In response to my recent post ‘the long ride to freedom‘, Michael Higgins says that he would be more comfortable if such work were to be done by an NGO.
I have always been uncomfortable with the government versus non governmental debate – in fact, I do not think of it as a ‘versus‘ issue at all, as it often turns out to be… but this is another post altogether…
What this post is about is the third and what I consider the most important element of development work, the community. Most important and most neglected in popular discourse about social development. Take the case of Andhra Pradesh.
Andhra Pradesh is one of the least developed states in India – mainly the result of chronic mismanagement by the Nizams of Hyderabad who ruled the region like medieval sultans until ceding power to the Indian government in 1948. Till recently, over half the population could not read or write and healthcare facilities were extremely limited.
In 1997, the then chief Minster, Chandrababu Naidu, a media savvy politician introduced the Janmabhoomi Programme. This Programme, to me, embodies the ideal format towards addressing the developmental needs of the state, viz. through community mobilization.
The Janmabhoomi programme envisages the beneficiaries themselves identifying the specific needs of the community such as roads, electricity, health care and school buildings. The beneficiaries are expected to contribute actively to the project, either by way of money or labour and also supervise the work. In fact, Shramadanam, or contribution of labour is the biggest expectation from the comminuty.
The Janmabhoomi addresses a variety of developmental issues in five core areas : Community Works, Primary Education, Primary Health and Family welfare, Environment Conservation, Responsive Governance.
The reasoning behind this program is simple : if you want the Government to do something about your problems :
1. bring them to the attention of the state
2. be prepared to contribute your time and effort to the cause, the Government will pitch in with the money and regulated effort
Lesson to the community : stop cribbing and do something. In this case, the people of the State are stake-holders and direct beneficiaries of the Programme. Which I think is very fair.
How much can the State do? How many small villages and towns can be completely covered by the Government? As for NGOs and private non-profit initiatives, they are by definition limited in their area of operations and therefore, impact. (Also thinking here about the recent discussion on innovation)
I believe the solution to sustained impact leading to development at a macro level, is community mobilization and involvement. Any amount of intervention by the Government / non-profit bodies can at best be limited and short-term, without the active participation of the community.
I do not have any inane statistics here to prove any point, but I instinctively believe that this is a model that all states with a welfare focus (this effectively excludes the BIMARU region) would do well to emulate.
Or, are the risks too high for other politicians to take?
As I write this, I found out that this programme has been renamed “Indiramma Grama Swaraj” by the current Chief Minister. Indramma Rajyam (the rule of Mother Indira ) is his main slogan – long gone are the days of Rama Rajyam obviously… And with this name change, the focus has shifted effectively and conclusively from development to politics…
Any idea on the current status of the programme?
Hi Charu
Thanks for linking to my blog.
I’m not sure that I agree with idea behind the Janmabhoomi Programme although it’s a little unclear in my mind what really is happening. It sounds to me that you only get government services like roads and schools even though your taxes have paid for them if you can successfully lobby the government. Now that’s roughly how it works everywhere, but making it official policy sounds corrupt. Roads should be built only based on the needs of the communities affected and not any other criterion. Likewise, schools should be built and staffed based on the needs of the community, not on their bargaining power.
My fear is that the schools and the roads will end up going only to those communities that supported the party in power. Then you only get your public goods if you back the right horse. That is not right.
No No Michael, this is not about lobbying but about citizen participation – this program was conceived of with the intention of promoting this and therefore, transparency in government welfare work. and ideally that is how it should be
the background to this program is another launched a few years earlier called (in telugu) – Prajala Vaddaku Paalana (literally – taking administration to the doorsteps of the people)
I agreethat the actual program does not meaet the ideal / desired standards in any way. but to mne, the idea of involving the community is something that needs to be considered very seriously. the concept behind this progam is something that needs to be understood and appreciated by the states well as the beneficiariues, viz. the community.
payingtaxes and sitting back waiting for benefits is a no-no : is what this is based on… here peoplethemselveds act as bridges between the community / village and the bureaucracy or government…
Charu….the janmabhoomi program had the perfect motives on paper, like many indian schemes, but was terribly executed, like many other projects in Andhra.
Visit a village (pick one….most of the one’s i’ve visited are in Chitoor or Madanapalli district), go there, and ask a villager (unconnected to any party) if s/he has a) heard of such-and-such scheme, and b) what has been done about it. The answers you will get are
a) Yes, i’ve heard about it. Infact, such and such proposal was even allotted to our village
b) There, you can see the result of the proposal (pointing to either a nice mansion or shop or petrol pump or what ever, belonging to the local TDP or Congress worker, depending on which scheme it is)
This is what I saw about 4 months ago. I won’t say more.
yes Sunil, that is what I thought – but I repeat what I said – this is an excellent concept – unfortunately on paper only. but my husband – who is from kakinada – keeps talking about many villages nearby which have benefited from this scheme – will ask him for details when I meet him (he is stuck somewhere and me elsewhere!)
and now with the renaming into Indira blah blah, I have no hopes that it still is a welfare scheme…