Often during the way to my office, I ask my cab driver to switch off the FM radio. The reason is because I was overwhelmed with the party prachar (advertisement) airing so frequently. These ads are hell-bent on convincing listeners to choose one thing over the other. Certain ad phrases stuck in my mind—so the PR agencies are doing a good job. On the other hand, valid messages from the Election Commission were encouraging voters to vote. These messages were not being aired for the first time, but I took them more seriously this time. Why? Because at community radio Alfaz-e-Mewat, an initiative of Sehgal Foundation, we are part of an initiative called the Festival of Democracy. ¹ We call it Votan Ka Tyohaar (festival of voting).

Just as festival preparations began, practitioners from community radios attended an intensive three-day workshop at University of Hyderabad aimed to build their capacities on the electoral provisions and new initiatives taken by the Election Commission for voters, especially for old-age, physically disabled voters, and other such provisions. These members of a close-knit radio family have diverse backgrounds, each having their own set of strengths and challenges. They pitched in with their ideas for getting the message across to the communities. Then back at home, each of the practitioners were at the helm, devising elaborate episode plans with their teams. The celebrations also came with the responsibility to remain nonpartisan and nonpolitical.

A well-made beginning

Fifty radio producers from twenty-five radio stations in sixteen states produced content in ten languages, exemplifying participation as the key to good governance. Participation also leads to more accountable and responsive authorities. The voter education initiative under the Festival of Democracy provided for the creation of radio programs on common themes such as democracy and the value of voting, informed and ethical voting, participation of marginalized sections, and the actual procedures and processes of voting.

Mehandi and rangoli patterns were created on the theme of voting, along with rallies, group meetings, signature campaigns, and many more efforts with the aim that voters listen in and participate in the festival and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The voter education initiative in urban centers inspired young people to post “selfie” pictures showing inked fingers with a caption. This was seen in rural areas as well. But there is more to just exercising the power to vote; informed and

¹ The Festival of Democracy is a partnership between UNESCO Chair on Community Media at University of Hyderabad and Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) program of the Election Commission that invited community radio stations to build awareness around the constitutional provision of Right to Vote and the importance it has in a large democracy, in India’s case, the world’s biggest democracy.

ethical voting is what any vibrant democracy strives for. Now is the time to question whether we are on the right track.

Sharing the celebrations

Upholding transparency, an ethos of democracy, each community radio station had an account on the project management portal (http://mis.cmarch.in/) designed for the project that served as a repository of content created by each station. This enabled the stations to login to the portal from the Home page and upload documents, audio files, photographs, etc., into assigned folders.

Practitioner speaks

The Alfaz-e-Mewat team made twelve episodes on different topics, aired songs and jingles on voter education, engaged with communities, and interviewed the election commission officials at the district level to share relevant information.

Fakat Hussain, a community broadcaster who participated in the capacity building workshop and produced the content, shared, “Hume ek nagrik ka mooly to pata tha par is tarah se radio ke madhyam se loktantra mein nagrik bhaagidari ko badava dene aur voter saksharta par kaam karne ka mauka pehli baar mili. Hume loktantra ke maha tyohaar mein bad chadkar hissa lena hai.” (We knew the value of a citizen but working for enhancing citizen participation in a democracy and voter education through community radio is a welcome initiative. We should wholeheartedly participate in the festival of democracy.)

The initiatives taken by the Election Commission for voter education showed inclusion across all levels. India votes—and does so for a reason!

In the season of elections
There are actions and reactions
Wooing voters, charming them
Election speeches have no end
Voters have to come out
Cast their vote and say aloud
Our country . . .
A living example of democracy
Above cast, creed, and gender.
Let us together strengthen it.

(Arti M. Grover is program leader, Communications at S M Sehgal Foundation)

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Kalsara is a small village in Alwar block of Rajasthan with a population of 4,724 and 831 households. With little exposure and understanding about the power of self-governance, people in this village knew little about their role as members of the gram sabha. They did not realize they could lead the path to their own development.

In a needs assessment survey conducted by Sehgal Foundation in 2014, findings illustrated that panchayat members and male voters in this village used to participate in the gram sabha, but the women rarely attended. Women either did not feel the need as they did not consider their voices to be important enough, or they believed that only men are supposed to attend gram sabhas. Mahila gram sabhas were never held in this village. Most village development plans were never even approved by gram sabhas. Development work in the village was carried out at the discretion of the sarpanch and/or government officials who spent the funds directly in the villages according to their whims.

When Sehgal Foundation started working in this village in 2014, the first step was initiating the formation of a Village Information and Support Group (VISG) in the village. A VISG consists of members of village-level institutions such as panchayats, School Management Committees (SMCs) and Village Health Sanitation Water and Nutrition Committees (VHSWNCs), and key people in the village. The foundation initiated microplanning in this village in 2015 with the VISG members. Using this inclusive and participatory process, a community identifies its needs, prioritizes them, and prepares development microplans. Subsequently the gram panchayat submits the plans and proposals to the district office to access funds and implement projects, thereby undertaking village development!

In December 2015, Sehgal Foundation facilitated this process of decentralized planning by engaging with the Kalsara community to identify and prioritize the needs, find out about the history of the village, prepare social and resource maps of the village, and hold mahila gram sabhas. A gram sabha was held to prepare and approve the development plan based on needs identified. For the first time in this village, women participated in large numbers in the mahila gram sabha, and the village development plan was approved by the gram sabha, also for the first time.

The development plan was submitted to district officials, and the panchayat periodically approached the departments for the release of funds. As a result in 2016, various development works were implemented in Kalsara. Three roads were built, 184 toilets were constructed, children were enrolled in ICDS centers, roads and nallis were cleaned, veterinary services were facilitated, and two bore wells were installed. VISG members took a lead in facilitating this works and women leaders emerged during the development journey.

Kalsara is now on the path of development and becoming a model for other villages to emulate. Microplanning triggered the process and will hopefully create a ripple effect to bring about many more development initiatives in the village.

(Anjali Makhija is director, Strengthening Village-Level Institutions at Sehgal Foundation.)

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A collaborative effort by Sehgal Foundation and District Legal Services Authorities (DLSA), Nuh

Increasing legal knowledge about their rights can empower citizens to lead dignified lives as promised in the Constitution of India. In order to achieve this vision of legal empowerment, the Indian Parliament adopted the Legal Services Authorities (LSA) Act in 1987. LSA forms the basis of the three-tier system of legal aid in India, including National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), State Legal Services Authority (SLSA), and District Legal Services Authority (DLSA). Though the Indian government has rolled out many good welfare programs, the recipe for success requires effective and efficient implementation at the grassroots level. One way this can be realized is through enhancing legal empowerment through the collaboration of DLSA, regional/local law schools, civil society organizations, and gram panchayats. The Good Governance Now! (GGN) initiative, part of the Governance and Policy Advocacy program of Sehgal Foundation, creates awareness among rural communities regarding legal empowerment programs that help citizens to secure their rights as envisioned in the Constitution. DLSA has the mandate to provide free legal services to eligible citizens through Legal Care and Support Centers and organize Legal Literacy Camps and Lok Adalat (Public Court) under the Legal Services Authority Act.

Partnership paves the way

To help realize the potential of legal empowerment and develop a model replicable throughout India, Sehgal Foundation began a collaborative initiative with DLSA, Nuh, Haryana, to host legal literacy camps throughout the district. In this series, a legal literacy camp was organized at Nuh district of Haryana. The camp, titled National Labour Rights Consultation, was held at Mini Secretariat, Nuh, on June 15, 2016, under the guidance of Haryana State Legal Services Authority (HSLSA), Panchkula. The idea behind organizing such a camp was to inform rural citizens and make them aware of their rights and entitlements with specific emphasis on twenty-two key government programs ofLabour Department, Haryana, which include health insurance, financial help for marriage of children, purchase of a house, and so on. Prior to this camp, a one-day training of trainers for sixteen field staff was organized at DLSA office in Nuh. They were given information on the entitlements and requirements to get benefits under the above-mentioned government programs by the officials of the Labour Department and Secretary, DLSA. A week before the camp, the Sehgal Foundation field team mobilized the community through meetings organized in fifty villages in all the five blocks of Nuh district. Door-to-door visits were done to disseminate information about the camp such as its importance, objectives, relevance to their lives, and other logistics details.

Mr. Sunil Chauhan (Joint Secretary, HSLSA), Mr. R. K. Yadav (Additional District Session Judge), Mr. Sunil Shoeran (Chief Judicial Magistrate), Mr. Narender Singh (Chief Judicial Magistrate and Secretary, DLSA), Mr. Dinesh Shashtri (District Education Officer), Sudhir Kadyan (Additional Director, Labor Department) and sarpanches of thirty-six villages participated in the camp—a total of 939 people from various villages including 612 males and 327 females. Of the 939 participants, 569 registered their names by filling out appropriate forms and submitting necessary documents along with prescribed fee to avail their benefits under programs of the Labour Department. Basic infrastructure was set up for the convenience of the villagers. Registration stalls were set up separately for males and females. Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials were distributed including a pocket booklet of contact numbers and addresses of grievance redressal officers of government departments and a four-page pamphlet imparting information on government programs like Swachh Bharat Mission, National Food Security Act, and so on. Individual stalls were set up for sharing information related to government programs. Governance team members and volunteers staffed the stalls and shared information related to various social security programs.

For the first time, nineteen government departments—Education, Agriculture, Labour, Horticulture, Health, District Rural Development Agency, National Rural Livelihood Mission, Food and Civil Supplies, Mewat Development Agency, Animal Husbandry, and others—jointly set up stalls in the camp to disseminate information and interact with villagers. Officers from HSLSA, DLSA, and the Labour department shared information about various programs and details of helpline numbers at district and state levels. Students of Maharashtra National Law University who were interning with Sehgal Foundation during that time participated as well in the camp. They interacted with the villagers and government officials, including DLSA officials who visited the camp, and also learned about the organization of such camps. The camp provided a hands-on learning opportunity for students to interact directly with rural citizens and learn about their problems. Inspired by the success of the collaboration, students expressed willingness to replicate the same by engaging both DLSA and students of clinical legal education at their university in their areas of work in Maharashtra.

Lessons learned

Organizing legal literacy camps is no doubt crucial, but information dissemination at a half-day event is not enough. Success comes from following up on the complaints registered and applications filed through the camp and for rural citizens to access justice. This can be facilitated with the help of paralegal volunteers and legal aid clinics operated by DLSAs. Paralegal volunteers can visit the complainants to track the progress of their complaints and guide them through the documentation processes needed for accessing their rights.

The role of the gram panchayat is critical as well, because they are key stakeholders in the process of getting entitlements and mobilizing people. These local bodies have a better understanding of local issues and can help make the camp more inclusive. They may also help in follow-up and cooperate with village individuals and groups to address the gaps of service delivery within their capacities. Sarpanches and panches of villages should be invited to the DLSA institutions and law schools to help build stronger relationships.

Legal literacy camp platforms act as catalysts to help citizens engage constructively with the government and access their basic rights and entitlements, which are key for their survival and well-being. Collaborative efforts by DLSAs, law schools, civil society organizations, and gram panchayats can ensure access to justice for rural communities.

(Navneet Narwal is Program Leader, Governance and Policy Advocacy at S M Sehgal Foundation)

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Indian Elections and Gram Panchayats

Elections are the backbone of democracy. The status and roles of the gram panchayat (village council), an institution of local governance in our country, have evolved since independence. These institutions serve as a tool for communities to exercise their rights and entitlements in a democratic system. Citizens’ participation and active engagement in the electoral processes of the gram panchayat, responsible for village development, are the key indicators to assess the efficacy of a vibrant democracy. These have gained further importance with the introduction of village panchayat development plan by the rural development ministry of the central government of India, effective April 1, 2016.

Mahatma Gandhi advocated Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) as the foundation of India’s political system as they represent a decentralized form of government where each village is responsible for its own development. The importance of PRI elections is embedded in the fact that the election of able candidates as members of these institutions can ensure efficient delivery of services that can further translate into inclusive development of the nation as a whole.

Panchayats can reach where bureaucrats can’t. Each village has its own set of issues, which only the residents of the village can understand and act upon. Members of a panchayat are far more cognizant of the region-specific problems and are capable of taking a more informed decision in favor of rural residents. Moreover, local self-governance institutions act as a force to counter the dominance of any particular group or caste in a village. Hence, electing the right candidates in panchayat elections is crucial for the holistic development of a village.

The Right to Vote

Voting is the most vital aspect of participation as it gives citizens ⁱ of India the right to choose their leaders who, in turn, are expected to represent their concerns and voices at appropriate levels in government. Yet gram panchayat elections experience a number of challenges, including lack of visibility, unawareness of voters, and a nexus of influential elites and opinion leaders. A villager in a typical gram panchayat election has to vote on five to six ballot papers, i.e. mukhiya, sarpanch, panch, ward member, members of panchayat samiti, and zila parishad in India, but not much is talked about gram panchayat elections in the media. The politically active state of Bihar is no exception to this. Usually, television and other mediums of communication disseminate news on state elections six months before the election; but panchayat elections get news coverage just a month or so prior. People who vote on ballot papers remain mostly unaware about candidates’ profiles or their visions for village development. A strong nexus of local elites and an enormous circulation of money play an important and decisive role in these elections. These challenges can only be overcome with increased citizen awareness.

According to Election Commission 2014 data,² in the last general elections, 553.8 of 834.1 million Indians voted. It is alarming to note that 280.3 million people did not exercise their right to vote in the elections. This can be attributed to their lack of awareness, information, or interest; mobility constraints, and so on. Leading up to the recent gram panchayat elections, Sehgal Foundation’s Good Rural Governance program in Samastipur district of Bihar engaged with citizens to make them active drivers in their own development. The work done offers a lot to reflect upon.

Significance of voter awareness campaign at grassroots

The Gram Panchayat is the basic unit of local administration at the village level under the umbrella of PRIs, along with panchayat samiti at the block level and zila parishad at the district level. PRIs function to foster democratic participation, involve citizens in development efforts, and ease the administrative burden on the states. The representatives are elected for a five-year period. Citizens are expected to choose their best representatives; failing to do so, they will have to wait another five years until the next election.

Sehgal Foundation’s experience shows that villagers are unaware of election processes and their rights and duties about voting. Efforts by the Election Commission to generate mass awareness are often not adequate for grassroots efforts, which typically demand community meetings, focused voting awareness drives, and rallies at village level by district administration. Therefore the lack of information persists.

A never-before election awareness campaign

A week-long election awareness campaign informed citizens about their rights and duties as voters and provided them with relevant information on the May 22, 2016 elections. The campaign encouraged voters to consider a candidate’s honesty, accessibility, and commitment toward development (without giving credence to factors like caste) through area-specific community meetings and the distribution of reading material about Bihar Panchayat Election Rules.

A few days before the commencement of the campaigns, Sehgal Foundation volunteers and community leaders shared information about the venue, timing, and importance of attending voter awareness campaigns in selected villages. Other local not-for-profit organisations helped spread the word in their areas of work. Thirteen meetings were conducted in nine villages of Samastipur and Kalyanpur blocks. A total of 415 villagers attended the campaigns in which about 41 percent of the participants were female. Youth attendees helped make the campaigns successful by participating in enriching discussions.

Issues discussed, questions people asked, and people’s response

Quite a few important issues were discussed during the awareness campaigns as citizens had never before been a part of such activities. Topics were discussed such as the duties of villagers in elections, their right to vote as adult citizens of India, do’s and don’ts in elections, code of conduct (Aachar Sanhita) for elections, and the process of elections. People were keen to know more about their duties and rights as voters.

Questions were raised such as: Is it right if someone provides vehicle to the community to go to the polling booth? What if the voter’s slip is lost? Why should people vote? Is voting compulsory? Participants felt empowered as they learned more and more information about their right to vote. Rita and Champa Devi of Bedauliya village said, “We did not know where, when, or how to vote, and this information will help us in casting an informed vote in the panchayat election this time.”

Components of the campaign included electoral education on how to enrol as a voter, how to cast a vote on ballot paper, code of conduct, distribution of samples of ballot papers, and the newsletter Sushasan Patrika³, which covered the guidelines of Panchayat elections 2016 for Bihar. The newsletter was designed with the aim of helping the community understand and spread relevant information about voting rights to others in their community.

Learning – Achievements and Challenges

The campaign witnessed active participation of women and youth. Citizens from both of these sections of the population raised crucial questions to clarify their understanding of issues related to voting. Often in the past, community members have hesitated to speak up; but in all of the community-level campaigns in Samastipur, citizens were thoroughly engaged in the discussions, and the participatory approach followed in the meetings paved way for people to ask more questions. Youth, especially those who were going to cast their vote for the first time, were very curious and deeply interested to learn about details of the elections.

Villagers felt empowered and expressed their willingness to vote for the right candidates. At the same time, they helped spread the message to fellow villagers who could not attend the campaigns so others could also learn about their voting rights and duties.

In this election, the voting percentage in panchayat polls in Bihar was approximately 63 percent. However, numbers will increase further in future elections with pre-election voter awareness campaigns in addition to awareness generation and increased coverage of gram panchayat elections in the mainstream media. Campaigns such as these at the village level have an immense value in raising awareness. Though small in scale, they are effective in driving home the message more clearly.

Dissemination of voting-related information in face-to-face discussions and local newspapers can work wonders. Awareness generation is a continuous process that should be carried out from time to time, keeping in view the livelihood engagements, preferences, and priorities of the community.

Voter awareness campaigns are also an opportunity for corporate foundations, especially those primarily interested in infrastructure-related projects, to fund innovative media campaigns. The Election Commission entrusted with the task of managing elections can bank upon civil society organizations as well as corporations by using wall paintings, pamphlets with pictorial presentation, and the use of existing community radio foundations to deepen their reach in remote communities, spread voter awareness, and make the voting exercise popular. A combination of efforts to engage citizens is essential to create a more vibrant grassroots democracy.

¹ In India people from the age group of 18 and above are constitutionally entitled to vote.

² http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/SVEEP/VoterTurnoutHighlightsLokSabha2014.pdf

³Sehgal Foundation’s quarterly newsletter featuring successes and challenges related

By Navneet Narwal, Program Leader, Governance and Policy Advocacy. The author can be contacted at n.narwal@smsfoundation.org

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During the Gram Uday se Bharat Uday Abhiyaan (village self-governance campaign) held April 14–24, 2016, Sehgal Foundation data gathered from gram sabhas held in 240 gram panchayats in Mewat district, Haryana, showed that an astounding 90 percent of the villagers in 240 gram panchayats participated for the first time since gram sabha was established in 1995.[1] [2]

The Gram Uday se Bharat Uday Abhiyaan was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to generate nationwide efforts to increase social harmony across villages, strengthen panchayati raj, promote rural development, and foster farmers’ progress.

What was different about the gram sabhas in Haryana?

First, the national campaign launched by the prime minister sent out the message that gram sabhas are important institutions for village development. Second, the central and state governments reached out in mass media, including newspapers, television, and radio, urging citizens to participate in large numbers. Third, the state government in Haryana asked the district administration to prepare a schedule of gram sabha meetings and allocated responsibility to government officers across departments to be present in the meetings. Finally, and key to success, the people felt the seriousness of the state government in facilitating gram sabhas, hence they participated in large numbers.

Because many people do not know the meaning and importance of gram sabha, panchayat secretaries, sarpanches (elected village heads), National Rural Livelihood Mission staff, Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), anganwadi (government preschool daycare) workers, and Sehgal Foundation together carried out a huge mobilization drive. Door-to-door visits, alerts spread through village chowkidars, and announcements on masjid (mosque) loudspeakers encouraged people to participate in the meetings. Community radio Alfaz-e-Mewat, which broadcasts to about 200 villages in Mewat, aired daily messages on Dr. Ambedkar’s philosophy and information on the Gram Uday campaign for ten days. The radio then covered the gram sabhas live from fourteen villages.

The campaign witnessed the use of many conventional and unconventional methods to bring people to gram sabha to see something they had not seen before. In some gram panchayats, such as Marora, Nagina block, where people were not gathering despite mobilization efforts, the sarpanch offered refreshing enticements. Riding on his motorcycle, carrying sweets and cold drinks, he announced that if villagers wanted sweets and cold drinks, they should come to the meeting. In Sultanpur gram panchayat, Nagina block, the sarpanch called upon the music and dance group of the public relations department to gather people.

In the gram sabha, panchayat secretaries and government officers explained the importance of gram sabha. Government officers and bank representatives present in a number of the gram sabhas in Nuh, Nagina, and Tauru block, made villagers aware of key government programs for entitlements and Jan Dhan Yojana (Prime minister’s program for financial inclusion) and Bima programs (prime minister’s programs for accident and life insurance).

Villagers were asked to share their concerns or problems, which were then listed in the resolutions of the gram sabha. In a number of gram sabhas, villagers identified poor roads, shortage of drinking water, waste management, requirement of toilets, non-payment under Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awas Yojana (rural housing program), inclusion in below poverty line list, raising the boundary wall of cremation grounds, and the appointment of school teachers. All these issues were written down in gram sabha resolutions.

Sarpanches, panchayat secretaries, and panches (elected members of village councils) played an active role in the peaceful conduct of the gram sabhas. People and panchayat members who belonged to groups opposed to the present sarpanches did not come to gram sabha, which also helped in warding off conflict. About 40 percent of panchayat members were absent in 240 gram sabhas. In a number of places where government officers were not present, panchayat secretaries moved the blank gram sabha register for signatures of villagers, which villagers protested. In many gram sabhas, educated panches insisted on reading resolutions before signing in the gram sabha registers. Those gram panchayats with educated sarpanches showed more inclination to organize gram sabha and orient people on government programs. The newly enacted rule for advancement in the education criteria for panchayat elections in Haryana had begun to make a difference in the management of gram sabhas even in Mewat.[3]

Villagers were pleasantly surprised with the transparency of open discussion and writing of resolutions, which they had not seen before in gram sabha proceedings. In the past, gram sabhas were often held in the home of a sarpanch behind closed doors, gram sabha registers were moved from house to house for signatures of panches and villagers, and then the resolutions were written down.

Besides the hits, what were the misses in the ten-day campaign?

Sarpanch patis (husbands of women sarpanches) and Sarpanch pitas (fathers of sarpanches) did not permit their wives, daughters, and sons respectively, to speak in the gram sabhas. This illustrates the need for regular capacity building of newly elected representatives and providing them with opportunities to speak in gram sabhas to enable them to overcome societal and cultural constraints. Kalawari gram sabha, Tauru witnessed social constraint when a large number of villagers refused to come to the meeting because the sarpanch belonged to a scheduled caste; however, that sarpanch showed his competency to conduct a successful gram sabha. But in several gram sabhas, scheduled caste sarpanches, panches, and community members could not express themselves, and their demands for development went unlisted in gram sabha resolutions. Even educated women and youth who were elected as sarpanches and panches were found sitting quietly on the floor in. Government officers and Sehgal Foundation staff intervened to provide them with chairs and provided the opportunity for them to share their ideas on village development.

Participation by women in gram sabhas was just 30 percent. In most of the gram sabhas, women sat in a distant corner and remained quiet. In places where women did share their concerns, those concerns were not included in the gram sabha resolutions due lack of support from other men and women. A ray of hope was shown when women of Rathiwas gram sabha, Tauru, managed to not only pass a resolution for removal of a liquor shop in their village but also met the deputy commissioner the following day to request action on the gram sabha resolution.

Absence of government officers in gram sabhas of farther blocks of Mewat—Punhana and Jhirka—25–35 kms from district headquarters disappointed villagers. They felt neglected and thought that their gram sabha resolutions would not be acted upon by the district administration. Another constraint that affected participation was the scheduled timing of gram sabhas at 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. People felt that 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. would have been more suitable for organizing gram sabhas in view of working hours.

Looking ahead . . .

Despite the challenges, villagers were quite satisfied that the work of new gram panchayats in Haryana started on a positive note and they have been able to identify their development priorities in gram sabha resolutions.

There is huge merit in the platform of the gram sabha that ably connects villagers to government officers. The first-ever campaign of its kind has been a top-down process largely run by the political will of central and state governments, but continuing gram sabhas over a period of one to two years holds huge potential in making it a bottom-up process in the gram panchayats, as people start pressuring sarpanches and panchayat members to hold regular gram sabhas. The next steps for every sarpanch and panchayat secretary and district administration are to consider and act on the resolutions. Action taken must be reported back to villagers in the next gram sabha to keep citizens interested in the functioning of gram panchayats.

The noble beginning made under the Gram Uday Se Bharat Uday Abhiyaan will only reap results if pursued with unrelenting commitment and will to make panchayats the genuine third tier of local government structure in the country.

Dr. Vikas Jha is Director, Governance and Policy Advocacy, Sehgal Foundation. He can be reached at: v.jha@smsfoundation.org

[1] After the 73^rd amendment to the Constitution established panchayati raj institutions, the first election was held in 1995 and gram sabhas began thereafter. Gram panchayats (village councils) are required to hold four gram sabhas (village general body meetings) each year according to recent notifications under Haryana Panchayati Raj Rules.

[2] Sehgal Foundation’s Sushasan Abhi (Good Governance Now!) initiative engages citizens to be informed and active participants in their own development. Foundation field staff present in 240 gram sabhas played a crucial role in mobilizing approximately 32,000 villagers to participate in gram sabhas across five blocks in Mewat.

[3] Haryana Panchayati Raj Amendment Act 2015 brought minimum educational qualifications for eligibility to contest in panchayat elections.

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Do you know about social welfare laws in India? Knowledge about entitlements from social welfare programs opens doors for people in economic need.  The programs provide a vital safety net for those who know how to claim them.

Who is responsible for reaching out to the disadvantaged with this valuable information?

Legal services authorities (LSAs), active at the district and local level, are duty-bound to spread the word about social welfare programs to the people whom the programs are designed to benefit.  A judge heads the LSA, lawyers provide advice, and paralegal volunteers reach out to the community. Law students and NGOs may assist in the collaboration. People can seek help during weekly LSA office hours, at legal literacy camps, through hotlines, and at trainings in communities and schools.

To mobilize LSAs to address poverty alleviation in their districts, the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) launched in 2015 a specific program for the “Effective Implementation of Poverty Alleviation Schemes.” The state LSAs oversee the plans for their jurisdictions.

Mitigating poverty requires that people have access to basic services, including water, sanitation, healthcare, and education. Other help needed may include housing and livelihood, redress for discrimination and social exclusion, and meeting the specific legal needs of women. LSAs survey communities to assess local conditions and legal issues. By working with communities to raise awareness of rights and entitlements under social welfare program, LSAs help people lead more dignified lives with hope for the future.

Each of us would benefit from knowing what LSAs are doing to alleviate poverty in our own areas, so that we can use that knowledge to help our neighbors.  While news and website reports of law school and LSA work typically cover outreach and awareness building, little information is available on successful outcomes for individuals in securing social welfare benefits.  More must be done to inform the public of the results of legal aid efforts.

Law schools and LSAs should post their outreach and results regularly on their websites to educate the public and allow discussion and review.  Have the law schools done enough in their backyards (urban slums or villages) and taken issues to appropriate forums? What improvements in social welfare benefits delivery have LSAs achieved?

Proper implementation of social welfare schemes is the need of the hour, as NALSA’s 2015 directive underscores.  The public should be able to track the progress being made in poverty alleviation.  The next step for law schools and LSAs is to move beyond reporting on outreach and awareness efforts and report the good results of their work on social welfare delivery. All stakeholders will learn from the sharing of best practices.

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Mewat district in Haryana, India, has remained undeveloped for a long time. The footsteps of change have set in with the women of village institutions in Mewat forming block-level sangathans (women’s collectives). They include members of School Management Committee (SMC), Village Health, Sanitation and Nutrition Committee (VHSNC), and panchayats (village councils). The aim of sangathans is to speed up the development process in the local communities. They take up the responsibility to improve existing governance situation with the collective efforts of its members.

In the short span of four months, the sangathans in Mewat have made few pertinent services available to villagers. For instance, sangathan women have revived a VHSNC and utilized its funds to undertake activities related to sanitation in the village. Other sangathan women were instrumental in getting roads constructed and restoring the electricity supply in villages.

There are many such results to the credit of sangathans in Mewat. The collaborative effort of sangathan women is an effect of the trainings provided by Sehgal Foundation.

With an aim to highlight the achievements of sangathan women and provide them a platform to interact with government officials, Sehgal Foundation organized an interface workshop in December 2014. Deputy Commissioner of Mewat Ashok Sangwan and Civil Surgeon Dr B K Rajora attended the workshop. They interacted with the women and inspired them to work harder toward community development.

The government officials shared some health-related good practices with the women, such as eating a balanced diet, and discussed the importance of toilets. They motivated the women to avail benefits under Swachh Bharat Mission (sanitation program) and Janani Suraksha Yojna (scheme for women welfare).

The interface workshop served as a tool to increase confidence among women and motivate them to work collaboratively to solve community issues and lay a development roadmap for their village.

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Good governance at the grassroots has new momentum in India with the announcement of Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), the Member of Parliament Model Village Program. The objectives of SAGY are “to trigger processes which lead to holistic development of identified Gram Panchayats (GPs), to substantially improve the standard and quality of life of all sections of the population . . . to generate models of local level development and effective local governance . . . , and to nurture the identified Adarsh Grams as schools of local development for the other Gram Panchayats.” Social components of SAGY emphasize good governance, and SAGY guidelines list a number of related activities. Key among them are “strengthening of local democracy through strong and accountable Gram Panchayats and active Gram Sabhas, e–governance for better service delivery, Unique Identity Authority of India (“UIDAI” or “Aadhaar”) cards for all, proactive disclosure of all information, the role of a Gram Panchayat as an information facilitation center, grievance redressal at the Gram Panchayat level, and social audit of government program implemented by Gram Sabha.”

Rural India is getting ready for implementation of SAGY in 795 Gram Panchayats (GPs) in first phase and it will cover 2385 GPs by 2019 as one Member of Parliament adopts 3 GPs in his / her tenure of 5 years. These GPs will receive full support from district administration, state government, and central government. The rest of the 2,50,804 GPs (appx. 2.5 lakhs), where SAGY is not being implemented, will need adequate functions, funds, and functionaries (3 Fs) to replicate SAGY in the future. However, devolution of the 3 Fs to GPs will be difficult to achieve as the majority of state level political leaders do not want independent units of governance at GP level. They fear that giving 3 Fs to GPs will decrease the importance of state-level political leaders. Thus, the devolution of power to GPs is caught in the complex politics of power struggles between various levels of political leaders. Unless state leadership shows political statesmanship like that of leaders of Kerala, 2.5 lakhs GPs will never have enough resources or 3 Fs support to replicate SAGY in their GPs.

The elephant in the room is the larger question of how good governance can be taken to the villagers living in the other 2.5 lakhs GPs of India. The implementation of good governance activities detailed in SAGY guidelines in the 5,564 administrative blocks of India can be the starting point. For example, in Mewat district, Haryana, one of poorest pockets of India, line department block offices are understaffed, marked by high level of absenteeism, and nonresponsive to villagers. With poor infrastructural facilities, they can hardly serve as important nodal office at the block level. As a result, villagers queue up before Deputy Commissioner’s office even for grievances such as electricity transformer repair, nondelivery of Public Distribution System items, nonpayment for toilets under Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, and other public services that are the responsibility of line departments. It leads to tremendous loss of time and money of villagers and loss of resources of the Deputy Commissioner, who spends a large amount of time listening to demands of nondelivery of services.

For facilitating good governance at the grassroots, state governments should seriously think of reforming block level offices. The block level offices should have the necessary presence of state apparatus to create facilities of e-governance for better service delivery; information centers, resource planning and support centers for Gram Panchayats; effective grievance redressal mechanisms; and electronic monitoring, such as cameras and biometric systems for attendance. All the facilities for service delivery, information about government program and grievance redressal should be on single windows so that the system efficiently provides public services rather than leaving villagers at the mercy of absent, nonresponsive, and unaccountable departmental staff.

While the block offices will continue to be an important point of interaction with the villagers, another way to promote good governance in GPs not covered in the first phase of SAGY is through an information technology-based good governance platform that solves basic service-related complaints, serves as information provider, proactively discloses public data, and gives spaces for monitoring of and suggestions on functioning of programs. These are essentials for providing good governance in all the GPs. Government of Karnataka’s multimode mobile governance platform, for example, has the potential to provide a good model for fulfilling these essentials of good governance. Through this initiative, citizens can access 4,500 services, both private and public. Citizens can dial 161 or *161# to access Mobile One services to reach a platform to pay utility bills and property tax, or apply for a driving license, among other government transactions.

This multimode mobile governance platform offers great hope for rural India as it brings governance to the public’s fingertips. Information about this platform should be spread to rural India through vernacular newspapers, wall paintings, community-based organization, NGOs, and community radios. The initiative has potential to bridge the digital divide in India as services are available on mobile as well as apps. It will be interesting to see how this initiative goes beyond efficient delivery of public services to proactive disclosure of public data and provision of space for citizen participation and monitoring. The combination of all these actions can lead to transparency and accountability in governance.

It is good that SAGY has begun in selected Gram Panchayats. As for the rest of 2.5 lakhs GPs, reforming block level offices and establishing a multimode mobile governance platform in every state should be high priorities on the government’s agenda for ensuring good governance at the grassroots.

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“The Charter of the United Nations begins with recognition of the importance of respect for, protection of,and promotion of human rights as necessary conditions for the establishment of international peace and security and for the promotion of social progress and improved living standards for everyone.” (UNDP Training Manual on Human Rights and Sustainable Human Development, p. 3).

On the eve of Human Rights Day, December 10, 2015, community-based organizations and NGOs, such as Sehgal Foundation, analyze how their work promotes social progress and improvement in living standards for the poor. At the same time, we should also reflect on how policy interventions of Government of India and State Government are protecting human rights through social welfare policies and access to information.

Community-based organizations across India play crucial roles in generating awareness within communities of their rights and entitlements, and help marginalized people develop the confidence to state their issues to government, often in conflict with the vested interests of the socioeconomic elite in their communities. When hundreds of community-based organizations join together for a cause, they take up the form of a movement such as Ekta Parisad for protecting the rights of tribals, and National Alliance of People’s Movement for protecting the land of marginalized people. Such movements not only make people aware of their rights but also help them take their issues to the appropriate level of government.

Sehgal Foundation has helped to create citizen leadership, empower village institutions, manage water, and develop agriculture in selected areas in the districts of Mewat, Haryana, Alwar, Rajasthan and Samastipur, Bihar. In the last 15 years, as many as 500,000 villagers have benefited from its rural interventions. Similarly, NGOs such as Pradan, Care India, and Development Alternatives have played important roles in promoting social progress and raising rural people’s standard of living.

While community-based organizations and NGOs continue to work for people’s welfare, they also serve a critical role in monitoring government’s social welfare programs. In the last six months, they have raised concerns about the pruning of the MGNREGA budget and non-functionality of the Right to Information Act. The Government of India plans for MGNREGA to target the 200 poorest districts or 2,500 poorest blocks, to check pilferage of money from the scheme. While better targeting of districts is advisable, other methods are available for controlling pilferage in social welfare schemes, such as Andhra Pradesh’s Smart Card for payment in MGNREGA. A more effective system for monitoring work and payments is required.

There is room for substantial improvement in the Right to Information (RTI) system at the point of providing information and the handling of appeals. Public Information Officers (PIOs) and State Information Commission (SIC) function poorly. In Mewat district, RTI applicants report that PIOs at thedistrict and block level do not provide information on time or give complete responses, in violation oforders of the SIC. The RTI Assessment and Advocacy Group Report 2014 does not project a positive picture of access to information under RTI in India. Implementation of this Act, which has the potential of ushering transparency and accountability in governance, is undermined by serious bottlenecks. The Act’spromise of providing free access of information to all people, the key principle of human rights, fails to be achieved.

On Human Rights Day, we must review what has worked well in the last year and identify areas which need improvement in the coming year. Rural development interventions should rightly be seen through the framework of protecting and promoting human rights so that people can live with the dignity that the laws were designed to ensure.

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In the month of May when Indian summer is at its peak, over 600 villagers from Didhara and nearby villages flocked at a camp put up by S M Sehgal Foundation. The camp—Legal Literacy Camp—was put up to spread information on programs sponsored by central government. Foundation staff facilitated discussions and recorded the problems of villagers, relating to ineffective delivery of services. The villagers sought information and looked for the ways to get entitlements.

The camp provided information on Right to Education, National Food Security Act, Right to Information, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), Integrated Child Development Services, Mid Day Meal, pension schemes (Old age and widow), and Panchayati Raj Institutions. In addition, it facilitated the process of seeking legal assistance by writing applications and complaints on behalf of villagers to make public services accessible to all. The camp further provided an opportunity for villagers to interact with government officials from various departments, besides elected representatives from nearby villages.

Government officials from agriculture, health, and other departments also participated in the discussions. Sarpanch (village council head) from Didhara and two nearby villages addressed the queries of villagers and verified their pension applications on the spot. Making it an ideal village governance model, the legal literacy camp at Didhara did a commendable job in inching closer to empowering local communities in Mewat district of Haryana.

The camp provided adequate knowledge and information about the rights and entitlements under the various centrally sponsored government programs. The efforts gained prominence under the light that “About 70% of the people in India live in rural areas and most of them are illiterate. A substantial number of people are not aware of their rights conferred by law… It is this absence of legal awareness which is responsible for deception, exploitation, and deprivation of rights and benefits, making people suffer in Haryana. The miserable condition in which the people find themselves can be alleviated to some extent by creating legal awareness among people.“ – Haryana Legal Services Authority.

“Lack of awareness on legal and constitutional rights and entitlements, as well as the existing accountability mechanisms is a major bottleneck responsible for the cobweb of poverty in which the rural citizens are wedged. The poor conditions to which they are subjected stem from ineffective delivery of services as well as the existing layers of corruption that affect of rural India. Sehgal Foundation organizes legal literacy camps under its Good Governance Now (Sushashan Abhi) program. Under this, we reach out to citizen groups, who are in dire need of legal awareness to know their rights and entitlements, and to solve local problems,” said Navneet Narwal, Program Leader– Governance and Policy Advocacy, Sehgal Foundation.

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