essential for making
governance meaningful. The Gram
Sabha is a powerful instrument to
achieve social equality and to
convert the noise of the people
to voice of the people. It is an
instrument that can make it
possible to eliminate powerbrokers from the development
space, provide opportunity to the
poor to claim their entitlements,
ensure accountable governance
at the state and central levels
and achieve growth that is truly
G
The author is Professor, Rajiv Gandhi Chair for Panchayati Raj Studies,Department of Political Science andDevelopment Administration, Gandhigram Rural University, Tamil Nadu
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YOJANA February 2011 21
inclusive. It needs to be analyzed
how effectively the Gram Sabha
has enacted these roles during the
past fifteen years.
Backdrop
The India society and polity
are unique and paradoxical to
many of the established notions
of democracy , gove rnance
and administration. Ours is a
hierarchical society based on the
caste system; it is patriarchal in
nature and feudal in character.
Societies normally witnesses ahigh level of conict based on
caste, religion, region, culture and
language, which are antithetical
to representative democracy. Yet,
despite such immense diversity,
our democracy is active and
vibrant- at least quantitatively,
if not qualitatively. Qualitatively
there is a lot to be desired.
Over a period of t ime since
independence all responsibilities
of the society have been taken
over by the government through
its departments and the street
bureaucracy . Yet they have not
been able to satisfy even the
basic needs of the people. The
governance process distanced
common men and women from
the government. This was noted
by former Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi in Parliament when he
said, A wide chasm separated
the largest body of the electorate
from a small member of its elected
representatives. This gap has
been occupied by the power
brokers, the middlemen and vested
interests. with the passage
of these bills the panchayats
would emerge as a rm building
block of administration anddevelopment.. as an instrument
in the consolidation of democracy
at the grassroots. (Rajiv Gandhi,
1989) The quality of democracy,
development, governance and
administration substantially relate
to the quality of participation of
people in the process of politics,
governance and development.It was to make this qualitative
difference to our democracy that
we attempted to design a vibrant
rural body that would make
the process of development
participatory at the grassroots
level. Though the prescribed
process was devolutionary, the
ultimate aim was to achievea vibrant, strong and active
participatory democracy in India
through a process of functional
evolution of the newly created
local bodies. It was expected that
by making the rural local bodies
more vibrant, the top heavy-
bottom weak model of democracy
would change into bottom strong
and thereby top strong model of
democracy. The foundation of
this evolutionary process was to
rest upon the Gram Sabha.
Design of Gram Sabha
The successful execut ion
of any work depends on the
precision of the instrument being
used. Thus the design of the Gram
Sabha is crucial to the success of
scheme of panchayati raj. Even
before the 73rd constitutional
amendment came, there wereseveral participatory decision
making bodies at the grassroots in
many communities for example,
the Oor Sabhas functioning in the
villages of Tamil Nadu. They are
traditional institutions with limited
functions at the community level,
and are acceptable to the local
communities. These institutionsare headed by traditional leaders
who are sometimes elected. They
have an unwritten conventional
framework of rules. In the Oor
Sabha, the ultimate authority
lies with its stakeholders. They
are answerable to themselves
and rely on their own resources.
Every stakeholder knows the role
of the Oor Sabha. They have
extreme role clarity. No external
agency is involved either in
their decision making or in the
implementation of the decisions.
If an evaluation is made on their
functional efficacy and efficiency,
one would f ind them to be
excellent in terms of attendance,
participation, decision making
and implementation of decisions.
How and why this traditional
institution performs well and
why is a constitutional body not
able to perform as traditional
institutions? This is the point one
has to analyse.
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Conception and Operation
In order to achieve participatory
governance at grassroots level,
Article 243 A of part 1X of the
constitution of India places the Gram
Sabha at the centre of Panchayati
Raj by giving constitutional
recognition to it. The Gram Sabha
is an age old institution. But it
was not democratic and inclusive
at all times and places. Yet, it held
the promise of effectiveness,
vibrancy, responsiveness and
accountability and was therefore
incorporated in the constitution
and also in the panchayati raj Acts
of states. The state governments
have operationalised the provisions
of panchayati raj, and the Gram
Sabhas have come into being.
Their performance in different
states is being evaluated and
they are being brought out in the
form of reports and monographs.
From the reports one can broadly
classify that there are ve types of
functions and twenty one matters
or subjects earmarked for Gram
Sabha transactions. But in terms
of effectiveness, there is still a lot
to be desired.
Without going into details
of how and where the Gram
Sabha has measured less that was
expected of it, a comparison with
the Oor Sabha indicates faulty
or weak design as one possible
reason for the less than expected
performance. The traditional
Oor Sabha deal with about eleven
subjects, and they have been
functioning well. They have their
own records, people have more
faith in them than on the Gram
Sabha. The rules, regulations,
func t i ons , implementa t i onmechanisms of the Oor Sabha
vary from village to village, and
are based on the specic needs
and priorities of its own people
with no interference of any sort
from any outside agency. The
constitutional Gram Sabha is
however, a prototype, and the
same across the state. It does
not take into account the specic
needs to people coming under
it. Since the character, culture,
practices, needs vary from place
to place within a state or even
within a district, a grassroots level
institution should be able to take
these variations into account. So
designing of the institution is of
utmost importance. Normally one
cannot expect that every one in
a community will participate in
the Gram Sabha meeting. Those
who can spare time and those
who are really the beneciariesof the decisions would normally
participate. If this happens one can
be satised. But if neither people
with leisure nor the beneciaries
participate, it obviously indicates
something wrong in the designing
of the institutions. Further the
decisions taken in the institutions
that is the Gram Sabha - have tobe carried out or implemented by
the concerned agencies otherwise
the decision has no meaning. But
in many of the states, neither the
panchayats have the resources to
fulll the demands of the people
nor have the line departments
worked towards implementing the
same. As a result, the decisions
In Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu, a large number of community
organisations are functioning effectively and looking after some of
the community affairs, mostly water bodies. These organisations
take care of water tanks, ponds and ooranies with the corpus fund.
Repair of water tanks by Public Works Department usually takes a
long time, resulting in wastage of water. To overcome this problem
the community organisations use the corpus money to carry out
the repairs. Each organisation has a general council. The leader of
the general council manages the corpus. The district administration
does not disturb the functioning of these traditional councils as they
are doing useful work for the community. In many of the places
these councils are very vibrant and democratic, and they work
with the constitutional panchayats and carry out effectively the
development works. On the contrary in many places these councils
are undemocratic and do not get along with the constitutional
panchayats.
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YOJANA February 2011 23
taken by the Gram Sabha do not
get implemented and it has beenreduced to a place for collecting
petit ions from the members.
Neither the office bearers nor
the members perceive the Gram
Sabha as an institution that can
help them in any way. To make
Gram Sabha more effective, the
whole Panchayati Raj system has
to be strengthened. The GramPanchayat should be empowered
enough in every way to be able
to carry out the decisions taken
by the Gram Sabha. At least the
panchayat leader should have the
power, authority and effectiveness
to get the government departments
to meet the genuine demands of
the people and help solve their
problems.
Conclsion
l To make Gram Sabha more
effective, one has to consider
the following options:
l P r i m a r i l y w h a t c o u l d
be achieved at the village
panchayat level should be
given as powers to Gram
Sabha;
l What ever Gram Sabha decides
within the framework of
powers conferred on it have
to be executed and for this
resource base has to be created
at panchayat level;
l Role clarity is very important.
The powers given to Gram
Sabha should be known to the
people without ambiguity;
l Mobilization of people for
Gram Sabha has to be done
more effectively
l The chairperson of Gram
Sabha should create interest
for the members so that they
attend meetings regularly.
Opportunity should to be
given to all segments of the
society. Patient hearing of
the voices of the people is
essential.
l The chairperson should take
pains to respond to the voices
of the people;
l It should have flexibility
of operation. The whole
organization and conduct
of meeting of Gram Sabha
should be left to the people
and it should not be driven
from the above;
l Gram Sabha should have some
value addition like makingit an information Sabha, a
discourse Sabha, a debating
Sabha and so on. One has to
think creatively to make Gram
Sabha more active, vibrant
and interesting. q
(E-mail : [email protected])
Nallukottai is a Gram Panchayat in Sivaganga district. It is
one of the best Gram Panchayats and has bagged several
awards for successful implementation of development schemes.
The traditional panchayat leader here is also the leader
of the Gram Panchayat. They have two Gram Sabhas. One is the
Gram Sabha of the Panchayat and the other is the Oorsabha of thecommunity. Both are functioning very well. When a question was
raised to the community leader regarding the role of the two sabhas,
his reply was that the Gram Sabha, created through the Panchayat
Act was tied up with ofcials. The Oorsabha on the other hand
was tied up with community. The Gram Sabha gets directions from
the Collector through the Gram Panchayat whereas the Oorsabha
is convened periodically according to the peoples convenience.
Agenda is decided by the people. No supervision from above. No
observer. No rigid rules. No paper work. Oorsabha is need
based. Whatever is decided here gets implemented whereas the
decisions of Gram Sabha are often not implemented. The Oorsabha
of the community is vested with powers with all flexibility.
The Gram Sabha of the Gram Panchayat does not have power, yet
it has got rigidity. This was the observation of the leader of the
traditional panchayat, who also happened to be the chairman of the
Oorsabha in this village.
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24 YOJANA February 2011
N N O D O M I N I
1993 saw history in
the making. After a
protracted exercise, in
the summer of 1993
(24th April 1993) Presidential
assent was accorded to the 73rd
constitutional amendment bill
which inter alia ensured theentry of women into rural local
self governing units i .e. the
panchayats, both as members
and as functionaries. This was
considered a gigantic step towards
empowerment of women. The 73rd
constitutional amendment spelt a
sea change in the arena of womens
representation in PRI. It brought in
a total departure from the erstwhile
system of token nomination or
co-option of one or two women
in panchayats as advised by B.
R. Mehta Committee (1957) and
Ashok Mehta Committee (1978).
Women in Panchayats: A Review
GRaM Sabha
Atonu Chatterjee
OPiNiON
Gradual genderingof local democracy
is opening up a
new vista in the
rural areas. Women
are increasingly
getting a chance to
shape grassrootslevel politics which
previously was
controlled by local
power cliques
Further, it also partially complied
with the recommendation of the
Committee on the status of Women
which, way back in 1974 mentioned
that earnest efforts should be taken
for establishment of statutory
womens panchayats at the village
level with autonomy and resources
of their own for the managementand administration of welfare
and development programmes for
women and children, as a transition
measure, to break through the
traditional attitudes that inhibit
most women from articulating their
problems and participating actively
in the existing local bodies (as
cited in India Panchyati Raj Report
2001).
This step was recently followed
up by another signicant decision.
On June 4, 2009 the President in
her speech in the joint session of
Parliament, wished to have more
A
The author is a member of the West Bengal Civil Service, currently posted as GM, WBIDC. He is also a Guest Facultyat the Rural Development and Management Department of Kalyani University.
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YOJANA February 2011 25
seats reserved for women in the
panchayats so that the multiple
deprivations of class, caste and
gender suffered by women can be
tackled head on ! The Government
took up the cue. Similar demandsin Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal
Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh
added strength to the concept. On
August 27, 2009 the Indian cabinet
approved a proposal for enhancing
the reservation of directly elected
seats for women from one third to
fty percent in all the tiers through
an amendment of Article 243(D)
(3) of the Constitution. Article 243
D(3) enumerates that Not less than
one third (including the number of
seats reserved for women belonging
to the Scheduled Castes and the
Scheduled Tribes) of the total
number of seats to be filled by
direct election in every panchayat
shall be reserved for women and
such seats may be allotted byrotation to different constituencies
in a panchayat. Along with this,
rotational reservation of at least
one third of the total number of
ofces of Chairpersons at all levels
of panchayat was ensured through
Article 243D(4). The proposed
amendment seeks to replace this
phrase of not less than one third
with the words not less than
half.
Once this move is implemented,
the number of women members
will go up to 4.4 million from the
present three million. As per the
ofcial version this provision will
apply to the total number of seats
filled by direct election, offices
of chairpersons and seats and
offices of chairpersons reserved
for scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes. Nagaland, Meghalaya,
Mizoram, hill areas of Manipur andtribal areas of Assam and Tripura
will remain outside the ambit of the
amendment.
On 30th March 2010, the
Government of West Bengal
principally agreed to put this
arrangement into practice during
the next panchayat general election
of the state scheduled in 2013,
while Rajasthan, Kerala and
Gujrat have already implemented
it during their panchayat general
election of 2010. Tripura went a
step further. It not only amended
its own panchayat act to this
effect, but also brought its urban
local bodies within this ambit
through Tripura Muncipal (fourth
amendment) bill.
Performance of women in PRIs
General Observations
l Despite several stumbling
blocks women PRI members
have generally performed
well throughout the country.
Several surveys indicate this.
The Ministry of Panchayati
Raj of the Government of
India has also conducted one,
with by far the largest sample
size. Culling the observations
from all the sources certain
common points emerge-
l Participation of women in
the Gram Sabha meetings
increases when the Prodhan
is a woman. This corroborates
the general perception that
polit ical communication
improves when the citizen and
the leader are of the same sex.
(The Impact of Reservation in
the Panchayati Raj- Evidence
from a nationwide randomized
experiment-Raghobendra
Chattopadhyay & Esther
Dao-Nov-2003.)
l Since women panchayat
representatives consistently
demand for adequate supply
of drinking water, housing and
social welfare programmes,
expenditure on these counts
are relatively higher in women
headed panchayats.
l Women headed panchayats
score brownie points in
construction of roads, upkeep
of drinking water facilities
and administering governmentloan schemes. However
their performance is not as
effective in ensuring irrigation
avenues.
l Women headed panchayats
generally take more interests
in negotiating social evils like
child marriage, indiscriminate
sale of liquor, witch-hunting
and such other problems.
Problems
Certain major hindrances can
also be identified in the path
of functioning of the women
members and funct ionaries .
(Empowerment of Women: Waiting
for Godot?-Atonu Chatterjee &
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26 YOJANA February 2011
Apurba Mukhopadhyay in Indian
Political thought and Movements-
edited by H.Bhattacharyya et al.
K.P.Bagchi& Company 2007)
l Dual responsibility: Women
traditionally burdened withdomestic work face difculties
in balancing the ofcial work
with their home.
l Lack of security: Sometimes
due to lack of security women
members fail to visit remote
areas in odd hours or attend
meetings in far away places.
Gradual criminalization ofpolitics also is arresting their
participation.
l Lack of information and
knowledge about government
programmes especially for
women and child development
poses problems. Again limited
exposure to formal education
breeds information gap anddependency on second hand
knowledge. Consequently
political lineage determines
the distribution of benets of
different schemes.
l Communication problem
hinders performanceas most of
the correspondences,, rules and
regulations are in English.
l Due to lack of exposure and
experience women members
face difficulty in asserting
themselves. The fact that
majority of women enter
politics through reservation
and kinship arrangement only
accentuates this problem.
Owing to rotational policy
women can scarcely continue their
relationship with politics. There
are three points to be noted in this
kind of rotational reservation. First
a very small percentage of firsttime women members/ pradhans
get elected for the second / third
time. The following table amply
claries this.
Secondly, as all these seats were
previously held by male members,
they often manage to x these up
in favour of one of their women
relatives. Hence we nd that mostwomen representatives scarcely
had previous experience of being
associated with political or social
organizations and majority of
them got elected to the seats to
which their family members were
previously elected. Thus we nd
that 41.7% of the female prodhans
and 41.8% of the female ward
members drew their motivation
for contesting panchayat election
from their spouse. The Community
groups like Mahila Mondals, Self-
Help Groups motivated 23.3%
of women to take a plunge and
political parties come a poor third
motivating only 6.9% of the women
representatives and that too only in
the states of West Bengal, Sikkim,Tripura and Kerala.
Thirdly, women candidates are
scarcely nominated from unreserved
seats. In rural local bodies only
10.8% of the women get elected
from unreserved seats. For male
contestants however this gure is49%. (Study on Elected Women
Representatives in Panchayati
Raj Institutions - Ministry of
Panchayati Raj, Government of
India,2008)
Thus this rotational aspect
of reservation begets a short-
term gain mindset, leading to
a lack of accountability among
the PRI members. Women who
have got in simply through family
connections are also not effective in
asserting themselves and bringing
about meaningful change. The
process also entails a huge wastage
of resources on the part of state
governments as with every election
they have to start the process o