Governance of the People, for the People and by the People

Context

Stressful response given by the existing governance system to the challenges emerged in COVID-19 days. Quality and promptness of service delivery have been compromised due to inherent faults in our governance systems.

Background

Architectural loopholes have been revealed at all levels (Local, National and Global) in the present governance system, in between the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost all subsystems experienced like health care, logistics, business, finance, and administration have been working in distress and rushing environments.

Complexity of handling so many subsystems, in simultaneously have heavily overwhelmed governance. Solutions for one subsystem backfired on other subsystems. For example, lockdowns to make it easier to manage the health crisis have made it harder to manage economic distress simultaneously.

In fact the un-prepared governance system has opened to gates of dangers to the life of people in many ways.

Lack of Coordination

During a humanitarian crisis of this magnitude, the need of the hour is to move with hand in hand to address the demand-based system of relief and welfare. But this is, in fact, the complete antithesis of the current governance welfare system, which has been constructed by successive Indian governments.

It also goes against some fundamental and longstanding assumptions. One, that we don’t have the right synthesis between various government agencies. Two, that we don’t have the right implementation capacity. And therefore, three, that we have no choice but to limit the beneficiaries in any given scheme through processes of enumeration, identification and authentication.

Interconnected Issues

The global challenges listed in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, which requires an urgent attention, are systemic challenges. All these systemic problems are interconnected with each other. Environmental, economic, and social issues cannot be separated from each other and solved by experts in silos or by agencies focused only on their own problems. A good solution to one can create more problems for others, as government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have revealed.

Locality based Challenges

The implementation of SDGs in an effective manner requires ground knowledge of a particular region. As their solutions must fit the specific conditions of each country, and of each locality within countries too, to fit the shape of the environment and the condition of society there, like solutions for environmental sustainability along with sustainable livelihoods cannot be the same in Kerala and Ladakh.

Role of a Civil Servant

At the District level, District Disaster Management Authority, with the District Collector designated as Response Officer (RO), and other line departments at district HQ are responsible to deal with all phases of disaster management within the district. The District Collector is the key IAS functionary in India’s governance system.

The task of District Collector became complicated when the numbers of government schemes multiplied, some designed by the Central government, and others by the State government. Even though there are a number of schemes available for the people's welfare, due to lack of knowledge of these, to only the citizens but also the government officials, these schemes are limited to government files.

The problem is that in the absence of strong, decentralized and responsive administrative capacity, these very processes of identification and verification exclude many intended beneficiaries at all levels. The pandemic has not passed yet, but evidence is emerging that some States in India, such as Kerala, have dealt with it better than others because of people's support and participation with the government machinery established in its best.

Way Forward

There are enough scientific explanations available for why local systems solutions are the best, and is the only way to solve complex systemic problems. The local people should support the implementation of solutions, they must believe the solution is the right one for them, and not a solution thrust upon them by outside experts. Therefore, they must be active contributors of knowledge for, and active participants in, the creation of the solutions. Moreover, the knowledge of different experts about the environment, the society, and the economy, must come together to fit realities on the ground.

Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, in 2009, had developed the principles for self-governing communities from research on the ground in many countries, including India.

The government has to support and enable people to govern themselves, to realise the vision of ‘governance of the people, for the people, by the people’. This is also the only way by which humanity will be able to meet the ecological and humanitarian challenges looming over it in the 21st century.

Connecting the Dots

Question for Prelims:

Participation of Local citizens in the policy making can be best explained by

(a) Federalism
(b) Direct Democracy
(c) Referendum
(d) None of the above

Question for Mains:

In your opinion what are the hindrances in the proper implementation of the Government policies designed for the people's welfare and maintaining a high standard in quality of public service delivery ? Discuss with suitable examples.