Kerala's Success Story
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Monday, May 24, 1999
Kerala's success story
By George Mathew
AN OUTSTANDING achievement of the Left Democratic Front Government in
Kerala is the people's plan which is entering its third year. This
unique programme to strengthen decentralisation through the local
bodies is no more an experiment; it has become an integral part of
people's lives in 990 village panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14
district panchayats, 55 municipalities and three corporations. This
initiative giving power to the people has attracted national and
international attention. A World Bank mission which visited the State
recently writes: ``Kerala's decentralisation programme is probably the
largest of its kind in the world. Three million people (10 per cent of
the State's population) take part in meetings. This is a far-reaching,
innovative and courageous new approach to rural development and local
governance... It reflects a profound commitment to a total change in
which governments govern to empower disadvantaged groups to voice their
demands, and to make institutions responsible and accountable to
them.''
Ensuring the maximum participation of the people to discuss local
development problems and governance issues is the hallmark of the
movement. Ward conventions and grama sabhas are convened on holidays
and volunteers visit households to explain the programme; mass
organisations hold preparatory meetings; a vigorous propaganda is
undertaken using posters, banners and media advertisements. About 2.4
million people participated in the meetings in the first year.
The seeds of this historic experiment were sown in a small panchayat -
Kalyasseri in Kannur district - by mobilising volunteers in 1991 for
resource mapping and a socio-economic survey there. This initiative of
the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad had four components: seminars and
study, planning, action and organisation. After five years, in 1996
when the LDF Government came to power, Kalyasseri showed the way.
The people's campaign rests on eight pillars: functional, financial and
administrative autonomy; subsidiarity (what can be done best at a
particular level should be done at that level and not at a higher
level; all that can optimally be done at the lowest level should be
reserved to that level; only the residuary should be passed on to the
higher levels); role clarity; complementarity (the functions of
different tiers should not overlap); uniformity of norms and rules;
maximum direct participation of the people; accountability (continuous
social auditing of performance) and transparency through the right to
information.
The people's plan has several unique features, the autonomy granted to
the local bodies to determine their priorities being the most
important. During 1997-98 the total resource devolved without Centrally-
sponsored schemes was Rs. 1,025 crores and of it, Rs. 749 crores was in
terms of grant-in-aid or untied fund. During 1998-99, it rose to Rs.
1,178 crores and the grant in-aid was Rs. 949 crores. For the first
time in the country such a high percentage was given as grant-in-aid.
A comprehensive area plan prepared by each local body is the key to
getting the grant-in-aid. In the first year (1996-97), Rs. 212 crores
was provided to the local bodies as untied fund to ``initiate the
preparation and implementation of a local-level, need-based plan
programme for development.'' But then no plan was prepared and funds
were divided equally among ward members for various works, mostly
roads. Breaking with this tradition and mindset was a challenge. The
people's campaign faced this challenge successfully. Today, there are
comprehensive area plans for all panchayats; grant in-aid is integrated
with the State and Centrally-sponsored schemes and the revenue surplus
of the local bodies. It is supplemented with resources mobilised though
loans, voluntary labour and donations. It is only in Kerala, that
panchayats and municipalities are entrusted with preparing
comprehensive area plans.
Kerala is doing away with district schemes. In West Bengal and
Karnataka decentralised planning was first linked to local self-
government institutions. But even in these States, bureaucratic
traditions persisted, district schemes dominated and non-official roles
were restricted. In Kerala also, in the past, 15-30 per cent of the
annual plan outlay was for district-level schemes. Today, the
devolution of about 40 per cent of the outlay to the panchayats as
``untied funds'' indicates that soon the Government would confine
itself to State-level schemes.
Total transparency is the only way to check the danger of
decentralisation degenerating into decentralisation of corruption. All
documents on beneficiary selection, reports and minutes of meetings and
all documents on works undertaken by the local bodies through
contractors and beneficiary committees including bills and vouchers are
public documents. Copies are available on payment of a fee. Essential
facts about any public work are exhibited in simple language at the
work site.
There was severe criticism of the people's plan in the media and by
political parties. Much of it was about corruption, the corrupt
practices of officials in the panchayats as well as the contractor-
politician nexus. Allegations were raised in grama sabhas and in the
local newspapers. All these have acted as a deterrent against
corruption. The complaints declined considerably at the end of the
second year. Earlier, there was dissatisfaction galore with the quality
of projects, irregularities in implementation and nepotism. The
implementation of several projects led to a severe scarcity of inputs.
Bunching of the projects at the fag-end of the year gave them high
visibility and rendered them targets of ridicule.
The avalanche of criticism especially by the LDF partner, CPI, has
taken some sheen out of the programme. It also discourages experts who
volunteered their services in the preparation of plans. In 14
districts, more than 4,000 senior retired officials were involved in
the plan preparations. Instead of encouraging the participation of such
experts, the controversies dampened their enthusiasm. However, on the
other side, the criticism could also be seen as a sign of success in
introducing transparency in development administration.
Thiruvananthapuram district with a tradition of corrupt practices,
according to sources, has become a corruption-free district.
The people's plan began with a campaign, it moved on to become an
experiment and now it is a movement. The biggest challenge before the
panchayats is how to institutionalise the new values of this movement.
What are the priorities for the third year? The people's plan campaign
cell on the State Planning Board lists six - Shelter for all: - about
70,000 houses will be built in two years. Rs. 35,000 will be the
contribution from the panchayats through the plan funds; safe drinking
water source for everybody within 200 metres; total sanitation;
improvement of primary and high school education as well as the health
care system; a substantial increase in the production of vegetables and
construction of model buildings for every anganawadi.
Dr. Thomas Isaac, member of the State Planning Board, expects that
about 500 model panchayats would come up at the end of the third year
(now there are 100). What are the criteria for evaluation? Innovative
programmes, high-level of participation and transparency. As things
stand, every panchayat is competing for a better place, for the
people's plan has created a new culture and a new ethos of people's
participation in decentralised planning in Kerala.
(The writer is Director, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi.)
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