Is the Stage set for Mainstreaming International Trade
into National Development Strategy of India?
Results of the field survey in West Bengal
Presentation by
(25 years of Social Change)
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Major Findings of the study:
•
Panchayats are still male dominated
•
High incidence of illiteracy in rural West Bengal
•
Access to state regulated mandis, cold storage facilities and large farmer’s
cooperatives in West Bengal have been identified as the important
impediments in farmers receiving the right price for their produce.
•
The respondents lack awareness about the size and contours of various
government support programmes.
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Major Findings of the study:………………………….(contd.)
• Local money lenders and traders form the most important source of
funding to the small-scale agriculturists
• In the case of highly competitive political environment that exist in West
Bengal, the stakeholders view contact with panchayat members as a
primary condition for ensuring access to government funds or
influencing the bureaucracy, as the case may be.
• Because of the operation of pressure groups with vested interests at
local level and poor quality of information available to the target
population a vicious circle exist that results in rendering the
developmental programmes ineffective and corrupt.
• A majority of respondents from West Bengal did not perceive that
government support will be forthcoming at the time of a crisis.
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GRAM SABHA
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AWARENESS ABOUT GRAM SABHA
• In Purulia and Malda most of the small farmers and agricultural
labourers did not know about Gram Sabha.
• Specific requests relating to agriculture were few in the Gram Sabhas.
• There is considerable lack of understanding about the working of
Grama Sabha or its utility.
• The Gram Sabhas could not be responsive to local needs due to pre determined budgetary allocation, even though conceptually it is the
corner stone of participatory governance and planning.
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AWARENESS ABOUT GRAM SABHA…………..(contd.)
• Only a few voters who are loyal and active members of the local ruling
party attended the Gram Sabha meetings.
• Resolutions from such meetings are neither documented nor
circulated properly.
• In one of the villages, out of 25 households questioned only about
three people were aware that such meetings actually took place
though on record the Gram Sabha meetings attendance crossed 100.
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AWARENESS ABOUT GRAM SABHA…………..(contd.)
• There was considerable lack of awareness on the
availability of funds at the local level. Almost half of the
total respondents did not know about the available funds at
the Gram Panchayat level
• Most of the stakeholder who were aware about the funds
available to the Gram Panchayat were of the opinion that
the funds are insufficient to meet the growing demands of
the people and developmental activities even though they
opine that there is high incidence of corruption.
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NREGS as an important
Safety Net
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The Positives
• This scheme is one of the most visible and arguably the most successful
development programmes being implemented at present.
• The achievements of the scheme, especially in terms of ushering in
transparency unseen in previous schemes, is commendable.
• One possible reason for its relative success is that the scheme is
demand-driven from the users’ point-of-view, and not supply-driven as in
the case of the most other government support schemes.
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The Positives…………………………………....(contd.)
• To some extent this scheme has been able in generating increased
employment opportunities for the rural population
• Since introduction of the NREGS scheme local agricultural wages have
gone up
• Strategies aimed at increasing the purchasing power of the
stakeholders of the rural areas may yield higher participation and
success
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Major Roadblocks to Effective Implementation of
NREGS
• Often discretion is applied while distributing job cards. Such discretion
often depend on socio – economic and political factors.
• A sizeable number of stakeholders pointed out that they did not receive
the stipulated wage as well.
• A large percentage of the respondents seemed to be completely
unaware about their rights to demand compensation in case the
Panchayat fails to provide employment within fifteen days of submission
of application.
• Lack of technical expertise to identify and design projects to be
undertaken under the scheme.
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Overall Perception about the
People’s Representatives
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Overall Perception about the People’s Representatives
•
Peoples representatives at the local were by and large termed as corrupt
and inefficient except in few cases, even though respondents themselves
could not answer why the same set of people were re-elected.
•
At the local level many of the people’s representatives were not sure about
their roles and responsibilities as an elected member.
• The inadequate capacities of the peoples’ representatives in
understanding and executing complex government programmes
resulted in inefficient delivery of various developmental schemes.
•
Respondents especially in the backward villages pointed out that MPs and
MLAs visit the area only before the elections.
•
MLAs coming from the backward districts often do not get chance to put
forward their views in the Legislative Assemblies.
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Observation and Conclusion
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Observation and Conclusion
• Government officials and people’s representatives at the local level
either act hand in hand or are in confrontational mode. Theoretically,
these two components should act in unison to achieve the
development goals.
• Women’s participation in the Panchayati Raj System has been very
limited.
• Awareness among people belonging to the SC and ST communities
about their rights and government support programmes was very
low.
• The asymmetric information problem coupled with multiple layers of
leakage of government funds ensure that government support
almost certainly fail to reach its target.
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Advocacy Points
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Advocacy Points
• At the national level, there is a pressing need to strengthen the
capacities of the Central Government in mainstreaming the local
inputs on concerns related to livelihood and development in policy
making.
• Use of Social Accountability Tools should be made mandatory to
judge the quality of service provided at the grassroot.
• Development Decisions should be made free from Political Biases.
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Advocacy Points
• Raising awareness at the local level on the rights and privileges of
the various stakeholders under the Panchayat Raj System;
• Reduce transaction costs and ensure faster execution of
development decisions.
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THANK YOU
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