The 73rd
and 74th Amendment Acts made in December 1992
to the Constitution were the landmarks in shaping
the present decentralised and representative
systems of local self-governance in India. This
historic legislation heralded a new era in local
self-governance and paved the way for citizen
participation in local development processes
in rural and urban areas. The Acts were a commitment
to the people that they would now be partners
with the national, provincial and local governments
in their planning and decision-making process
PRIA
has a history of 22 years and promotes initiatives
for the empowerment and development of the poor,
marginalised and excluded sections of the society.
Its interventions and programmes are based on
the philosophy of participatory research and
people centered approach. Soon after the enactment
of the Amending Acts PRIA focused its attention
towards strengthening Panchayati Raj Institutions,
as they were the basic institutions, effective
functioning of which would make rural local
selfgovernance a success story at the grass-root
level.
After
5 years of extensive decentralised efforts
in Panchayati Raj Institutions it was felt
that these efforts alone in rural areas would
address only half the problem. The macro issue
was the failing urban governing machinery.
Decentralisation encompassed not only rural
but also urban. Dis-integrated problem solving
strategy was not bearing fruit. Thereafter
PRIA restructured its modus operandi. Most
of its earlier approaches, concepts and interventions
gradually were amalgated into an overall strategy,
which was more pragmatic and forward looking.
This "New Realism" is an integrated
systems approach of a Regional Plan to overcome
the present urban and rural crises in local
self-governance and the District Planning
Committees need to be activated and assisted
for promoting a participatory unified plan.
Rural is not isolated from the urban, it is
part of a continuum. They are inter-related
and inter-dependent.
The
above-mentioned basis was the essential stimuli
for PRIA and its Partners to start with a Pilot
Programme on Urban Self Governance in few select
small and medium towns in five states. The objective
was to strengthening the existing institutions
and to form viable and strong alliances between
the institutions and the urban stakeholders.
This
will also enable analysis of various problems
related to the democratised decentralisation
process in small and medium towns and also better
position our interventions to achieve results
in terms of equity, responsiveness and better
access to services.
The
pilot phase interventions have revealed that even
after 8 yrs of the 74th amendment act, the concept
of local self governance and participatory development
is still a dream in the urban towns. The interventions
undertaken under the pilot phase have shown that
with a little catalytic effort the people can
be mobilised to organise themselves and voice
their concerns. With some effort the local community,
the elected representatives and the municipal
executive officers can be made to come together
to discuss issues of development and evolve mutually
acceptable solutions. However, this is a time
taking process and involves sustained interventions
along with capacity building initiatives for each
of the stakeholders.
The
problems poverty and poor living conditions were
found to be more pronounced in the urban areas
than in the rural hinterland. The status of the
marginalised groups and lack of knowledge of their
democratic rights was quite evident in most of
the focus municipalities. These sections of the
society are more vulnerable as they their interests
are often ignored by the local administration.
They are usually not organised and as such do
not have a forum to voice their concerns.
With
the share of urban population to the total population
growing steadily over the past decades it is imperative
that the scale of interventions be increased.
Individual efforts in a couple of towns are only
demonstrative. In order to be able to make a difference
and truly realise the aim of a effective civil
society it is imperative that more urban areas
be brought under the initiative. A large base
of responsive governance in a larger number of
towns shall result in a cumulative effect at the
district and upward at the higher levels of governance.
The various multi-stakeholder
workshops in the focus municipalities highlighted
a variety of problems and issues that concern
each of the stake-holders. Many a times these
were specialised problems (like that of physical
infrastructure) that required detailed investigations
and further research to evolve acceptable solutions.
The enhanced role of municipalities as envisaged
under the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, assigns
a number of new functions to the municipalities.
Most of these developmental functions like town
planning are new to them and they lack the trained
manpower to discharge them effectively. The traditional
role of a maintenance agency and that of an appendage
of the higher level of governance has now been
upgraded to that of city management.
The
municipalities are now constitutionally designated
as basic units of governance with responsibility
of ensuring good living conditions for the citizens.
In-spite
of the devolution of powers and enhancement in
the functional role, there has not been proportional
skill upgradation of the municipal officials.
The executive officials themselves are not sufficiently
trained to take on the new tasks assigned to them.
Even the elected representatives have little knowledge
and skills to perform their role in light of the
increased responsibility. The citizens also remain
unaware of the new developments and are ignorant
of the role they can now play in facilitating
development of their towns. It is thus, felt that
the urban initiatives themselves need to be broader
based and focus on building capacities of each
of the stake holders so as to enable them to discharge
their functions more effectively. Technical workshops
on new functions of town planning, municipal finance
and other expert functions need to be undertaken
for the municipal officials. The councilors also
need to be trained to understand realise the basics
of these technical functions in order to enable
them to ensure effective development.
In
order to have a lasting sustainable impact, the
interventions need to be of longer duration with
a slower withdrawal period of hand-holding during
which the community groups are trained to continue
the process of civil society initiatives. A civil
society support system also needs to be established
that the local communities can rely upon for guidance
and direction whenever necessary. This requires
that enhanced capacity building efforts be undertaken
for the existing local NGOs and CBOs. The local
media and academia also needs to be promoted and
brought into the mainstream to play an active
role in the local developmental works.
The
process of decentralised governance is still in
its infancy. Like all new initiatives it is a
continuous process that would require time-to
time refinement. Therefore, advocacy and knowledge
dissemination will have to be an important component
of all urban interventions. The academia and civil
society institution will have an important role
to play. Institutions like NIUA and World Bank
will have to lobby with the higher levels of governance
to create a conducive environment for necessary
reforms.
Thus,
summarily the pilot initiative in urban governance
has reiterated that:
I. there is a need
for such intervention on a large scale to have
effective results
II. the interventions are to be broad based and
of longer duration
iii.capacity building of all stake-holder has
to be an intrinsic & ongoing
component
IV. media and the academia need to be more actively
involve; and
v. advocacy for policy level changes for reinforcing
and refinement of existing
municipal laws is necessary
