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What do you understand by decentralization of power? What is its role in strengthening the roots of democracy in India? Elaborate. 20 Marks. (UPSC CSE Mains 2024 - Sociology, Paper 2)
Democratic Decentralisation is the process of devolving the functions and resources of the state from the Centre and State to the elected representatives at the lower levels so as to facilitate greater direct participation of citizens in governance. The 73rd and 74th Amendments, by constitutionally establishing Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in India, mandated the establishment of panchayats and municipalities as elected local governments.
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Role in strengthening the roots of democracy
- Enhances Transparency: It also enhances the transparency of government, and the flow of information between government and citizens (in both directions).
- Transparency increases because a much larger number of people than before can see how the government works, and what is happening within the policy and political processes.
- Responsible Government: When democratic decentralisation works well, it makes the government more responsive. The speed and quantity of responses (actions, projects) from the government increase.
- Political and Civil Pluralism: Civil society is galvanised by local governance, and the more people join, the more active and competitive the governance will become. This strengthens political and civic pluralism.
- Alleviate Poverty: Decentralised systems can help to reduce poverty that arises from inequalities between regions or localities because it tends to provide all arenas with equitable representation and resources.
Issues and Concerns
- Infrastructural Loopholes: Many Gram Panchayats (GPs) lack a building of their own and share spaces with schools, anganwadi, and other entities.
- While some have their own building, they lack basic facilities such as toilets, drinking water, and electricity.
- Although Panchayats have internet connections, they are not always functional. Panchayat officials have to visit Block Development offices for any data entry purposes, which delays the work.
- Lack of Sufficient Financial Resources: Both rural local bodies (RLBs) and urban local bodies (ULBs) across the country are under financial stress. Urban local governments and panchayats rely heavily on grants-in-aid from state consolidated funds.
- Taxes collected by the urban bodies are not sufficient to cover the expenses of the services provided. Also, unlike the Centre and the States, no distinction is made between revenue expenditure and capital expenditure at the local government level.
- Lack of Accurate Data on Finance: The State Finance Commissions(SFCs) are not presented with accurate and updated data on the finances of the local bodies.
- No rigorous fiscal analysis is possible without disaggregated fiscal data for the PRIs and ULBs.
- In the absence of data, in a significant number of cases, recommendations by SFCs tend to be the ad-hoc opinion of the chairperson, which is not grounded in data.
- Downgraded Role of Local Government: Local governments are merely acting as an implementation machinery rather than an active policy-making body for local development.
- Corruption and Criminalisation of Politics: Many times, decentralisation has simply empowered local elites to capture more public resources at the expense of the poor, and political power at the local level assists criminals in legitimising their activities.
- Ceremonial Status to Mayor: The 2nd Administrative Reform Commission noted the Mayor in the Urban Local Government in most states enjoys primarily a ceremonial status.
- In most cases, the Municipal Commissioner, appointed by the State Government, has all the powers and the elected Mayor ends up performing the role of the subordinate.
- Irregular Elections: Elections in PRIs (Panchayati Raj Institutions) are still irregular. Recently, several states conducted local bodies elections just because the Union Finance Commission recommended grants only for the “duly constituted local governments”.
- Rule of Proxy: One-third of seats in local government bodies–in panchayats and municipalities are reserved for women. However, male candidates use their wives as pawns and dictate from behind, which leads to the perennial problem of Rule by Proxy.
It is thus imperative that the organisational structures of local governments be strengthened with sufficient manpower. Efforts should be made to hire support and technical staff so that panchayats can function smoothly. For sustainable decentralisation, transparency and accountability in the governance process is necessary, and for transparency there needs to be active citizen participation.