DEMOCRACY AND DECENTRALIZATION
A Qualitative Study of Zilla and Taluk Panchayats

Indira with Anuradha, Jayasimha, Kiran Kumar, Shashi Kumar, Thyagarajan

Preface

The Ford Foundation sponsored a study of "Devolution of Budgetary Finances to Local Governments" at the TIDE Development Research Foundation in Bangalore. This study was completed over a period of three and a half years -- 1997 to 2000.

There are several outputs from the project. Apart from the many meetings and workshops that were conducted in this time, there are the following publications: 

v     A collection of papers on different aspects of Panchayat Raj in the 1990s, titled "Decentralization From Above - Panchayat Raj in the 1990s", by Vinod Vyasulu.  This is a collection of six papers on different aspects of Panchayat Raj written for different audiences over the past few years, during the work in the project.

v     A monograph on the functioning of Grama Panchayats, titled "Democracy and Decentralization: Grama Panchayats at Work in Karnataka" by Indira, Kiran Kumar, Shashi Kumar, Jayasimha, Anuradha and Thyagarajan.  This looks at the ways Grama Panchayat functions, the way the Grama sabha is held and how the people in the Grama Panchayat perceive decentralization.

v     “Democracy and Decentralization: Zilla, Taluk and Grama Panchayats” by Indira, Kiran Kumar, Shashi Kumar, Jayasimha, Anuradha and Thyagarajan.  The report is concerned with the views of the elected representatives concerning reservations, elections and the differences brought about in the PRI under the 1983 and 1993 Acts respectively.

v     “Democracy and Decentralization: A Study of Local Budgets in two Districts of Karnataka” by Indira,  Kiran Kumar, Shashi Kumar, Jayasimha, Anuradha  and Thyagarajan.  This volume concentrates on budget analysis, and points our work and results in detail.

Except for the first report, the others have been brought out in both English and Kannada,that those we have worked with can read our report.  The work was undertaken by a group of which Dr A Indira was the Team Leader. Other members of the group were Vinod Vyasulu, R. Thyagarajan, Shashi Kumar, Kiran Kumar, Jayasimha and Anuradha. Rajiv, Naveen, Vaijayanthi and Anitha Rao worked for a while in different stages of the project. Everyone worked hard and contributed in a substantial way to our work.

To guide and monitor the work, an Advisory Committee was set up.   This was chaired by Dr K.S. Krishnaswamy, and the members were Dr.V.M.Rao, Dr.Poornima Vyasulu, Dr.Shivanna and Dr. Vinod Vyasulu who acted as Convenor of this Committee.  The committee held four meetings over the project period, and the following attended as invitees and contributed to the work of the research group: Dr.Abdul Aziz, Dr.Sarat Dawala, Dr.Shantha Mohan, Dr.Revathi Narayanan, Dr.V.Vijayalakshmi, Dr. Anand Inbanathan, Dr. N.C.B.Nath and Mr.Sadananda. 

TIDE gave full support to the work.  The Chairman Dr S Rajagopalan, and the Secretary, Ms Svati Bhogle, took keen interest in the work. Mr. M.S. Raju provided help with the GIS maps. As the project ended, it became clear that budget analysis work never ends.  There is so much more to be done. Given this situation, TIDE helped in the formation of a new non-profit society that will carry on from where this project ends.  Thus the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies has been set up, and the follow up of this work will be taken up from there.  TIDE will retain its interest in the functioning of this new body even as it moves along its own path.   Co-operation between the two in a professional way will mean that both will grow in new and hopefully better directions.

We received full co-operation from officials and elected representatives' at all three levels in Dharwad and Bangalore [Rural] districts.  It is this co-operation that has made it possible to bring out these reports.  The Ford Foundation -- in particular, the Program Officers who worked with us -- Dr Terrence George and Dr Mark Robinson--were always supportive.  They did much more than just fund a study.  They took keen interest in the work, made helpful suggestions, asked difficult questions and never forced their views on us.  They also put us in touch with the International Budget Project at the Centre for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington DC, and this exposed us to a whole group of organizations working on budget issues around the world.  We have benefited from this interaction, and we hope also to have contributed positively to the larger community of budget analysts of which we became a part.

We now place our work before a larger audience, hoping for meaningful debate that will contribute to the more efficient functioning of local government bodies.  In particular, we hope that those who now get elected to the ZPs, TPs and GPs in Karnataka will find a base that will be helpful to them in their work.

We have learned much over the course of this work.  The team would like to thank all who have helped us, while clearly stating that what has been stated is the opinion of the research team, and does not claim to represent the views of anyone who has helped us.  We alone remain responsible for what has been said.   Please write to us at:

Centre for Budget and Policy Studies
1`C’, S.V. Complex, 1^st floor,
#55, K.R. Road, Basavangudi,
Bangalore 560004
India
e-mail: cbps@123india.com

Introduction

Democracy is "of the people, by the people and for the people".  But all the dry numbers' in the budget leaves one wondering whether the people have any say in the whole game? This brings us to the people story.  The system as envisaged under Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) is dependent on the aspirations of its various constituents, and consequently effected by finance.

Devolution of financial responsibilities can happen effectively only if the corresponding administrative and political decentralization processes also work.  To understand the extent of decentralization involving a large existent bureaucracy and a budding elected body, we interviewed the actors themselves.  A questionnaire was designed to elicit information about their views and perceptions of the system.  Issues like political participation, decision-making and effectiveness of implementation of projects were discussed in detail.

The officers at various levels were met with to discuss about the working of the system.  In most cases it was not easy to meet them -- it was  a matter of luck, chance and most of all persistence on the part of the team members.   Irrespective of the official himself being 'upright' or otherwise, all spoke as if the PRIs were faultless. In all cases the Act was extensively quoted to prove the point that they went by the book and that the Act had envisaged clear roles for everybody.

All the members were met in their own home surroundings.  What initially started as jotting down the answers for specific questions in a closed format, became an open-ended interview. All the interviews were taped.  We now have a record of nearly 200 hours.  There was a checklist for specific questions relating to TP presidents.  They however were met in the TP offices.  This has been presented as Part II in this book.

The next tier below TP is the Grama Panchayat, in which we have done case studies. The study of the GPs has been given in detail in the book, "Democracy and Decentralization: Grama Panchayats at work in Karnataka", a part of the same study.

With regard to interviews, almost all members showed a keen interest in the work the team was doing and cooperated to the full extent.  The study team always reached the members’ residence early in the morning, after making the appointments.  Most times the team left much before break of dawn.  At any given point, the team traveled a distance of minimum 100 kms at a stretch to reach the place.  Common people who came to give petitions, party members, family members including children were all present in most interviews.  But once the representative started talking, the others quietly faded into the background.

In some cases, repeat visits were made when the members were not available.  In such instances, we spoke to other family members to know the Socio-economic living.  Hence, field study took over a period of one year.  The members were highly courteous and hospitable. This reception was irrespective of the fact that the member was a `dummy' or not.  The team never went hungry on any of the trips.  They also came back with a lot of goodies, in the form of sweets, fruits, vegetables, cuttings of plants among other things.   In one Grama Panchayat, a few members of the team even bought 'dhotis' sold under PDS.

The team also joined the important ZP members on their campaign trail during the Lok Sabha elections[1].  And recently in February 2000, they toured the studied GPs during the GP elections.

Meeting with the various elected representatives was sometimes very frustrating and also at the same time very illuminating.  The incident about going on a long trek to meet the present Bangalore rural ZP president (1999-2000) can be shared here.  Smt. Bhagya Bai is a representative from Kanakapura taluk.  When the team reached the main road going to the village, we were told that there was no 'kuccha' road also for the car to enter.  The team set off by walk to reach the village.  After walking about two kms, we found a small pond, which had to be crossed by lifting our sarees and folding of pants to knee-length.  Then a small hillock full of thorns followed.  The slush was another way to slip back into the pond.   After managing to reach the top of the hillock and the village after nearly 45 minutes, we were told that the ‘lambani’ community had its hamlet away from the main village, which was ‘only another 2 kms off’.

So we trekked further up a hill and reached the hamlet.  All along the way, the residents gladly showed us the way to the house.  They even told us about the newly laid sewerage line in the hamlet consisting of not more than 20 houses.  There were 'pucca' houses on either side, not rural at all in appearance.  Finally we knocked on the house, and a lady in 'churidhar-kameez' greeted us[2]. An old man was called to talk to us.   After asking all the details, they said that she was not staying here from past twenty years!  She had her own house in Bangalore City and she could be contacted through one Mr.Venkatesh to be found in a STD booth opposite Kanakapura TP office.   So we again retraced our steps to reach the main road and the STD booth.  The STD booth was there all right, only they did not know who Ms. Bhagya Bai was. They gave a phone number at which she could be contacted in Bangalore City.  When we returned to our office the number was called many times. But we could never make the contact again[3].

Another story is about Smt.Madamma from the same taluk, whom we were told was not worth meeting, because she would not talk.  In fact people refused to even show the way.  Of course everything was not so bad.  Shri. Alkappa another representative from the same taluk, we were told could be recognized easily as he would be sitting in front of a post-office on a stone, with a group of people around him near the square reaching his house.  The first day we went past the square and missed.  The second attempt in the late evening at 7 p.m. was of no use.  We returned after buying some jackfruits in the shanty.  At the third attempt we reached his house, met him and had a very fruitful (he gave us a basket full of black grapes) discussion about all issues.

Then there is the case of Smt.Yasmeen Taj, Taluk Panchayat President of Hoskote.  This was a case where the candidate was a dummy and her husband is the virtual ‘office’.  The team was not given an audience in Hoskote.  The reason given was that there was an important meeting at the TP office. A local number in Bangalore City was given to reach her.  The number never rang. Next the local address in Bangalore City was collected.  This time, the team had to go to an interior place in the old market area, mostly inhabited by the minority community.   The male member in the team was looked at with a lot of suspicion.  We are not sure whether the team was misled or the locals did not understand our questions, but the team was finally led to a house, which had no door, was located at a dead-end of the street.  The address given to us just did not exist!  Barring a few of these misadventures, generally the trips were very much looked forward to by the team.

Most members in Bangalore rural district are from the landed gentry.  Though belonging to the Vokkaliga community (OBC), they are the most forward in the rural areas. T hey have big farmhouses, most have more than five well-bred dogs, mostly Alsatians or Dobermans or the latest fancy, Dalmatians.  A few of the members in Nelamangala could not be fully interviewed because by the time we went for a second round of discussions, one of the representative had gone away to Rajasthan to buy Marble for the flooring for the new house coming up next to the old house.

Most ZP members had two houses, one in the constituency and one in the City in Bangalore rural district.  But still the country house, so to say, maintained a very primitive latrine.  At least they had a latrine!  This was as opposed to the very interior places we went to.  About children, most did not subscribe to the two-child norm.  This is very true for the older members.  The youngsters practiced a smaller family for economic purposes. But the number was not two, but lesser than their own families (namely three to four children).  Most said this happened because somebody in the family wanted a baby boy.

In Dharwad also we met all the members in their homes.  We met the ZP President, Smt.Shantamma Gujjal in a posh house in the centre of Dharwad.   She is a SC woman from the constituency Morab, which she left long back. She started her career in a Mahila Sangha in her village, which she founded and gradually was pulled into politics. She was elected in the earlier Mandal Panchayat also.  In her case, the family has not been very protective.  In fact her husband was extremely upset that she chose this path.  But one should commend her for her grit in continuing with her work.  Many days she went hungry because the family would refuse to give her food for the reason that she was involved in politics.  According to her the turning point in her life was the training given to Mandal Panchayat members after the elections in 1985.  She became independent physically also and then there was no looking back.  She strode ahead more purposively.

Another interesting person whom we met was, Pikanavva Somappa Lambani.  She is a SC Zilla Panchayat representative elected from Soratur constituency in Gadag taluk, 90 Kms from the district headquarters Dharwad (old).  This constituency was reserved for a backward class community woman.  The constituency has 4 GPs with 25 gramas under its belt.  This place is very far with no proper road facilities.  It was very difficult to arrange for a taxi and so the team had to travel by local bus.

Pikanavva lives in a small village called Dundasi Tanda not connected with a pucca road. This village has around 500 households with almost 90% of the people being 'lambanis'.  This village has a very limited bus facility with only one bus operating twice a day.  As the team reached the taluk headquarters late by 30 minutes late could not take the bus going to the tanda.  They took another bus, which was going towards that village only to stop three kms behind Dundasi Tanda.  The journey was very good with scenic view of the village encircled with mountains from all the four sides.  The team walked the remaining three Kms through the kuccha road and reached the village around 12 noon.

As soon as we reached around 25 to 30 people gathered around us and were very eager to know what we wanted.   Pikanavva was busy with her work making traditional dresses to be sent to different states (Kerala and Goa) to be sold.  The interview was conducted in a school. It was Sunday and there was no school.  Most of the people are still illiterate with very few people able to sign also.  It took us almost three hours to interview the member with all the people around her. The people of the 'tanda' even sang a folk song, which was recorded.  The people were very eager to know what was recorded in the cassette and so we had to rewind the tape and replay it to the audience who had gathered while we were interviewing.  It was nice to see that they used a steel pot to have music for the song.  The lady served lemon juice to the team members.  After spending much time in the village the team left around 3 P.M and walked back 3 Kms to catch a bus to Dharwad.

Economic status wise, it seemed that members were much better placed in Dharwad as compared to Bangalore rural.  The study team in this district used the services of five interviewers trained in an earlier survey for meeting members in the taluks of Gadag and Haveri districts.  These people helped the team in finishing the work faster.  This help was necessary for two reasons, one: time constraint and two: the language spoken was very different.  The dialect though easy to follow, is difficult when spoken fast.  And people speak really fast!

On the whole, what comes out clearly is that in majority of the cases, the people who stood for elections are definitely better placed economically. This seems necessary because elections mean a lot of money.

This book is based on the material gathered through interviews with the Zilla Panchayat elected representatives, in Dharwad and Bangalore (Rural) district.  This helps in making a qualitative assessment of the field. The numbers analyzed in the budget study can be further understood with the knowledge of how democratic decentralization is taking place. The institutional capability to have different views and work on similar goals can be analyzed.

A discussion of the key social sectors viz., Education, Health, Water Supply and Sanitation, Roads and Bridges and Minor irrigation with the members helped us in understanding the progress of work in the constituencies. 

Representatives surveyed: 

Bangalore Rural District:  Bangalore Rural District consists of eight taluks with 38 Zilla Panchayat representatives. 30 have been interviewed and  considered for our study, which is shown in the table 1.1.  Of these, 19 were men and remaining 11 were women.

Table-1.1: Taluk-wise representation of Bangalore Rural Zilla Panchayat members.

Source: Our survey conducted in 1997. 

Dharwad:  The data given in the tables confine to our findings in  “new” Dharwad, which was formed in the year 1997.  However for an overall understanding of the various issues put forward to the representatives, the opinions of all the members of old Dharwad are considered.

The new Dharwad district consists of twenty Zilla level and five Taluk level representatives elected to Panchayat Raj Institutions for which the election was held in 1995 (table 1.1a).  Among the elected members at the district level, six are women.  The remaining fourteen seats are held by men.

After the division of the old Dharwad district, a few members have been re-nominated to the new districts depending on where their constituencies are situated.  This has happened in a few cases where the ‘old’ constituencies fell in the border areas directly affected by the division.

Table-1.1.a: Taluk-wise representation of Dharwad Zilla Panchayat members.

Source: Our survey conducted in 1997.

Old Dharwad district consisted of Seventeen taluks with a total of sixty-seven elected members at the district level and seventeen Taluk level representatives.  The district was bifurcated into three districts namely Dharwad, Haveri and Gadag.  After the division, the “new” Dharwad was given five taluks namely Dharwad, Hubli, Kalghatgi, Navalgund and Kundgol.

Haveri the other newly formed district has the largest share in terms of number of taluks - Haveri, Byadagi, Ranibennur, Hirekerur, Savanur, Hanagal and Shiggaon.  Among these seven-- Hanagal, Haveri and Byadagi are well-irrigated taluks.  After this division, due to extra finances and inputs, Haveri District is expected to make rapid progress as far as industrialization is concerned.  Haveri region[4] is known for cardamom processing units, which fetches a revenue of six crores annually.  Byadagi taluk in Haveri district is famous for its chili which fetches a revenue of thirty crores annually.  Ranibennur, which is situated on the Tunga River, is the largest producer of rice in the district.

Gadag district has five taluks, viz., Ron, Mundargi, Gadag, Nargund and Shirahatti. Among the five taluks, Mundargi is considered to be one of the most backward in northern Karnataka and has the maximum number of flourosis cases.  Another main drawback of Gadag district is its shortage of drinking water.  The entire population is dependent on borewells.

In our study the representatives from all these three newly formed districts were interviewed, and their opinions put in this book.  Where data in particular to the 'new' Dharwad district is used, it is mentioned.

The book is organized as follows: Section- I give the social and economic background of the elected representatives; section-II focuses on the constituencies from which they got elected.  It also takes note of their political affiliations to various parties.  Section - III concentrates on training.  In this section the views of the representatives who attended some training programmes during their tenure and the suggestions of the representatives regarding the training are discussed.

In Section - IV the activities and the responsibilities as seen by the elected representatives is presented.  Section - V looks at impact of reservation.  Their views about the functioning of PRIs before and after the 73rd Amendment Act are shared in Section VI.  The work of the Zilla Panchayat representatives and the priority sectors that are looked at by them is discussed in Section VII.  In Section -VIII we discuss the opinion of the members on the status of infrastructure in sectors like Education, Health, Water Supply and Sanitation, Roads and bridges, Rural development and Minor irrigation.

Socio-Economic Profile

The profile of the representatives includes age, educational background, their occupation, land holdings, annual source of income etc.

a. Age distribution:

The ages of both men and women representatives is shown in Table – 1.2.  The modal class of the age group is 20 to 40 years in Dharwad district showing 45 % representation. Similarly in Bangalore (Rural) district this age group had 53.3 % of representation.  In Dharwad district 30% of the representatives belonged to the age group of 40 - 50 while Bangalore (Rural) district has a higher percentage (33.3%) of representation in this age group.  Only 15 % of the total representation are above 50 years with another 10 % above 60 years of age in Dharwad district.   Whereas in Bangalore (Rural) it is only 13.3% representation for the age group of 50-60.  No representative has crossed the age of 60 in Bangalore (Rural).  This shows that the younger generation is participating quite enthusiastically in local self-governments.  Interestingly we can see no woman representative over the age of 50 years in both the districts. These bodies are seen as the for a in which people launch their political careers in the future.

Table 1.2: Age group of the elected representatives:

Source: Our survey conducted in 1997.

b. Caste distribution:

The caste distribution of the members is shown in Table – 1.3.  According to the table, in Dharwad district 5% (1 representative) belonged to Scheduled Caste and another 5% (1 representative) to Scheduled Tribes with both being women.  However in Bangalore (Rural) district 23 % belonged to Scheduled Caste and another 3 % hailed from Scheduled Tribe. Other Backward Community (OBC) showed 30% representation in Dharwad district.  The women form 33.3 % among OBC section.   This is as per the reservation quota.  Similarly 30 % are women and 70 % men in the OBC group of Bangalore (Rural) district.

Table – 1.3: Caste composition of the Zilla Panchayat members: