Participation

1. Prelude: “Type of structures and attitudes and capacities determine the living conditions of the people” is the basic premise of this concept paper. The premise outlines three important and inter-dependent components. They are: structures and attitudes and capacities. Each component is inter-dependent and reinforces the other. Therefore, the introduction of new structures, new attitudes and new capacities will enable people to involve in a participatory governance process. These components will further strengthen the existing representative bodies (in the Indian context) at the grassroots levels. The concept paper outlines a variety of interventions at various levels to engage all the sections of society, irrespective of age, caste, creed, class, gender or religious affiliations, in a process that lead to empowering structures, attitudes and structures, and governance by people. 2. Why Structures? People need viable structures to involve themselves adequately and collectively in the development process. The type of structures determines their level of participation and the practice of democratic values in the governance process. Bigger the forums, the bigger the voice one needs to have to get him/her heard. In smaller forums, small person also can express himself/herself and be heard. The lack of scope for participation creates frustration, stress and even physical ailments. 2.1 The Structures we Need The structures we need for wider level implementation for governance-by-people multi-tier representative federations of neighbourhood parliaments based on five basic principles. The first is the principle of numerical uniformity that will ensure equality among villages, panchayats (inter-village governance units), blocks, districts, etc. in terms of numerical representations. Therefore, there will not be any big and small “villages” or big and small districts as we have at present. The second is the principle of smallness of size that will ensure small forums of face-to-face communities where everyone knows everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and where everyone will feel affirmed. The third is the principle of recall that will enable people at every level to call back their under-performing representatives with least expenses. The fourth is the principle of subsidiarity whereby all the businesses that could be settled at the lower levels will not be taken to higher levels. The fifth is the principle of convergence that will reinforce the structures by converging different programmes of the government and others within the ambits of neighbourhood forums and their respective levels of federations. 2.2. Neighbourhood Forums and Federations Neighbourhood–based structures have their own advantages. They are the most accessible and thus they ensure best control by people at the base. A neighbourhood action could be the lever through whose federations the people at the base could exercise control over the processes that affect them. Hence we need territory-based neighbourhood forums or neighbourhood parliaments of 30 families each at the grassroots level and their multi-tier representative federations at village, inter-village and block levels. Neighbourhood parliament is a forum where people come, discuss, plan and implement the set objectives together. It is a participatory structure that ensures collective and consensual response to matters that affect them. In other words, it ensures governance by people themselves. 2.3. Units within Each Neighbourhood Parliament Each neighbourhood forum will have a neighbourhood-based children’s parliament, adolescents’ parliament, youth parliament, self help group, a senior citizens’ parliament, a neighbourhood–based marketing unit and neighbourhood-based self-help group(s) for savings, credits and income generation. All these civil structures will have their own multi-tier representative federations at the same levels mentioned earlier. 2.4. Ministers at Neighbourhood and Federations The neighbourhood forums and the connected structures will have their own elected Ministers, such as Prime Minister, Finance Minister, Education Minister, Health Minister and other Ministers depending upon the portfolios needed in their territories. 2.5. Neighbourhood Women’s Groups Instead of “Self-help groups” The women of the neighbourhood forum will become part of neighb

India is the biggest democratic county in the world. The Indian democracy is a vivacious democracy too. However, it is more structural in form and lacks participatory content. Will it hold long in the midst of the rural poor, who form a sizeable chunk of the rural population, getting frustrated once in every five years? Even then, it survives in an environment of undemocratic conditions. It remains more at the level of a system of government than at the level of the deep-routed values among the toiling and moiling masses of rural India.

Democracy is based on the principles of equality and liberty. However, they do not find expressions in our traditions and social structure. The Panchayat system, an age-old system of local self-governance, is meant for upholding democratic values and encouraging people’s participation at the grassroots levels. Even though it existed in India even before East India Company came to India, the age old concept of local self-government has become a reality with the 73rd Constitution Amendment for local bodies on December 22 and 23, 1992.

The pressure exerted by the concerted campaigns and various efforts of civil society organisations; intellectuals and progressive political leaders forced the Central government to come out with the 73rd Constitution Amendment. Finally, it helped India to move towards ’multi-level federalism', and thus widened the scope for grass root democratic process in the Indian polity.

The purpose of the new amendment was to open up new vistas for strengthening human rights, gender equality, decentralisation, development, social justice, accountability, transparency, integrity, access to information, people’s participation, civil society empowerment, communal harmony, secularism and democracy at grassroots.

However, nearly 600 districts, about 6,000 blocks and 250,000 village panchayats covering nearly 75 percent of India's rural population have not yet so far fully served the purpose for which they were originally intended to. There are a sizeable number of excluded groups and communities in the villages that do not enjoy an equal and inclusive representation in the decision-making bodies.

Participation, in terms of identification of problems and solutions, involvement of people in the decision-making, implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes, is vital to promote a healthy society. “Health” WHO says “is not merely absence of disease, but a state of physical, mental and social well-being…”

However, the present system of self-governance does not encourage people’s participation. It gets activated once in five years, especially during elections, and remains dead rest of the time. It is the “big people” with “big voices” get elected and they run the show of self-governance to fulfill their own self-interests. These forums, even at the ward level, are too big for “small men” to handle them to their likings.

Human rights violations in India take place at different levels. However, here we mention only two major areas. They are the poor socio-economic conditions that deny their rights and the right to livelihood and decent living and that in turn lead to indignity and lack of self-respect for a majority of the people.

The caste system represents the worst forms of human rights violations in India even today. It denies basic education to the lower castes and women. It has made a significant impact on the lives of the rural masses. Lower castes are forced to live mostly in the outskirts of villages. It is unique to India that breeds social hierarchy and inequality.

The human rights violations against the dalits are common even after strengthening the local bodies to a limited extend. The democratic process has not given the needed strength and power to them. Therefore, they are still at the receiving end. Fox example, four gram panchayats reserved for dalits in Tamil Nadu could not face elections due to threats from upper-caste people in these villages.

Atrocities and human rights violations against the lower castes can be controlled only through a culture of equality of human beings. This can be achieved by human rights education and eradication of illiteracy. The panchayats have a crucial role in this.

In the economic front, the people are divided into rich and poor. Here the castes and classes are inter-connected and the class struggles at times turned into caste conflicts between communities. In this context, it is the dalits, marginalised and women who are basically the victims of the social and economic systems prevailing in the country.
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In rural India 26% live below poverty line. The literacy rate is below50%. The illiteracy among rural women is 60%. The health system in India is almost sick. The Infant mortality rate is 63.19%. Population with access to sanitation is only 31 per cent. More than half of the children between one to five years in rural areas are under-nourished and 60 per cent of the rural households do not have electricity connection.

One of the stated objectives of the 73rd amendment was to empower dalits and marginalised groups through ensuring their participation in the election process. However, the ground reality reflects some negative trends. The election process in India is marred by factors like violence, corruption, and muscle and money power. Even though rule of law is the basic principle of democracy, but it is a myth in real life.

Women got political representation at the grassroots thanks to the 73rd Constitution Amendment Act. It provided the rural women with opportunities to actively involve in the decision-making processes. There are now more than one million elected women representatives, who have become as spokespersons, give more meaning for democratic representation of the local community. The political empowerment of women since then broke several myths, like submissive spectators and disinterested in political institutions; women were 'name-sake' politicians, they did not participate in the administrative processes, etc. Today the catchphrase is that 'women can do it'.

However, women in general and the dalit and the marginalised women members in particular face double oppression. They are restricted to exercise their positions of power. They are at the receiving end of upper caste atrocities.

Communalism and obscurantism are two sides of the same coin threatening the very existence of democracy in India. Communal forces and the fundamentalists are up in arms to flare communal divide and hatred between communities. They pose a fatal threat to democracy by perpetuating internal violence and mutual suspicions. There is a need for India to remain as secular in the midst of non-secular conditions prevailing in most of the areas.

The civil society organizations and the state have been taking up corruption in the local bodies. The prevailing check and balance system and social audit have not yet become effective tools in the hands of the masses due to lack of scope for participation and therefore the rich corner the benefits and the poor remain where they are. The democratic process at the village level has not yet given the strength and power to the participants in the process of participation.