Changing Framework of Local Governance and Community Participation in Elementary Education in India

In recent years, strengthening and better functioning of local governance have become prime concerns of educational reform agenda. Establishment of effective local governance has been part of overall changes in educational governance for several years in many countries including India. It is now widely recognized that effective local governance considerably impacts on access to education as well as the enrolment, retention and learning experiences of children in school. It is in this context, that this paper provides an overview of the changing framework of governance of elementary education and community participation in India with a special focus on its role in improving the participation of children. An attempt has also been made to examine the extent to which grassroots level functionaries and local bodies like panchayat and VEC are able to get involved in decision making processes and different approaches that have been taken by different states in regards to local governance of education. Drawing references from recent efforts made by different states, the paper has tried to establish a link between effectiveness of local governance and issues regarding access, equity and quality of school education. While discussing the changing framework of local governance, the paper critically examines the guiding principles of governance reform from two perspectives. ‘Top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches are discussed, in terms of ensuring the effectiveness of the system and empowering people for active participation in decentralized decision making process

E-government in the making: socio-economic development in the Akshaya project

This paper discusses the Akshaya E-Government project. The paper uses general concepts borrowed from actor network theory to discuss the ongoing negotiation that shapes E-Government projects. We aim at shedding light on the importance of the dynamic interactions that shape the impact of ICT on government polices. In particular, we show that the nature of the service delivered and the socioeconomical development supported by the project are constantly shaped by the negotiation that occurs among the different actors involved and the consequent changes the project itself experiences. We therefore suggest to study e-Government in its making and not as results of planned action and sequential evolutionary phases

Gender responsive budgeting and fiscal decentralisation in India: A preliminary appraisal.

Fiscal decentralisation ; Gender

Assessing Opportunities for Livelihood Enhancement and Diversification in Coastal Fishing Communities of Southern India

"The United Nations Team for Tsunami Recovery Support (UNTRS) based in Chennai,India, is facilitating the process of tsunami recovery in the region through specific interventions in strategic areas. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of United Nations (FAO) as a part of the UNTRS team aims to set clear directions to ensure sustainable livelihoods for fishers. It has a pro-poor focus. With the fisheries sector suffering from both over-capitalization and resource depletion, the livelihoods of poor fishers and fisherfolk communities have been badly hit, and the tsunami has aggravated their misery. While relief measures have helped, what's essential for the long term is to improve livelihood opportunities. They need to be enhanced and diversified. Many development interventions have been attempted. But what's needed is a viable people-centric approach that taps the strengths of coastal fisheries and draws on them. Hence this study on ""Assessing opportunities for livelihood enhancement and diversification in coastal fishing communities of southern India."" carried out by Integrated Coastal Management, Kakinada. The study covers tsunami-affected areas in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The study has analysed a number of inherent strategies of the fishers to enhance and diversify livelihoods, both past and present. It has come out with a planning framework for livelihoods enhancement and diversification. Stakeholders in fisheries can make use of the framework, validate its usefulness, and decide and further develop appropriate tool box. They may then spell out the support and co-operation necessary from other stakeholders.

SAMUDRA Report No. 53, July 2009

(PDF contains 56 pages

Evolution of Social Security in the Lap of Public Action: Recounting the Experience of Kerala

This paper is part of a large study on the Social Protection in Rural India and China. In this paper, we attempt at a critical appraisal of the historical development and experience of social security initiatives in Kerala, India. We situate the development experience of Kerala in a conceptual framework of participatory development, which we interpret in a broad context of organization and mobilization of people at specific junctures of historical progress of a society. Thus participatory development, in our view is participation in the progressive process of realization of human rights and thus in development; that is, public action, with an effective public demand and a wiling public supply, conditioned by the legitimate function of the state. It is also attempted to categorize the on-going social security schemes according to the definitional framework of our study, that is, in terms of the definitional division of social security into basic and contingent social security.Social security; Kerala; development; contingency

A State of the Art of Self Help Groups in India

This paper considers the strategies of self help group for micro-enterprise development in rural areas. It seeks to answer the question of whether and under which conditions self help groups are an effective vehicle for organizing and representing local people in the development of community based micro-enterprises. Focusing particularly on examples from India in the context of food as a local resource, special attention is paid to success and failure factors of self help groups. While self help group strategies have been applied in the past as a blind replication of success models without considering the intricacies involved in group formation, success of self help groups is based on a thorough understanding of local conditions and possibilities to intervene

STRENGTHENING DECENTRALIZATION - Augmenting the Consolidated Fund of the states by th Thirteenth Finacnce Commission: A NORMATIVE APPROACH

One of the terms of reference of the Thirteenth Finance Commission (ThFC) calls upon the Finance Commission to look at ‘Measures needed to augment the consolidated fund of a State to supplement the resources of the Panchayats and Municipalities in the State on the basis of the recommendations made by the Finance Commission of the State’. In view of this, the present study examines issues related to fiscal federalism at the third tier in general and grants to local bodies in particular. It is well documented in the literature that the state of finances of local bodies, both urban and rural, displays a dismal picture in India. In contrast, the finances of the Central and State Governments are on a healthier track with the implementation of the rule based fiscal framework. The study opines that there is a need to fine tune the micro design of grants for local bodies (both urban and local) and their devolution across the States.