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क्या ग्राम सभा को लेकर हम जागरूक नागरिक हैं?

संवैधानिक तौर पर वर्ष 1993 के बाद पंचायतों को सरकार का दर्जा देने का उद्देश्य यही था कि हम सभी को ज्यादातर सेवाएं हमारे नजदीक ही मिले, समय पर मिले तथा साथ ही स्थानीय स्तर पर लोगों का सशक्तिकरण हो| लेकिन अभी भी कितने लोग हैं जो वाकई में जानते हैं कि पंचायतों की हमारे जीवन में असल भूमिका क्या है? या फिर सरकार ने जो योजनायें चलाई हैं वो क्या हैं, उनका असली मकसद क्या है?

आप में से जो पाठक किसी भी ग्राम पंचायत के अंतर्गत आते हैं, जानते होंगे कि प्रत्येक ग्राम पंचायत स्तर पर ग्राम सभा की बैठक का आयोजन किया जाता है| इसका उद्देश्य होता है कि बात को वहां सुना जाए तथा सरकार द्वारा चलाई जा रही विभिन्न योजनाओं का लाभ आम लोगों तक पहुँच पाए| ग्राम सभा की बैठक में मौजूद ग्रामवासी अपने कार्यों से सम्बंधित मांगों को पंचायत प्रतिनिधियों के समक्ष रखते हैं जिन्हें कार्यवाही रजिस्टर में दस्तावेज करने की जिम्मेदारी पंचायत सचिव की होती है|

पंचायती राज अधिनियम के मुताबिक़ जिस दिन ग्राम सभा की बैठक होती है, उस दिन बैठक में जो भी गतिविधियाँ होती हैं, उन सभी को पंचायत प्रधान तथा पंचायत सचिव द्वारा लोगों के सामने दस्तावेज किया जाना चाहिए| ऐसा न होने की स्थिति में आपका हक़ बनता है कि आप उनसे सवाल पूछें और उन्हें, सभी के सामने कार्यवाही रजिस्टर भरने को कहें| इसके अलावा इसमें यह भी प्रावधान है कि कार्यवाही रजिस्टर में गतिविधियाँ/प्रस्ताव डालने के उपरान्त प्रधान एवं सचिव द्वारा उस दिन की कार्यवाही लिखने के बाद उसे स्टाम्प और हस्ताक्षर करके समापन किया जाये| इस सबके बाद पंचायत सचिव को उस दिन की पूरी कार्यवाही को ग्राम सभा के सामने पढ़कर सुनाना होता है|

आपकी जानकारी में ऐसे भी लोग होंगे जो कहते होंगे कि पंचायत में उनके कोई काम नहीं होते, या फिर पंचायत उनकी बात नहीं सुनती! लेकिन इसका क्या कारण हो सकता है? क्या हमें मालुम है कि हमारे अधिकार क्या हैं? उदाहरण के तौर पर आप-हम में से कितने लोग हैं जो वास्तव में यह जांच करते हैं कि जो ग्राम सभा में कार्यवाही रजिस्टर में गतिविधियाँ डाली जाती हैं, वे क्या हैं? क्या आपके सामने कार्यवाही रजिस्टर को भरा जाता है? ग्राम सभा में आपने जो मांग रखी, क्या वह उसमें दर्ज की गयी? क्या सभी पात्र लोगों के कार्य शामिल करने के बाद पंचायत सचिव और प्रधान/सरपंच द्वारा उसको समापन करके स्टाम्प हस्ताक्षर किये जाते हैं?

अक्सर देखने को मिलता है कि जब ग्राम सभा की बैठक होती है तब ज्यादातर लोग बैठक में तो आते हैं लेकिन ज्यादा समय न होने की वजह से रजिस्टर में अपने हस्ताक्षर करके चले जाते हैं| तो कहने का अर्थ यही है कि जब हम-आप ही अपने अधिकारों के प्रति जागरूक नहीं है या फिर हमारे पास उन कार्यों के लिए समय ही नहीं है, तो फिर ऐसे में किसी से अपेक्षा भी क्यों करें!

इसके अलावा पिछले वर्ष पंचायती राज मंत्रालय और ग्रामीण विकास मंत्रालय, भारत सरकार द्वारा पारदर्शिता तथा जवाबदेही को बढ़ावा देने के उद्देश्य से पूरे भारतवर्ष की हर ग्राम पंचायत में ‘सार्वजनिक सूचना बोर्ड’ लगाने के निर्देश दिए गए| इसका उद्देश्य है की ग्राम पंचायत अपनी ‘ग्राम पंचायत विकास योजना’ का ब्यौरा बोर्ड के माध्यम से लोगों के सामने रखे| इससे आम लोग भी यह जान सकेंगे की उनकी ग्राम पंचायत में एक वित्तीय वर्ष में कौन से मद में कितना पैसा आया तथा किन गतिविधियों पर खर्चा हुआ|

सोच तो बहुत बेहतरीन है, लेकिन इसमें कुछ समस्याएं हैं! समस्या यह है कि एक ही राज्य के भीतर ही काफी विभिन्नता देखने को मिलती है| उदाहरण के तौर पर अगर हिमाचल प्रदेश की बात करूँ तो कुछ पंचायतों ने ये बोर्ड हिंदी भाषा में बनाये हैं तो कुछ पंचायतों ने अंग्रेजी भाषा में| आपके साथ एक पंचायत द्वारा लगाये गए बोर्ड का फोटो शेयर कर रहा हूँ|

 

 

क्या आम ग्रामवासी इस बोर्ड को समझ पायेगा? जैसे ‘14th FC, VMJSY, DCP 5%, RAY, MMAY CRF’ इत्यादि  योजनाओं से सम्बंधित जानकारी है लेकिन वह आम भाषी और सरल शब्दों में नहीं है| 4-5 पंचायत के प्रतिनिधियों एवं पंचायत सचिवों से बात करके मालुम चला कि इस बोर्ड पर अनुमानित लागत 30 हजार से 50 हजार रुपये तक की थी| तो ऐसे में यह सवाल भी लाज़मी है कि आखिर यह जानकारी कैसे पहुंचाई जाएगी?

लेकिन इस सबके पीछे कहीं न कहीं लोगों में भी तो कमी है! लोग क्यों अपनी आवाज़ नहीं उठाते? क्यों अपने अधिकारों के प्रति जागरूक नहीं होते? ऐसा पाया गया है कि जब लोग अपनी आव़ाज उठाते हैं तब सरकार भी बेहतर प्रदर्शन करने का प्रयास करती है| स्थानीय प्रशासन द्वारा प्रयास सिक्के का एक ही पहलू है|

इस छोटे से उदाहरण के जैसे कितने ही ऐसे वाकया होंगे| सोचना यह भी पड़ेगा की क्यों अपने अधिकारों के प्रति नागरिक जागरूक नहीं हैं, और अगर हैं तो आसपास होने वाली ऐसी गतिविधियों पर आवाज़ नहीं उठाते! आप भी नज़र रखें, खुद को सशक्त बनाएं और जरूरत पड़ने पर अपनी सह-भागिता निभाएं|

Can Age-weighted Voting Systems Alter Policy Decision-Making?

As Greta Thunberg thundered at world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit in September, her outrage was palpable and made global news. Her scathing attacks on the lax implementation of international standards to mitigate impending environmental disaster, and the lack of collective action at the expense of short-term economic gains has created a virtual divide. This divide is between the relatively wealthy older generation who she accuses of being passive in the face of impending disaster and the dynamic, revolutionary youngsters who are almost insurgent in their determination to preserve the natural world. She accused the former of the criminal injustice of having stolen the childhood of her and others and their right to live and dream in the security of a future, bequeathing to them, instead, a world whose future is becoming increasingly toxic, violent and uncertain.

Young advocates the world over are battling crises that affect their cohort exponentially more than comparatively older demographics. Issues such as climate change, the impending water crisis, student loans, stagnating real wages are far more concerning for the youth of today than their older counterparts who are least at risk. In other words, imprudent decisions taken today may have disastrous consequences for the future with rising intergenerational debt levels that undermine essential capital investments for development, reduced standards of living, eventual loss of livelihoods, and ecosystems.

Yet the youth do not have a seat at the decision-making table.

Many countries today suffer from a lopsided generational representation of age cohorts in their Parliaments and legislative assemblies. Only 12 per cent of the members of the current Lok Sabha are under 40 years of age whereas 65 per cent of the population is below 35 years[1]. Participation among the youth in politics has been declining as well. The first two Lok Sabhas had as many as 164 MPs in the age group of 25-40 years. The current Lok Sabha has around 65 MPs who are between 25-40 years[2].This disparity is telling when it comes to policy decisions, especially with regard to issues that affect the young far more significantly. This begs the question whether the young are underrepresented in today’s decision-making process.

There is an interesting alternate solution to the above which has, even at the nascent stage of a thought experiment, created quite a buzz. Age-weighted voting systems look to diminish the role of a ‘one-vote-one-voice idea’, and instead provide younger voters with a significantly higher leverage in the democratic process.

Let us, for example, consider a hypothetical four player decision-making system. Each player’s votes are weighted differently. This may be enumerated in the following way:

(Q: P1, P2, P3, P4} => (18: 12, 8, 6, 4)

The above can be understood as follows: the corresponding weights for Players 1 to 4 are 12, 8, 6 and 4. So, when Player 1 casts a vote, it is equivalent to casting 12 votes, when Player 2 casts a vote, it is equivalent to casting 8 votes and so on. Thus, there are, in total, a possibility of 12+8+6+4 i.e. 30 votes being cast when all players in the system participate. The variable Q, which has a value of 18, represents the minimum number of votes that may be cast in favour of (or against) a particular proposal for it to pass. Typically, a value just over one half of the total number of votes (by weight and not by person) is usually fixed as the minimum required number, and is called reaching quota. In our hypothetical case, the quota is randomly fixed at 18.

Now suppose: Player 1 depicts 18-27 year olds; Player 2 depicts 28-37 year olds; Player 3 depicts 38-47 year olds; and Player 4 depicts 48+ voters (for argument’s sake let us assume that retirement age is about 40 in this system). The different combinations of the results of the game, assuming more than one player engages in the referendum (since no single player can reach quota on their own) would be as follows:

Table prepared by the author based on the Banzhaf Index of Power.

When we study the winning combinations (iterations in which the proposal reaches quota) we can identify ‘critical players’ in every round. Critical players are those players in the selected iteration without whom it would be impossible to reach quota. In the two player combinations that are successful [(P1,P2) and (P1,P3)] both players are naturally critical as no single player has enough weighted votes to reach quota on their own. In the three player combination, however, the number of critical players differ in every iteration. In the first one (P1,P2,P3), the quota cannot be reached without Player 1 but Players 2 and 3 are dispensable if either one of them combines her votes with Player 1. In the second round (P1,P3,P4), Player 1 is critical as Players 3 and 4 cannot reach quota on their own. However, Player 3 is also critical because Players 1 and 4 cannot reach quota on their own. In the last three player combination (P2,P3,P4), all three players are critical. In the four player combination, when all players participate, none are critical.

We can also calculate the Banzhaf Index of Power: an index that measures  political power of each member of a voting group, for each player. It is derived by counting the total number of times a member (or cohort) is critical for reaching quota divided by the total number of critical players in each successful round. In our example, for every winning combination, there are in total ten times players are critical. Player 1 is critical in 4 out of the ten times, so its Index measure is 40 per cent. Similarly, players 2, 3 and 4 have a power index of 20 per cent, 30 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.

What is interesting is that higher weights do not correspond to a higher power index. This could have interesting implications in policy which merit consideration:

  • It is fair and justifies the disproportional representation of the population: If policies on the future of the environment and long- term sustainability of natural resources are to be decided, it makes sense to have youngsters have a substantial say in the process; if the age-weighting is based on the approximate life expectancy, it will counter the incentive of older generations (with a comparatively shorter remaining life span) to choose shorter term gains over long-term sustainability concerns.
  • It presumes that the younger populace knows what is best for them in the long run, and that they are fully informed of the future consequences of policymaking today (to be fair, no voter can have perfect foresight). It also presumes that the older generations are entirely self-interested and do not have sufficient investment in the preservation of the future. Neither of these presumptions may necessarily hold true.
  • For ageing populations, this is a good alternative to ensure that future-oriented policies are undertaken in the economy.
  • For younger populations, it is still a good alternative. The weights can be adjusted for the higher share of the younger voting population, and the corresponding life expectancies of older generations whose share is lower in absolute numbers. The idea is to provide representation on the basis of gains and losses from a cost-benefit analysis of overlapping generations, and not merely higher representation of the young.
  • This may encourage voting among the young in large numbers as well as active participation in politics on their part.
  • Providing higher weights does not necessarily correspond to more political clout. As can be seen from the calculations of the Banzhaf coefficient, the quota value may be altered to ensure a fair representation of all cohorts despite an obvious weighted bias towards the young.
  • This could skew attention of political candidates towards their young voter base. This may have both positive and negative consequences. Would it come at the expense of issues concerning older voters?
  • It is possible that the system would prove most suitable under conditions of a referendum and not as a reform to the electoral process as a whole? This system may prove counter-effective to decisions with regard to, say, health expenditure or pensions that do not affect younger generations in the short run as much.

Greta Thunberg’s address to the UN was greeted with both rapturous enthusiasm as well as some very denigrating, merciless attacks. If age-weighted voting is seriously considered as an alternative to current voting systems, this kind of mixed reaction is to be expected since broad acceptance for the idea will be difficult to achieve. However, the rationale of an age-weighted voting system proves quite tempting, and difficult to ignore as a legitimate systemic reform.

For more on the Banzhaf Index of Power, visit here and here.

Also Read: Policy and Activism from the Perspective of a Youth Activist

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[1]https://theprint.in/opinion/average-age-of-modis-cabinet-is-60-will-they-understand-indias-restless-youth/245673/

[2]https://www.prsindia.org/parliamenttrack/vital-stats/profile-newly-elected-17th-lok-sabha

 

 

Policy and Activism from the Perspective of a Youth Activist

Nina Möger Bengsston is a member of the Danish Youth Climate Council where she provides policy input to the Minister of Climate on topics related to transitioning to a sustainable economy. The 24-year-old has also initiated a global alliance to further formalise the involvement of youth in climate policy across 15 countries, both developed and developing. She is co-authoring a book on climate activism and holds a BSc in International Business and Politics from Copenhagen Business School and Cornell University. In the interview below, she discusses her evolving role in the climate crisis movement.

Sidharth Santhosh, a graduate student at Sciences Po and an ex-intern at the Accountability Initiative, interviewed Nina to understand her engagement with the climate change movement, and the evolution of her role in holding her government accountable. 

 

What inspired you to start taking sustainable decisions in your daily life?

Ten years ago, the COP 15 conference was held in Copenhagen, Denmark and it was a massive disaster. COP 15 was supposed to have been the Paris moment. Governments announced in a big fashion that it was time for change and time for action. Yet no decision was reached despite negotiations lasting late into the night. The image that I remember most vividly was the hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating and bringing the issues [climate-related issues] to light.

On the one hand, you saw politicians failing to use their powers to live up to their responsibilities, and on the other, thousands of people were out on the streets using their very limited power to push for change. This is where my awareness – and anger – started. The contrast of the people who were trying to drive change versus politicians who had the power, but did not live up to it.

 

Is this when you realised your voice was being heard?

The point when I realised I had voice and the power to change something was when, in high school, we ran two campaigns to stop using single-use plastic in the school canteen and increase access to vegetarian choices. The school had 3,000 students and it was a significant amount of plastic waste being generated. The campaign was successful and the school agreed to shift to biodegradables. The second campaign involved a lot of conversations with the school canteen on how they functioned and the amount of meat that was being consumed by the students. Seeing how far that debate moved over a short period of time gave me hope.

 

You went from being a student who held onto her values to now being an advisor to the European Parliament. How did your role evolve and what have you been able to achieve?

I’ve been very fortunate to meet people much more skilled, smart and brilliant on this topic than myself. I got to assist them in their work. My way in to the European Parliament was through campaigns. For a lot of young people, this is their way into politics. It is by either volunteering or by being hired into campaign work. The politicians running for the European Parliament got to know me and they saw that I work hard and had something to offer. So if being on the ‘inside’ and involved in politics is what you want to do, then campaigning is where it begins.

I think I am more in doubt now than ever of the power to do something, to do the necessary within the political system. I think I see very clearly what drives political decisions is the movements of the masses. You have to think about the incentive structure behind politics, which really is to be re-elected. In some places this may mean having money, and in some other places it may mean catering to popular demands. It is only now that you have millions of people campaigning for climate change, it is on the top of the list for politicians. The question then is – who has agency? Is it the ones who place their vote inside the parliament [lawmakers] or is it the ones who determine who gets to place their vote to begin with [citizens]?

 

Going forward what is the way the youth can continue to engage in this dialogue with the different stakeholders?

I think, having worked on the ‘inside’ and ‘outside’, it depends on what you want to do. If you want to push for political change, getting out into the streets, mobilising and lobbying with local politicians is what you should be doing. If your temperament suits a Friday for Future style or an Extinction Rebellion style, both styles are equally important. If you look at big mass movements that have really moved things in the west, the civil rights movement or the feminist movement, the most important element was to mobilise crowds in a cross pressure of civil and uncivil measures.

 

For others interested, do you recommend they engage with thick decision-making involving policy or thin engagement involving striking on the streets?

One has to think about what they want to change, what their main ‘ask’ is and then about what their skills, temperament, networks are like. When one combines these two things, one can better analyse what they want to do, whether it is being on the inside or outside, public or private, activism or academia.

Also Read: Youth Activism, the Climate Crisis and Civic Participation

Policy Buzz: Edition 9

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

 

Policy News 

 

General:

  • As per a news report, the government may discontinue spending on 200 schemes to meet its fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent. The schemes have non-priority status, and the impact of their discontinuation is likely to be reflected in the budget of FY 2021. 

 

Rural Development: 

  • Prime Minister Modi has reviewed the progress of projects worth Rs 61,000 cr, including the Aspirational Districts Programme, using PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation), which is an ICT-based platform. The dashboard consists of 49 performance indicators to measure progress of districts.

 

Education:

  • Under the Amma Vodi scheme to be implemented in Andhra Pradesh, mothers of school-going children from poor families will be given assistance of Rs. 15,000 per year. The government also announced that it will be converting all government, Mandal Praja Parishad and Zilla Parishad schools into English medium schools. 

 

Health and Nutrition: 

  • About 5 lakh Anganwadi Workers are updating data on the ICDS-Common Application Software (CAS) presently. The Ministry of Women and Child  Development is aiming to link all Anganwadis to the nutrition dashboard, by mid of next year. 

 

Sanitation: 

  • The Uttar Pradesh government is surveying the number of women-headed families without toilets, after lapses in the state implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission were reported. 

Accountability Initiative द्वारा आयोजित राजस्थान की शिक्षा प्रणाली पर कार्यक्रम

Accountability Initiative (AI), Centre for Policy Research ने राजस्थान की सार्वजनिक शिक्षा प्रणाली एवं समग्र शिक्षा पर विचार विमर्श के लिए जयपुर में 23 अक्टूबर को कार्यक्रम आयोजित किया | यह कार्यक्रम शोधकर्ताओं और गैर सरकारी संगठन स्टाफ के लिए था | कार्यक्रम के दौरान मुख्य रूप से राज्य में 2014 से हो रहे स्कूल एकीकरण पर चर्चा हुई |  

मृदुस्मिता बोरदोलोई, जो की AI में सीनियर रीसर्चर हैं, उन्होंने हाल ही में हुए अध्ययन का विश्लेषण प्रस्तुत किया | मृदुस्मिता और  ऋत्विक शुक्ल (रीसर्च एसोसिएट) ने 2014-15 में राजस्थान सरकार द्वारा स्कूल एकीकरण नीति में इस अध्ययन पर आधारित वर्किंग पेपर का सह लेखन किया है | राजस्थान भारत में बड़े स्तर पर स्कूलों को एकीकृत करने वाला राज्य है | राजस्थान शिक्षा निदेशालय के अनुसार, 2014-15 से 2018-19 तक लगभग 22,000 स्कूलों का एकीकरण किया गया, हालाँकि इन स्कूलों में से लगभग 2,500 के लिए एकीकरण उलट दिया गया | 2018- 19 तक कुल एकीकरण हुए विद्यालयों की संख्या 19,500 थी | 

प्रस्तुति में बताया गया:

  • राज्य भर के सभी सरकारी स्कूलों की तुलना में एकीकृत स्कूलों में नामांकन में अधिक गिरावट देखी गई| नामांकन में गिरावट विकलांगता वाले छात्रों के लिए सबसे अधिक प्रतीत होती है, इसके बाद अनुसूचित जाति (एससी) और अनुसूचित जनजाति (एसटी) के छात्र हैं | 
  • एकीकरण के बाद, प्रति विद्यालय शिक्षकों की औसत संख्या में वृद्धि हुई है। दोनों वर्षों में सभी एकीकृत स्कूलों में दो से अधिक शिक्षक थे | प्रति ग्रेड शिक्षकों (TGR) की संख्या में कुछ सुधार हुआ है | TGR में सुधार उन प्राथमिक विद्यालयों के लिए अधिक दिखाई दिया जो 2014-15 और 2016-17 में माध्यमिक विद्यालयों के साथ एकीकृत हुए |
  • सभी परिणाम सरल रूप में यहाँ समझे जा सकते हैं |

आगे बढ़ते हुए कार्यक्रम में  3 विशेषज्ञों ने टिप्पणी और सुझाव दिए |  डॉ. सुभाष कौशिक (सहायक निदेशक, राजस्थान स्कूल शिक्षा परिषद्, समग्र शिक्षा) ने चर्चा  शुरू करते हुए कहा कि सरकार के  आंकड़े और अध्ययन के परिणाम मिलते जुलते हैं | व्यक्तिगत रूप में उन्होंने कहा कि सरकारी स्कूलों की ख़राब परिस्थिति का एक कारण यह भी है कि सरकारी अधिकारी एवं नीति निर्माता अपने बच्चों को इन स्कूलों में नहीं भेजते, जिसकी वजह से स्कूल प्रबंधन समितियों (SMCs) की योजनाओं पर कोई  गंभीरता से ध्यान नहीं देता | अध्ययन में निकले एक ज़रूरी मुद्दे पर उन्होंने गौर किया | भले ही सर्व शिक्षा अभियान, राष्ट्रीय माध्यमिक शिक्षा अभियान, और शिक्षक प्रशिक्षण को मिलाकर समग्र शिक्षा बन चुका हो मगर इनके विभाग अभी भी अलग-अलग काम करते हैं, तालमेल कम है |

श्री राजेंद्र  भाणावत (सेवानिवृत्त आई.ए.एस.) ने  विचार उत्तेजक बात की – शिक्षा जिनके लिए है, उन्ही को प्राप्त नहीं हो रही है | शिक्षा और स्कूलों को बच्चों पर केंद्रित होना चाहिए, न की केवल प्रबंधन पर |  एकीकरण निति में  बच्चों, माता -पिता या समुदाय पर ध्यान नहीं दिया गया है | एकीकरण प्रयास  विभाग द्वारा और विभाग के लिए किया गया | जब स्कूल की शिफ्ट होने की बात आती है, तो जो मुख्य लाभार्थी हैं, उनको ही सबसे ज़्यादा परेशानी आती  है | कल्याणकारी राज्य का विचार यह है कि भले ही  एक गांव में एक बच्चा हो, वहां स्कूल अवश्य होना चाहिए | निजी स्कूल इस स्थिति में संचालित नहीं होना चाहेंगे | 

प्रोफ़ेसर के.बी. कोठारी (40 साल से ज़्यादा शिक्षा में अनुभवी) ने कहा की सरकार को मूलभूत शिक्षा पर ध्यान देने की आवश्यकता है | उनका  मानना है कि स्कूल के नेतृत्व और प्रबंधन बहुत महत्वपूर्ण होते हैं | यह शोध हमें और अधिक सोचने के लिए प्रेरित करता है |  

इसके बाद कुछ प्रतिभागियों ने सवाल पूछे और स्कूल एकीकरण के आसपास के बड़े मुद्दों पर विचार-विमर्श किया |

 

Policy Buzz: Edition 8

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 the Parliament is scheduled to commence on the 18th of November, and will go on till 13th December. 

 

Health & Nutrition: 

  • The Global Health Index, a joint project of Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide, has placed India in the ‘serious’ levels of hunger category. India has slipped to rank 102 among 117 countries. The report also points to open defecation being an “impacting factor for health”.  The government has reacted strongly to the “criteria and parameter” followed for the Index.
  • The Supreme Court has favoured a petition seeking the creation of community kitchens across the country. It has also issued notice to states and Union Territories seeking their responses on setting up such kitchens. The matter will be heard next on 26th November. 

 

Education: 

  • The 14-year-old National Curriculum Framework will be revised for alignment with the new National Education Policy. The National Council of Educational Research and Training is set to announce a committee for this purpose. The NCERT will also undertake a survey in six blocks to analyse the quality of primary education, and areas of improvement. 
  • Rina Ray has been transferred out by the government as the School Education Secretary. 

 

Governance: 

  • The Punjab government will depute 8,000 nodal officers across the state to keep a check on stubble burning. On catching farmers indulging in this practice, the nodal officers will ensure red entry in the revenue records with the help of the village patwari. 

 

Opinion 

Missing in the slew of recent policy measures to arrest the current economic slowdown is any serious policy antidote for the crisis confronting India’s rural economy, writes Yamini Aiyar.

Youth Activism, the Climate Crisis and Civic Participation

What began as a high schooler’s silent protest against ecological breakdown has now turned into a worldwide movement. Greta Thunberg, then 15, protested by sitting outside the Swedish parliament in 2018. Following the hottest summer Sweden had experienced in more than two centuries, her demands were that the government take the necessary steps to reduce carbon emission. These were in accordance with the Paris Agreement, which elaborates on measures governments could take to limit increase in climate change to 1.5 degree Celsius. 

Post the elections, Greta began striking during school hours every Friday. Her persistence and deep seated discomfort with current political systems caught the eye of local reporters, and her social media presence on Twitter and Instagram also began to grow. Videos of her protest soon received thousands of views on YouTube. Similar organisations across the globe began recognising her efforts. 

I remember reading one such post sharing a picture of Greta sitting outside the Swedish parliament with her board reading “school strike for the climate”. I was inspired by her persistence and her belief that change had to begin with us. Inspired by her actions students across other European countries such as Germany began organising similar school strikes. An estimated 20,000 students had participated in strikes in at least 270 different cities by the end of 2018. 

An issue I consider to be an externality of everyday actions we take, I had not dared to address methods to reduce the ecological breakdown but had been an active voice with regard to living a more sustainable life. Like Greta, I too had taken to social media platforms such as Instagram to microblog about lifestyle changes I was making to reduce my carbon footprint. The application served as a great platform to discuss predicaments or my actions. 

Youth activism on Twitter and Instagram have been on a constant rise. Aged 13 and upwards, the youth are engaging with various civic issues ranging from animal rights to political decisions being made by the government. Information on these platforms are designed to be consumed quickly and hence more convenient. Termed as ‘slacktivism’, this mode of thin engagement with political and social causes online has proven to have little significant effect. Studies suggest that these efforts don’t necessarily lead to policy changes as changing systems take longer than one is ready to commit to. 

However, the ‘Fridays for Future’ (FfF) climate strikes have brought many online supporters to the streets. The official webpage tracks the strikes in real-time as they take place across the globe. With millions of participants, India has witnessed 161 ‘one-time’ strikes and a total of 433 strikes out of which 272 strikes are scheduled to take place in the near future. This indicates a growing number of young citizens, frustrated with aspects of governance, taking to the streets to demand better. Belonging to the urban elite, these students have traditionally not expressed their opinions in this manner. 

The FfF strikes have mobilised thin online engagement to tangible engagement, on the streets. The thin engagement begins with liking a post or retweeting and then moves on to following accounts or posting content expressing one’s support. The next action on this range would be to join a strike happening ‘near you’ and may either stop there or may continue on to actions such as writing articles or even filing lawsuits. Greta and at least 15 fellow leaders have filed lawsuits against their respective governments claiming that their governments have been violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

The strikes intend to bring to the forefront the disastrous effects of climate change on Earth that the strikers are going to inherit. The strikes have a clear motive and are universal. Through them, the participating youth expect the governments to enforce rules and regulations necessary to limit the increase of temperature to 1.5 degree Celsius. Only time will tell if their tactics are efficient in holding governments accountable.  But, as the youth continue to use social media platforms, they are engaging in civic conversations which could very well be a step to citizen participation in accountable governance. 

Sidharth is a former intern at the Accountability Initiative. He is currently a postgraduate student at Sciences Po. 

Policy Buzz: Edition 7

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

 

Policy News 

 

Governance: 

  • The Andhra Pradesh government has introduced a Village and Wards Secretariat programme with the aim of making public services more transparent and accessible on ground. More than 1.20 lakh employees have been recruited, and they will assist people in availing over 500 government services. Village and ward secretariats will start becoming operational from the first week of December.  

 

Budget: 

  • The Finance Ministry will start conducting pre-Budget and Revised Estimates (RE) meetings from 14th October, which will go on till the first week of November. Budget Estimates (BE) for 2020-21 will be provisionally finalised after discussions amongst Secretary, Expenditure and concerned Secretaries and Financial Advisers. 

 

  • The Reserve Bank of India has released its annual study of state-level budgets. The analysis unpacks “Debt: States’ Medium-Term Fiscal Challenge,” and can be found here.

 

Water: 

  • Gram Panchayats and local bodies will now be eligible to decide on water usage charges for the supply of potable piped water under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Emphasising how water can be best managed locally, the Jal Shakti Ministry has given “full flexibility” to the said bodies. 

 

Health: 

  • The findings of the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (2016-18), the largest micronutrient survey conducted by the government, have been released. The survey was conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, UNICEF and Population Council.  It has collected data on the nutritional status of children between the ages of 0 and 19 in rural and urban areas across 30 states. The report is available here. 

 

Opinion 

 

With over 10 crore toilets being built in the last five years and an unprecedented rise in access to individual household toilets, the Swachh Bharat Mission has taken India’s sanitation policy a step further. However, the programme’s mission mode design could have affected programme implementation. Avani Kapur, Director at Accountability Initiative, and Sanjana Malhotra, Research Associate, unpack why. 

Studying the State in a Digital Epoch

Since the launch of the Digital India campaign in 2015, the role of Information Technology (IT) within the government has grown from a tool to improve the efficiency and accuracy of existing processes to an all-encompassing programme. It envisions not just the transformation of public services but also the creation of a ‘digitally empowered society’. With regard to e-governance in particular, the Digital India campaign’s ultimate objective is to improve governance overall by adhering to the mantra of ‘less government, more governance’. In this blog, I explore what ‘less government’ means for the use of IT in the government, and discuss the need to study its implementation.

The Digital India campaign brings together a variety of services under its umbrella, including government-to-citizen (G2C), government-to-business (G2B), government-to-government (G2G), government-to-employee (G2E), as well as systems that integrate and/or work across these categories (such as the UMANG application). While G2C e-governance initiatives like the Common Service Centres (CSCs) scheme and their impact on service delivery and citizen experience have been studied, G2G e-governance initiatives such as fund transfer systems and Management Information Systems (MIS) that track key inputs and outputs for various schemes remain understudied. As per one estimate, there are more than 400 government MIS portals just for Direct Benefit Transfers. And that is just the tip of the iceberg – almost every government programme is now linked to a unique MIS portal through which progress is recorded and tracked.

What do we know about these G2G systems? How do they impact governance? Do they improve service delivery? One can begin to formulate and answer these questions by examining the objective under which such G2G systems have been created. As per the Digital India webpage on e-governance, IT is critical for the simplification and transformation of government processes in order to make them more efficient and effective. This assumes a relationship between the use of IT to simplify and transform government processes, and their increased efficiency and effectiveness. With that in mind, we need to understand what this ‘transformation’ entails and what efficiency and effectiveness mean, in this context.

Unlike private sector organisations, the perception of ‘efficiency’ and ‘effectiveness’ within government is not tied to maximising profit but rather to delivering on the contract between the state and citizen and creating some public value. The expectation that e-governance initiatives will facilitate accurate, durable and impartial records is in-built. The Digital India campaign aims to deliver this through ‘less government’ – cutting down paperwork and virtually removing the human interface between the citizen and the state (see image below). Yet, despite these visions of automation and increased transparency, in practice, computers in government offices are often “nothing more than modern typewriters”. The cogs of the state machinery, especially at the district and sub-district levels, still rely on paperwork, files and note sheets to turn. So how is this reliance on paper affected as we move towards a ‘Digital India’? Are digital technologies helpless against the entrenched systems? Too many examples have already shown that G2G e-governance initiatives such as MIS portals are “not magic”. In an article in The Indian Express, Yamini Aiyar, Shrayana Bhattarcharya, and Lant Pritchett, suggest that systems that aim to do away with the human element may actually be counterproductive altogether. ‘Less government’ discounts the very functionaries who implement existing government processes and are critical to their success.

 

Source: e-Mitra, Digital India website, last accessed on 26 September 2019. Available here.  

 

While working within a Zila Parishad office to monitor and support the implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin (SBM -G), I became familiar with SBM-G’s MIS portal. A critical element of the programme, the portal hosts all of the data and metrics used for implementation as well as monitoring by successive levels of administration. Observing the socio-political and organisational context under which the information on the MIS portal is collected, recorded, and disseminated revealed a diverse set of challenges. It underscored the dependence on and the relevance of functionaries associated with e-governance systems. Who enters household details in the SBM MIS?  Who documents the toilets that are built and how? Who are the clerks who approve or verify the paperwork involved? Who enters the data into the digital system and how? How does the state itself engage with the data that it collects?  The search for these answers emphasised that government data cannot be understood without  seeing  ‘behind-the-screen’, without examining the objectives that prompt the design of the MIS portal, and the processes  of data collection itself.

 

Despite visions of automation and increased transparency, in practice, computers in government offices are often “nothing more than modern typewriters”.

 

An output-focused approach to studying MIS portals and their usage ignores the processes that are critical to achieving the goals of e-governance in their totality. Further, studying the state from the outside limits the understanding of how the state comes to be. Regardless of the impact of these everyday processes, recording these experiences and vignettes of life within the state can help untangle the peculiar-seeming practices that govern bureaucracies. If there is one thing I have learned while working within government offices it is that the state is far from static. Despite being “rule-bound”, bureaucratic processes are constantly evolving in ways that even those within the state may not immediately perceive. In his research on digital monitoring systems for MGNREGA in Andhra Pradesh, Rajesh Veeraraghavan finds that the “weapon” that the senior bureaucrats used as a system of control is subverted by field-level functionaries to further their own interests. For example, when Veeraraghavan looked into MGNREGA workers’ complaints about not being assigned work by the computer system, he found that there was no such systemic glitch. Rather, MGNREGA field assistants were using technology failure as a shield to hide their conflict with the workers that had prevented them from uploading their information in the first place.

There may even be multiple levels of such subversion at play within the same system. In my experience, a major opportunity for subversion is the continued entrenchment of paper-based records in the government system. The simultaneous use of paper-based and digital systems is often intentional but misunderstood as a lack of capacity, and can be exploited by functionaries to slip decisions through the cracks and disguise gaps in service delivery much like the MGNREGA example shared here. Research efforts that look into the usage of digital systems, including such subversions, can feed into the design process for subsequent iterations or new MIS platforms. Additionally, this can contribute toward the literature on the seemingly mundane practices that are integral to conceptualising how the Indian state builds its own legitimacy, authority and power in the age of the internet. By combining process evaluations with ethnographic research as a participant-observer, one can draw attention to the processes through which the state fails, is made opaque, or, in the best case, effective, against the backdrop of ‘Digital India’.

In a blog post reflecting on the implementation of e-governance, former senior bureaucrat T.R. Raghunandan observed: “The champions of e-Governance have already moved on, even before the systems they develop are entrenched in government processes.” We stand to learn from studying such phenomenon. Regardless of which direction the ‘entrenchment’ goes, the mere use of a digital system creates the image of a modern and technologically advanced state – the ‘Digital India’ we have been promised. But to what extent has it been achieved?  I, for one, will be heading back into government offices to find out.

Policy Buzz: Edition 6

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 Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), or the PMEAC, has been reconstituted for a period of two years. For details of changes made, visit here.

 

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi has addressed the United Nations General Assembly, outlining the achievements of his government and the vision for the future. Of note is a campaign against single-use plastic. He reiterated the important role played by the Swachh Bharat Mission and Ayushman Bharat for safe sanitation and health protection respectively. More can be found here.

 

Health and Nutrition: 

  • Ayushman Bharat completed a year on 23 September 2019. Download our latest brief on the scheme to understand its progress and challenges.

 

  • Over 3.5 crore women and children across Anganwadi Centres in 24 states have been registered in ICDS-CAS, a nutrition monitoring app introduced by the Government of India. The app’s focus is on the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, and will provide a slew of features for beneficiaries as well as Anganwadi Workers.

 

Accountability: 

  • The Government of Rajasthan has launched the Jan Soochna Portal for greater accountability. The portal is expected to provide real-time updates on the progress of 23 flagship schemes and 13 state departments.

 

Water and Sanitation: 

  • The 6th edition of India Water Week was inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind on 24 September 2019. This year’s theme is Water Cooperation-Coping with 21st-Century Challenge. He called on citizens to reduce their “water-footprint,” and the need to show the “same dedication and commitment” to the Jal Shakti Abhiyan as has been for full sanitation coverage in the country. Download our latest brief on the National Rural Drinking Water Mission for insights into this major union government programme. 

 

Opinion

“India risks ease of living becoming a substitute for a serious engagement with the challenge of ensuring that India’s poor become active participants in the economy,” writes Yamini Aiyar, President and Chief Executive, Centre for Policy Research.