Community Participation

As participation continues to be the most urgently felt need in all development initiatives, it will not be out of place to pause and loot at the way some concepts linked in one way or the other to participation have been operationalised in the past. This should then serve to guide future efforts and introduce corrective measures where one seems to be deviating from the main goal of integrating popular participation with development.

Although participation in any development process is seen as an essential element by most agencies initiating a project, it is still far from being an integral part of such projects, especially those being implemented by the government. This is reflected in the time and funds allocated for popular participation. It is still seen as payment of wages for any activity taken up by people. This is one extreme form on enlisting participation.

Another extreme is reflected in the recently published guidelines by the Ministry of Rural Development for watershed management to be taken up at the district level. The guidelines, while respecting the spirit of participation, may not be able to achieve the desired result because while enumerating the operational aspects, they become top-down again. For instance, the guidelines state how to form a Water Users Organisation, wherein it is specified what percent should be voluntary labour, how a common fund should be formed etc. since funding depends on adhering to these guidelines, it will not be wrong to assume that all future watershed projects will have the same local institutional structure with no space for flexibility, adjustment to changed ground conditions, or enable a new institutional arrangement to emerge. This brings us to the second issue of concern, namely the role of ‘models’ or ‘success cases’ in participatory development initiatives.

The demonstration effect of ‘models’ notwithstanding, we find that many development agencies tend to concentrate on a single model as being applicable to all future initiatives in a given area. This approach has certain inherent dangers. One needs to remember that a ‘model is important because it helps us understand the underlying principles of participatory development , demonstrates the capability of local communities to themselves and to their neighbours, clarifies the process that needs to be adopted for such initiatives and so on. But the same model cannot be replicated blindly. The Sukhomajri case in Haryana is well known to all and in this case despite the success achieved, the Hill Resource Management Committees in neighbouring villages have not been able to manage their local resources inspite of the fact that institutional arrangements and benefit sharing systems similar to Sukhomajri were created in the villages.

Remove the Big Ones First

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) issued a public notice that all encroachers on the Delhi Ridge should voluntarily move out, with their belongings, by June 7, 1995, failing which they will be forcibly evicted. This, according to the DDA, is a direct follow up to the recent directives of the Supreme Court, on a writ filed by lawyer M.C. Mehta.

As NGOs who have been struggling for years to protect the Ridge forest, because of its functions as Delhi’s lungs and air conditioner , and as a repository of biological diversity, we would like to express concern about the implications of the DDA’s notice.

As has been adequately documented by us, and communicated repeatedly to the authorities, the biggest culprits in the destruction of the Ridge are government agencies themselves. The issue is not just one of encroachments (illegal occupations), but also allotments (supposedly legal occupations). We have time and again shown that most allotments made by the agencies administering the Ridge are improper and violative of the need to maintain the natural character of the Ridge. The greatest destruction has been caused by the President’s bodyguard polo-ground, the ISRO space station, the army and police camps, the Rabindra Rangshala and Talkatora Stadium, several public schools, road-widening, etc. There are also encoroachments by slumdwellers and villagers, but these are relatively minor compared to the area occupied by official agencies and rich people.

Our fear is that in the rush to fulfill the directives of the Supreme Court, the DDA and other agencies will bulldoze the huts of poor people, since they are defenceless targets, and subsequently leave alone most of the constructions of official agencies and the rich.

The DDA must first move against the polo-ground, the ISRO space station, and others mentioned, if it wants to display that it means business. All such constructions and occupations which are inimical to the objective of conserving the Ridge forest must be removed, regardless of whether they are ‘encroachments’ or ‘allotments’.

Encroachments by the poor should be removed only after providing them with land and housing in as nearby an area as possible. Any forcible eviction to without the provision of such alternatives to the poor, is unacceptable to us as environmentalists and citizens of Delhi.

Ashish Kothari (Kalpavriksh), Iqbal Mallik (Shrishti), Gautam Vohra (DRAG), Madhu Bajpai (Conservation Society of Delhi) and Akhil Chandra (Delhi-haryana Committee, WWF-India).

The work of the external agency is no doubt simplified by replicating initiatives based on a model case study but it is here that we are shying from responsibility. Variations on the ground will continue to emerge and pose challenges to development workers at all levels and to local communities themselves. These variations result form differences in needs and aspirations of the people, past history of community participation, local socio-political dynamies etc. Sensitivity top these variations is essential and consequently should be the driving force behind any development initiative. This need for a continued learning process inherent in any development programme brings us to an important debate of phasing-out versus the continued presence of external agencies in an area.

Development Alternatives’ filed station in Jhansi for the Bundelkhand region has over the last nine years opened up vast opportunities for us who are field driven, and mover from one area of action-research to another. What started as the greening of denuded hills and wasteland with the aim of restoring the environment and meeting the basic needs of local communities for fuel and fodder, was followed by addressing the problem of irrigation by the construction of low-cost checkdams which would benefit small and marginal farmers. We have now moved onto experimenting with lantana stems for making char and briquettes as an alternative energy source for meeting the local energy needs. An Appropriate Technology Centre is coming up at Orchha which will in due course of time respond to technology needs of the region based on need-skill-resource assessment.

The same is true for local institutions when an external agency moves out. These institutions should be empowered enough to respond to future needs as and when they emerge. In a recent study of about 40 NGOs in Uttaranchal, we spent about three weeks with six NGOs which emerged after the Chipko movement and have nurtured Women’s Groups (Mahila Mangal Dals) to protect forests. These groups which are known for their strength and dynamism, are now experiencing a certain degree of frustration. After more than 10 years of forest management, they are now looking for opportunities for additional income generation. The NGOs too are looking at the potential of forest based enterprises which could make natural resource management economically attractive.

While NGOs by their sheer presence in a region can ensure continuity of work, the same is not the case with government and funding agencies. If the issue of continuity is not addressed, then the current emphasis on partnerships between government, NGOs and people will carry no meaning.

Partnerships

Partnerships between different role players need to build on the relative strengths of each rather than duplicating work or trying to acquire expertise in all aspects. The government, as we all know, has adequate resources and reach. The NGOs have proved successful in organising and building the capacity of local communities. But they end up spending a lot of time in arranging funds, technical inputs and overcoming legal and institutional barriers. Collaboration between research/technical institutes and NGOs will open up new and filed driven areas for technology development and technology adaptation/transfer.

While the issues discussed so far are no doubt important, the bottom line in any participatory development initiative is the political will to share power with local communities and to respond to local needs rather than impose an alien agenda on them. q

Excerpt

Deoprayag: From on high the town descending down the hillslopes on either side of the river stands out as a quaint little world where the Alaknanda and the Bhagirathi meet to give birth to the Ganga. The overall impression is of serenity.

The spell Deoprayag casts gradually dispels when we go down the broad cemented steps into the heart of the town. There are flies everywhere. And cows: holy, unholy, tawny, tortured and hungry.

At the sea shop under the shade of a pipal tree overlooking the confluence of the mighty rivers, the locals play their game regardless of the flies and cows that feel free to nudge them for a feed. Matchsticks are arranged on the rectangular wooden table, to form six rooms of a house. The trick is to get rid of one room, by removing three matchsticks…

….We wander up to the temple through the narrow lanes crowded by double-storied and occasional three-storied stones houses with slate roofs. Their waste is being carried down in open sewers into the rivers. Thus the Ganga is being polluted as soon as she is born.

It is to draw attention to the pollution of the sacred rivers that DRAG, as a member of the Paani Morcha, undertook a yatra along the course of the Ganga and the Yamuna which commenced from Delhi at Okhla and culminated at Narora. The government is implementing a water policy which was imposed by the British whose major concern was to derive revenue (water cess) from farmers who benefitted by canal irigation….

Available at WWF, Kalakriti (Vishwa Yuvak Kendra) and DRAG