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CWS Experience in engaging
with the State on Policy Matters:Panchayati Raj Initiatives
Background
CWS Panchayati Raj
Initiatives
programme aims at strengthening the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs)
particularly the Gram Panchayats towards effective democratic
decentralization
and good governance for efficient and equitable service delivery to all
citizens and especially the marginalized communities.
The programme initially
focused
on the capacity building of the elected representatives particularly
the women,
dalits, tribals and minorities and creating awareness among the entire
community for ensuring the effective functioning of the Gram Sabha and
Gram
Panchayat. The grassroots experience of the PR programme indicated the
following:
- PRIs are diluted and weakened without
adequate
devolution of functions, finances, and functionaries as stipulated in 73rd
Constitutional Amendment
- PRIs are further weakened by the
establishment of
various other CBOs with adequate powers and funds by the government
- PESA (Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas)
Act is
not implemented in its true letter and spirit and no rules have been
framed yet
which results in exploitation of tribals both by the outsiders and the
state
apparatus
In this background it was
felt that mere capacity building of the elected representatives without
shaking
up the institution/system itself is a futile exercise. The devolution
of powers
to PRIs is obviously related to the political will of the State, and
thus began
our advocacy efforts with the government and concerned authorities.
Identified Issues for Advocacy
The following two issues
were primarily identified for advocacy with the State:
- Devolution of powers, functions, finances and
functionaries to the PRIs as per the 73rd Amendment
- Framing of rules and proper implementation of
PESA
Act
Process of Advocacy
Our advocacy for
strengthening the PRIs is a two way process. On the one hand the
elected
leadership at the local levels particularly the women and marginalized
have to
be supported and sensitized on the need for democratic decentralization
and on
the other hand the local bureaucracy and higher level political and
administrative machinery has to be pushed into providing an enabling
environment for democratic decentralization envisaged in the
Constitution.
The process of advocacy
began with the partner NGOs of the PR programme of CWS promoting
networks of
elected representatives, especially networks of women and dalits at
mandal and
Legislative Assembly Constituency (LAC) levels. These networks were
strengthened
and provided necessary inputs to take up number of issues at the local
level.
Since the major issues for advocacy require action from the state
government,
two state level networks one for the plain areas and the other for
PESA, were
formed with the main purpose of lobbying with the State.
The CWS team along with the
NGO partners and networks of elected representatives used the following
mechanisms for the advocacy:
- Organized mass campaigns involving the
primary
stakeholders i.e., elected representatives and communities
- Built alliances and networks with likeminded
non-government and government organizations and other existing networks
to
share a common platform in raising the demand for devolution of powers
and
framing of rules for PESA
- Meetings from the bottom level to top;
awareness and
sensitization meetings at GP, Mandal, District and State levels
- The issues faced by the elected
representatives were
discussed at various levels and in various forums which provided the
base for
articulating the charter of demands
- The preparation and finalization of charter
of
demands was an intensive and long process which went through
discussions at
various levels/stakeholders keeping in view the strengthening the PR
system in
a holistic manner and as piece-meal
- These charter of demands were discussed with
the
subject experts, academicians, activists and also government officials
and then
refined/fine-tuned before presenting the same to the concerned
authorities or
Minister
- Signature campaigns were also done as a
grassroots
voice throughout the state at appropriate time when the advocacy was
gaining
momentum at the state level
- Invited policy makers (politicians and
bureaucrats)
as chief guests to the various meetings, workshops organized under the
PR
programme to reinforce the need for devolution of powers to the PRIs.
This also
helped in creating lines of
communicating with
them.
- The groundwork to involve both print and
electronic
media was intensive and continuous
- Series of events were planned and organized
(a mass
event, press conference, meeting with various stakeholders, etc)
wherein the
government authorities and the political representatives were invited.
Utmost
care was taken to selectively invite representatives (balanced
representation
from various stakeholders), policy makers (politicians and bureaucrats)
those
who are sensitive to the issue and not those who politicize the issue
in the
name of the political party
- Preparation of materials like posters,
stickers,
pamphlets and booklets etc on the issue and wider dissemination of
those
materials at the time of the events
- In the mass event or meeting, the charter of
demands
or a memorandum was submitted to the AP Chief Minister and Minister for
Panchayati Raj and also to the concerned officials, press and the
participants
- Follow up with the related government
departments
for implementing the demands through necessary policy changes
- Interaction and coordination with the media
in
publicizing the issues continuously (panel discussions, open forum etc)
- Formed a Consortium of state level NGOs
(PRIA, APMSS
and others) with APARD as the anchoring agency. CWS is taking the lead
role in
this effort to input the grassroots experiences in policy making
- Organized National Workshop enabling a debate
on the
major issues and passed resolutions to be presented to the GOI and
state
governments
- Frequent dialogue and correspondence with the
Central and State Governments to understand the situation and plan
further to
keep the advocacy issues alive
- Publicizing the issue through a newsletter or
supporting the similar initiative and sending the elected
representatives to
various forums at state and central levels
- Initiating field research studies to
understand the
issue and its impact
- Creating linkages with other states, at
official as
well NGO levels, and also with the issues therein for support and
solidarity
Achievements of the advocacy efforts
- Building alliances with the state level
forums of
elected representatives and CSOs and in solidarity placing the demands
before
the government
- Voicing the demands in various
forums/workshops
- Established communication and even rapport
with the
related government departments and kept the issues alive through
discussions
and representation through a major substantive memorandum
- Established rapport with media in raising the
issue
or providing information/inputs to them on related issues
- Achieving visibility for PR work of CWS at
state
level with the Government, media, research and training institutions
and
like-minded organizations
- Projecting PR work of CWS at national level
with the
Central Government and National level institutions and organizations
Experiences,
Constraints and Challenges
Devolution is not an easy
process; holding tightly to power and centralization is a dominant
tendency in
power politics. The major constraint is the political will. The
advocacy
efforts under the PR programme thus focused on building pressure on the
government through various strategies. The present Government before
coming to
power promised devolution of powers to the PRIs as soon as they came to
power.
The CWS PR team, partner NGOs and the elected representatives met the
Chief
Minister immediately after his assuming the office (July 2004) and
submitted a
memorandum for the devolution of powers to the PRIs.
CWS also established
collaboration and expressed solidarity to the Andhra Pradesh Sarpanches
Forum
which approached the government to keep up its promise of devolutions.
The
government, buying time advised the state leaders to form into teams
and tour
all major states to study the devolution process. On the advice of the
government, the representatives toured different states and made a
report and
submitted to the government on which till today there is no response.
This is
the routine response of any government after it comes to power.
Decentralized
governance is not on the priority action points of the political
parties once
they come to power.
Continuing
its advocacy efforts, CWS promoted a
State Level PR Elected Leaders Forum and in a meeting at Hyderabad in December 2005 drafted a
charter of demands; the office bearers collectively met the Minister
for PR,
and presented the demands.
While on
one hand the demand is on for more powers,
the state government took back the cheque power of the Sarpanches,
which
annoyed them to no end.
The AP Sarpanches Association organized a big dharna gathering
of about
6000 elected representatives at Hyderabad for the restoration of
their cheque power. CWS expressed solidarity and the partner NGOs
mobilized the
elected representatives for the event. Sarpanches submitted a charter
of
demands including devolution of powers. The government gave back their
cheque
power but postponed the issue of devolution. This was the negative
trade-off.
The PR
team of CWS was in constant touch with the
Minister of PR, GOI, and the Central PR officials to ensure their
presence at
the National Workshop of CWS. The state PR leaders and the CWS in their
interactions with the Ministry had time and again expressed concern on
the
status of PRIs in AP. The Ministry of PR, GOI began to put pressure on
the
various State governments to implement the 73rd
Constitutional
Amendment and as part of the process, the Central Minister visited
these states
and signed MOUs with the respective State governments. In April 2006,
when the
GOI Minster visited AP to sign an MOU along with Chief Minister of AP
to
devolve powers under ten subjects to the PRIs, CWS was informed and the
PR team
accompanied him on the tour and participated in the meetings along with
a few
partner NGOs. In this regard APARD, the state level training institute
for the
PRIs, did Activity Mapping for 10 subjects involving the concerned
department
officials, the elected representatives and the NGO representatives in
which CWS
actively participated.
Now,
after more than a year after the MOU was signed
it is learnt that the process of drafting GOs for devolution is still
going on.
It seems this Government will finally implement the promised devolution
a few
months before election due in 2009. The real motive is to get power,
not hand
over the power to the PRIs and the people.
The
strategy change being contemplated by CWS is to
take the elected representatives into confidence and provide inputs for
practicing decentralization. Some times the local NGOs trying to
popularize the
virtue of decentralization are seen as adversarial to the established
power
centers in the village. So they are trying to take the benefits of the
idea of
decentralization to the people at ward level. This is the ground level
advocacy
of our partners.
In this
endeavor we are still to make much
breakthrough, as there is lot of resistance from different quarters to
the idea
of decentralized order. This new order demands transparency,
accountability and
responsibility of the elected representatives and the people. Advocacy
here is
also marred by less equipped trainers at the grassroots. Conviction of
the
grassroots NGO worker has to be established to take up this activity.
It is
also equally important to build groups of votaries of decentralization
among
the electorate also.
With
regard to PESA, CWS in collaboration with likeminded CSOs organized a
major
state level campaign involving about 1100 tribal elected
representatives on the
9 June 2005 for the framing of rules
and implementation of PESA in its true spirit. The Minister for PR,
GOAP and
the officials of tribal and PR departments were the chief guests on the
occasion. The Minister asked a smaller committee to meet him to discuss
further
on the issue. Then one meeting was called by the Department of PR for
which CWS
was invited to discuss the future strategy. Subsequently, the PR team
made
number of visits to the Principal Secretaries and other officials of
tribal and
PR departments to follow up the matter. The Departments were throwing
the ball
in each other’s court shying away from responsibility. Later there was
pressure
from the GOI, and it is now learnt that the tribal department has taken
initiative and the draft rules are being formulated, with the
respective
departments providing their feedback. This involves amendment of
various other
related Acts and so is definitely a slow process. Now the immediate
plan of CWS
is to undertake a research study to critically look into all the
different Acts
relevant in the governance of the PESA area and suggest
rules/guidelines for
implementing PESA in its true spirit and challenge any legal obstacles
that
might arise and then simultaneously take up advocacy and lobbying with
the
grassroots experience.
Conditions
Necessary for Advocacy
To make the dialogue effective with the
State to bring in any policy change, the following are required:
- Need to identify, establish and sustain the
rapport
with CSOs, sensitive politicians, officials, media, academicians,
activists,
elected representatives and training institutions
- Considerable time, resources and energy is
required
for establishing the rapport with different stakeholders and keeping
the
advocacy issue alive through different strategies
- Strengthen and sustain the grassroots work
and
movements to facilitate them to become change agents and advocate for
policy
change
- Maintaining a balance between grassroots work
and
advocacy work – feeding the experience from bottom to top and providing
the
information at all levels
- Not to get caught in party politics but
constantly
be aware of the politics of the issue and its importance
- Keep together human resources who could
continuously
study and provide critical information for those involved in advocacy
work/campaign
- Need to study/research the impact in the
field, and
the advocacy efforts should be based and built on this authentic and
scientific
information coming out of the study
- Need to disseminate the issue/information in
different forums to wider public and stakeholders and keep the advocacy
issue
alive
- It is important to provide critical
information to
the government on the impact of any change in the policy or new policy
on the
people and their development
- Lastly but not the least it is very important
to
have both human and economic resources to strategize the interventions
at
various levels and readiness/commitment to work on the issue round the
clock
while updating skills and knowledge on the issue
- Above all, unshakeable commitment to the
cause,
around which only all the enumerated steps can be taken