LOCAL DEMOCRACY IN DISARRAY
Introduction
It’s been 25 years since decentralized democratic governance was introduced in India by the 73rd and 74th Constitution Amendments.
.Important changes brought about by the 73rd and 74th Amendments
Parts IX and IXA of the Constitution, introduced following the two Constitution Amendments, initiated a process with standardized features such as
- elections every five years;
- reservations for historically marginalized communities and women;
- the creation of participatory institutions;
- the establishment of State Finance Commissions (SFCs),
- a counterpart of the Finance Commission at the sub-national level;
- the creation of District Planning Committees (DPCs); and so on.
Have these amendments been fruitful?
- Given the unprecedented growth of the economy over the last 25 years, its limited success in ensuring primary health care, access to drinking water supply, street lighting, education, food security, and so on is an enigma.
- The media and mainstream economists who get nervous when there is even a small slippage in the quarterly economic growth rate have been silent on this social failure in local democracy.
- Indeed, the village panchayats have not succeeded in enhancing the well-being, capabilities and freedom of citizens.
What went wrong?
- While the economic reforms were championed by the political class and received support from the bureaucracy, there was no perceptible hand-holding and support by the States to foster decentralized governance.
- From the beginning, whether it was postponing elections or the failure to constitute SFCs and DPCs, it became evident that States can violate the various provisions of Parts IX and IXA with impunity.
- The roles and responsibilities of local governments remain ill-defined despite activity mapping in several States.
- States control funds, functions and functionaries, making autonomous governance almost impossible.
- Most States continue to create parallel bodies (often fiefdoms of ministers and senior bureaucrats) that make inroads into the functional domain of local governments. For example, Haryana has created a Rural Development Agency, presided over by the Chief Minister, to enter into the functional domain of panchayats.
- Legislative approval of these parallel bodies legitimizes the process of weakening decentralized democracy.
- Increasing allocations to Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme, or MPLADS, which started in 1993, and their State-level counterparts, known as the MLALADS, hastened the process of euthanasia.
- There is no mandate to create a District Planning Committee (DPC) tasked to draft a district development plan that takes into account spatial planning, environmental conservation, rural-urban integration, etc. In States like Gujarat, the DPC has not been constituted.
- There is no credible fiscal data base and budget system among local governments now.
- The 13th Finance Commission made significant steps to carry forward decentralized governance by linking the grants to local governments to the divisible pool via Article 275 besides taking various measures to incentivize the process of decentralization. The 14th Finance Commission enhanced the grant substantially but did not take the change forward. The Terms of Reference of the 15th Finance Commission, which sought to abolish Article 275 and ignore an integrated public finance regime, do not seem to opt for continuity.
- Despite the reservation of seats for Adivasis, Dalits and women, these categories remain on the periphery, often as victims of atrocities and caste oppression rather than as active agents of social change. This means that involving women’s agencies and the marginalized to lead social transformation at the grass-roots level remains an uphill task.
- Even after 25 years, local government expenditure as a percentage of total public sector expenditure comprising Union, State and local governments is only around 7% as compared to 24% in Europe, 27% in North America and 55% in Denmark.
- The own source revenue of local governments as a share of total public sector own source revenue is only a little over 2% and if dis-aggregated, the Panchayat share is a negligible 0.3%.
Conclusion
This speaks of the fiscal weakness of village panchayats. Local democracy in India is in deep disarray. The govt must take remedial action in the interest of democracy, social inclusion and cooperative federalism.
Relevance: GS 2
