Panchayati Raj and Watershed Management in India: Constraints and Opportunities

Acknowledgements This report is based largely on interviews with representatives from the Government, Panchayati Raj Institutions, NGOs, Self-help Groups and Academic Institutions. I would like to thank all of the respondents for the generous amounts of time they spared to discuss their experiences of Panchayati Raj and Watershed Development with me. I would like to thank Ashok Kumar of Development Alternatives in Bangalore for accompanying me on the visit to Gram Panchayats in Tumkur District. I would like to thank Write Arm in Bangalore for their logistical support in Bangalore, and for providing an inviting base from which to plan the work. Thank you also to Janet Seeley and Peter Reid, of the Rural Development Office of the Department for International Development in New Delhi, for suggesting contacts for interviews and for their interest in the study. 4 Contents Summary 6 Acronyms 9 1 Introduction 10 1.1 Introduction 10 1.2 Background 10 1.3 The terms of reference and research methodology 11 2 The legal framework and historical background 12 2.1 Brief outline of the new policies 12 2.2 Panchayati Raj and the 73 rd Constitutional Amendment 12 2.3 State planning and the Guidelines 16 2.4 The research question 17 3 Decentralisation: the spirit and the letter of the law 19 3.1 Different types of decentralisation 19 3.2 Decentralisation in practice 21 3.2.1 Decentralisation in the 73 rd Constitutional Amendment 21 3.2.2 Decentralisation and the Guidelines 23 3.3 Summary 25 4 Institutional change, cooperation and conflict 26 4.1 Institutional failure 26 4.2 Collaboration between the state, NGOs and civil society institutions 27 4.3 The process of institutional transition 30 4.4 Conflict and collaboration in the implementation of the Guidelines 31 4.5 Summary: the political settlement 36 5 Collective action and empowerment 38 5.1 The community and development in Panchayati Raj and the Guidelines 38 Collective action and empowerment in Panchayati Raj 41 5.3 Collective action and empowerment in the Guidelines 43 5.4 Summary 44 6 The project interface between Panchayati Raj and the Guidelines: constraints and potentials 45 6.1 The operation of the system from the state to the district 45 6.2 The intermediaries: NGOs, PIAs and PRIs 48 6.3 Gram Panchayats and community based watershed institutions 50 6.4 Equity in PRIs and WIs 54 6.5 Summary: roles and functions of Gram Panchayats and WIs 56 7 Accountability and sustainability in Panchayati Raj and the Guidelines 59 7.1 Accountability and transparency …