Strengthening Panchayati Raj Awareness in North Eastern States - Sikkim

Objectives:

Geographical Spread:

Key areas/components:

• Dialogue between government institutions and local organization for a sustainable partnership.
• Two-day workshop for Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) members, NGO/CBO representatives and SIRD faculty to fulfill the before mentioned purpose of a sustainable relationship through dialogue.
• Identifying local organizations for further interventions, indentifying their competencies & learning needs.
• Capacity building of local organizations on local self-governance.

Key outputs:

• Issues that emerged from the workshop and interactions.
• Learning from the visit to Bihar and its relevance to Sikkim which can be summed up as the areas that were found most relevant for the state:

1. Panchayat Resource Centre (PRC)
2. Information centre
3. Shanti Dal
4. Self help groups
5. Kishori Panchayat

• Materials were prepared for awareness generation of PRI
• An analysis of the state of decentralization in Sikkim resulted in the following broad findings:

1. Decentralization policy and strategy: supportive policy but no strategy
2. Legal framework: Lack of coordination & duplication of work
3. Financial resource base
4. Planning processes
5. Involvement of weaker groups: can be further enhanced

• Observations made at the Gram Sabha, Gram Panchayat and Zilla Panchayat’s levels
• Suggestions were made to strengthen their functioning.

Year/Period:

Client:

• Ministry of Rural Development (MORD), Government of India.
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• § Developing an understanding of the institutional mechanisms, so that it underpins local control on decision-making and development.
• Creating, promoting, facilitating and enabling environment for Panchayati Raj in Sikkim.