Convergence of Schemes/Programs
The convergence of all ministry specific schemes in the Panchayat’s Plan for implementation should have an overriding provision to reprioritize the schemes during the financial year by utilizing the available resources, for local modified needs. Here we are presuming the oversight and monitoring mechanisms enabled in the system. The rural knowledge bank available with the senior citizen will come handy to decide as to what is more important for the village as a whole at any given time.
In any case, the canalizing funds directly through the Panchayats will result in synergy and economy by containing the wasteful expenditure incurred in the name of administering the grants for the schemes. The resultant reduction in government jobs can be utilised by redeployment of skilled staff in the Panchayats; and as independent consultants operating privately. The system must ensure that there are ex ante targets fixed for ex post results and benefits monitoring, quantified in both physical and financial terms.
Local modifications in Schemes/Programs
Local modifications may be allowed to cater to the needs of the varying geographic conditions, allowing for the cultural factors; and better value for money derived. The housing or the water supply projects can never have the same specifications in the mountain areas of North- East or the middle Himalayan states. The development of local specific and user friendly technology in the projects will help achieve the goals better than any standard scheme or projects for all states.
Social Solutions and Holism
The dynamics of interrelationship of land holding, agricultural growth, employment; and poverty have to be understood in holistic way and strategies have to be devised to tackle them in tandem. People–centric and people oriented methods will entail the participation of the civil society, self-help groups, stakeholders, NGO’s and other institutions to help achieve sustainable rural development with a clear vision and focus. Fragmented and piecemeal efforts will only remain attempts without being translated into outcomes; and a burden on public exchequer.
Several of the complex problems do not require economic or political solutions; but the social solutions . We seem to be going overboard in bringing in more and more economic and political solutions, at the cost of neglecting the social solutions. The social changes are slower than even the slow process; but can be brought out only by tackling the social elements in association with the other measures and variables. The core areas of thinking shall be the holism of rural development :
“But holism requires much more – it must include the sense of all inclusive totality. Interestingly, this emphasis on all inclusive totality places at the disposal of less developed societies, an inexpensive volume of relevant R&D at the highest level of the corporate world which is struggling hard on the same problem of development – how to change the ongoing in order to survive in the world of future. Why? Complex dynamic systems, whether physical, biological or societal, have the same underlying internal dynamics and exhibit common emerging patterns. All that is needed is the cultivation and development of re-investment skills.”
Financial Management
Financial management and records keeping of any system is very important. We cannot expect the local bodies to perfect them without any regular support staff and system. Right from planning to outcomes reporting, skilled staffs are required. As said, elsewhere in this paper the management of Panchayats should be a career option for the villagers; and the requisite internal expertise has to be available in the organization.
Panchayats must have their own Budget and some sources of Income, by having powers of levy taxes, user charges etc. in the local sphere of activities. This will automatically involve everyone in the village administration, through the concerns of the tax payers and the users of services. While the bulk of the sources of expending will continue to come from the State and Center’s funds, the funds raising powers of the village panchayats will make them more aware of the areas that can be governed more effectively at the village levels. The maintenance of various existing and future assets that always starve for funds, will also find a new source for this purpose.
The large paraphernalia of the multi-tier system will provide the surplus manpower for redeploying in the Panchayats. It will in fact result into savings for the government in several ways. To begin with the panchayats may keep their cash based accounts on the ‘single entry system’, that reveals much more information on the transactions than the double entry or accrual system. The systems have to be made simple and transparent, unlike the complicated data that is sought under the development schemes at present. In a fully accountable and transparent system, enabled with internal controls and audit, micro-management must be left to the Panchayats and only monitoring and evaluation should be the concern of the State and Central governments.
Internal Audit
An institutionalized mechanism of internal audit by independent agency/NGO or even a kind of social audit system (of course making it simple) can be put in place. Most government institutions in the provincial and district administration also require having similar arrangement to make them accountable for their decisions.
Learning from Others
The empowerment of the rural local bodies will ultimately ensure that the ‘rural-living’ is more prestigious than living in urban areas. In most European countries, living in the countryside is considered more prestigious than living in cities. Countries like U.K., Austria, Switzerland, and France are telling examples of that. Why they have such a situation is due to the comparable or better schools, hospitals, playgrounds, water supply, roads and general environment. In Alpine countries of Europe, there have been trends of reverse migration, with the upgraded rural livelihood.
Reinforcement of national programs and activities through decentralized decision-making and capacity-building has been undertaken by most of the countries in the Eastern Europe. Activities range from development of farmer support groups to the establishment of central and regional development councils, as in Hungary, which are responsible for regional planning, priority setting and allocation of financial resources for various regional development projects. Through the Estonian Village Movement, rural communities have been active in appealing to the Estonian Government for assistance in rural development issues. The first Rural Assembly for Villages was held in Estonia in 1996 and concluded with the formation of the Estonian Movement of Villages and Small Towns (KODUKANT), a non-governmental organization.
The international community recognizes that concerns about the impacts of globalisation and the free market, nutrition, supply of safe drinking water and energy, and improvements in education and health. Government measures would go a long way to solving problems of poverty, but improved coordination, cooperation, and targeting of investments was needed. The unique characteristics could be exploited to capture niche markets for products and services such as organic food products and eco-tourism.
The availability of such amenities and infrastructure enables the rural tourism to compete strongly with the city tourism. One the rural tourism catches up, the rural people will find jobs in their backyard of their ancestral village home; the pain of cutting the umbilical cord will also be minimized. This sounds very simplistic but requires a lot of investment, will and long term planning. Cities as ‘Engines of Growth’ will provide jobs and income; but certainly not rural development as most investment analysts think.
The road to emulating the European countries is not straight one. We have to have the town planning, drainage system, roads, schools, hospitals, safe drinking water, access from the cities, communication, etc. will provide the basic amenities comparable to the cities. The emerging concepts of ‘Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas’ (PURA), have to be translated into reality. An intensive R & D is required to be carried out in agriculture, materials and renewable energy technologies.
Conclusion
The time is ripe to have a fresh look at the prevailing system and empowering the village local self government. The panchayats should be made the development units for the rural development and not the ‘Block’. The creation of marketing infrastructure and village cooperatives, to integrate the farmers with the market directly, will be the path to the prosperity of the villages. The community feeling and participation in every sphere shall hold the key to its success and implementation. The decision making along with the accountability shall vest with the villagers, with a very vigilant internal oversight system. Those who think that the rural development can be done by the outsiders alone need to revisit their knowledge base and outlook.