Gram Panchayats' function in rural development that is sustainable

 Gram Panchayats' function in rural development that is sustainable

Three decades have passed since the Indian Constitution's 73rd and 74th amendments made the bold promise to usher in a new age of decentralized government. In addition to the current system of state and federal governments, the constitutional changes legally established a third level of government: local government. Almost half of the more than 30 lakh local public representatives that we have now are women. This accomplishment is noteworthy in and of itself.

Decentralized governance is one of the markers of a commitment to strengthening democracy by bringing governments closer to the people and creating official venues for public engagement in governance, independent of the number of elected representatives. Local governments are still inert, however. Their pledge won't be kept unless significant efforts are made to increase local governments' capabilities. This needs immediate attention because when local governments don't work the way they're supposed to, it not only ruins people's faith in the government but also produces negative development results.

Gram Panchayats as a significant but limited player

The Gram Panchayat (GP), which is essentially a local council, is the key player here. But general practitioners provide advantages as well as disadvantages. Possibilities result from the fact that voters choose the GP level representatives (an elected body made up of ward and Pradhan/Sarpanch members). Therefore, it is reasonable to say that the institution represents the desire and ambitions of the people. Due to their solid legal and public perception bases, general practitioners (GPs) are well-positioned to prioritise community needs and take the lead in developing and executing significant government programmes pertaining to housing, livelihoods, access to electricity, water, and other resources.

But GPs also have to contend with institutional hurdles that are as difficult. Despite being required by law, local planning procedures are not followed in reality. Local plans are often not represented in budgetary interventions when they are implemented because of a lackluster institutional framework or uninterested higher levels of government. For instance, a 2018 study by the Standing Committee on Rural Development discovered a chronic and severe labor shortage in gram panchayats. Because of their low capacity for implementation, Gram Panchayats are not able to get money from the federal government, which negatively affects their ability to offer services. GPs are ineffectual at the local level and as representational spaces for democracy due to deficiencies in the planning and budgeting processes, awareness of the regulations and procedures pertaining to the flow of money, and personnel with secretarial, technical, or financial management abilities. not able to work there. supplier of public services.

This has significant effects on individuals' faith in local governing procedures as well as the quality of services delivered to them.

A discussion in Odisha

A recent sustainable development discussion in Odisha brought attention to the need of good general practitioners. Odisha's rural inhabitants rely on labor migration in addition to subsistence activities centered on the land and forests. The state of infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, communication services, and roadways, has significantly improved during the last 20 years. Due to the lack of economic prospects, almost every family must supplement its income from local market activities or agriculture with money earned by workers migrating to western and southern India. Even while labor migration may be a dependable source of income for a family, given the social obstacles of integration and isolation from local communities in other regions of the nation, as well as the health concerns involved, it is nevertheless seen as an unpleasant (if inevitable) alternative. kin. Then the issue emerged: If there were greater economic possibilities back home for young men, who made up the majority of migrants, would they still migrate? When I posed this question to the folks I talked with, the reaction was overwhelmingly favorable.

Additionally, it became abundantly evident that a settlement's level of life is significantly influenced by the state of its natural resources and the accessibility of water. Water and natural resource security are both means and ends in rural Odisha. The individual and group efforts necessary to accomplish this aim are one approach to promote more public involvement and local self-governance. The quality of life would also be enhanced by year-round access to water for residential purposes, agriculture, and other livelihood activities, as well as drinking.

Local governments have a big function to play in ensuring water security and fairly and successfully managing the nation's natural resources in isolated rural areas. GPs should set up gram sabhas, or village councils, to include locals in ongoing planning and needs assessments. They should also be able to compile these plans and submit them to the appropriate authorities. Coordinating this will need technical assistance and ground-level personnel from the relevant departments. Subsequently, they must be competent in planning and using existing government programs, like Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), or other initiatives related to irrigation or watershed development, in order to establish and carry out extensive land and water management operations. Local user groups and resource management committees should be encouraged to form by general practitioners. To get funding for market-linking initiatives and agricultural assistance, they need to cooperate with one another. They will get deeply involved in the lives of the communities under their control in this manner. But the difficulties I've listed above—a shortage of trained personnel, inadequate funding and low status from higher authorities, etc.—take away GPs' capacity to carry out their duties.

Maximize the capabilities of Gram Panchayats

The goal of local government reforms should be to provide village panchayats the ability to become autonomous entities. This calls for a persistent effort that combines lobbying the state government to broaden their mandate with capacity-building assistance to local government institutions on the ground.

Though their histories of growth vary, Kerala's GPs provide a valuable example that other states should try to follow. When COVID-19 was at its worst in India, general practitioners (GPs) in Kerala were essential to the care of the virus. They took the initiative to discover instances, raise awareness, implement local containment strategies, and stay in touch with the people and families who had to go into isolation. In light of Kerala's local governments' achievements, the following three areas of assistance need to be addressed right away:

1. Create Gram Sabhas as forums for discussion and debate

This will facilitate the formalization of collaboration and group planning. In order to do this, it is critical to raise public knowledge of and foster trust in Gram Panchayats as a functional form of governance. Furthermore, general practitioners have to carry out needs assessments in gram sabhas, create projects and plans that may be combined to reach the district level, and provide feedback on the state's yearly budgeting procedure. Attending technical and line department staff meetings should emphasize the importance of these Sabhas and the difficulty of higher levels of government just overriding their decisions.

   2. Expand the knowledge and expertise of GP employees

Reevaluating the roles and authority of general practitioners (GPs) and advocating for their access to the technical and support personnel necessary to carry out their mandate will be the next steps. The Indian Constitution's Eleventh Schedule outlines 29 issues (pertaining to responsibilities and powers) that local governments are to assume. An example of how GP personnel may actively contribute to increasing the efficacy of social projects can be seen in a Jharkhand article. It goes without saying that locally elected officials oversee the technical and secretarial staff of GPs. To be completed. GPs need to have broad control over their personnel and service schedules.

   3. Make use of other nearby income streams

Working on own source income from local taxes and levies, as well as identifying and developing local businesses with market participants that may expand on the fundamental services that GPs are expected to provide, constitute the third objective for GPs.such as highways, solid waste management, and water delivery. The monies that the Gram Panchayats get from the Central Government's Finance Commission as well as State Finance Commission are in addition to the those that they raise on their own. While fiscal transfers from the state or the Center are reasonably straightforward to manage, data on own source income is very difficult to track because of inadequate record-keeping and accounting procedures that lead to a skills deficit. Workers - Consequently, in this case, this could be the first place to go.