Centre for Social Research shares its findings on the completion of the project on "Strengthening Government-Citizen Connection for Effective Governance of Urban Local Bodies" in its seminar at the India International Centre, New Delhi.

The Seminar was organised by the Centre for Social Research on November 6, 2001 at the India International Centre, New Delhi with the theme "Strengthening Government-Citizen Connection for Effective Governance of ULBs". The seminar was essentially organised to share its findings of its recently concluded project supported by the Social Development Division, Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The speakers and participants at the Seminar were welcomed by Dr. Ranjana Kumari, Director, CSR, who after delving on the theme of the day i.e. Strengthening Government-Citizen Connection, lamented on the widening hiatus between the civil society and their own Government. She quite aptly raised the question as to "how much do people take government into account and how much does the government take its own people into account!".

Following the Welcome Address, Ms. Anita Kelles Vittanean representing the Social Development Division of the Asian Development Bank, formally inaugurated the Seminar, the first half of which was chaired by Dr. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, CSR. Ms. Anita Kelles Vittanean delved into the nature of work that the ADB has been engaging in across the world. She then elaborated upon the ADB's version of 'good governance' which according to her stood on four pillars: 'Accountability, Transparency, Predictability, and Participation'.

The Keynote Address was delivered by Ms. Margret Alva, Chairperson, Parliamentary Committee on the Empowerment of Women. She revealed the paradoxes writ large with reference to the functioning of urban local governance in the National Capital Region (NCR). Some of the significant issues that she raised were: the urgent need to "…privatize garbage collection which involves big money", "… the people's participation has become negative rather than positive as far as local governance is concerned", "… the phenomenal increase in the thrust of the rural population to urban areas because of various pull factors", and that "…the 74th CAA is only on papers…".

The Project findings were presented in a detailed manner by Mr. Murari Chandra of the Centre for Social Research and Dr Madhumita Sarkar, Head, Gender Training Institute.

Mr. Chandra recounted how each objective was dealt with independently throughout the project while at the same time keeping in mind its relationship with the larger study. He informed the audience that there were five objectives of the study whose findings were satisfactorily achieved. Following was the gist of his presentation:

Objective 1: To Understand and Analyze the Administrative Structure and Functions of City Municipalities.

Finding: The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA) has introduced some fundamental changes in the system of urban governance. First, it provides for regular and fair conduct of elections to municipalities in each state by a statutorily constituted State Finance Commission (SEC). Second, a framework is provided for the assignment of appropriate civic functions to ULBs through the XIIth Schedule of the Constitution of India (COI). Besides the traditional core functions, municipalities are now expected to play a very crucial role in preparation and implementation of local development plans and social justice programmes.

Third, states are required to constitute State Finance Commissions (SFC) once in every five years. It is the SFC's function to improve the financial health of ULBs through recommendations to the legislature. This includes:

(a) assignment of taxes, duties, tolls and fees;

(b) sharing of tax revenues; and

(c) grants-in-aid.

Fourth, it provides for the constitution of Ward Committees (WC) in municipalities with a population of 3Lakh or above (with scope for such committees in smaller cities also), in order to ensure people's participation in civic affairs at the grassroots level. Fifth, it requires the states to constitute Metropolitan Planning Committees (MPC) and District Planning Committees (DPC) for the preparation and consolidation of development plans.

Objective 2: To examine the extent of devolution of power and resources to the ULBs

Finding: Through sources like tax-revenue, non tax-revenue, grant-in-aid and shared taxes the financial autonomy of the municipalities has been insured. However, Article 243 X of the COI does not differentiate the duties, tolls and taxes to be levied and collected by the municipalities and state government. The ultimate decision of authorizing and assigning selective taxes to the local bodies continues to reside with the state legislature. It is against the provision of devolution of financial power to the municipalities. May elected councilors of Jaipur and Jodhpur alleged that resources are not sufficient to carry out municipal work. In Jaipur 83% of the councilors felt that the present resource base is not enough to cater to the felt needs. In Jodhpur 92% of them felt that the resources are insufficient and about 75% of respondents in the Boards also consider the resources inadequate.

An analysis of expenditure and revenue decentralization ratio shows that it declined in the post-amendment era. In the pre-amendment era, it was 9.9%, which became 9.4 in the post-amendment period. Similarly, revenue decentralization ratio declined by 0.3% in the pre-amendment period. As a result of the decline in expenditure and revenue, overall financial autonomy has declined. It has gone down by 0.9% in the post-amendment period in comparison to the pre-amendment period. It implies that after the 74th CAA the financial condition of the ULBs has deteriorated. And in reality, decentralization and devolution of financial power has been inadequate.

Objective 3: To analyze the socio-economic background of the councilors and the barriers faced by them, especially women and socially backward sections, in the functioning of the decision making process.

Finding: An analysis of their voting pattern from the first Lok Sabha elections to the 1999 general elections totally shatters this perception. It clearly shows that women have always taken an interest in politics, though it has been limited to casting their votes. From 1952 to 1996, women's voting pattern in general election has seen a growth of 16.3% while the men's percentage of voting increased only by 8.6%.

However, women's political participation is not limited to the casting of their vote. Inspite of the lack of opportunities, women candidates have done better in various general elections. Their success rate has been always higher than their male counterparts in all elections. An analysis of women candidate's winning pattern in general elections shows that in 1952, 60% women got elected while 31.7 % men got elected. This pattern of women as better winners continued till 1999 general elections. Yet, the participation of women in Indian politics has always been low.

To check this gender imbalance in Indian politics and to give a much-needed boost to this disadvantaged segment, the 74th CAA has given one-third reservation to women.

Even after the stipulated reservations under the 74th CAA, women find it difficult to enter politics. This is because of the lack of political and social environment, which is still not conducive for their easy entry.

Inspite of the fact that most political parties in their manifestos support reservations for women in parliament, very few women candidates have been given a chance to contest election. It could be argued here that if political parties are not supporting women, the women should stand as independent candidates. But in India to contest elections, party support is essential at every level, be it men or women. In this situation not providing tickets to the women candidates directly affects their participation in the politics.

Family pressure on the women elected candidate has been witnessed in a new form in the ULBs. In the survey, it clearly came out that male members of the family supported women candidates in getting elected. However, during the training programme a large number of elected women councilors reported that once elected they face pressures from within the family in fulfilling their municipal responsibilities. After getting family support in getting elected, when they tried to be actively involved in their political careers they faced resistance within their families as the men want them to remain as mere figureheads. By and large, they were made to feel that they were neglecting their family duties for the sake of municipal commitments.

To be an active and effective politician education is one of the basic components. It is interesting to note that in survey most of the women councilors were educated. Only in municipal boards a small percentage of councilors were illiterate. There was not much difference between the men-women literacy level. However, the question can be raised that formal education does not have a direct relation with political ability and performance. But, the higher composition of the educated councilors reflects the public opinion that in contemporary politics, education is a tool to understand politics and achieve higher rate of performance. The study reveals that more than 80% of women councilors in the Board are from lower income group i.e. less than 12,000 per year. It means that for women household income does not constitute part of their own income. This works against their ability to perform. If a person has access and control over resources, he/she is economically dependent it will lead to passive involvement and dependency. And this is perhaps what happened to women councilors in the surveyed areas. At the one end their economic condition is weak, on the other hand they do not have any other avenues for income generation became majority (61.9%) of the women candidates are house wives. This leads to political dependency.

The survey reveals that in the small municipal boards 77.7% of the women candidates are first timers thereby with less political experience. An analysis of the political experiences of the elected representatives indicates that most of the councilors in the municipal boards are with experience of less than five years. On the other hand, in Jaipur and Jodhpur respectively 30% and 35% councilors have experience of say more than 20 years. Political experience generally leads to the political exposure and thereby could be translated into the improvement of the performance level. However, the lacunae related to the political experience can be minimized by imparting training.

In the survey, 53.3% in Jaipur, 33.3% in Jodhpur and 50% women candidates in Boards belonged to politically connected families. We also see that majority of the women in the surveyed areas are first timers and also from a political background on the basis of this it can be inferred that these women are proxy candidates of their husbands, brothers, fathers or fathers-in-law.

However, during the training programme and the survey, it was evident that in addition to their family responsibilities they find their official work very demanding. During the survey, majority of the women councilors felt that in the present socio-political set up they have to work much harder to prove their worth, and are still willing to take it as a challenge. It can therefore be inferred that today's proxy candidates can become tomorrow's active and effective political participants. Women benefit from a positive prejudice among the electorate that believes that they are not only serious in their job, but are also honest and will bring fresh values to Indian politics. This prejudice acts as a catalyst for women to take office and as an incentive to parties to support female candidates. The survey reveals that majority of the stakeholders felt women work more for women related issues.

When it was asked whether the 74th CAA has improved the condition of the municipality, majority of the stakeholders responded in the affirmative. They attributed increasing women's participation as one of the reasons for the better functioning of the ULBs. Majority of the councilors, NGOs and the administrative staff accepted that the efficiency of the ULBs improved after more women became councilors. However, the corporates and citizens did not give credit to women councilors to the same extent.

It is clear from the survey that majority of elected women are from political families. And their chance of being effective leaders becomes higher if family support is extended not only towards helping them in supporting them to independently handle their responsibilities. Women were always said to have no say in the family life as well as in the social life. However, the survey reveals that given a platform women are equally capable in raising their voice. All they need is a conducive environment. Thanks to the reservations, they have a platform to voice their issues. In the survey, it was found that both men and women have the opportunity to speak in the meetings, but men have a slight advantage over them. Yet, even in this small period women have started asserting themselves and speak in the meetings. This implies that eventually they will be able to bring up more women related issues in their areas.

Objective 4: To Identify the Gaps Between the Desired Level of Performance and the Current Level of Performance.

Finding: The councilors in Jodhpur and in the Boards lack awareness of the provisions of 74th CAA. Except for the administration and the NGOs most stakeholders in the ULBs do not have a high awareness of the provisions of 74th CAA. Area wise, both men and women at the Board level and women in Jodhpur lack knowledge of the Act. Bureaucratic apathy and lack of financial resources are the two major constraints faced by councilors. In addition to this, lack of planning was also cited as one of the areas that needed to be addressed.

Objective 5: To Explore the Possibility of Establishing Links With Other Local Stakeholders.

Finding: Inspite of the 74th CAA, ULBs are alienated from urban society. People do not completely identify themselves with it. During our intervention (with the citizens, NGOs and corporate groups) various sections of society, especially corporate houses expressed that thay have lost faith in the civic system because of corruption and attitude of the municipal staff. In Jaipur and Jodhpur people were dissatisfied with the performance of their municipalities, though they accepted that after the implementation of the 74th CAA the situation had improved to some extent. But the present circumstances where the municipality has been given additional functions apart from their regular responsibilities without providing them appropriate resources it becomes essential for them to collaborate with the civil society for improving their performance. Civil society is highly stratified with its own specific characteristic traits. Hence, with the collaborative efforts they can contribute in different ways. For the purpose of survey, the groups were classified into four major categories:

(A) Councilors;

(B) Corporates;

(C) Citizen groups;

(D) NGOs; and

(E) Administration.

More than 70% of the stakeholders in all these categories were in favour of collaborations. However, it was realized that the major bottlenecks on this road were: party politics, lack of administrative cooperation, mistrust of stakeholders, heterogeneous urban society, competing interest and the attitude of local authority. The basic issue for collaboration is that every section of society should understand what needs to be done and what are the steps that can be taken to improve the situation of the municipalities. According to the respondents, awareness generation and training are the most important tools for creating stakeholder collaborations at the municipal level.

The Chief Guest of the day, Mr. Shanti Desai, Mayor, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, elaborated upon the constraints that he faces due to the overlapping nature of various municipal bodies in the Megaopolis of Delhi. He accepted most of the charges, honestly, those had been and were hurled on the failures of urban government in Delhi but at the same time explained about his helplessness due to the various lacunae in built in the 74th CAA itself. One of the most important presentations of the day came from Dr. George Mathew, Director, Institute of Social Sciences who extensively spoke on the topic 'An Analysis of Devolution of Power and Function after 74th CAA'. He began his address with the highlighting of all encompassing pessimism among the elected representatives of the local government in Panchayats and the urban local bodies as well as among the various stakeholders involved in the empowerment of civil society. He noted that it is close to a decade since these CAAs (73rd and 74th) were passed but the pace at which reforms were expected to occur has not happened. According to him, "there are three enemies of local governance:

* Bureaucracy;
* Local mafia; and
* State level politicians"

As such, because of these enemies, the so-called "silent revolution is becoming a bloody revolution". He also cited a case where an elected women representative at the Madurai was hacked to death by the vested mafia groups. The reason being that she successfully brought water pipelines to all the nooks and corners of her constituency which meant closing shop by tube well mafia, construction barons etc. No wonder, "350 people lost lives in Bihar during the recent Panchayat elections"

Mr. Satinder Sahni, Director, Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), while speaking on "Peoples Participation in the Urban Local Bodies", revealed about his and his organization's involvement is with small to medium towns as far as the urban sector is concerned. He also, like Mr. Mathew, complained about the "suppression of elected bodies". While answering a question that as to why the 73rd CAA gets so much of importance in the media, amongst academicians, politicians, NGOs etc where as the 74th CAA is often not given adequate importance, Mr. Sahni said "like village assembly (Gram Sabha) in the 73rd CAA, there is no such thing in the 74th CAA besides the fact that it is easy to work, mobilize, the rural people rather than the urban because of accessibility".

The Chair, as held by Dr. Anand Kumar, then asked Ms. Kamal Singh, Head, Governance & Social Justice, North India, British High Commission, to share her views on "Gender and Local Self Government". She, in her long but compact lecture, elaborated upon the training interventions and literature delivery to various important government and non-government bodies. She also discussed at length, the action based training programme that the British Council undertook under her supervision in many districts of Punjab and which according to her can be promoted as a model for other similar interventions.

In the concluding remarks, the Chair, then, delivered the address by summarizing the crucial issues raised throughout the day as well as asking the various stakeholders present to bring in some more conviction in order to speed up the reforms' implementation. He was categorical in saying that though women's issues are important for all of us but mere reservations will not ensure empowerment for the fact that not only men, women also need capacity-building measures. He highlighted some cases where people after losing out patience with both men and women, gave the call for "Na Nar Na Nari" ( neither men nor women), as in the District of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, and subsequently elected a "Kinnar" (an eunuch).