Rustic Bengal: A Rusty State of Affairs

Raj Bhavan, West Bengal, India.

The Left Front government has been credited with the introduction of Panchayati Raj institutions in West Bengal and the panchayat election in 1978, which was in a sense a trendsetter in the country. The system worked well for several years and then its performance gradually started declining. The slide remains unchecked even under the current dispensation, severely affecting the state's socio-economic situation.

Regretfully, the state that pioneered the Panchayati Raj has failed to win any Panchayat Strengthening Index awards (PSI) instituted by the Centre's Ministry of Panchayati Raj in 2013. Under the Cumulative PSI awards, the first prize was won by Maharashtra, the second by Karnataka, the third by Kerala, and the fourth by Tripura. Under the incremental PSI awards, Karnataka won the first prize, Rajasthan the second, Maharashtra the third, and Odisha the fourth.

Incidentally in the early 1980s, Karnataka had sent a team of legislators to West Bengal to study the working of the panchayats before drafting their path-breaking Panchayat Bill of 1983.
Pressure groups have been the bane of the gram panchayats in this state. Two critical components - village level development and creation of livelihood opportunities - are languishing on account of forethought, innovation, incompetence and political expediency.

A major logistical problem is the size of the panchayats. That size has generally been determined by the physical jurisdiction of the “revenue village”, its geographical contiguity, communication facilities and so on. According to the Ministry of Panchayats, there are 3354 Gram Panchayats (GP) in West Bengal, covering almost 6.22 crore people out of the state's total population 9.13 crore.

Photo: Ridwan Adid Rupon

The average population of the GPs varies widely from state to state. In West Bengal and Kerala, a GP has about 20,000 people on an average, while in many other states it is around 3000 only. Various committees set up over the years have advocated smaller panchayats for better delivery and administration. According to some experts, the population per GP should remain within 6,000 to ensure proper development and accountability.
Interestingly, the states known for the best Panchayati Raj have a per GP average population of around 5000 or much less, except Kerala which is currently poised at the cutting edge of decentralised governance.
The focus has shifted from merely performing administrative functions, spending of funds and creation of more infrastructure to evidence-based policymaking; data-based planning; solving problems; efficient management of resources, capabilities and institutions; well-organised public service delivery; and ensuring social security and environmental sustainability. Judging by these parameters of rural governance, Bengal stands nowhere near Kerala despite having a similar average per GP population.

Any panchayat-run development programme that covers a vast area or a large population is likely to lose its local commitment, ownership and participation. It is also likely to come under external interference. There could be lack of transparency and waste of resources. These factors have had a serious impact on the functioning of panchayats in West Bengal.

It is imperative for the West Bengal government to undertake delimitation. The GPs that function effectively are relatively smaller and thereby able to make a substantial difference to planning and implementation of development programmes, and, more importantly, to the lives of the poor.

Generally ignored by society after the 8-year compulsory schooling, nearly 85 per cent of the youth in rural Bengal are school drop-outs, who idle away several years of valuable time till they reach the legally employable age of 18. The majority of this segment is neither skilled nor trained. This idleness and lack of employment opportunities are at the root of social discontent and occasional hostility.

A Kolkata-based public service institution once conducted a field study to find a solution with both a rural and urban application. The points of reference were agricultural stagnation, the decline in educational standards, the declining industrial investments and output, the deteriorating law and order situation and the rapid erosion of social values.

Two fundamental factors were found to be central to this exercise: a) The colossal gap between the ever-growing work force and employment opportunities; and (b) the significant mismatch between the existing opportunities and aspirations of the people

The survey was focused on North 24-Parganas primarily because of its distinctive features ~ the state's largest district; the wide variation in its economy; and the composition of its population in terms of caste and community. A substantial swathe is urban in character. The district has a long porous and soft international border with Bangladesh.

Another feature is its ever-increasing crime rate. The study pointed to a total breakdown of traditional agricultural values in the villages. By and large, children up to 15 years are school-goers. Once they cross the age-limit of compulsory school enrolment, they are literally out of the human growth process. Only a maximum of 15 per cent enrol in the High Schools. Girls cannot be married off before 18 as per law and boys and girls can't take up employment before the stipulated age. As a result, over the next three years, from almost 16 to 18, these teenagers lack identity, hope and gainful opportunities. This leads to utter despair.

This huge section of idle youth, brought up in a social vacuum, is fully exploited for political and other reasons and also used as cheap illegal labour. This leads to criminalisation of the grassroot economy. Since these youth lack skill, the existing structure in our country as well as the state systematically promotes and supports unskilled work. Hence the quality of work suffers leading to waste of human capital. There is little or no initiative to transform this section into a skilled or semi-skilled productive workforce, either for self-employment or for a paid job.

The negative impact of this scenario is two-fold. First, the dejected youth are increasingly getting involved in anti-social and disruptive activities. Second, as they grow up in a social vacuum as outcasts, the youth fall prey to exploitative schemes run by individuals or groups in cahoots with the political class.

The solution lies in the promotion of rural agricultural, industrial and service enterprise and capacity-building of panchayats across the state. The first step is to ensure that the youth are given an identity and opportunity to be engaged in the process of learning with dignity and responsibility. The objective, therefore, is to expose their minds to a range of possibilities in keeping with their aptitude and needs. The possibilities can be broadly classified into three streams ~ land-and-water based, engineering service based, and non-engineering service based. Properly designed courses, rooted in such streams, can be introduced in schools involving both regulars and dropouts.

Considering the large number of students, innovative vocational course structure and the cultural diversity of rural areas, the association of the panchayats is crucial for the proper functioning of the schemes. Realising that the spirit of enterprise cannot be infused through only classroom exercises, such a project embodies a work-centred self-learning system.

Various tasks that the panchayats can offload to the learners could easily be identified. The project so meticulously designed would offer improved panchayat services, scale up agriculture, create a more harmonious and growth-supporting environment as also ensure effective running of state-and-central rural projects and programmes.

The implementation of such a project and its social dimension will doubtless benefit the stakeholders. For the advancement of the country, much will depend on its earnestness in tapping its most precious resources.
West Bengal is blessed with the resources that are required to meet the forbidding challenges effectively, but to make that happen the prime factors are increased awareness of the people, the government's sincerity and a non-partisan system.  The much-touted “higher political consciousness”, the very characteristic of Bengal, has brought the state to the condition where it is now. The people can hardly afford further downslide. It is time to undertake result-oriented programmes and formulate appropriate policies. It is time for absolute political accountability.
 

ATMARAM SARAOGI, AJOY KUMAR BASU and DEBASISH BHATTACHARYA
ANN/ THE STATESMAN
(The writers are respectively former Advisor Corporate, The Times Group and a Gandhian activist; Chairman, Society for Rural Industrialisation, Ranchi; and former Deputy General Manager, India International Centre, New Delhi)