Day 19 – Q 2.There has been an impetus on ‘participative governance’ in recent times. What do you understand by this concept? Is governance in India truly participative? Give your views.
2. There has been an impetus on ‘participative governance’ in recent times. What do you understand by this concept? Is governance in India truly participative? Give your views.
हाल के दिनों में ‘सहभागी शासन’ पर काफी जोर रहा है। इस अवधारणा से आप क्या समझते हैं? क्या भारत में शासन वास्तव में सहभागी है? अपने विचार दें।
Approach:
- Introduction- Explain the concept of participative governance.
- Impetus in recent times- its benefit.
- Participative governance in India
- Conclusion- way ahead
Introduction:
Participative governance is the involvement of citizens in their own governance. It puts emphasis on democratic engagement, in particular through deliberative practices. It aims at self-reliant, sustainable development through active participation of citizens in development activities. It seeks to deepen citizen participation in the governmental process.
Participatory development attempts to introduce a bottom-up style of development in order to remedy the government-led approach’s shortcomings, specifically by focusing on qualitative improvements in local society’s participation.
Participatory governance in India:
- Universal adult franchise.
- Panchayati Raj Institutions- Gram sabhas, tribal councils, autonomous districts etc.
- Social audit
- Pressure groups, NGOs, Media
Recent impetus:
- India has recently started a programme called MyGov to facilitate citizen-government dialogues on important governance matters. PRAGATI is another such initiative.
- The digital age has empowered citizens, across all ages, to be more aware and expect more from their governments. This knowledge helps people to participate in governance.
- Right to Information Act has empowered people to understand the government in better fashion, bringing in transparency.
Conclusion:
Participatory governance truly empowers citizens and ensures good governance. In this light, following needs to be done-
- Improving citizen competence through empowerment, and capacity building should be focused on. This will make citizens’ involvement truly participative. It will help tackle the issue of proxy representation as seen in case of women members of local bodies.
- The state machinery must have an appetite to warmly accept feedback and undertake improvement mid-way through established programmes.
- Mechanisms like social auditing needs to be instituionalised.
Best answer: Abhishek Singh
