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Rights Based Entitlements in India

In recent years, rights based people’s movements have had considerable success in gaining legal recognition for basic rights and services such as the right to education, food information etc. According to Pratap Bhanu Mehta, “The rights movement rose against the backdrop of state failure. What people are groping for is different instruments through which the Constitution’s objectives may be realized.” Summarised below are some examples of basic rights that have found legal recognition in recent years:    

Right to Education
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (Right to Education Act (RTE) in short) was passed by Parliament in August 2009. The Act gives effect to the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act 2002 which requires the State to provide free and compulsory elementary education to all children. The RTE Act guarantees free and compulsory elementary education for all children between the ages of 6-14 years. Government schools are required to provide free and compulsory education to all children admitted while aided schools are required to provide free and compulsory to a minimum of 25% of enrolled children. Under the Act no child shall be held back in class, expelled or required to pass a board exam until his/her elementary education is complete. The physical punishment and mental harassment of children is prohibited under the law. The Act also makes provisions for schools (government and unaided) to admit at least 25% of students from SCs, STs, low-income and other disadvantaged groups. The Government has recently framed model rules for implementation of the law.

Right to Food
To combat the challenges of hunger, starvation, malnutrition and food insecurity, the Congress Party in its 2009 Election Manifesto promised to enact a “National Food Security Act” to provide 25 Kgs of rice or wheat at Rs 3 per Kg for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.  However, the draft “National Food Security Bill” has been extensively criticised – in particular for limiting the list of beneficiaries to BPL households. Right to food campaigners and activists are demanding a more comprehensive “Food Entitlements Act” which goes beyond the limited provision of 25 kgs of grain at Rs 3 Kg for BPL households. Key provisions of the proposed “Food Entitlements Act” include: a universal Public Distribution System (providing at least 35 Kgs of grain per family); special food entitlements for destitute households (including an expanded Antyodaya programme); consolidation of all entitlements created by recent Supreme Court orders (e.g. cooked mid-day meals in primary schools and universalisation of ICDS) etc.

Forest Rights Act
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 was passed by Parliament in December 2006. However the Act was officially notified into force a year later in December 2007, while the Rules for the Act were notified on 1 January 2008. The Forest Rights Act (as it is popularly known) recognizes and secures the forest rights of Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwelling communities and provides them with a voice in forest conservation issues. Specifically, the Act recognises three kinds of rights: (i) land rights over land that has been occupied for cultivation or residence (ii) usage rights over forest produce and traditional knowledge and (iii) legal rights to protect and conserve forests. The Forest Rights Act has been criticized by conservationists who feel the law will hasten the depletion of India’s forest cover and wildlife. There are also serious concerns about how the Act is being implemented in different parts of the country.

Right to Information
The Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI Act) was passed in 2005 following a decade long grassroots and civil society campaign. Notably, even before its  enactment into law, the right to information had been recognized by the Supreme Court of India as a fundamental part of the right to freedom of speech and right to life (Articles 19 and 21 respectively) of the Constitution.  The RTI Act sets out practical regime for citizens in India to access information held by the government. It guarantees a legally enforceable right to information to all citizens places a corresponding duty on the government to provide information proactively and on request. The Act covers the whole country (with the exception of Jammu and Kashmir) and extends to all branches of the government. The legislation spells out a detailed administrative structure to facilitate citizen’s access to information including provisions for the setting up of Information Commissions to handle appeals and complaints.

Effect of Soaring Food Prices on Mid Day Meal Scheme

Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDM) is the world’s largest school-feeding programme aimed at promoting universalisation of elementary education by increasing enrolment, retention, attendance, and simultaneously impacting the nutritional status of students. It is learnt that besides rice and dal, MDM involves use of oil, vegetables, salt and spices and fuel. Keeping in view the rising cost of the commodities, effective from December 1, 2009, for primary schools the fund allocation norm for cooking costs has been increased to Rs. 2.50 per child per day(up from Rs. 1.58). For upper primary the allocation has been increased to Rs. 3.75 per child per day (up from Rs. 2.08).

 

Any revision needs to be approved by the EFC and the cabinet each time – after seeking comments from all relevant ministries – in a process that can take up to a year.

However, the existing cost norms and the subsequent revision is based on overall inflation figures, not specifically on the costs of commodities used in the meals. Overall inflation statistics can hide the fluctuations in the prices of specific commodities relevant to the meal costs. The point becomes all the relevant as the country is now witnessing rising food prices despite negligible inflation. (Overall inflation is 7.31% in December)

Price rise of some essential food items (52-week period, in %)

Potatoes………………110.11
Vegetables…………….30.97
Pulses……………….. …42.21
Onions………………… 40.07
Milk……………………..12.62
Cereals………………. 13.91
Rice…………………….12.91
Fruits…………………..7.87

Source: (IANS), Week ended on December 26, 2009

The current procedure for revising the costing norms acts as a further roadblock to realistic pricing. Any revision needs to be approved by the EFC and the cabinet each time – after seeking comments from all relevant ministries – in a process that can take up to a year. By the time the cabinet approval is obtained, the revised norms become outdated and the exercise is redundant.

Instead, a mid-day meal pricing index which would consider fluctuations in the prices of five items essential to the scheme seems to be a better idea to tackle this soaring price inflation.

 

Sruti Bandyopadhyay is a Research Associate with the Accountability Initiative.

The Judges’ Assets Bill – A window for reforms

As the India transitions towards a more accountable and transparent democracy, the society gets confronted with issues that sometimes raise fundamental questions.

One such issue is being raised with the Judges (Declaration of Assets and Liabilities) Bill (hereafter ‘the Bill’), being introduced as part of the ambitious reformist agenda of the current government. The Bill tries to further judicial accountability by making disclosure of the assets and liabilities of the judges mandatory.

In Indian society, role of the judiciary has been pivotal. Decisions of the Courts in India have always had a tremendous impact on the way the country is governed. Society, which sometimes gets disillusioned by the executive and the legislature, gets left with only the judiciary to look to for fairness in governance. However, with the growing instances of corruption in the judiciary across the country, it was necessary that some regulation get introduced to make the functioning of the judiciary more transparent. In a system where, traditionally, public scrutiny of the functioning of the judges has been very minimal (especially on the matters concerning disclosure of assets and liabilities), the Bill comes as a big leap forward.

But fearing that the Indian public might misuse the disclosure to mudsling against the judges, and that the judges may not be able to defend themselves like politicians, the Bill created an in-built system by which the disclosure will have to be made only to the respective Chief Justices, and not to the public at large. In fact, the Bill makes it a penal offence in case the disclosure of the assets of the judges is made to any citizen. In effect, the Bill exempts the judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court from any real public scrutiny of their assets – a privilege even the President and Prime Minister do not enjoy. Expectedly, the Bill faced stiff opposition in the Parliament, and its introduction had to be deferred.

Clearly, judges should be put at par with the elected representatives, and any provision that exempts them from such parity in probing may go against the Right to Equality built in the Article 14 of the Constitution, as well as the Right to Information Act. Elsewhere in the world, many countries including the USA require public and annual declaration of assets as a norm by all federal judges including judges of the Supreme Court. Surely there is no reason to think that such a requirement would be any differently problematic in India to warrant any exemption?

While in spirit, the Bill does signifies a positive start towards a much needed process of reforms in the justice delivery mechanism of the country, and to that extent it should be welcomed, exemptions such as one in question dissipate the very objectives of transparency and equality that the Bill purportedly stands for. It remains to be seen if the Government takes steps to address the problems in the Bill, and reintroduce it in the earnest.

It is crucial that the momentum in judicial reforms be maintained. The Judicial Inquiries Bill, the reconsideration of procedure for appointment and removal of judges, as well as instituting an appraisal mechanism to evaluate their performances are all long due reforms within the judicial system, and let us hope that productive discussions around the Judges Assets Bill bring into light the need for these changes as well, to ensure adequate checks and balances within the Judicial system.

Finally, there is a hope that the issues that were so far hidden below the surface will be put on the reform agenda of the government. As far as the reforms in the legal arena are concerned, it is high time that we demand even stricter and more rigorous regulations for those who uphold the law itself.

Kanan Dhru is Managing Director of Research Foundation for Governance in India.

What’s so smart about SMART Cards?

India is undergoing a smart revolution – make that a smart card revolution. Smart cards have been in the news lately with the Government’s decision to set up a Unique Identification Authority (UIDA) to develop multi-purpose identity cards for every Indian. The smart card UIDs are expected to improve national security, enable easy access to government services and help eliminate fraud and corruption in the management of large-scale social welfare schemes as the NREGA and PDS. But, UIDs are just the tip of the iceberg – there is a vast and untapped market for smart cards in India. Growing annually at the rate of 45% the Indian smart card industry is predicted to reach $6 billion by 2010.

Basically, smart cards are pocket sized electronic devices that can store a variety of data safely and securely. We are all too are familiar with the many avatars of these nifty devices which include credit cards, ATM cards, fuel and phone cards. Smart cards are commonly used in Europe and other developed countries as they offer governments and service providers and citizens with a number of benefits. First of all, they are portable, easy to use and offer cashless and paperless transactions. They can be used to as a one-stop shop for citizens to access multiple services. Smart cards improve service delivery by connecting clients directly with service providers thereby reducing the discretion of public authorities. If implemented well smart cards can improve service delivery systems to cut out middlemen, corruption and bring services to closer to end users and beneficiaries. From a service delivery and accountability perspective, smart cards can help plug leakages and curb corruption in the implementation of large-scale social welfare schemes. Capable of storing a range of beneficiary data such as name, address, photographs as well as biometric information, smart cards can help in beneficiary selection, identification and targeting under anti-poverty programmes and schemes.

The Indian government is experimenting with smart cards in sectors such as health care, transport, social security and defence. Smart cards are increasingly being used to deliver wages, pensions, rations and even health benefits under programmes such as the NREGA and RSBY. A number of States including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Tamil Nadu amongst others have already begun integrating smart cards in the implementation of government schemes and programmes with interesting results. In Andhra Pradesh, the State Government has tied up with Mumbai based company – Financial Information Network and Operations (FINO) – to provide biometric smart cards to disburse social security pensions and NREGS wages in 5 districts. Following a successful pilot of the smart card initiative in Warangal and Karimnagar districts, smart cards are now being used for disbursement of pensions and NREGS wages in 259 villages in Andhra Pradesh. In Delhi, the State Government has launched “Samajik Suvidha Sangam” (Mission Convergence) to streamline the delivery of basic services in the NCR by converging citizen services provided by various departments into a single window for easier beneficiary access. Key components of the programme include the setting up of a computerised data bank, computer systems at each delivery point and the provision of e-benefit cards to citizens. The e-benefit card is a biometric smart card issued to individuals to provide them with easy access to a number of government services. At a national level, smart cards are being used to deliver health insurance benefits to BPL families under the Rashtriya Swasthiya Bima Yojana (RSBY). Under the scheme, all beneficiaries are issued biometric smart cards that contain the fingerprints and photographs of family members. As of 6 August 2009, 53,77,708 smart cards are active and operational in the country. Increasingly, a number of States are considering using the RSBY smart cards to piggy back other welfare schemes, as the cards now provide a dependable means of beneficiary identification.

While there is certainly limitless potential for the use of smart cards in India, there is also need for caution. For one thing, there is a huge gap in our knowledge base about how smart cards actually work on the ground. There is not a lot of data or research that documents the use and impact of smart cards on large-scale social sector programmes like the NREGA or RSBY. There is also little information publicly available about the actual details of how these schemes are being managed. With contracts being awarded to private companies there are growing concerns about the transparency and accountability of these companies to beneficiaries and ultimately taxpayers. However, by far the biggest challenge is surely in the execution and implementation of smart card technologies. Smart cards clearly have the potential to revolutionise the way we think about service delivery – but the success of this technology depends greatly on how well they are implemented. The old adage “well begun but half done” come to mind here. The perennial Achilles heel of India’s many welfare programmes has always been weak implementation. The Government of India has been issuing voter ID cards, ration cards and PAN cards for a number of years, yet, discrepancies such as ghost entries, missing beneficiaries, multiple cards continue to exist. These are issues which must be addressed as smart cards become the new mantra in service delivery. As Swaminathan A Aiyar recently observed, there is a real danger of smart cards becoming “just one more scheme, with its own leakages and omissions”. Ironically, it appears we need to be smart about smart cards!

Mandakini Devasher is a Consultant with the Accountability Initiative.

Money for Nothing

Yamini Aiyar and Anit Mukherjee

Elementary education policy in India is, as economist Lant Pritchett characterizes it, in a ‘Big Stuck’.  Stuck because despite money being poured in to the system – funding for elementary education has had a five-fold increase since the launch of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) in 2001 –  outcomes remain poor. As the Annual Survey of Education Report reminds us year after year, about half of India’s children in standard five cannot read a standard two level text book and far fewer can do basic mathematics. Getting out of this morass requires a system overhaul that creates a performance based, accountable delivery system.

 

How can this be achieved? A crucial step towards creating an accountable system is to ensure accountability in financing. With the imminent implementation of the Right to Education Act (RTE) which is set to significantly expand education finance –the RTE will cost the exchequer Rs. 43600 crores –  ensuring accountability is critical.

First principles of public accountability require that expenditures must adequately reflect citizens’ interests and priorities. When it comes to basic services, citizens’ interests are best captured locally at the point where services are delivered. This means greater local autonomy and discretion, particularly in resource allocation.

 

The current system of education financing allows little room for autonomy. Schools have no discretion over funds that arrive tied to rigid norms determined by the center and states. These norms also determine the quantum of funds schools receive resulting in a mismatch between school needs and funds received. For example, a school with 1000 students receives just about two and a half times more money than a school that has 100 students. And if a school wants to spend more on teacher materials than painting walls –  the norms simply won’t allow it.

 

Autonomy apart, accountability also requires transparency and predictability in fund flows.  After all, you need to know how much money is due and when it willarrive in order to make plans and hold the system to account. This is one of SSA’s greatest weaknesses. Between October and December 2009, an army of 25,000 Indian citizens joined the Annual Survey of Education Report to ask over 12,000 schools how much money arrived, when it arrived and how much was spent. The survey found that by October – half way through the financial year –  more than 50 percent of the schools surveyed reported not receiving SSA funds. These findings are also reflected in macro level data- 63 percent of SSA funds in 2008-09 were spent in the second half of the financial year.

 

Delays are  due to many reasons – delays in releases from the state governments, delays in process as the funds travel through the different administrative layers. And often they are a result of administrative lethargy.  Here’s an interesting story – in some schools in Sehore, Madhya Pradesh, funds had not reached till mid-November. The reason, the State government was converting to an electronic system so that funds could be transferred at the click of a button and delays avoided. A noble cause that took an inadvertent amount of time to implement because local banks had capacity for 4 digit electronic transfers and this particular transfer required 10 digits. No interim measures were put in place to ensure money reached while these kinks were being sorted out and the schools suffered.

 

Whatever the cause, delays proliferate because of the lack of transparency in the system. ASER data indicates that in many schools even the head master is not aware of the different grant components, when they should arrive and what they ought to be spent on. In the absence of information, schools, parents and children are disempowered as they lack the tools to make plans and demand accountability for delayed and unpredictable fund flows.

 

Resolving these problems and ensuring accountability in educational finance requires systemic reforms in the way educational delivery systems are designed. Crucially, the system will need to ensure genuine local autonomy. One way of doing this is to move away from ‘tied’, norm based funding to the provision of block grants calculated on the basis of the number of children enrolled and attending schools. Local autonomy must be accompanied with a process for collection and dissemination of real time information on fund flows and expenditures. This will ensure greater transparency and enable citizens to monitor processes and demand accountability.

Education policy in India today is at a crossroads. There is a clear consensus that improved education holds the key to India’s future and the passage of the RTE stands testimony to this. Now as bureaucrats take to their drawing boards to develop rules and guidelines for the implementation of the RTE, the focus must shift to getting the design right. Only then can we begin to unstuck the ‘Big Stuck’.

(Yamini Aiyar is with Accountability Initiative, Centre for Policy Research. Anit Mukherjee is with National Institute of Public Finance Policy. Both institutes work in partnership with ASER to strengthen accountability in education finance through a project called PAISA)

 

The Hungry Tide: Billions Spent and Millions Still Malnourished


The 16th of October was World Food Day– a day to take the pledge to “unite against hunger” (as this year’s theme goes). And this couldn’t have come at a more pertinent time. Just last week, the Global Hunger Index (GHI) Report 2010 – a joint initiative of the International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide ranked India as 67 out of a total of 84 developing countries and countries in transition, with a value of 24.1 points from its earlier 31.7 points in 1990 – thereby placing India in the “alarming” range of hunger.

This is well below all other South Asian countries except Bangladesh ( China in the 9th position, Pakistan in the 52nd spot and Nepal with 56th rank) and even below several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, such as Kenya, Nigeria, Cameroon, and war-torn countries of Laos, Cambodia, Congo and Sudan.

A multidimensional index for measuring global hunger and malnutrition, the GHI combines three equally-weighted indicators, namely the proportion of undernourished population reflected in calorific deficiency, the prevalence of underweight children under the age of five, and finally the mortality rate of children under the age of five. The index thereby takes into account the nutritional status of not just the population as a whole, but also focuses on a particularly vulnerable group –children.

While the report itself acknowledges this, the picture should be taken as indicative of the situation – rather than a current assessment as up-to-date data on global hunger is just not available. However, in a country that spends crores of rupees every year for improving health and nutrition of children as well as on food security, the report does give a damning picture.

Let’s put this in perspective. Table 1 outlines some of the main schemes dealing improving health and hunger and the amount of money being allocated for them.

Table 1.

Scheme Funding
National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)

Includes components of immunization for children, reproductive and child health project.

 NRHM budget as a whole has more than doubled since FY 2005-06.

Rs. 250 crores was allocated for routine immunization in FY 2009-10, up from Rs. 177 crores in 2005-06.

 
Janani Surakha Yojana (JSY)

Aims at reducing maternal and neo-maternal mortality by giving cash incentives to expecting mothers to undertake institutional delivery.

The number of JSY beneficiaries has increased from 7.39 lakhs to almost 9.2 million in 2009-10.

 

 Rs. 1,241 crores was spent on JSY in FY 2008-09.
Food Subsidy

There are a number of schemes that exist to distribute food grains to vulnerable sections of the population, including the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS)-which provides 35 kgs per month of subsidised food grains to all families identified as living below the poverty line through fair price shops), the Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) for the poorest of poor families etc.

 

 Rs. 55,578 was allocated for food subsidy in FY 2010-11.

 

The total stock of food grains –lying in the central pool (including those in storage and transit) is Rs. 428 lakh metric tonnes.
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)

One of the world’s largest programmes for early childhood development, designed to provide young children with an integrated package of services including supplementary nutrition, healthcare and pre-school education.

 Between 2000 and 2010, Rs. 35,000 crores have been allocated for Integrated Child Development Services ( ICDS)- In FY 2009-10 itself, Rs. 4,022 crores was spent by states ICDS in general and Rs.7,867 crores on the supplementary nutrition component.

 

Moreover, in an order dated November 28th 2001, the Supreme Court converted the benefits of nine food-related schemes (including TPDS, AAY, and ICDS) into “legal entitlements” and directed the State governments to fully implement these schemes as per official guidelines.

Yet despite this:-

  • India has over 230 million undernourished people. (FAO, State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2008). In 2005-06, 44 percent of Indian children under the age of five were underweight and 48 percent were stunted. In fact, the figures would be higher if we were to take India’s norms for hunger – defined as a minimum of 2400 kilocalories per day as opposed to FAO’s 1800 kilocalories per day.
  • Every year 2.5 million children die in India, accounting for one in five deaths in the world.
  • To put it in a global perspective, India is home to 27 percent of the world’s undernourished population and a staggering 42 percent of the world’s malnourished children and 35 percent of the developing world’s low-birth weight infants.

Clearly, the social security net and delivery functions just don’t seem to be working in the right manner. So where does the problem lie? There are broadly 4 main factors.

  • Firstly, there seems to be a lack of prioritization of nutrition in political and policy processes. Take for example the TPDS. Its focus has always been on rice and wheat. As a senior fellow at IFPRI noted, the public distribution system (PDS) is more of a grain policy than a nutrition policy. The same seems to be true of the upcoming Food Security Bill. In fact, the minutes of the meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers, responsible for drafting the National Food Security Bill explicitly (and shockingly) stated in Section 2.1(a) “The definition of Food Security should be limited to the specific issue of foodgrains (wheat and rice) and be delinked from the larger issue of nutritional security.” !!! How do we think we can reduce global hunger if our policies towards hunger categorically don’t want to deal with nutrition?
  • Second, is the problem of targeting.  According to the report, recent evidence suggests that there is a thousand day window of opportunity (spanning from -9 to +24 months) for improving child nutrition. This is the period when children are in greatest need of adequate amounts of nutritious food, preventive and curative health care, and age-appropriate care practices. However, even the ICDS programme, meant to deal with under-nutrition targets children mostly after the age of three, when the effects of under-nutrition are largely irreversible.
  • Third is the lack of a holistic approach for solving malnutrition.To achieve sustainable improvements in child nutrition, decision-makers must tackle the underlying causes of under-nutrition: food insecurity, insufficient care for women and children, and limited access to healthcare and a healthy environment through a convergent package of interventions. In India however, while we have a number of schemes, each scheme is running, somewhat disconnected from the rest. While immunization scheme is run by the Ministry of health and family welfare, the ICDS scheme is run by the Women and Child Welfare Department.  It has also been ascertained that gender inequality and malnutrition are highly correlated. Societies with higher levels of empowerment, tend to provide better care of children. With India ranking 112 out of 134 nations in the Global Gender Gap Report 2010, it is essential to tackle the problem of gender inequality along with programmes to improve child nutrition.
  • And finally, even within the existing schemes, accountability mechanisms are essential to ensure that the monies being pumped into the system, get spent properly and reach the targeted beneficiaries.

On the 2nd of October, ICDS celebrated its 35th anniversary. As the world approaches the 2015 deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – it’s time for India to rethink some of its policies so that the fight to remove global hunger can be adequately achieved.

Avani Kapur is Senior Research and Program Analyst at the Accountability Initiative.

Superheroes in school uniforms

“Didi, who’s your favourite super hero?” asked the six year old as he played with a toy figurine of the Incredible Hulk. “It would have to be Mulan,” I replied after giving it some thought. “But Mulan doesn’t have superpowers!” “But she single handedly saves China.” “Yes, but she doesn’t have alien powers that make her do amazing things! She’s just a human,” he countered.“Well, yes, but by that measure, Batman can’t be called a superhero either. He relies on his gadgets to beat the bad guys.” “He is powerful on his own…he can beat up anyone without relying on his gadgets. Mulan can’t do that.” “She uses the power of her mind to beat the baddies! What is greater? Brute force or mental strength?!…”

The banter went on for some more time.[1] In the end he seemed to agree with me but I am afraid he wasn’t entirely convinced. It did however spark my imagination regarding the typical notion of a superhero. I had been mulling over the stories I had heard that day, shared by teenaged girls attending a scholarship camp in Araria, Bihar, when this impromptu verbal joust took place.

The scholarship programme was launched four years ago by a dear friend to motivate teenaged girls to complete their schooling. Attending these bi-annual workshops was a requirement to attain the scholarship. In these workshops, girls were informed about various things including their body and health, relationships, navigating social inequalities, peoples’ struggles and their rights.  For most girls, this had been the fourth and final camp in the last two years. One of the things we had struggled with during our time with the girls was just getting them to talk. So this time round, we focused on motivating them to share their stories. And I’m so glad we could get all of them to open up. We ended up hearing some truly inspiring stories. Made me realise how the “super-ness” of a person came out in (seemingly) ordinary acts of extraordinary courage.

There was the story of Jaya[2] who at the age of 16 just wanted to learn something in school. She would cycle, take the train and walk to cover the 22 KM between her home and school. But the teachers refused to teach, even though they were present in school. They would tell her to go back and take up tuitions like the other kids. She persisted. This eventually impressed her headmaster. “But we cannot teach one student alone, Jaya,” the headmaster told her. Jaya ended up motivating around 15 girls including her friends and some seniors from the neighbouring village to accompany her. The teachers could no longer turn the students away. They started teaching but not without making things difficult for them, occasionally. For instance, some teachers would get the students to move all the classroom furniture outside, including the stick used to “discipline” them, so they could teach more comfortably.

Then there was Sonali. The girl who was eyed suspiciously; her motives questioned by her neighbours for attending this residential workshop, twice in a row. She didn’t bow down and ended up holding a session with the village folk, telling them about the activities of the group that was organizing the workshop. She generated enough buzz that the village ended up inviting some of the group’s leaders to resolve issues affecting them. She herself became a full time volunteer with the group, organizing day long camps for kids of her village, playing games, screening movies and informing them about their rights.

And how can I forget Noor. She was one of the quietest girls from the batch of 20 odd girls. She learnt sewing at the age of eight, watching her mother sew blouses. She has been sewing blouses ever since, charging Rs. 40 per piece. She shared her ambition to learn sewing suits and opening her own tailoring shop in the near future. “This will secure my family’s future once and for all,” said Noor, eyes agleam;the timidity melting away in front of our eyes.

I looked on as the six year old went back to playing with his toy, my mind wandering off to all those girls who are brave enough to pursue their schooling in a region where underage marriage is still the norm. The average 14 year old in this district spends considerable time cooking up ways to ward off families that might visit her home on any given day to see if she could make for a good wife for their son(s). Whether her own family wishes to marry her off is a question that does not particularly interest anyone outside her immediate family. The constant fear is if a family is turned away for an unsatisfactory reason or a string of families are turned away, any of the rejected parties could spread malicious stories about the girl or the family in the village. Since villages continue to be tightly knit social units, the repercussions might prove too costly for the girl’s family. But having understood the value of education, these girls go on, keeping an eye out for their grades as well as their house guests.

We really need to alter our definition of a superhero. I hope this bright and sensitive six year old grows up in a world that accommodates superheroes possessing all sorts of skills, come in all shapes and genders, and not just lumbering, angry green men. And I hope the girls from Araria are at the forefront, inspiring other young girls and boys to pursue their education, their dreams, and ultimately bring about this change.

 

 

[1] The author will be happy to share her take on why she thinks Mulan should be counted as a superhero with interested readers. She can be contacted at [email protected]

[2] Names have been changed.

Publications from 2015

Book Chapters

Chapter Title Authors Book Title Editor(s) Publisher Link
Fund Flows and Expenditure in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan: A Case Study of School Based Grants at Nalanda District, Bihar Avani Kapur, Anit N Mukherjee Right to Education in India Resources, institutions and public policy Praveen Jha, P. Geetha Rani Routledge India Click here
Role of Activity Mapping in Democratic Good Governance Vincy Davis, Claiming India from Below: Activism and Democratic Transformation Vipul Mudgal Routledge India Click here
Rights, accountability and citizenship: India’s emerging welfare state Yamini Aiyar, Michael Walton Governance in Developing Asia: Public Service Delivery and Empowerment Anil B. Deolalikar, Shikha Jha, Pilipinas F. Quising Edward Elgar Publishing Click here

 

Journal

Title Author Journal Volume Link
Spectators or Participants? Effects of Social Audits in Andhra Pradesh Yamini Aiyar, Soumya Kapoor Mehta Economic & Political Weekly Click here
Do Private Tuitions improve Learning Outcomes? Evidence from India using ASER Data Ambrish Dongre, Vibhu Tewary Economic & Political Weekly Vol. 50 Click here

 

Articles

Title Author Periodical Link
Accounting for toilets, but no accountability for sanitation Avani Kapur, Yamini Aiyar Live Mint Click here
Building an outcome-focused approach to elementary education financing in India Yamini Aiyar Ideas for India Click here
Education reform and frontline administrators: A case study from Bihar – I Yamini Aiyar, Vincy Davis, Ambrish Dongre Ideas for India Click here
Education reform and frontline administrators: A case study from Bihar – II Yamini Aiyar, Vincy Davis, Ambrish Dongre Ideas for India Click here
Good Idea, Poorly Implemented Ekta Joshi The Pioneer Click here
How much does India spend on elementary education? Avani Kapur, Ambrish Dongre Ideas for India Click here
In the Hands of the states Avani Kapur, Vikram Srinivas The Pioneer Click here
Policy goes missing amid slogans Yamini Aiyar Live Mint Click here
Pull, not push, to open up spending Yamini Aiyar Live Mint Click here
Reforms needed in education Yamini Aiyar Live Mint Click here
Schooling trap Yamini Aiyar The Indian Express Click here
The Post-Office State Yamini Aiyar, Shrayana Bhattacharya The Caravan Click here
Unpacking cooperative federalism and social policy Yamini Aiyar Live Mint Click here
When the Frontline is the Bottomline Yamini Aiyar, Lant Pritchett The Indian Express Click here
Whither decentralization? Yamini Aiyar Live Mint Click here
A good way to implement RTE Ambrish Dongre The Daily Pioneer Click here

 

Policy Briefs

Title Author Link
Backward Regions Grant Fund GOI 2015-16 Avani Kapur, Vikram Srinivas Click here
Integrated Child Development Scheme GOI 2015-16 Avani Kapur, Ekta Joshi Click here
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme GOI 2015-16 Avani Kapur, Anindita Adhikari Click here
National Health Mission GOI 2015-16 Avani Kapur, Vikram Srinivas Click here
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan GOI 2015-16 Avani Kapur, Amee Misra Click here
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, GOI 2015-16 Avani Kapur, Smriti Iyer Click here
Swachh Bharat Mission GOI 2015-16 Avani Kapur, Smriti Iyer Click here

 

Working Papers

Title Author Link
Education reforms, bureaucracy and the puzzles of implementation: A case study from Bihar Yamini Aiyar, Ambrish Dondre, Vincy Davis Click here
How Much Does India Spend Per Student on Elementary Education? Avani Kapur, Ambrish Dongre Click here
Power to the States: Making Fiscal Transfers Work for Better Health: Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers for Health Working Group Avani Kapur, Smriti Iyer, H.K. Amarnath, Rifaiyat Mahbub, Victoria Fan, Anit Mukherjee, Amanda Glassman, Yamini Aiyar Click here
Rules versus Responsiveness: Towards building an outcome-focused approach to governing elementary education finances in India Yamini Aiyar, Ambrish Dongre, Avani Kapur, Anit N Mukherjee, T. R. Raghunandan Click here
Taxes: Price of Civilization or Tribute to Leviathan? Yamini Aiyar, Lant Pritchet Click here
Value subtraction in Public Sector: Accounting vs economic costs of primary schooling in India Yamini Aiyar, Lant Pritchet Click here 

 

Reports

Title Author Link
District Report Cards Yamini Aiyar, Avani Kapur, Smriti Iyer, Aishwarya Panicker Click here
The State of the Nation: RTE Section 12(1)(c) Report Ankur Sarin, Sunaina Kuhn, Bikkrama Daulet Singh, Praveen Khangta, Ambrish Dongre, Ekta Joshi, Arghya Sengupta, Rukmini Das, and Faiza Rahman​ Click here

Functional Assignment: Some (more) Thoughts on the Evolving Subject

(This is part 2 of 2 entries on Functional Assignment by the same author.)

In my previous blog post I initiated a discussion on some of the lessons I learnt from the workshop organised by LOGIN on Functional Assignment. In this post, I will be sharing more of my takeaways from the workshop:

“Unbundling” the modalities of decentralisation in light of FA – Conversations centred on the choice of the most appropriate mode of decentralisation were particularly interesting to me as we were made to question the fundamental choices that shape our respective countries. In the Indian context, ‘devolution’ is clearly idealised. Debates are generally carried out on the method/process through which devolution is to be carried out and rarely on whether or not devolution itself is the way to go.

In the 90’s, Local Self-Governments (LSGs) gained national recognition in India through Constitutional amendments. The task of actually devolving functions to the LSGs, however, was left to the states. Since then, functional devolution has been patchy and leaves much to be desired. Moreover, in practice, the Indian administration primarily functions on the principle of deconcentration, preferring to provide the bulk of public services through line departments and parallel agencies. In case of subnational governments, the administration prefers to engage them through delegation of duties in the area of programme implementation.

Undertaking FA in India will force the relevant stakeholders to assess the modes of decentralisation appropriate for different levels of government. It will also be important to address the possibility that multiple modes of decentralisation may be appropriate for different levels. There isn’t much on this topic in the current literature on FA and thus might be worth exploring further.

Lost in translation – One only has to go through the 2014-15 Devolution Report to appreciate the research team’s struggle to rank states on the Devolution Index, owing to the adoption of different definitions of fundamental concepts (such as the 3 Fs themselves) by different states! This lack of consensus on key terms needs to be resolved before a country undertakes FA, unless one wishes to witness turf wars resulting from different definitions. In fact, the term “Functional Assignment” itself can cause confusion since FA doesn’t merely involve assignment of functions, but also of functionaries and funds. Perhaps a more encompassing term could be devised to bind the entire process.

Matching functionaries and funds with the functions “map” – What remains unclear is how functionaries can be meaningfully assigned to functions allocated to the appropriate tiers. This is a question of matching capacity with the task at hand and not just assigning the job to the person with the most qualifications. What are the criteria that should be applied in this context? Whose capacities are we assessing in the first place? Only the officials at the frontline or even the policy makers or members of the steering committee that would guide the FA process? What sort of preparation must these individuals undergo before launching into a dialogue on FA? Similarly, how does one match funds with functions? These are some of the “dilemmas” which were discussed in the workshop but left largely as questions to probe further.

Listening to the discussions on FA concepts and the experiences of other countries in this area, I realized that India has a long way to go before it can truly practice what it preaches. Administrative decentralisation has barely kept pace with the movement on political decentralisation in the country. Moreover, what we peddle in the name of decentralisation itself is quite muddled. When we talk of FA implementation in India, we are talking about a process that could take years to unfold. It could mean undertaking multiple rounds of discussions with stakeholders, pilots to see what works and what does not, and “change management” to contain the effects of structural shifts at an unprecedented scale. Coming to a basic consensus on the abovementioned issues will be essential if we are to even begin having a meaningful conversation on the subject.

 

Functional Assignment: Some Thoughts on the Evolving Subject

Early in September I attended a workshop on Functional Assignment (FA) led by subject matter experts – Rainer Rohdewohld and Gabrielle Ferrazzi. Organised by LOGIN, the workshop aimed at orienting practitioners of decentralisation in governance to the evolving discourse on FA. Bureaucrats, politicians, researchers and social activists from 10 Asian countries participated in the workshop making the sharing sessions quite rich and engaging. The workshop helped clarify concepts of FA and shed light on areas that are yet to be fully explored, as FA is a relatively new concept.

Simply put, “Functional Assignment” is the process of identifying and allocating responsibilities (Functions), personnel (Functionaries) and resources (Funds) to different tiers of government by applying principles of good management and decentralisation. Substantively, this means:

1.      Undertaking a de jure and de facto assessment of institutional arrangements at all levels

2.      Defining functional domains

3.      Charting a blueprint or undertaking structural corrections (if malfunctioning systems are in place) to ensure that the 3 F’s are rationally assigned

Managing “change management”

At the heart of FA lies the idea that even if a higher tier of government assigns tasks to subnational governments, these subnational governments should have some say on the matter. That is, their agency/capacity to initiate programmes on their own and implement assigned tasks to further the cause of local development should be acknowledged in concrete terms. Thus in the context of FA, ‘devolution’[1] is viewed as the ideal mode for decentralizing. This idea appeared to make many of the participants (especially bureaucrats) uncomfortable, which led to some debate on the level of autonomy and capacity that should be awarded to subnational governments. This was a natural concern since most participants hailed from developing countries, each with their host of social, economic and political issues which made them hesitant about giving subnational governments (what appeared to be) a relatively free reign.

Two concerns appeared to be at the heart of the discomfort displayed during the workshop: First, the belief that subnational governments lack the capacity to perform complex tasks, resulting in an aversion to devolution. (To this Rainer responded by saying, “You can’t learn to swim without getting into the water!”), and second, the belief that FA would lead to a reduction in one’s responsibilities, access to resources and therefore power.

On this note, Rainer and Gabrielle introduced the idea of “change management” – a common concept in management parlance – and its importance when undertaking an exercise as massive as FA. They spoke of the need to have a steering committee that would chalk out a plan to ensure that the people working in the system are able to adapt to the changes in the smoothest possible manner. Since there is a general tendency to resist change, and hesitations about devolution are already clear, it might be worth assessing the way FA is pitched to a new audience/stakeholders that are likely to be a part of the FA process. One gets a clue about this when one looks at the existing literature on FA.

FA as a process is commonly described as an objective exercise in decentralisation while acknowledging the fact that devolving responsibilities “wholesale” may not be ideal since contexts vary. Other popular modes of administrative decentralisation such as ‘deconcentration’[2] or ‘delegation’[3] might be preferable in certain contexts. However, there is a visible bias in the literature towards ‘devolution’ as the ideal mode of decentralisation when carrying out the actual FA process. Perhaps if FA is pitched as a more neutral exercise that aims to rectify governance systems, the concept might become palatable to a wider audience.

What would be the implications of undertaking FA with devolution as the guiding principle in a context where deconcentration is more appropriate? In my next blog post, I will explore this point further and discuss some more thoughts around this subject.

(This is part 1 of 2 entries on Functional Assignment by the same author.)

 

[1] Some of the features of “devolved” governments are as follows: 1.The local government units are perceived as autonomous entities over which central authorities have little control; 2, they have clear and legally recognized geographical boundaries where they perform public functions; 3. Have corporate status and authority to raise their own resources. (UNDP, 1997)

[2] Deconcentrated governments display the following features: 1. The central administration has its regional/local offices in sub-state levels; 2. Involves limited transfer of authority. Jurisdictional authority of the central government reigns. (UNDP, 1997)

[3] Governments that adopt “delegation” as their preferred mode of decentralization display the following features: 1. They have semi-autonomous units such as urban or regional development corporations to whom aspects of governance are delegated through legislation or contract; 2. These units are not wholly controlled by the government but are legally accountable to the central administration. (UNDP, 1997)