Millions of Indian citizens depend on the government for basic services like education, health, nutrition, and others. For these services to reach citizens, a gigantic machinery of people and processes is at play. This makes the government a complicated institution to understand and navigate. 

In more than a decade of our existence as a research group, we have built knowledge of India’s welfare system and government processes. Multiple parallel bodies functioning to deliver services, inadequately trained personnel, and unclear and overlapping responsibilities, are phenomena that we have observed during our extensive research experiences.

If you actively engage with the government as part of your work as a non-state actor (such as an NGO) then, in trying to untangle the system, you might have found it to be opaque and impenetrable at many levels. This is why we are sharing some of our lessons. 

The first important thing is to know which level of government to approach and who to reach out to within the government. In other words, it is important to “knock at the right door”.

For instance, if you want to implement an education programme in schools in two districts, a likely first thought would be to go to the District Collector (also called the District Magistrate). This role yields considerable authority in the district. However are they really the best person to help you implement your programme? Some research into the education bureaucracy might point you towards another position, which is of the Block Education Officer. This role is at the block level and is more involved in the day-to-day functioning of the schools in their area. Thus, they might be better suited to help you.

The second important thing is to know all the relevant stakeholders across levels and departments involved in running a particular government programme.

Often multiple departments and functionaries converge to perform activities on the ground. In order to effectively and strategically navigate the vast government machinery, it is essential to know the relevant functionaries and departments involved in any activity. More importantly, communication across levels and even across departments becomes key. 

Let’s assume you want to deliver a training programme for frontline workers of nutrition services. These workers mostly belong to the Department of Women and Child Welfare, but can also be working at the Department of Health. What happens if you seek permission from the WCD Department, and miss taking the approval from the Health Department?

Only Anganwadi workers will attend the training programme! ASHA and ANMs who work on nutrition but technically do not fall under the WCD will not be present, since they would not have received communication from their department superiors on this training. 

Thus, it is important to be cognizant not just of which level of government to involve, but also which department(s) to route your approval through.

Apart from knowing who sits where and does what within the government, it is also important to know if they are given the funds to execute their responsibilities effectively.

Often it is seen that the solutions recommended by us as outsiders may not hold weight, as the root of the problem may actually be a lack of resources. 

For example, checking the weight of children who come to an Anganwadi centre is a primary job function of AWW workers. However, while conducting a field survey, we found out that many AWCs did not even have weighing machines. The problem was simple — the AWW did not have a key resource to do their job. 

Finding the root of the problem is important here. What we found was that even though demand for the weighing machines was raised through official channels from the local level, the decision on fund allocation was done at the Union level. This meant that there was no guarantee of the demand being met. To resolve this problem, one would have to not only approach the Union government but also be fully aware of the roadblocks and challenges of fund flows to the last mile. 

And finally, identifying where the power lies is also crucial when engaging with the government. This requires an understanding of the various informal dynamics that go on between different officials.

At the block level, the nutrition programme in most states is managed by the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO). In Rajasthan, for example, nutrition is one of the five subjects that have been transferred entirely with funds, function, and functionaries to the Panchayats [1]. This means that the BDO or the bureaucratic official of the Block Panchayat can give instructions to the CDPO (even though they are both block-level functionaries). However, in our conversations with these frontline officials, we have noticed that the CDPO considers the BDO as someone external to the department, and sees responding to instruction from the BDO as taking away from their main work!

Unfortunately, a lot of this kind of practical, hands-on, and usable information that we have discussed above, is not easily accessible to most practitioners at India’s 31 lakh NGOs [2]. This gap often makes it difficult for them to successfully navigate the vast government machinery that comes together to deliver public services. NGO practitioners play an important role facilitating between the state and citizens, and we believe that they would stand to benefit from an opportunity to learn more about the inside workings of government functioning. 

Mapping Governance is an attempt by the Accountability Initiative to disentangle some of the complexities of governance functioning. Through a series of interactive organograms or as we call them – Maps – the platform aims to provide a holistic understanding of governance structures in different social sector programmes such as education, health, and nutrition across different states.

Mapping Governance is now live, and can be accessed here. 

References:

[1] Government of Rajasthan. (2010). Orders Regarding Devolution. http://rajpanchayat.rajasthan.gov.in/Portals/0/Devolution_02102010.pdf

[2] Anand, U. (2015). India has 31 lakh NGOs, more than double the number of schools. The Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/india-has-31-lakh-ngos-twice-the-number-of-schools-almost-twice-number-of-policemen/

Also Read: In a Glance: India’s Major Welfare Programmes