Participatory Governance In India
Participatory Governance In India
India has had a long history of local governance. The concept of village as a self sufficient unit and existence of Panchayats at village level have existed since ancient times. Panchayats were institutions of local people for governance and resolutions of disputes at local level.
In the modern India, the concept of participatory development had been experimented much before it took shape in the development discourse. The first such attempt of structural participation of people in development was through Community Development Programme in 1952 as a Programme of aided self Help. This Programme intended to be planned and implemented by the villagers themselves government offering technical and financial assistance. The community development Programme failed miserably because of lack of political patronage as well as bureaucratic lethargy.
This happened despite the fact that the Constitution of India had recognized Panchayat bodies as units of Self –Government drawing its inspiration from the historical legacy of Panchayat Systems of Indian villages.
Since independence, India has experimented with its policies partially on the lines of its own history and partially going by the global trends of the times. The periods of 1950s-1980s were periods of Centralized governance system even internationally with growth Centered top down approach to development.
The international failure of growth centered approach excluding the masses was almost replicated in India also.
India had multi dimensional issues to address on Development front like poverty, hunger, illiteracy, extreme inequalities, and rural urban divide. Fortunately, the importance of all round development with active people’s participation was realized sooner than later.
Thus efforts to institutionalize the participation of citizens in decision making, development planning and management by giving more powers and resources to the gross root level was aimed to be brought about by the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts (1993).
These Constitutional Amendments, the 73rd pertaining to rural local government and 74th for urban local government have given a shot in the areas of decentralization.
The 73rd Amendment, which is a watershed in the sphere of rural governance has an attached Eleventh Schedule to the Indian Constitution which covers 29 functional areas ranging from agriculture, land reforms, forestry, small industries, drinking water, rural electrification poverty alleviation, education, development of women and children, etc. Local Government, be it rural or urban, is essentially a manifestation of popular participation in the process of governance at the grass roots level.
All political power in democracy stems from people. Access to political power is critical for economic and social empowerment. Central, therefore, governance is empowerment of people by increasing their control over governance.
A policy shift towards decentralization of political power took place in India through the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution of India.
This was an outcome of growing concern about increasing inefficiency and costs of delivery systems of development programme.
The smallest unit of the Indian democratic set up, the village. The dream of the Gandhian Economics of the grass roots was realized in modern India through the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution which provided for creation of three tier structure of Panchayats. The creation of this system was made constitutional obligations on all states leaving no discretion with them. Thus democracy began to flow from lowest level of society and development became people centric.
The setting up of Gram Sabha at village level has strengthened the people’s direct involvement in their affairs. The Gram Sabha has been set up in each village consisting of all members of the village who are eligible to vote in elections.
Gram Sabha is empowered to look after all the development issues of village and has a binding duty to discuss them in meetings to obtain consensus of its members. Gram Sabha is recognized as the assembly of Panchayati Raj.
1. Composition of Gram Sabha
There will be at least two meetings of Gram Sabha every year, one in the first and the other in the last quarter of the financial year.
Gram sabha can also meet on the written request of one tenth of its members, or if required by Panchayat Samiti, Zila Parishad or the State Government. Participation of people in meeting is ensured by Panchayat by Placing before the Gram Sabha – (in first quarter).
Functions Of Gram Sabha
- To consider and approve the annual plan prepared by the Gram Panchayat.
- To generate proposal and determine the priority of all schemes and development programmes.
- To identify and select individuals for beneficiary oriented programmes.
- To disseminate information on development and welfare schemes.
- To assist Gram Panchayat in collection and compilation of details about the village for development plans.
- To collect information about functioning of Gram panchayat and share in Gram Sabha.
- To generate awareness among people about programmes and schemes for development.
In addition to above Gram Sabha discharges almost all functions which are required in the village for the development including persuading members to pay taxes and loan repayment.
Constraints In Functioning Of Gram Sabha
- Lack of awareness, lack of attendance, domination of forward caste.
- Lack of awareness about legal provisions of Gram Sabha.
- Poor people fell that their issues are not taken up.
- Meetings of the Gram Sabha are convened to ensure the development of the people through their participation and mutual cooperation. The attendance ratio of people in Gram Sabha meetings is the best indicator of people’s participation in planning and development
- To promote effective participation in Gram Sabha the following positive actions are needed to be taken:
- Democracy cannot succeed with inequality and poverty
- Effective role of political parties in educating and mobilizing people for Gram Sabha.
- Panchayat leadership to be more democratic and open to criticism.
- Freedom of speech to be ensured
- Information dissemination of positive works of Gram Sabha and Panchayat to be highlighted.
- Government agencies to be responsive to people.
- Advice and decisions of the Gram sabha to be binding on the Gram Panchayat.
- State to ensure penal action for not holding Gram Sabha meetings.
- Motivate members for meaningful participation and effective role in Gram Sabha.
Issues In Decentralized governance
Decentralization is not a panacea to address the problems of effective governance. Success of decentralization depends a lot on the capacity of the lower levels of governments and efforts towards enhancing that capacity. There are some issues that plague decentralized governance. They are listed below.
The political will to share power with the lower levels of the governments has often been absent, and, in fact, thwarted the attempts towards effective decentralization.
The cases in point are the 73” and 74thConstitutional Amendment Acts. Provisions, such as DPCs (District Planning Committees) or SFCs (State Finance Commissions), have yet to show any significant impact at the local level in a majority of the states.
Local bodies have been reluctant to raise resources through taxation at their level. A potential problem inherent in the movement towards greater decentralization is that local entities even when well intentioned and responsive in terms of issues of broad public policy and wellbeing than larger units of government.
It is desirable that there would be a significant local demand and local concern for the development and maintenance of a decentralized governance system.
A potential danger in a decentralized system is that the lower levels of governments may be captured by narrowly based, but highly organized, local elites.
Decentralization talks about power of the government but it does not guarantee good governance. Situations vary from country to country, and governance is a complex of polity, economy, society and environmental factors, and, therefore, there cannot be a specified remedy to ensure that reforms will result in desired outcomes. There is not best way to structure a decentralized governance system.