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Book Review
Partners in development
U. SANKAR
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Papers offering a grassroots perspective of the promise and perils of participatory pathways in development
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PARTICIPATORY PATHWAYS — People’s Participation in Development Initiatives: Rajiv Balakrishnan — Editor; Pearson Longman, published by Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd., 482 FIE, Patparganj, Delhi-110092. Rs. 600.
This book is a collection of 14 papers on people’s participation in various development initiatives. The papers are grouped under four categories: grassroots governance, ethical issues/gender concerns, enabling frameworks, and participatory planning.
Rajiv Balakrishnan, in his introduction to the volume, stresses the need for a direct attack on the ‘structural roots’ of poverty, which lie in an insufficient access to productive assets, a deficiency of human resources, and an undemocratic access to political power. He notes that pro-poor growth strategy recognises that poverty “has many faces apart from low consumption such as malnutrition, illiteracy, low life expectancy, insecurity, powerlessness, and low self-esteem, which contribute to the poverty of capabilities.”
Capacity building
He urges the need to ensure capacity building for the poor so that they are comprehensively drawn into the development process on a more equitable and secure footing.
The passage of the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments provides the legal framework for panchayats and municipalities respectively to function as institutions of self-government. George Mathew observes that the states have accepted the letter of the Amendments rather than their sprit. He finds that the transfer of activities and functions to panchayats is taking place very slowly. The reluctance of state level politicians to recognise the importance of the lower levels of governance, government officials’ preference to work with the “distance control mechanism” of the state, and low level of democratic consciousness in many parts of the country are cited as some inhibiting factors. Three other papers dealing with the working of panchayati raj institutions reach the conclusion that the ground realities are not very encouraging.
Two papers look at the “space” within the panchayat system which makes it possible or difficult for women to effectively participate. Case studies of a few women panchayat members in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka reveal that a reservation policy alone is not enough and they do need support mechanisms/special inputs for their empowerment. Alice Welbourn, based on her experience with sexual and reproductive health, argues that conventional approaches are not adequate to overcome the fears of HIV-infected people. She suggests a model for sustained behaviour change which has four elements, namely, “learning, sharing, caring and changing.”
Enabling frameworks
Enabling frameworks are critical for the success of grassroots initiatives. Amita Shah compares and contrasts land development measures in China and India under different policy regimes. She highlights the need for the right type of state interventions in achieving the targets. Based on a case study of two water users associations in Tamil Nadu, V.S. Saravanan argues that as the tank systems have multiple use and users, the user groups need to be controlled by village panchayats to negotiate in sharing of multiple use of the common property resources among different users.
Participation of stakeholders at the planning stage is necessary to consider their preferences on prioritisation of development schemes. The four papers on participatory planning cover participatory rural appraisal method; confidence building between professionals and ordinary people via a visual depiction of problems, opportunities and resources; development professional’s behavioural ethos; and carrying capacity assessment to elicit how people prioritised problems and envisaged solutions. This book deals with the potentials of participatory approach in local governance, rural development, and other community-based approaches to solve economic and social problems. It also identifies some obstacles — lack of functional and financial autonomy in local bodies, lack of democratic consciousness in certain parts of the country, pervasive inequalities in distribution of assets, lack of access to information, and discrimination on gender, caste and ethnic basis — for ensuring good governance and equity.
Role of the state
While recognising the importance of panchayats and other development initiatives, the positive and complementary role of the state in achieving the goals of equity and efficiency must be kept in mind. Certain development activities can be carried out effectively only at a higher level of government or with cooperation among panchayats and other grassroots organisations. This is because of economies of scale in service provision and presence of positive externalities. The state can play the role of a facilitator in deciding the optimum size of a region for each activity, arranging/providing financial and technical support for each activity, and providing financial support for panchayats in poorer regions.
State intervention is also needed for fostering institutional cooperation among stakeholders for sustainable management of common property resources. In areas where conflicts could arise because of inequalities in asset holdings, unequal access to benefits and class dominance, the state has to play a watchdog role in ensuring that the seat of local decisions is not usurped by the powerful.
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