Microplanning
The
Replication of SEED (Self Evaluation for Effective Decision Making)
Process in Uttaranchal
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The
73rd Constitutional Amendment Act aims at strengthening of grassroots
democracy, leading to decentralization of public administration.
The roots of this noble idea can be traced back from the deeply
grounded thoughts and ideas as propounded by the Father of our
nation "The Great Mahatma Gandhi". India is better personified
as a land of village’s communities. Hence it was strongly
felt that devolution of power in the hands of the local people
will lead to actualization of the principles of Democracy, equality,
and Social Justice as enshrined in our Constitution.
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Decentralization of power in the hands of local people and active
participation of people in local administration would foster grassroots
democracy.
Community participation was made an integral part of the planning
process as enshrined in the Panchayati Raj Act. The involvement
of the people in the planning process becomes necessary so that
the plan is more responsive to the local needs. It should reflect
more accurately the local perceptions and produce a sense of ownership
and responsibility.
However an in-depth look into the present planning process as
prevailing in the Panchayat Raj would reveal the unsystematic
methods which are being used, for assessment of peoples need.
Gram Sabha which has been constitutionally recognized as the most
effective platform for formulating "people's plan" is
almost at a dysfunctional status.
The priorities of the people are most of time left unrecognized
due to the prevailing biases as exhibited by the panchayat functionaries
and the government officials. According to the contemporary situation
of planning at the village level.
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The planning is still conceived with a strategy of top down
approach in place of a bottom up approach.
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There
is a plethora of Central and State Government sanctioned schemes
aiming at rural upliftment.In reality on the other hand only
a minimal share of the benefit to be accrued from these schemes
is being reaped by the rural people.
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The hollowness lies in the faulty planning process as followed
by the Gram Panchayats resulting in their inability to tap most
of the Government schemes and programs.
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Mostly the needs of the rural people are fitted according to
the Government schemes as and when it is sanctioned. On the
contrary the true realization of the decentralization process
would be achieved when the schemes and programmes are planned
in response to people's need.
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The Gram panchayat is still lacking accurate local data of the
villages. Thus the crucial needs of most of the people are still
undermined.
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Most of the priorities as chalked out at the Panchayat level
are thus, still concentrating on Infrastructural arrangements
ignoring the real needs of the people which need immediate attention.
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Representation and fulfillment of needs of all the sections
"collective opinion"viz.(rural women, children and
minorities) is still a dream to be actualized at the Panchayat
level. Hence the Social Justice component is left untouched.
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Sensitivity towards issues like education, sanitation, reproductive
rights, mother and child welfare, income generation activities,
fodder problem and up gradation of existing manpower are still
absent. Most of the Gram Panchayats still lack sensitivity towards
the problems of S.C's and S.T's thereby making the Social Justice
component a big myth.
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Efforts of the Government
The chain of schemes and programmes as masterminded by the planners
with varied objectives are presently running in a scattered manner.
There is dearth of meaningful integration of these schemes with
the existing priorities of the people. Thus the programmes are
run in isolation, without the maximization of their real beneficiaries.
The various Government Committees and authorities are holding
the steering wheel of these programmes, with little consideration
of the Panchayats involvement.
Shri Bhuvneshwari Mahila Ashram, a non-governmental
organization operating from the District of Tehri Garhwal in Uttaranchal
has been working with the people and the panchayats since 1999
with the Panchayati Raj Quality Augmentation Programme.The beginning
was an emphasis, towards research, networking and advocacy, lobbying
for bringing village level planning into reality and the creation
of a hill specific Panchayati Raj Act for Uttaranchal.
The successes and realizations from this Program led to the evolution
of strong strategy focusing on the capacity building of the elected
women Panchayat Leaders in Tehri District of Uttaranchal.With
the support from United Nations Development Programme SBMA is
now vigorously working with the women panchayat leaders of 9 blocks
in Tehri District.
Through strong Forums constituted by these EWR’s, SBMA is
now increasing their capacities in implementing peoples plan through
community participation at the village level. After delivering
an intensive training on Micro-Planning to EWR’s it was
implemented with community support in three villages of distinct
blocks.
SBMA has adopted the SEED process propounded by Taylor- Ide and
Carl E Taylor bringing the propensity within the communities to
own their futures. The acronym ‘SEED’ stands for Self
Evaluation for Effective Decision making. It involves two major
steps
• Local situation is evaluated objectively and a community
specific database is formulated.
• Discussion on the roots of the problems, possible solutions
fixing priorities.
The present SEED (micro-planning) process is a combination of
a variety of methods and participatory techniques.SBMA has revised
the micro-planning process in order to make it more effective
and “people centered”. The 7-step planning process
implemented by SBMA entails
7-
Step Process
1.Creating a Conducive environment for planning by
interacting with common people
2.Conducting meeting at the village level for:
• Objective to be discussed explicitly
• Constituting the Task force (working committee)
3.Training of the Task Force
4.Gathering of Village level Data
5.Analysing the gathered data
6.Presentation of the Data in front of the entire Gram Sabha
7.Plan formulation at the village level
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Role
of SBMA in the Data Gathering Process:
- As a facilitator |
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Aim
of SBMA in the entire process
- To bridge the gap between the existing schemes and the Gram
Panchayats.
- To empower the Panchayats to enable them to participate, manage
and gain ownership in the ongoing Government Programmes.
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This
entire data gathering process would be in an experimentation phase,
to measure the benefits which can be tentatively achieved through
this entire effort. The results would justify the success of this
process leading to replication of this initiative on a larger scale.
The long term objective is to create a pressure group at the local
level to advocate for their needs, demanding for their constitutionally
guaranteed rights in decision making. The actualization of the decentralization
process would thus be secured through this concerted effort.
The significance of the village level data and the need for empowering
the village level panchayats to articulate their priorities, requires
the active participation of the village level panchayats.
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