[Kurukshetra December Summary] Citizen Participation and Rural Well-being – Explained, pointwise

Introduction

Enlargement of people’s choices and capabilities is the cornerstone of all kinds of governance and a prerequisite for inclusive development and a nation’s overall growth. India is the world’s largest democracy; its democratic freedom and expression lie with citizen participation in every sphere of public policy making. The building block of good governance are citizen participation and civic engagement. e-Governance is the critical component of good governance.

Regarding rural development, it is essential to focus on sustainable governance, considering its contribution to national income (nearly 50%). About 70% workforce resides in rural areas. It requires better facilities, including health, education, drinking water, sanitation, housing, employment opportunities, and an overall better standard of living.

In this regard, the Government of India has taken various initiatives. More recent development focuses on governance using digital technology and ICT to energise rural development initiatives in meeting the needs of the rural development sector. Several digital initiatives have been taken, including digital-first and other ICT application services, to improve public service delivery through improved digital connectivity.

e-Governance and Rural Economy

e-Governance is a mechanism through which public services are made available and accessible to the common public at their doorstep at ease, through common services delivery outlets. It further ensures services’ efficiency, transparency, and reliability at affordable prices.

The Government of India implemented National e-Governance Plan in 2006, especially for the rural areas by providing services including birth and death certificates, land registration, employment opportunities, market-related information, farming, and veterinary services, education etc.

It represents a paradigm shift in the provision of essential public services, moving from a human to a technological interface. Some of the popular of initiatives include e-Panchayat, e-Gram, and Priasoft (It is a centralized Accounting Software intended for use by all the three levels of Panchayati Raj namely Zilla, Block and Village Panchayat) e-District etc. These initiatives are further supported by other initiatives which are contributing significantly in the e-governance process: e-Choupal, e-Shakti, TARA haat, e-Health, e-Education, e-Sanjeevani, e-Hospital, e-Pathshala, e-Raktkosh, Bhoomika, Gyandoot, e-Suvidha, e-NAM, e-Sewa etc.

The government of India has launched an innovative platform, ‘MyGov‘, to ensure citizens’ engagement in the decision-making process; citizens can share their views/opinions directly with the Prime Minister of India. The primary focus of these initiatives is to contribute to ‘Surajya‘ and encourage citizens to ‘discuss and do’. It includes various projects: Clean Ganga, Green India, Job Creation, Girl Child Education, Skill Deployment, Digital India, and Swachh Bharat, through which it is expected to bring qualitative changes in policy-making through people’s participation.

Dimensions of Rural e-Governance

Rural e-governance is the core of the socio-economic development of the rural economy. The effectiveness and impact of rural e-governance is measured through various dimensions. The various dimensions of e-governance in the rural sector are: (a) ICT infrastructure; (b) Access to e-government services; (c) Mobile first; (d) e-literacy; (e) Usage behaviour; (f) Localised  content; (g) Employment and productivity; (h) Participatory governance (i) Grievance redressal; (j) Inclusion.

Over all, these dimensions are required to be strengthened and rebooted to get the best outcome and optimisation of public policy, designed for developing the rural economy.

Source: National Informatics Centre

e-Governance and Citizen Participation

The success of any governance is based on citizen participation and engagement. India is a country of diversity in language, culture and livelihood patterns which vary from region to region. Designing any program should be able to address all the issues/needs and expectations of people in those areas. To enhance e-governance projects’ efficiency, understanding of social-cultural factors and people’s expectation is essential. To design a suitable governance initiative in rural areas, diverse needs and people’s capabilities should be considered during the policy formulation. Hence, there is a need to design customised e-governance initiatives.

In the process of reform and formulation of governance, citizen involvement and their feedback are essential. The ultimate process is to empower people by making them part of citizen governance.

Citizen Governance and Civic Engagement are two important pillars in strengthening valued-citizen participation. Citizen governance is a valued-based proposition, helps in removing gaps and difference between governments and citizens. On the other hand, civic engagement involves active participation and collaboration among individuals, institutions, communities and government and helps in shaping public policy. It opens up the window for citizens to participate and take an interest in public affairs and public policy meetings.

Citizen Participation and Governance

Citizen participation is essential in all public policy-making, especially in e-governance, designed for rural areas. Citizen participation has a significant role in shaping and transforming ‘governance into good governance’, which is the need of the hour.

Citizen as a Customer: Citizen is considered as a valued customer as public services are meant for public use. Hence as a consumer, citizen participation and their feedback is very essential in designing public services and ensuring quality service delivery at an affordable cost.

Citizen as an Owner: In a democratic set-up, citizens are the real owners of public services. They are considered as investors in public services as they contribute through taxes etc. As an owner, citizen involvement is essential, and she must seek information about public services and delivery.

Citizen as a Co-producer: Citizens are often asked to play the role of co-producer in providing public services. Citizens are expected to act as a partner; hence their involvement and participation will improve the quality and timely delivery of services.

Citizen as a Quality Evaluator: Being the co-producer and consumer, the citizen can become the evaluator of the public services quality and their delivery effectiveness. Thereby she can help the government in designing better e-governance facilities and suitable public policy.

Citizen Participation and Framework

A customised framework should be carefully planned to ensure meaningful engagement with citizens. All stakeholders must be able to voice their contributions and concerns. A suitable feedback mechanism must be in place to close the deficiencies and leakages.

The key components needed to enable successful and meaningful citizen involvement in e-governance projects are: (a) Need analysis; (b) Degree of engagement; (c) Creation of engagement team; (d) Engagement activities; (e) Analysis of outcome; (f) Feedback analysis; (g) Institutionalisation of engagement.

Citizen participation can be viewed from three different perspectives; firstly, at what stages there is a need for participation; secondly, at what levels and thirdly, what are the tools through which participation can become more meaningful and effective.

Source: Kurukshetra December 2022

To appreciate the value and nature of participation in the governance process, understanding the ‘propose and techniques’ of people’s participation is vital. Public participation spectrum includes:

Source: Kurukshetra December 2022

Benefits of Citizen Participation

Citizen participation ranges from just information receiving/sharing to being highly responsible in managing the process with accountability. The higher is the citizen participation, the better is the governance and its effect on the socioeconomic outcome and well-being.

First, Citizen participation helps in the smooth formulation and implementation of public policy. It helps in transparency and makes citizens more accountable and responsible.

Second, Citizen participation in e-governance will enhance the projects’ efficiency and efficacy.

Third, It develops a sense of belongingness and upholds ownership. Engaging the public in creating policy directly impact them is one method to assure accountability.

Fourth, Participation and contribution of various stakeholders, individuals, communities, political parties, and government agencies will reduce the conflicts and confusion and make it more coherent. Thereby, it will become more people-driven, participatory, and meaningful.

Fifth, It helps in bringing more inclusiveness and positive outcomes.

Sixth, It helps in improving the political positioning of marginalised and vulnerable groups, those are often neglected or not taken into consideration.

Seventh, It helps in developing long-term sustainable e-governance and outcome-focused initiatives.

Eighth, It helps in community empowerment, leading to better awareness and superior monitoring.

Way Forward

e-Governance initiatives have a transformational impact on providing public services. Their deliveries to the mass are especially effective in rural India. It is a key enabler in the realisation of government mandate. It is expected that outcome of e-governance will be optimised through active citizen participation. The vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy can be accomplished only through citizen participation and engagement. The collaborative approach of policy-making emphasises more on citizen participation and ownership of actions. This is necessary to reduce socio-economic stress, minimise deprivation, and help overall development. A variety of services can be delivered in rural areas with collaborations with all the stakeholders, with maximum citizen participation.

Syllabus: GS II, Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-Governance: applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential.

Source: Kurukshetra December 2022, National Informatics Centre