Situational analysis: Governance

Thursday, 1st June 2006

Weak governance allows those who are powerful to influence and direct policy making, programming and spending away from the needs and requirements of those who are weak and voiceless.

Strengthening governance alongside more responsive and credible democratic processes, which ensure that the views and opinions of people are listened to and can influence policies, are essential elements of poverty reduction.

Gains for poor people can come about not just from increased budget allocations to social sector spending, but through more efficient and effective use of existing resources, programmes and schemes.

To ensure the more effective use of resources a variety of reasons need to be addressed; delays and leakage within the system, lack of effective service providers, poor design and targeting and the use of resources/programmes for political patronage.

By strengthening the governance systems at all levels some of the reasons for poor and ineffective spending can be addressed.

If governance is to be decentralised and democratic space opened up for genuine people's participation in Orissa there remain major challenges, these include;

• Corruption
• Feudal, casteist and communal political tendencies
• Politics of exclusion and discrimination
• Bureaucracy

The panchayat system and local self governance

The constitutional mandate and safeguards empowering the local governance institutions (Panchayati Raj Institutions - PRIs) have signalled a new horizon for making participatory democracy a reality.

The PRI represents a key opportunity for strengthening Government activities by empowering people to demand better services. Poor people can now take responsibility for ensuring that services are delivered efficiently and effectively.

The constitutional provisions do give space for greater participatory democracy empowering people to exercise their rights as well as manage development activities.

There is also provision for reserving a substantial proportion of elected positions for women and ST/SCs, ensuring that these minority groups are represented.

In Orissa, however, the trend indicates that, despite the constitutional provisions, real devolution of power, functions, functionaries and funds has not been made to the Panchayats and there has been little done to enhance participation and empowerment of people in their own development.

NGOs involved in this process of awareness raising and education are convinced that a more sustained and strategic intervention in this area would result in stronger, assertive and representative leadership including amongst more vulnerable sections resulting in greater benefits to poor people.

The Panchayat Extension to the Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act is one of the more progressive legislations for the tribal regions, providing for self governance and recognising the traditional rights of tribal communities over their natural resources.

Whilst the provisions of this Act are far reaching in their implications there remain significant problems in the implementation of the Act.

Tribal communities themselves remain oblivious to the enabling powers and provisions of the Act, whilst state Governments have become uncomfortable with it and have been trying to reverse some of the provisions of the Act.

The recently enacted National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA), which gives legal guarantee to every rural household of a hundred days of employment at the minimum wage, can be a key tool in poverty alleviation if used appropriately.

Civil society has a role to play in supporting the government in ensuring this happens. Likewise the Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI) passed by Government of India is a bold step in promoting transparency and accountability in governance and administration.

The RTI provides ordinary citizens with access to information which, if used appropriately, should result in more responsive, accountable and transparent government.

Corruption

As the recent Transparency International report shows corruption in India is widespread, widely expected and largely accepted.

62% of people interviewed in the survey admitted to having paid a bribe or ‘used a contact' to get a job done in a public office and three quarters think the level of corruption in public services had increased as against the previous year.

The report goes as far as saying that ‘acceptance of a bribe has become a way of life'. The survey identifies weak accountability mechanisms, poor management, weaknesses in the grievance redress mechanisms, as well as pressure from influential people, as the most important reasons for sustaining corruption in the country.

Whilst Orissa is by no means the most corrupt state (according to the India Corruption Study Orissa is ranked as the 9th least corrupt state of the 20 states surveyed) the lower judiciary ranks among the top four corrupt services in the whole country.

Concern India country strategy 2006 - 2011: Contents