The Kerala Panchayatraj Act 1994, enacted by the then Congress led United Democratic Front (UDF) government consequent on the 73rd amendment of Indian constitution, has been hailed as one of the most progressive legislations of such kind in the country. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, which succeeded the UDF, launched the Peoples Plan Campaign (PPC) with much fanfare, placing Kerala on the forefront of decentralised administration.
In decentralising governance, Kerala opted for the bing-bang mode of devolution in which all the three Fs (functions, finances and functionaries) have been made available to the three tiers of third stratum of governance. Though either of the two dominant political fronts in Kerala - the UDF and LDF – invariably come to power in every alternate election, there was no occasion in which a change of government hampered the decentralisation process. Both the fronts when in power have never tried to reverse the steps taken by the other. In this favourable environment, many Panchayatraj Institutions (PRIs) continue to come up with innovative projects whenever possible.
Grama sabha – people’s assembly - is a key institution in local governance. When PPC started, people flocked to the gramasabha with much fanfare, but their interest has been on a steady decline. Now most of the people from the middle and upper class abstain from attending them. No much discussion on development is taking place in them. The attendance in most of them fails to touch the ten percent quorum even to transact the business.
No doubt, a vibrant gramasabha is sine qua non to bring civil administration in tune with the spirit of decentralization. The thin attendance in gramasabha meetings in a politically active state poses a serious challenge to our claims on people’s participation. This has brought down the expectation of a section about the natural transition from decentralized governance to citizen’s rule in Kerala.
Challenges Faced by the gramasabha
Multiple gramasabhas in one Panchayat: the huge size of population (average 30000) prompted the state govt to constitute one gramasabha at each ward of the panchayat unlike as in other states. A grama panchayat in Kerala has an average of 18 gramasabhas. However, the basic planning unit remains to be the grama panchayat area as a whole. When multiple decisions and opinions come from different Gramasabhas, the panchayat members find it difficult to aggregate them into cohesive whole and use the issue as an excuse to choose their own private projects instead. The citizens, whose genuine demands thus remain unattended, gradually kept themselves out of the gramasabhas. This has converted gramasabha meetings into a ritual with the mere passive presence of individuals only who seek individual benefits like house, latrine etc. from the panchayat
Sheer size and mob psychology: The average membership of a gramasabha is more than 1300 and a crowd of that size cannot arrive at any well-informed decision after proper homework and meaningful deliberations. When ineligible beneficiaries are chosen for subsidies or other benefits it is practically difficult to question it in a public meeting due to fear of antagonisation. In the event, the credibility of the gramasabha is at stake and it emerges as a meeting place of benefit seekers.
Absence of a permanent headquarters: The gramasabha usually meet at then-fixed venue in the absence of a regular headquarter. Therefore people do not see it as a responsible institution other than a benefit seekers meeting place.
Towards a solution
Massive training programmes arranged by the Kerala Institute for Local Administration (KILA) for the members of gramasabhas(voters) throughout the state could not bring much tangible improvement in the functioning of the gramsabha in terms of its attendance or the quality of discussions in it.
Government of Kerala, on realizing the need to institutionalize the gramasabha, set out to establish a headquarters building for it and proposed an executive committee for it. A government order was issued in June this year asking the grama panchayt to open an office for gramasabha – called sevakendra - in each ward. The order as well wants the grama panchayat to constitute ward development committee (an executive committee for gramasabha) comprising of democratically elected members from among gramasabha members and to form neighbourhood committees comprising of voters of 50-100 nearby families as sub sets of gramasabha. The ward development committee will have representation from all neighbourhood sabhas in the ward.
Sevagram Grama Kendra: Sevagram Grama Kendra is the headquarters of the gramasabha. It will serve as the meeting place for the Ward Development Committee (WDC) to deliberate collectively on the administrative, developmental, welfare, service, cultural and social issues of the area, to suggest solutions, to implement projects and monitor them periodically.
The Grama Kendra will be a meeting place for all the ward level peoples’ committees organized by the Panchayat such as ward level federation of NHGs of state run poverty eradication project Kudumbashree, Pain and Palliate Care society, women-welfare committees, literacy committee, NREGS co-ordination committee, Farm committees etc. It shall serve as an extension centre of Panchayat. The field level officers of the grama panchayat - such as Agricultural Asst, Junior Health Inspector, Junior Public Health Inspector, Live stock inspector, Village Extension Officer, ICDS supervisor,Anganwadi worker, Literacy Prerak, Asha worker and SC/ST promoter - can now camp and operate from there making panchayat services accessible to people. The kendra will also be an aid-centre for the local people to access information on Government and Panchayat services. The Citizen charter, maps, various notifications, lists of BPL families and recipients of welfare pensions, beneficiary list of projects of the panchayat etc, shall be made available to people from there. The Kendra, manned by volunteers from among retired officers and social workers but under the overall responsibility of the ward member, will function from 3pm to 7pm on five days a week.
Neighbourhood Committee (NC): There will be an NC for every 50-100 nearby families in a ward. It will function as a subset of gramasabha and a gramasabha will have around 5 NCs under it. All voters of the area will be members therein and there will be an executive committee consisting of 11 members out of which 6 shall be women. One of the chairpersons/convenors of the NC shall be a woman. One woman and one man will be elected to the WDC from each NC.
The NC has to meet prior to each Gramasabha meeting. It would discuss the agenda items and inform its decisions over the developmental activities and priorities. It shall also inform its members about ongoing development activities in the area, mobilise people’s participation and voluntary service, protect public property, campaign against social evils, help in finalizing beneiciary list, create awareness about public hygiene and conduct survey, and collect data about local families. The NC shall meet atleast once in three months and its executive committee once in a month.
WARD DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE (WDC): The executive committee of gramasabha - WDC - is responsible for the effective and efficient functioning of Gramakendra. The ward member will be the chairperson of this committee. Apart from the two members each - one man, one woman - selected from every NC, the gramasabha will elect following members also to WDC:
- Six members (out of which 3 shall be women) who are widely accepted;
- Five members from among Agriculturists, Teachers, Doctors, engineers, Technical experts, Retired Govt officials;
- One member each from former Panchayat members,representatives of Voluntary organizations.
Proportional representational shall also be given to SC/ST and traditional fishermen. The total membership shall not, however, exceed 25.
The term of a WDC is two and a half years whereas the term of a Panchayat is five years. The duties of WDC include:
- To report the ward level needs to Gramasabha and Panchayat;
- To help in scrutinising and preparing prioprity list of beneficiaries for projects;
- To publicize Gramasabha meetings and ensure maximum participation;
- To mobilise peoples participation in developmental activities;
- To present before gramasabha montoring report and social audit report of works and projects in the ward;
- To follow up on the decisions of the gramasabha and present report thereon , and
- To conduct legal adalath for amicable settlement of disputes between members of gramasabha etc.
Govt of Kerala wants every grama panchayats to start its Grama Kendras before the next Republic day.
Prospects and challenges ahead
The problem of multiple gramasabhas meeting separately in a Grama Panchayat, when the planning unit covers the Panchayat area as a whole, still remains unaddressed.
Kerala has the highest mobile phone density and internet penetration and the whole state is a big city. In such an urbanised area, online voter engagement in strengthening is not been given due attention.
Mobilizing the people to attend neighbourhood committees, calls for a lot of homework and planning. Mere issuance of an order is not enough. No deliberate effort for involving the community based organizations and NGOs in this exercise has been done so far; nor was there any sensitization programmes conducted for political parties.
The success of this move depends on how much space is available to civil society for meaningful intervention in otherwise highly politicized atmosphere and how far voters come up to assume responsibilities. After all, eternal vigilance is the price of democracy.
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