AUGUST 2002

Trip to visit the panchayats of West Bengal, India

A report by Badiul Majumdar, Country Director, THP-Bangladesh

A group of 22 elected local government representatives from Bangladesh went to West Bengal, India in mid-August for a six-day study trip to see and understand its panchayati raj (local government) system in action. The group of elected representatives, including one female Union Parishad (UP) Chairman, one female UP Member and 20 male chairmen. (A UP is comparable to a panchayat in India and is the lowest and only ongoing tier of local government in Bangladesh.) Mr. Rafiqul Islam Sarkar, Mr. Swapan Kumar Saha and I accompanied the group.

Places visited

During the six days, the group visited the State Institute of Panchayats and Rural Development (SIPRD), a premier training and research institution of India. At the institute, the team was given detailed briefings on the structure and functioning of the panchayat system in general and of the West Bengal system in particular.

The team also met the State Minister for Panchayats and Rural Development, the Secretary and other senior officials of the Department. The Minister gave an overview of the functioning of the panchayat system in West Bengal, focusing on the democratic decentralization aspect, including the strengths and weaknesses of the system. This interactive session gave the team an opportunity to get a good handle on the system at work in West Bengal.

The Honorable Chief Minister of West Bengal met with the Bangladesh delegation, and he responded to a large number of questions put by the members of the team. He summed up with a brief narration of West Bengal's achievements in the area of socio-economic development of the disadvantaged and highlighted the need for land reforms as a precursor to democratic decentralization through panchayats.

A final wrap-up session took place at the regional center of the Institute of Social Sciences with three experts in the field of panchayats, rural development and public administration. The session included a free exchange of views to capture the learnings and explore the ways to utilize the West Bengal experience in Bangladesh. The study tour of the team ended with a meeting with the State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs.

During the course of the visit, the delegation met with six different panchayats at all levels and had detailed discussions with their elected representatives.

Experiences of the visit

It became clear to us that strengthening local governance requires strong political will. We were most impressed by the clarity of mind and the iron-clad commitment of the political leaders of West Bengal toward grassroots democracy and their initiatives to this effect. They have a clear vision for the panchayati raj and they are relentless to make that vision come true.

Another aspect of the panchayati raj that attracted us most is its ability to strengthen grassroots leadership, especially of the women and the marginalized. The panchayat system appears to provide a systematic training ground for the people who will take top leadership positions in the country in the future. Women are making impressive strides in this quest for leadership. Of the six panchayati raj institutions we visited, all were headed by women with the exception of one. One of the pradhans (chairs) was a minority woman. Quite a few of the women won against men, outside the reservation system. It appears that the leadership of the ordinary people is being established in West Bengal. Through the panchayat system, the voiceless seemed to have gained the voice.

We are also impressed by the status of the panchayat representatives vis-a-vis the bureaucracy. In West Bengal, panchayat bodies are not subservient to the bureaucracy, rather it is the other way around. With commitment to democratic decentralization, these bodies are on their way to becoming truly self-governing institutions. In every panchayat we visited, the government officials work under the leadership of the panchayat representatives and the former always took the back seats. Bureaucracy appears to be trying to take the role of what may be called "development governance" rather than "administrative goverance" involving operational control and regulations.

We found that the government has a lot of schemes and projects for the people at the grassroots. It is claimed that 52% of the government budget goes to the people at the bottom, of which 16 percent are spent through the panchayats. Increasing amounts of funds given to panchayats are untied. We have also found that gram panchayats, the lowest local government bodies, get the highest proportion of local government funds, 50 percent; panchayat samitis get the next highest proportion, 30 percent; and the remaining 20 percent go to zilla parishads. Because of the panchayat system the cost of delivery of government services has significantly gone down.

It was interesting for us to note that almost all the work that is performed by the NGOs in Bangladesh is the responsibility of the panchayati raj institutions. NGOs appear to work as contractors for the panchayats.

A system of transparency and accountability appears to be an important feature of the panchayati raj system in West Bengal. Gram sansads (meeting at the ward, or sub-panchayat level) and gram sabhas (mass assemblies of the entire panchayat) not only provide opportunities for practicing participatory democracy, they also serve as forums for planning, information dissemination and most importantly for holding the gram panchayat leaders to account.

Panchayat elections are held on party tickets. Still, representatives of different parties appear to work together as a corporate body. Unlike in Bangladesh, panchayat bodies are not dominated by their chairs.

Because of the use of the panchayat system as a vehicle for decentralization of authority and devolution of resources at an increasing rate, West Bengal achieved impressive progress in both economic and social areas. The proportion of people below the poverty line in West Bengal is claimed to be the lowest in the nation. In social areas also, especially in the areas of improving the conditions of the women and the minority, their gain in enviable.

All of us returned to Bangladesh greatly impressed by the successes of the panchayat system and committed to vigorously pursue the goal of strengthening our system of local governance. Our hosts were most gracious and hospitable at every place we visited – they showered us with heartfelt felicitation. In fact, we were overwhelmed by their affection and warmth. This trip was facilitated by the Calcutta office of the Institute of Social Sciences, the organization headed by our Global Board member Dr. George Mathew.