The Meaning of Politics
The political process can enable or inhibit development. The word politics “comes from the Greek word ‘politica’, moderated on
Aristotle’s ‘Affairs of State’ the name of his book on governing and government
written in Latin and translated in English in mid fifteenth century.
Politics is the art as well as science of government. It consists of
social relations involving authority of power. It is a process by which groups
of people make collective decisions and is not restricted to behavior within
civil governments alone. Politics has been observed in all group interaction
including corporate, academic and religious institutions.
In other words, political institution express and embody the wisdom of
the people of the time and the route to good political and social institution
is by deepening of wisdom and by broadening of vision.
Understanding Development
Development is an act or process, a step or stage in growth, progress,
advancement. It is a relative term and is comparable to different countries,
different sectors, different time periods.
The scope of development is vast and all encompassing – social,
economic, industrial, technological and so on. However, development is strongly
linked to economic growth and advancement because it is evident that economic
growth usually leads to other types of development.
Development practitioners and experts have evolved different indicators
for measurement of sector wise development, for example, increase in annual GDP
is an indicator of the economic growth of a country. Literacy level among women
is considered as an indicator of social development.
Basing on the frequently found difference in development between urban
and rural areas, development is also commonly understood as rural development,
i.e. the status of development in rural areas of a country. Rural development
implies both economic betterment of people as well as greater social
transformation.
Indicators of Development
By consensus, the international community has accepted the following
five as the indicators of development:
- Literacy, education, and skills
- Health: life expectancy, maternal and infant mortality, quality of life, and the levels of health care available in situations of morbidity
- Income and economic welfare: high levels of employment, high per capita incomes, and increased gross national product, with appropriate corrections for environmental protection and for income equity
- Choice, democracy, and participation
- Technology: the capacity to develop technological innovations and to make technological choices)
Background
Kanpur is a typical
Indian village. It comes under Nakichua Gram Panchayat of Rasgobindpur Block of Mayurbhanj district
of Odisha. About 58% of the population in the villages is tribals. The village
is situated at the fringe of Similipal Biosphere and is surrounded by reserve
forest. Minor forest produce and wage earning on daily basis are the main
source of livelihood for the tribals.
Evidence suggests connectivity leads to economic development; however
that has not been the case for Nakichhua GP. Here, the community is languishing
in poverty, low literacy and other characteristics of backwardness. Distress
migration and distress sale of forest products are regular affairs. Local trade
and commerce is mainly controlled by outsiders.
An analysis of the politico development of Nakichua reveals there has not
been visible development in the gram panchayat. It is a fallacy that the people
of the gram panchayat are relatively more educated and closer to developed
regions but the development in their own area is much less than expected.
Kanpur is the revenue village with two hamlet villages. Nibas sahi is the
tribal and dalit dominated hamlet and the other hamlet known as Kanpur is the
upper class dominated hamlet. Development projects sanctioned to the village is
always implemented in the upper caste dominated hamlet. But in the official
record, it is reflected against Kanpur revenue village. While the Kanpur hamlet
has electricity, piped drinking water, pucca internal road, community hall etc,
Nibas Sahi, the other hamlet continues to remain in darkness.
Implementation of Government Programmes
In the village, the development projects are never implemented as per the
scheme objectives and guidelines. Since the last 6 years, one NGO initiated
some activities in the village commencing with the youth club. Initially,
people from different caste and economic groups resisted the initiative as the
mooted idea by the NGO did not confound to their local intra-community groupism
and pettiness. It went through ups and downs often conflict among youth from
different caste and economic groups. However, it seemed to catch the imagination
of people from all sections despite of nasty politics by the various political
party leaders at the gram panchayat or block level.
Malfunctioning of Village level Democratic bodies
In 2007, a gram sabha
meeting ended mid way with fight and bloodshed between two factions of the
community having support from two rival political parties. On paper, gram
sabhas are held as per provisions, but villagers can hardly recall when they
attended a gram sabha meeting for the last. The prevailing situation created by
the local political parties doesn’t allow a villager to enjoy the
constitutional right to exercise his choice and participate in development
decision making process.
In connivance with
the Block Chairman and other elected PRI members, BDO and engineers at the
block level are only interested in cornering the contracts issued by the block
office for infrastructure development of the local area under various
government schemes- NREGS, Bharat Nirman, Indira Awas, Watershed Development
and others. The need and priority are never looked into while sanctioning the
work as the decision depends on other factors- which community group that the
political party that wills the power will decide all implementation related
matters. In such a situation, how an aam
aadmi could expect benefit or justice?
PRIs are political bastions
Legally, the lower
two tiers under Panchayat Raj system are apolitical. Panchayat elections are
naturally fought without party lines or party symbols Panchayat elections are
supposed to be free from any influence, be it political parties, muscle power,
money power and so on. But, in reality, the political parties select candidates
to contest the gram panchayat and panchayat samiti election. Political parties
bring out victory processions after declaration of panchayat election results.
There is no effort
from any quarter to clean the system or ensure that panchayat raj institutions
remain apolitical. Perhaps, the civil society organizations are too scared to
fight for the cause.
Continuous denial of justice has caused disinterest among the common villagers to participate in the process
Presence
of muscle power and money power and the nexus among the local politician, PRI
office bearer, business community and government officials has left no room for
the common and the poor to get their right and/or justice. Those not belonging
to such nexus and coterie has lost interest in the process of local self
governance, participatory development decision making. Village level to
district level development planning exercise has become totally a farce. What
people desire is not planned. What the powerful within the community decide has
been sanctioned. The concept of ‘Equity’
and ‘Right’ exists in the planning commission and the constitutional
document.
