Review of Decentralisation, Governance and Development, by Pranab Kumar Das

Abstract

Drawing from the Gandhian trajectory of development, which emphasises a shift from the top-down to the bottom-up model of governance, the 73rd constitutional amendment act was enacted in the 1990s, which sought to deepen democracy in India by granting constitutional recognition to gram panchayats (GPs), through the establishment of a three-tier system—at the village, block and district levels. In this context, this work is an attempt to assess the performance of the Indian local self-governance or the Panchayati Raj model, primarily in two states of India, namely, West Bengal and Kerala, which were pioneers of the decentralisation process in the country, having taken the lead long before the constitutional amendments, and which are widely perceived as having done appreciably well in this field. The volume consists of twelve essays, comprising of contributions from academicians, policymakers and government personnel, which are classified into three parts. While part one of the volume deals with macro issues, part two analyses micro level studies, and part three is a reflection on sociopolitical concerns. The common thread that binds the miscellaneous chapters is that they successfully identify the bottlenecks to efficacious decentralisation in India, which involve one or more of the following factors—the absence of financial devolution, adequate record keeping, insignificant mass participation and the recourse to favouritism to capture political vantage.