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ज़रूरी है महिला प्रतिनिधियों का सशक्त होना

महात्मा गांधी जी का सपना था कि भारत में एक ऐसी व्यवस्था हो जहाँ लोगों द्वारा सरकार चलाई जाए| भारत में समय-समय पर विकेंद्रीकरण को बढ़ावा देने के लिए कईं समितियां गठित की गई, चाहे वह अशोक मेहता समिति हो जिसमें द्विस्तरीय व्यवस्था की सिफारिश की गई हो या फिर बलवंत राय मेहता समिति, जिसने भारत में त्री-स्तरीय पंचायती राज व्यवस्था की सिफारिश की|

आखिरकार भारत में पंचायती राज व्यवस्था की स्थापना 24 अप्रैल 1992 से की गई और इसी के साथ 73वें एवं 74वें संवैधानिक संशोधन के अनुसार पंचायतों एवं शहरी निकायों को सरकार का दर्जा प्राप्त हुआ| ये अपने आप में एक ऐतिहासिक कदम था जिसके तहत केंद्र एवं राज्य के साथ-साथ स्थानीय स्तर पर भी सरकार के रूप में त्री-स्तरीय ढांचे की व्यवस्था की गयी| इस संवैधानिक संशोधन के बाद पंचायती राज संस्थाओं में सामान्य वर्ग के साथ-साथ अनुसूचित जाति एवं जनजाति समुदाय के लिए भी आरक्षण का प्रावधान किया गया ताकि वंचित समूहों को भी प्रतिनिधित्व करते हुए अपनी आवाज रखने का मौका मिले| महिलाओं के लिए पंचायतों में एक तिहाई स्थान आरक्षित किया गया ताकि महिलाएं भी स्थानीय सरकार का प्रतिनिधित्व कर सकें| बिहार, हिमाचल प्रदेश, महाराष्ट्र, राजस्थान सहित 20 राज्यों में महिलाओं को 50 प्रतिशत तक का आरक्षण दिया गया है|

पंचायती राज मंत्रालय, भारत सरकार के 2019 के आंकड़ों के अनुसार भारत में कुल 13,75,914 महिला प्रतिनिधि हैं जिसमें से जिला पंचायत में 8,091, पंचायत समिति में 75,620 तथा ग्राम पंचायत में 12,92,203 महिला प्रतिनिधि हैं|

लेकिन सवाल यह है कि क्या महिलाओं को इस व्यवस्था में बराबरी का दर्जा देना ही काफी है? क्या सरकार की तरफ से वाकई यह सुनिश्चित किया जाता है कि महिला प्रतिनिधि अपने पद पर आने के बाद अपना काम बेहतर तरीके से कर भी पा रही हैं या नहीं?

हिमाचल प्रदेश में पंचायतों के साथ अध्ययन करते समय कुछ चीजें मुझे देखने को मिली जो मेरे लिए काफी आश्चर्यजनक थीं| क्योंकि अध्ययन के लिए जिला पंचायत अध्यक्ष से भी मिलना था तो मैं और मेरे साथी उनसे मिलने के लिए उनके कार्यालय में गए| हमने जैसे ही उन्हें अपना परिचय देना शुरू किया तो महिला अध्यक्षिणी ने अपने साथ बैठे पुरुष की तरफ इशारा करते हुए कहा कि हमें जो भी जानकारी चाहिए उनसे ही बात करनी होगी| बातों-बातों में मालुम चला की वह पुरुष कोई और नहीं बल्कि उस महिला के पति थे| पुरुष ने भी बड़े आत्मविश्वास भरे स्वर में कहा कि सारा काम वे ही देखते हैं|

ये वाकई में हम सबके लिए भी बड़ा सवाल है कि आखिर फिर इस सबसे महिलाओं का सशक्तिकरण किस तरह से होगा? और जिस पद पर अध्यक्षिणी बैठीं हैं, तो फिर उस पद में उनकी अपनी भूमिका क्या है?

ये बस एक उदाहरण है, आपके आसपास भी आपको ये सब शायद देखने को मिल सकता है| राजनितिक माहौल में महिला प्रतिनिधियों के प्रति पुरुष समाज की रुढ़िवादी सोच बदलनी होगी। कुछ महिलाएं पहली बार राजनीतिक माहौल में आ रही हैं इसलिए उनमें भय, संकोच एवं घबराहट होना स्वाभाविक है।

अब सवाल ये है कि यदि सोच यह है कि महिलाओं को आगे लाकर उनकी प्रतिनिधित्व तथा निर्णय लेने की क्षमता को बढ़ाना है तो शायद सरकार को भी इसके लिए गंभीरता से सोचना होगा| अन्यथा ऐसी महिला प्रतिनिधियों को अपना 5 वर्ष कार्यकाल बीत जाने के बाद भी ये महसूस नहीं होगा कि वास्तव में उन्हें संविधान ने कितना बड़ा अधिकार दिया है जिससे वो समाज में अपनी एक अलग पहचान स्थापित कर पायें|

सरकार को एक ऐसा संस्थागत  सिस्टम बनाना चाहिए जहाँ महिलाओं के लिए समय-समय पर क्षमता उत्सर्जन कार्यक्रम हों| सरकार की तरफ से नियमित तौर पर इस बात की जांच की जानी चाहिए कि क्या महिला प्रतिनिधि अपना काम स्वयं कर पा रही हैं या नहीं, क्या उन्हें किसी तरह के सपोर्ट, ज्ञान तथा कौशल की आवश्यकता है जिससे वो अपना काम और आसानी से कर पाएं| इसके लिए सिस्टम ऐसा हो जहाँ सरकार की तरफ से महिला प्रतिनिधियों के साथ चर्चा और उनका फीडबैक होता रहे, और साथ ही आवश्यकतानुसार नियमित सुधार भी होता रहे| इस सबसे कहीं न कहीं महिलाओं का भी मनोबल बढ़ेगा जिससे वे अपने पति, ससुर या अन्य किसी व्यक्ति के प्रभाव से परे उठकर अपने निर्णय स्वयं ले पाएंगी|

समाज के हर वर्ग को महिलाओं में साहस उत्पन्न करना तथा उनकी आंतरिक क्षमता एवं शक्ति पर भरोसा करना होगा। असलियत में महिलाओं को भी पुरुषों जैसा ही मान-सम्मान और सामाजिक प्रतिष्ठा देनी होगी जिससे वे बेहतर नेतृत्व करने में सक्षम हो पाएंगी|

The Larger Picture on Crimes Against Women

This blog is part of a series on crimes against women, and current legal and administrative safeguards. The first blog can be found here.  

It is necessary to understand the entire gamut of offences against women that are criminalised under various laws of the land to have an informed discussion on what needs to change. The government’s Crime Statistics gives a reasonably detailed indication of the various categories of crimes against women.

There are two broad kinds of crimes, namely, those that are defined and punishable under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and those that are defined and punishable under provisions of other laws. Many of these offences run into each other, and it is not unusual that accused individuals are charge sheeted under various laws simultaneously, for the same criminal act.

Going through the Crime Statistics, I was struck by the numbers of offences for which statistics are collected separately by the National Crime Records Bureau. I counted no less than 41 offences under seven laws, which are considered to be crimes against women. The most numerous of them are under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Crimes under the IPC fall into five broad categories, namely, cruelty by husband or his relatives, crimes relating to murder or danger to life, kidnapping and abduction, rape and rape-related crimes, and insults and related assaults.

In turn, each of these broad categories is subdivided into various crimes, as I list below:

  • Crimes relating to murder or danger to life, the most heinous of them all, are (i) murder with rape or gangrape, (b) dowry deaths, (c) abetment to suicide, (d) miscarriage (d) Acid attacks and (e) attempt to attack with acid.
  • Kidnapping and abduction is classified according to the gravity of the offence, into that in order to murder, for ransom or for compelling a woman for marriage. In addition, procuring minor girls, human trafficking and selling and buying of minor girls are considered as separate offences with stiff punishments.
  • The crimes of rape and attempts to rape are also sub-classified into those rapes (or attempts to rape) of women above and below 18 year of age.
    • Assaults on women with intent to outrage her modesty, and insults to the modesty of women, with each category further divided.

That is a list of 26 crimes, which are defined and punishable under the IPC.

There are six other special laws, namely: the Dowry Prevention Act, the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, Cyber Crimes/Information Technology Act, the Protection of Children from Sexual Violence Act, and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

  • Under the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, there are five sub-categories of crimes. These are (a) procuring, inducing children for the sake of prostitution, (b) detaining a person in premises where prostitution is carried on, (c) prostitution in or in the vicinity of public places, (d) seducing or soliciting for purpose of prostitution, and other offences.
  • Under the Information Technology Act, publishing or transmitting of sexually explicit material and other women-centric cyber crimes such as  blackmailing, defamation, morphing and the making of fake profiles are criminalised.
  • Under the Protection of Children from Sexual Violence Act, heinous crimes are especially criminalised. These include child rape, sexual assault of children, sexual harassment, use of children for pornography/storing child pornography and other offences, including unnatural offences.

A visual representation of all can be found in the document here.

The various descriptions of crimes against women are staggering. Even in their recounting, I can sense a pattern. They are invariably about exploitation; about the domination over the woman by an individual who is powerful and strong. Second, they are largely focused on the body, and thus interrelated. There is nothing that can be considered a lighter offence, or one with relatively less dangerous implications. Assaults on the person of a woman, including verbal assaults, can have a link with kidnapping and abduction. And that in turn, can link with rape, acid attacks, and eventually murder of the woman, often following upon rape. In each, the widespread notion held by many men that women are nothing more than the property of men, is reinforced and underlined.

That realisation is a sinister one. If these crimes can be interrelated, can the ‘solutions’ to rape be found in an isolated fashion? Besides, if they are all interrelated, what are the patterns in the numbers of crimes reported and the action taken on them? Do the statistics reveal some significant trends and patterns?

More of that in my next blog.

पॉलिसी बझ

कल्याणकारी धोरणात जे घडत आहे त्या प्रत्येक पंधरवड्यात प्रकाशित झालेल्या बातम्यांच्या निवडीसह अद्ययावत रहा.

 

धोरणा संबंधित बातम्या

  • 5 व्या राष्ट्रीय आरोग्य कौटुंबिक सर्वेक्षण (एन.एफ.एच.एस) देशातील लोकसंख्या, आरोग्य आणि पोषण विषयी विस्तृत माहिती दिली गेली आहे.
  • साथीच्या आजारामुळे संसदेचे हिवाळी अधिवेशन होणार नाही, अशी घोषणा सरकारने केली आहे.
  • पंतप्रधान किसान सन्मान निधी (पीएम-किसन) अंतर्गत 18,000 कोटी रुपयांच्या आर्थिक लाभाचा पुढील हप्ता सरकारने जाहीर केला आहे.
  • झारखंड सरकारने शेतकर्‍यांच्या कर्जमाफी योजनेस मंजुरी दिली असून यामुळे राज्यातल 7.83 लाख शेतकर्‍यांना दिलासा मिळणार आहे.
  • जम्मू-काश्मीरमध्ये आयुष्मान भारत प्रधानमंत्री आरोग्य योजना (ए.बी-पी.एम.जे.वाय) सेहत योजना सुरू करण्यात आली असून यात २१ लाख लोकांना फायदा होणार आहे.

इतर

  • गृह मंत्रालयाच्या स्थायी समितीने भविष्यात होणाऱ्या सर्व साथीच्या रोगाचा सामना करण्यासाठी प्रवासी कामगारांचा राष्ट्रीय डेटाबेस तयार करण्याची शिफारस सरकारला केली आहे.
  • बोडोला राज्याची सहकारी भाषा बनवण्यासाठी आसाम सरकारने आसाम अधिकृत भाषा दुरुस्ती विधेयकास मान्यता दिली आहे.
  • सुरक्षित आणि हरित राष्ट्रीय महामार्ग कॉरीडोर तयार करण्यासाठी 500 दशलक्ष डॉलर्सच्या प्रोजेक्टसाठी भारत सरकार आणि जागतिक बँकेने करार केला.

 

हा लेख पॉलिसी बझच्या इंग्रजी आवृत्तीवर आधारित आहे जो 27 दिसंबर 2020 रोजी प्रकाशित झाला.

Inside Delhi’s Doorstep Public Services Delivery Scheme

My blog published earlier this year discussed brokers and their role in the delivery of public services. The Government of NCT Delhi (GNCTD) in 2018 launched a programme where they formalised these informal public service providers through an external agency. While 40 services were covered in September 2018, this was soon increased to 70 (across 12 departments) by July 2019, and a scale up to 100 is expected by this year. I take a look at the working of the doorstep delivery of public services project.

As part of the project, citizens can call ‘1076’ and book an appointment with a mobile sahayak. The mobile sahayak visits the service seekers’ residence at the given time and collects all requisite documents for the service, submits these documents with the concerned department in exchange of Rs 50 as facilitation fees. The sahayak then collects the final certificate from the government department, and delivers it back to the citizen to complete the transaction.

The services in this project include provision of certificates from the revenue department, driving licences and related services from the transport department, and availing access to certain social sector schemes. Most of these services are in high demand, and it can take days for service seekers to apply for and obtain important documents that can be essential to get benefits from government welfare schemes.

As per an annual report card, the GNCTD claims to have been able to service approximately 99.5 per cent of the 2,00,000 requests booked. As many as 13 lakh calls (1.3 mn) were made by the public. The facility currently operates with more than 125 mobile sahayaks (facilitators), 100 call centre executives, 11 supervisors, 35 dealing assistants and 25 coordinators[1].

The institutionalisation of informal broker practices does incentivise assistance to the general public, however, there still are some teething issues observed through a year of the project’s operations.

  • Technical readiness: The launch of the scheme was accompanied by a series of glitches in the system due to fluctuating demand and the backend team modified the software multiple times. The mobile sahayaks and the call centres were also initially working in silos, and delivery of services reportedly suffered due to lack of coordination.
  • Traditional methods are still more popular: While the scheme was primarily launched to minimise the complexity of Government to Citizen (G2C) services from multiple departments through intermediaries, it was seen that more than 50 per cent of applications were still made directly at the window.
  • Rationalising resources: The scheme also faced issues with respect to planning its human resource base as most sahayaks initially quit their jobs due to less pay, and it was difficult to replace them. Among the requirements was for sahayaks to have their own two-wheeler for conveyance, which is difficult to fulfill.
  • Understanding scale: Even as 1.3 million calls were made to the toll-free number, only 2,00,000 requests were booked and 1,50,000 were successfully resolved. While the churn rate of successful completion was high, it appears that the scale and demand of services was underestimated resulting in only 15% cases being booked out of the total calls received.

Source: Hindustan Times, 16 July 2019

All the challenges have important lessons. Donald F Kettl, a scholar of government and administrative reforms, has suggested that New Public Management (NPM) (such as the doorstep delivery of public services project) aims to “remedy a pathology of traditional bureaucracy that is hierarchically structured and authoritatively driven”. The accommodation of the role that brokers have played in service delivery in this case can be considered as a good example of NPM techniques. The government has attempted to eliminate rent-seeking, and create a leaner, incentive driven local administration.

Ketll suggests that the six key characteristics of the NPM approach are: productivity, marketisation, service orientation, decentralisation, policy oriented and being accountable by design. NPM clearly articulates a result-oriented relationship, specifying performance in a clear manner.  This scheme was understood to be one-of-a-kind offering in India. While I would acknowledge it to be a constructive innovation by the GNCTD, the lack of technical capacity, public readiness and average resource allocation makes it less likely that the project will become a norm.

Any government service, when offered to the public, largely aims to ease public life or welfare, taking into account some degree of compatibility for uptake and reception by its beneficiaries. For a megacity like New Delhi, strong migration patterns, ad hoc living conditions for many, and the comfort associated with informal systems of access to public service delivery can become additional challenges.

_________________________

[1]‘Delhi Government delivered on 99.5% of doorstep service requests,’ Hindustan Times, 10 September 2019. Access it here.

Policy Buzz: Edition 12

Keep up-to-date with all that is happening in welfare policy with this curated selection of news, published every fortnight. 

 

Policy News 

 

General: 

  • The Union government has released over Rs 35,000 crore as pending Goods and Services Tax compensation to states and union territories.

Budget: 

  • Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman started her first pre-Budget consultations with stakeholder groups on 16 December 2019. The Union Budget is likely to be presented on 1 February 2020. 

 

Opinion

 

Scholars at the Centre for Policy Research unpack the Citizenship Amendment Act, and the reasons behind the ongoing protests. This curated analysis can be found here. 

 

Facing the Facts on Crime Against Women in India

This blog is part of a series on crimes against women, and current legal and administrative safeguards.

Rape.

That one horrendous word has filled our consciousness and blanked out every other discourse in India, at the moment.

It is not a good time to start writing a blog on it.

Yet, it must be done.

It must be done because the discourse is angry and bitter and the predominant cry is to lynch and do to death the perpetrators of such horrendous crimes.

Which again, is for good reason.

Yet, solutions for problems are rarely found in anger alone. They require application of mind, consideration of all implications and they must be pursued, even if those pursuing it are reviled as theoreticians, or mocked for not joining the lynch mob.

Recently, a 27-year-old woman was raped on a lonely stretch of highway, near the city of Hyderabad. She spoke to her sister just before the incident happened, her voice filled with fear. We are told that the information was relayed to the police, but they did not act promptly on it. Her body, charred, was found in the vicinity. Four suspects were picked up. India rose in anger. An MP said in Parliament that rapists must be lynched. That sentiment was echoed over social media, where supporters of such summary punishments did not hesitate to point out the alleged silence of those who had protested earlier on issues of quelling of democracy.

Last week, the four suspects were shot dead in an alleged encounter by the police. They were taken to the spot of the crime by the police, in an attempt to piece together evidence of what took place that day. The police say that the four suspects attempted to escape and the former snatched weapons from them. The police retaliated in self-defence and shot dead the suspects. Social and conventional media has largely celebrated this event. The relatives of the rape victims have expressed their grim satisfaction. The mother of another victim, where those convicted await their sentence on death row (their mercy petition has been rejected today and they will be hanged later this week), says that she is satisfied with the happenings.

A minority of voices suspect whether the police encounters were staged. They say this on the basis of evidence of similar staged encounters having happened in the past. The Police Commissioner who heads the Cyberabad police, has allegedly been involved in similar incidents, when suspects have seemingly turned violent when taken back to the scene of the crime, and were shot dead. The patterns in these explanations are disturbingly similar to be ignored. The National Human Rights Commission has also expressed its misgivings.

Yet, the debate, particularly on social media, is angry and divided. Some justify such treatment of suspects, on the ground that the wheels of justice move slowly and therefore, summary punishments, including killing of suspects, serves the ends of justice that society demands. Others fear larger implications; that suspects may be picked up by the police simply because anger will otherwise pile up on the latter, and the police may in turn do them to death, so as to blunt angry public opinion.

It is very difficult not to appreciate the viewpoints on all sides of the problem, even if one may not agree with some of them. The justification for rapid and severe punishment for heinous crimes is a simple one. So also is the one that however heinous the crime, proper judicial process must be adopted. In the absence of such a judicial process, the dangers that summary justice may spill over into all manners of dispute settlement, increases manifold.

Whatever the merits of the different approaches to criminal justice, we have a huge problem on hand in India; namely, the near complete breakdown of a criminal justice system that can bring culprits to book, but also prevent such horrendous crimes in the future.

So, here I am, at the beginning of a journey to learn about crimes in general, and rape crimes in particular. If I am joined in this journey by everybody who is outraged by what is happening in India, that would be well and good. The crime statistics of the country is a good place to start to understand the dimensions of the crime of rape.

The ‘Crime In India’ Statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau, of the Ministry of Home Affairs, is a detailed compendium of statistics relating to all categories of crimes that happen in India. A recent publication pertains to the year 2017. This publication bunches together a category of cases as ‘Crimes against Women’, which, it goes without saying, includes various categories of rape.

There were nearly 3.6 lakh crimes against women in 2017, up from 3.39 lakh crimes in 2016 and 3.29 lakh crimes in 2015. That amounted to a crime rate of 58.3 crimes for every one lakh population of women. Digging deeper, the maximum numbers of crimes against women in 2017 was in Uttar Pradesh (56,011) followed by Maharashtra (31,979), West Bengal (30,992), and Madhya Pradesh (29,788). As many as 8 states and Union Territories accounted for slightly over 80 per cent of all crimes against women. Apart from the states earlier mentioned, these were:  Rajasthan, Assam, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Karnataka, Delhi, and Haryana.

16 states and Union Territories contributed just over 2 per cent of all crimes against women. These were Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Chandigarh, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Sikkim, Puducherry, the Andamans, Nagaland, Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Lakshadweep. For ease of study, I have taken only the remaining 20 states and Union Territories for further analysis. I call these the ‘vulnerable’ states and Union Territories.

Two important features are to be noted with respect to the ‘vulnerable’ states and Union Territories, the first being the rate of increase of crimes against women over the three years under review. While the all-India figure of increase in crimes against women has been 9.3% in 2017 over the base year of 2015, this was much higher in Uttar Pradesh (56%), Chhattisgarh (38%), Madhya Pradesh (23%), Haryana (20%), Odisha (17%), Telangana, Kerala, (13%), Andhra Pradesh (12%), and Karnataka (10%).

In four ‘vulnerable’ states, the number of crimes against women have grown marginally, or declined slightly. These are Bihar (6%), Gujarat (5%), Maharashtra (2.5%), and Assam (-1.2%). In the remaining ‘vulnerable’ states, the number of crimes have declined over the base year of 2015. These are West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir (which is treated as a state for the purpose of analysis) (both -7%), Rajasthan (-8%), Tamil Nadu (-9%), Jharkhand (-10%), Punjab (-13.5%), and Delhi (-24%).

What do these reductions or increases mean? Is this a good trend or is there more to it than meets the eye? These points will be analysed in the next blog.

The views expressed are of the author and do not represent an institutional stand. 

Policy Buzz: Edition 11

Keep up-to-date with all that is happening in welfare policy with this curated selection of news, published every fortnight. 

Policy News 

General:

  • The tenure of the Fifteenth Finance Commission has been extended by the Union Cabinet by 11 months, citing the change in the Terms of Reference (ToR). The Commission’s award coverage period has also been increased by a year, which will now end on 21 March  2026. 

Health and Nutrition: 

  • The government has allocated Rs 9,046 crore for POSHAN (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment) Abhiyaan, also known as the National Nutrition Mission. The programme was launched in 2017-18 with a three-year period. The aim to improve the nutritional status of children from 0-6 years, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers in a time-bound manner. 
  • NITI Aayog has urged states to participate more actively in procuring smartphones and growth-measuring devices for anganwadis under the National Nutrition Mission. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog has also noted a “huge need” for training and capacity  building of anganwadi workers. 

Education: 

  • The Human Resource Development Ministry has decided to do away with school examinations from 2021, and restructure Board examinations. The new evaluation module will be based on class assessments. This comes under the National Education Policy, which is expected to be implemented from 2021, and will be focussing on formative learning. 

Sanitation: 

  • The National Statistical Office has published results from a survey on Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition. Around 71% of rural households and 96% of urban households had access to toilets in 2018. A summary of the findings can be found here.  As per a news report, half of rural households in Uttar Pradesh and Odisha had no access to toilets in 2018. The survey forms part of the 76th round of National Sample Survey (NSS).  

 

An Essential Learning Curve for Grassroots Practitioners

One of the challenges we commonly face in our Learning and Development work at Accountability Initiative is of taking research to practitioners on the ground in a meaningful and engaging way, while ensuring that it is relevant, relatable and contextually valuable for them. These practitioners are mostly seasoned professionals, with rich grassroots and real-world experience, and come with strong local networks as well as a thorough understanding of their sectoral and geographical areas of work. What can we teach them that is new? Could learnings from research conducted across academia and think tanks potentially provide valuable insights to those implementing programmes in Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) across the country? Yes, says our experience.

From the response to our course – Hum Aur Humaari Sarkaar – there is much scope for learning. Evidence from research is valuable to local development practitioners in myriad ways, sometimes directly informing programme decisions. It exposes them to innovative practices counterparts around the world are adopting, and at other times, helps them look at an issue from a different lens using a theoretical framework. Through our courses, we have seen that local development practitioners learn best when classroom teaching ties in with their actual experiences of working in the social sector.

For instance, we often come across a piece of research writing that we get excited about, because we feel it resonates with the essence of our course.  Such research is mostly inaccessible to our participants, and is simply not written keeping them in mind. One of the most challenging and exciting facets of our work is to break down an academic paper or a report into simpler, easy-to-understand, and contextually appropriate form for them. This requires thinking creatively about the entire piece, often needing us to ‘convert’ the idea from English into suitable and accurate Hindi. We also use eye-catching visuals to help participants relate better, interspersed with engaging examples and activities.  To find the balance between disentangling complex ideas for a non-specialist audience, and yet retaining nuance in thought is key for us.

A couple of months ago, we were keen to overhaul some of the existing content on citizen participation and social accountability that we teach in the course. We realised that there had been significant fresh scholarship on the issue in recent years and our participants could benefit from exposure to some of these.

We especially wanted to share insights from a particular paper on social accountability strategies by Jonathan Fox, who has proposed the ‘sandwich strategy’ for social accountability. He argues that, in order for citizens to hold the government accountable for their performance in providing access to public services, there is a need to move away from purely citizen-led and focused  interventions, which has been the dominant trend until recently. He suggests a shift towards strategies that  look at combining citizen voice  with governmental reforms on the other side, across levels of civil society, media, government and citizen groups.

We wanted to share this idea with our grassroots participants who work closely with the government as it could be an opportunity for them to critically reflect on their work within a larger framework, understand where they fit in, and what specific role in the accountability space they played.

During the session, participants from each organisation were given a ‘strategy sheet’, and were asked to think of themselves as leaders of their organisation and chart a vision for where they would like to take the organisation  and its work. They had to keep in mind the learnings from the ‘sandwich’ strategy, and how it encourages collaborative efforts between CSOs at various levels, media organisations, citizen groups, and the government.

It is at this stage, that we saw participants really starting to engage with the content, making interconnections between theory and practice. Some of them were very excited about putting on their strategy hats, while others seemed hesitant initially, often saying that they were not the ones who took calls of this nature in their organisations. The discussions among them were insightful.

When talking about coordinated efforts as suggested in the ‘sandwich’ strategy, it was interesting to see a difference in opinion over what partnership between NGOs meant, and how formal or informal these could be in the eyes of our grassroots audience. A lot of times, participants would not realise they were collaborating with another NGO until prodded further, simply because they were unaware of a formal agreement being reached. In essence, the idea behind this activity was to get participants to critically look at their vision and work, and the impact and reach they wished to create.

In every session we have conducted this exercise, our participants have a lot of questions for the facilitating team as they try and strategise how they should best engage stakeholders in the accountability system. We hope that this amalgamation of research and practice, of new ideas and insights from a theoretical framework combined with rich experience and knowledge of the ground reality, will lead them to advocate for more innovative, concerted, and cross-cutting efforts for accountability in their work.

After all, as both researchers and practitioners increasingly realise, the value of transcending the research-practice divide will become a valuable vantage point in the future.

Aamna is a Learning and Development Associate at Accountability Initiative. 

To know more about the Hum Aur Humaari Sarkaar course, visit here. 

Policy Buzz: Edition 10

Keep up-to-date with all that is happening in welfare policy with this curated selection of news, published every fortnight. 

 

Policy News 

 

General

  • The Winter Session of Parliament commenced on 18th November with the Rajya Sabha marking its 250th session. 27 bills are expected to be taken up for introduction and consideration this time. 

Health and Nutrition: 

  • NITI Aayog has released a report on health systems strengthening. The report is a result of a year-long exercise, and identifies areas that health systems should focus on in the future. It has also cited Accountability India’s Budget Briefs on the National Health Mission, which you can access from here.
  • The Ministry of Women and Child Development has launched the Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh, which will be a repository of diverse crops across 128 agro-climatic zones. The aim is to augment the achievement of better nutritional outcomes and reduce malnutrition through this repository.

Water: 

  • Jodhpur and Dungarpur in Rajasthan will be pilot districts for the Water Security and Climate Adaptation in Rural India (WASCA) project. Under this project, Geographic Information System (GIS) lab-cum-data centres will be set up which will collect data from various departments for capacity building and improving rural water resource management. 

Centrally Sponsored Schemes: 

  • The Odisha government expects to receive more than Rs. 6000 crore under various Centrally Sponsored Schemes like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The release position on 7th November stood at Rs. 7,544 crore. 

State Budget: 

  • Odisha will receive technical assistance from the International Monetary Fund, under which state departments will be given an indicative finance ceiling to be able to prioritise their deliverables. The South Asia Training and Technical Assistance Centre (SATTAC), part of the IMF will be helping the state move towards a multi-year budgeting system.

Opinion 

 

Samagra Shiksha was launched in 2018 to fund elementary, secondary education and teacher training for quality learning and universal school education within the next decade. But the scheme is facing basic implementation issues. Read this piece by Mridusmita Bordoloi, a Senior Researcher at AI. 

India’s thirst: How can water supply be made sustainable?

Growing water scarcity is being recognised as an important problem facing India. The recent statistics in this regard are mind-boggling. By 2030, the government expects demand for water to be twice the level of supply. Demand outstripping supply could equate to a loss of 6% in India’s GDP over the course of the time period [1].  It appears that we are on the verge of an acute water crisis.

The sectors that contribute most to the economy are also excessively water dependent. For example, irrigation consumes 90% of India’s water supply. Currently, the total utilisable water resource of the country is 1,123 billion cubic metres (BCM), which includes 690 BCM of surface water and 433 BCM of ground water [2]. The demand situation is useful to note here. While the increase in population continues to put pressure on per capita water availability, a depleting water table makes the situation critical. The annual extraction of groundwater in India is over 250 BCM which is one of the highest in the world [2]. 

Moreover, issues like saline water intrusion in coastal areas and deteriorating water quality further curtail the availability of potable water. While 81 per cent of rural habitations are currently estimated to have access to 40 litres of water per capita per day, the coverage is only 47 per cent when estimated with 55 litres of water per capita per day. Just about 18 per cent of rural households in India have connections to piped water supply [3], which the government hopes to remedy by reaching all rural households by 2024. It is thus a huge challenge on an already resource-limited country to meet the various water needs of the people, especially of those who already lack access to clean water.

How has the government responded?

The recent formation of the Jal Shakti Ministry by integrating the ministries of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, is a positive first step.  The new ministry has tasked a Jal Shakti Abhiyan (a mission-mode campaign for water conversation and security) with supply augmentation methods like water conservation through rainwater harvesting, storage and reuse wherever possible, developing infrastructure for collection and basic treatment of domestic non-faecal water to recycle for agriculture use in 1,592 water stressed blocks identified in 256 districts.

But in spite of a new policy vision, the approach remains lopsided. We cannot hope to address India’s water problems by trying to endlessly increase supply. We need to recognise the multi-dimensional nature of the current water crisis – managing surface and ground water, tackling demand side management issues, and improving water use efficiency. Our water use planning must take an integrated view of the water cycle from source to distribution, economic use, treatment, recycling, reuse and return to the environment, and thus planning has to happen from every river basin and watershed onwards. For example, the Cauvery conflict between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka is unlikely to be resolved till primary water users such as farmers, the industry, and local communities understand that the demands they are placing on limited water resources are unsustainable.

What are the routes to address challenges?  I look at two such ways.

First is to decentralise water, and let communities take ownership. In the present day, a chronic issue for water supply systems is not only the quantum of water to be supplied but its quality and equitable supply to all. Out of approximately 18 crore rural households in India, only 3 crore households have individual household connections, not to mention the quality of water supplied within or across habitations in the country [3]. As a result, the poor often have to spend a great deal of time and money to obtain clean water. Thus, we must focus not only on augmentation of water supply but also on managing the supply of clean water for all.

There are important lessons to be learnt from the community-owned water supply system (Swajal model) in Gujarat. Community groups who wanted better water supply were supported by the Gram Panchayat to build and run their own water supply schemes. They followed the best practices of decentralised planning for water conservation to increase the water table and revive local water bodies. They tapped upper layers of water, built new systems to draw water from numerous springs, streams, rivers and lakes. While beneficiaries paid 10 per cent of the total capital expenditure, the Gram Panchayat paid 15 per cent and the rest was borne by the state. The communities ensured adequate, regular water supply to beneficiaries by determining the quantum and duration of water supply, and levied charges to meet their operation and maintenance expenses, including installing water meters to curb excess consumption [4].

Also download: Budget Brief on the National Rural Drinking Water Mission (NRDWM)

The decentralisation of water resources i.e. management and supply of water resources by those who primarily depend on them (communities) can ensure equitable supply of water. What has worked in the Swajal model is the fact that users have been willing to and are able to pay for the water service, once they were convinced that the water would be ‘theirs’ to share. This made the programme self-reliant and sustainable. A similar concept can be up scaled wherein Pani Samitis (water committees) can be constituted under local bodies and made responsible to plan, implement, manage, operate and maintain their own water supply systems. State governments must take the lead in strengthening these Samitis, ensure that equitable representation from all sections of the community including women is met, and empower them to be able to shoulder their responsibilities effectively.

The second critical area is reform in irrigation techniques and changes in cropping pattern. While drinking water is a major priority for the Union government, India’s usage of fresh water for irrigation accounts for among the highest in the world at 688 billion m3. Therefore, any serious effort towards water management in the country should also focus on the management of irrigation.

Over the years, India has witnessed a major shift in the source of irrigation. The share of canal irrigated area in the net irrigated area has declined from 39.8% in 1950-51 to 23.6% in 2012-13. During the same period, the share of ground water sources in net irrigated area has increased from 28.7% to more than double, at 62.4%[5]. It is the over exploitation of ground water resources that has become a contributing factor to India’s water crisis. A good example to tackle this is seen in some states, like Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, who have rapidly increased agricultural land under micro irrigation- sprinkle and drips. In its recent state budget, the Andhra Pradesh government has prioritised water efficiency in agriculture, by earmarking Rs. 11,000 crore to bring 40 lakh acres of land under micro-irrigation systems over the next five years.

But even more important is a radical transformation in the cropping pattern. Ground water is used to cultivate some of the most water intensive crops like paddy and sugarcane in water stressed regions of India. For example, Punjab, which is the largest producer of rice, depends on ground water. A kilogram of the grain consumes 3,500 litres of water. Moreover, state procurement policy and subsidised electricity makes it profitable for Punjab farmers to produce rice whereas farmers in states like Bihar, West Bengal and Assam, which are better endowed in terms of rainfall, lack these incentives. The story is similar for sugarcane, another water guzzling crop, in Maharashtra. Farmers in the state cultivate sugarcane using ground water because they are assured of marketing by the sugar mills, whereas Bihar, which is more suitable for the production of sugarcane, produces less than 5% of the country’s total sugarcane output.

Therefore, state governments should encourage cultivation of less water intensive crops like pulses, millets, and oil seeds in water stressed regions through changes in the public procurement policies, and incentivise farmers in water rich areas.

Understanding and acting on the demand for water is a key step to addressing India’s water scarcity issues. It is now for the government to upscale their efforts by introducing appropriate measures. A community-driven, decentralised water management system can be such a step. The realigning of cropping patterns and irrigation systems with respect to water availability should also be adopted. Otherwise, we might be left with little choice  on the sustainability of water supply.

Vastav is a Research Associate at Accountability Initiative.

With inputs from Avani Kapur and Avantika Shrivastava.

 

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[1] http://social.niti.gov.in/uploads/sample/water_index_report.pdf

[2] http://cwc.gov.in/water-info

[3] http://accountabilityindia.in/publication/national-rural-drinking-water-mission-nrdwm/

[4] https://gwssb.gujarat.gov.in/downloads/Swajal_Report_Final.pdf

[5]https://www.oav.de/fileadmin/user_upload/5_Publikationen/5_Studien/170118_Study_Water_Agriculture_India.pdf