CUTS>CART>PUBLICATIONS>E-Newsletter>THE 5TH ESTATE (EB)>No. 07

This is an electronic newsletter on our Project titled “Promoting State Accountability and Citizen’s Empowerment through Budget Analysis (SAP)” which is being implemented in Rajasthan, a state in North-West India. The project primarily aims to analyse budgetary provisions and achievements of targets of programmes and schemes meant for target groups, viz. women, marginal farmers and landless labourers.

The title ‘The 5^th Estate’ has been derived from the definition of democracy, as it denotes the people on whom it’s other four pillars rest: the legislature, the judiciary, the executive and the media. It means, “The State derives its rights from the power of the people”.

The purpose of this bulletin is to provide regular update on the activities taken as part of the Project.

THE 5TH ESTATE (EB) ISSUES NO. 08

THE 5TH ESTATE (EB) ISSUES NO. 07

THE 5TH ESTATE (EB) ISSUES NO. 06

THE 5TH ESTATE (EB) ISSUES NO. 05

THE 5TH ESTATE (EB) ISSUES NO. 04

THE 5TH ESTATE (EB) ISSUES NO. 03

THE 5TH ESTATE (EB) ISSUES NO. 02

THE 5TH ESTATE (EB) ISSUES NO. 01

Contents

From Media

The Panchayati Raj

Gram Sabha & Ward Sabha (Village level review meetings)-Scenario at the Grassroot: CUTS’ Experiences 

Action

From Media

Out of the total 9,188 Gram Sabhas in the state of Rajasthan, it has been estimated that the last scheduled Gram Sabha Meeting of 2^nd October 2001 was held in just over 4000 Gram Panchayats.  The Sabhas in the remaining places had to be cancelled due to lack of Quorum. 

The situation in Jaipur district presented a much bleaker picture.  It has been estimated that out of a total of 488 Gram Panchayts in the district, the Sabha was held in only 200 of them.  This is a clear indication that the rural masses do not place much importance to attending the Sabhas.

(DB. 04.10.01)

Within Jaipur district, at Narsinghpura gram panchayat, secretary and sarpanch (village head) arranged tractor trollies and other means of transport to promote people’s participation, but still people did not participate and due to lack of Quorum, the gram sabha was cancelled. Sarpanch attempted to put false signatures in the Quorum register, but was opposed by the honest vice-sarpanch.

At gram panchayat Bhanpura kalaan, only three among 13 ward panch were present at the sabha, only 27 people participated, while to meet the Quorum norms, 350 people should have been present. The lady sarpanch had received the authority letter to organise the sabha just a day before.

Similarly, at Dhand village, Amber panchayat Samiti, five among nine ward panch participated at the sabha. The sarpanch Smt Meena said that villagers were busy harvesting the bajra crop in fields and hence could not participate in sabha.                                

(DB, 02.10.01)

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The Panchayati Raj

Non-participation of the rural people has hobbled the development of the gram sabha, denying the true benefits of this institution to the people.  The concept of gram sabha has also not been grasped clearly, right from the policy-makers to the villagers.  A gram sabha needs to generate a feeling of belonging.

Gram sabha or people’s forum has always been an integral part of the concept of a village government or gram panchayat.  Decision making of the gram panchayat was only valid if the gram sabha endorsed it.  Therefore the gram sabha was an institution of direct democracy rather than the representative democracy introduced in our country during more recent times.  The gram sabha did not figure prominently in the scheme of Panchayati Raj introduced in most states in the early 1960s.  Sporadic efforts to revive the institution were not very successful, as noted by the 1978 report of the Ashok Mehta Committee on Panchayati Raj.  It states that `due to lack of interest on the part of the office bearers and the apathy on the part of the public, the gram sabha has not been functioning satisfactorily.  It can work satisfactorily, if the will to work is there.  The gram sabha has an important role in activating the democratic process at the grass roots level, in including community spirit, in increasing political awareness and enabling the weaker sections to progressively assert their point of view. 

The real challenge now is to reconnect the sabha, by communicating clearly its functions and purpose both at the individual and public levels.

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Scenario at the Grassroot: CUTS’ Experiences 

To make a real assessment of the scenario and to get a first hand experience of people’s perception of the whole concept of `the sabhas’, the CUTS team  undertook a field visit.  It identified two districts namely Chittorgarh and Sirohi and out of the two districts, identified two blocks, namely, Abu Road of Sirohi district and Kapasan block of Chittorgarh district. 

The schedule was planned in a manner in which, the team could collect information related to the attenndance and popularity of the sabhas from both the villagers themselves and also get the version of the representatives of the Panchayati Raj Institution.

The following is the experience, which has been given in the form of cases.Sirohi is predominantly a tribal district with Bheels and Gharsias tribes being in majority. Team surveyed many villages and interviewed villagers to know the status of gram and ward sabha. However due to paucity of space in this bulletin, only one case has been quoted.

The Siyara Case

In village Siyara, gram panchayat Mawal, the sabha was announced to be held at 1000 hrs.  The CUTS team  had earlier decided to participate in the Sabha to get a first hand feel of the meeting and also with the intent to motivate the villagers to raise issues relevant to the village development. When the team reached the panchayat bhavan (Panchayat office Building), to our utmost surprise, it was locked, and there was no one to be seen. However, the villagers gathered soon with a warm welcome.

A young girl from the village shared the truth. She teaches the village children and hence is known as ‘Saraswati bahen’ or the village teacher.

She said, “no doubt the sabha was announced long back still no body from administration turned up for it. It was only the poor villagers who gathered, waited for long, and ultimately many of them lost their daily wages of half a day. After waiting for an hour, the patawari (village administrtator) appeared on the scene, opened the lock of the bhavan, and joined the mob. But soon he too got frustrated, moved the villagers out from the bhavan, locked the bhavan and disappeared, and… there was no sabha.”

On further probe, the villagers said that even if the sabha is organised, it is more about discussing and talking and less of solutions and decision about developmental works. Most of them consider it to be a waste of time. They showed disappointment from this system.

Alarmingly, the village is not electrified. The conditions  in surrounding villages is similar, little or no electrification, no proper roads, no wells, no hand pumps or any other proper source of drinking water.

Overall Survey Outcome

Villagers were interviewed and asked to answer some questions which were formulated for the purpose. The discussion were held in an informal one to one environment.  

Some common observations made are

a) The Gram Sabhas are scheduled at all the 9188 places simultaneously and hence the participation from the administration side is very low, if not none at all;

  b) Most often than not, the villagers do not get advance information and in many cases, the meetings are held in secrecy, defeating the very purpose of the sabhas; 

c) Participation in the Sabhas would mean that the villagers would not be able to go to the fields or work, thereby loosing half day of salary. Further, since the Sabhas do not discuss issues of interest to the villages, they do not find any reason to attend.,

Some of the other revelations were

1.   Quorum norms are very rarely met and in most cases, they are cooked up.
2. Sabhas have become forums for only some, with majority opinions and suggestions never taken
3. The discussions very rarely centre around village development
4. Proposals for village development  put forth by common people are rejected and works are decided on the basis of personal interest of Ward panch.

Some interesting statistics were collected from Chittorgarh district.  These are facts gathered by the CUTS team and will differ greatly from the quorum books at the panchayat samiti offices.

Details of the gram/ ward sabhas

Gram sabhas: During the period of January to October 2001, six gram panchayat were surveyed from Nimbhahera and Chittorgarh blocks. These were Unkhaliya, Araniya Joshi, Devri, Semaliya, Sehnawa, and Chiksi. Also Ward Sabhas of six villages were surveyed during the month of May 2000.

Participation/Attendance of people

• (­-) sign indicates that the figures are not exactly known/available.

• Quorum was not achieved in Sl. No. 1, 2, 5 and 7.

• In Sl. No. 2, the 2 women present were the women ward panchs.

Participation of women PRI members

Remarks

·        Low/zero participation of women

·        Only those women had participated who had applied for government schemes (e. g., IAY - Indira Awas Yojana, Widow Pension and Old Age Pension).

·        Concerns of tribals (e. g. of Bhilown Ki Jhopadiya belonging to Sehnawa gram panchayat) were neglected.

·        PRI members belonging to higher caste were taking lead. In other cases the Secretary/Teacher were coordinating the meetings, not the PRI members.

·        Women PRI members were not allowed to chair the sessions/meetings.

·        In some cases the signatures were taken first and the recommendations were written later.

·        Many government personnel/representatives (viz. teacher, secretary, ANM) were present in those meetings.

·        Those govt. personnel were not sitting with people, rather they were sitting on the tables/chairs, whereas the villagers were sitting on the ground/mats.

·        In some cases the residents of few wards were not at all present.

·        In one case the mandatory signatures required for the quorum were complemented earlier and was kept by the teacher, who coincidentally was absent on that day (Banesti Ward).

·        Only in Wards of Semaliya, the mandatory quorum was achieved.

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Action

Action sheets have been developed which educates people on issues to be raised at the sabhas.  It also exorts people to participate and raise the issues at the meetings.

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