Panchayats have been the backbone of the Indian Villages since the beginning of recorded history. Gandhiji, the father of the nation, in 1946 had aptly remarked that Indian independence must begin at the bottom and every village ought to be a Republic or panchayat having powers. Gnadhiji’s dream has been translated into reality with the introduction of the three tiers Panchayati Raj system to ensure people’s participation in rural reconstruction.
However, before moving onto any further discussion I think it is essential to take glimpse of why Gandhiji and later finally in 1992 Indian constitution also acknowledged this institution? Why this institution has become very much important for countries like India?
Piyush Mishra, Asha Singh, Ms. Roopashri stated in their paper Women’s Participation in Panchayati Raj for Improving Health Status: A Case for Uttar Pradesh,
Participation has become synonymous with the development projects. However, to find an ideal definition of ‘participation’ is a difficult task. The concept has been related with different ideologies, and has thus acquired different meanings. While some view participation as a result of a bottom up empowering process, others see it in a project context. The task is made more difficult since the two terms ‘people’ and ‘community’ do not reflect homogenous units. The spirit of participation lies in involving the peripheral layers of the development circle; of the weakest, poorest of the poor. ‘putting the last first’, should be an initiative, which includes especially the women, dalits, old people and children.
What is Panchayati Raj Institution?
There are numerous books which give every single subtle details of Panchayati Raj Institution. However, in this paper my prime concern is to give a glimpse of the Instituion. How does it work?, The structure of the system etc and therefore I have decided that the description of system , delineated by Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Esther Duflo is just appropriate in here.
The Panchayat is a system of village level (GP), block level (Panchayat Samiti) and district level (ZP) councils, members of which are elected by the people and are responsible for the administration of the local public goods. Each GP encompasses 10,000 people in several villages (between 5-15). The GPs do not have jurisdiction over urban areas, which are administered by separate municipalities. Voters elect a council, which then elects among its members a pradhan (chief) and an upapradhan (vice-chief). Candidates are generally nominated by political parties, but have to be residents of the villages they represent. The council makes decisions by majority voting (the pradhan does not have veto power). The pradhan, however, is the only member of the council with a full time appointment.
However, in here we should also remember that Panchayati system existed in India since 1950 but the system finally gets life after 73rd amendment in 1992. Before the amendment, people of Indian villages could not elect their Pradhan in Gram Panchayat. In fact the whole concept ‘Panchayat election’ has come after the 1992 with the establishment of framework of ‘three-tier’ system with regular election throught out India. Most importantly, it bestowed with responsibility of identifying the needs of villagers as well as implementing developmental programs. Indeed, since 1992, Panchayat has officially become symbol of rural development and empowerment of backward people of the nation. Now, I think I should mention the main features of 73rd amendment act of India which has added a new part in the constitution- Part Nine- consisting of 16 articles and 11th Schedule.
1) a three tier system of Panchayati Raj for all states having population of over 20 lakh;
2) Panchayat elections regularly every 5 years;
3) Reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Tribes and women (Art.243D), not less than 1/3 of seats
4) Apponting of state finance commission to make recommendations as regards the financial powers of the Panchayats and
5) Constitution of District Planning Committees to prepare development plans for the district as a whole.
In fact, after knowing about 73rd amendment and studying minutely some case studies, I want to find out following questions-
i) How much Scheduled castes Panchayat leaders are different from previous general or non-sheduled castes members in terms of their work and dedication towards development of respective area.
ii) How much their political empowerment helps them to diminish any kind oppression, which was previously in very dominant position?
iii) What villagers think about these scheduled castes leaders. Do they have greater expectation from them?
iv) The political background of these leaders.
To find out these answers I have selected Chandpur Panchayat of Rajarhat as my field of study.
The Chandpur Panchayat, Rajarhat, North 24 Pargana
Panchayat Pradhan – Mrs. Dolly Naskar
The meeting with Mrs Dolly Naskar, the first woman Scheduled caste pradhan of Chanpur Panchayat was not an easy process.
In my first day at Chanpur Panchayat, I did not see her in her office. I was told by one of the member of the panchayat that presently she was in vacation. She would join the office from Monday, 27th April 2009. Fortunately, one of the members gave me her number for fixing an appointment with her.
Initially, I thought I would get information from our telephone conversation, but due to upcoming Lok Sabha vote, she refused to answer any of my queries over the phone. It seems, that she did not want to take any chance. On 26th April evening, I called her up and fixed an appointment with her. In phone, she was sounding like a doting mother and more importantly a dedicated housewife. Initially, I was in aghast, could not find any semblance with the politicians I knew personally with her. She was more like an aunt of neighbourhood and when I first met with her, I reassured myself for making correct assumption about her.
She was very cordial and from her eloquence, I am sure anyone could find out her nascent political background. She informed me that she is the first scheduled caste woman Panchayat Pradhan of Chanpur. However, later whenever I tried to draw her Sheduled caste background in our discussion (or conversation), I felt she was not very comfortable with this background. I will back to this analysis later because I think before moving onto any further, I should mention her as a person very briefly.
She is the wife of clerk of Calcutta Telephones. They have two children, a daughter 18, is now giving her Higher Secondary exam and a son 16, presently waiting for results of Madhyamik or Secondary exam.
Inevitably, the first question, which came to my mind on that time, “why did you join politcs? Because from your description of your personal life it seems you have quite occupied with daily household work, then what prompts you to join a party and later contest election for Panchayat Pradhan?”
She replied “my family”
I was quite surprised by her answer and one of the panchayat member who was eventually also a lady and belong to scheduled caste, perhaps understood my amazement and she instantly prompted and answered the question on behalf of her “in fact she wants to mean that her family supported her a lot”
“but I did not want to know whether she would get her family support or not I wanted to know that what motivated her to join active politics and even contest for posts like this which is prestigious as well as requires much dedication and passion for doing something good for people?”
The pradhan then tried to say something but the other lady panchayat member again replied on behalf of her.
“it was growing corruption of left parties which acted as the main motivator for her to contest election on the ticket of Trinmul Congress.”
“so it was only the ‘left-politics’ which motivated you most? But did you ever feel that you or any of your family members became victim of untouchibility due to SC caste? Perhaps that motivates you to join politics. Perhaps you think through acquiring prestigious positions like this I could shrug off my identity as Scheduled caste?” I asked her.
Now she replied after doing a gesture to stop her subordinate member. Her facial expression on that time continuously warned me of something, which I should not talk about.
“Na! amra scheduled caste bole nijeder kokhono bhabini……amra birodhi party-er supporter bole dhirghodin dhore CPM amader bhoy dekhiyeche…sasiyeche…..nijeder netader pocket bhoriyeche…aar amra amader kotha bolte gele sasiyeche…..aami amader kotha bolbar jonyo Trinmul Congress join korechi…….”( We did not ever consider ourselves as scheduled castes. It is because we belong to opposition party, CPM continuously threatened us. I join Trinmul Congress only express our views.)
Again I started to ask, “tar mane apnar mone jaat-paat er dharona ta kokhonoi aaseni, politics-e join korbar somoy-e?” (That means Castism never ever came to your mind before entering into politics?)
She answered, “ Na! ekdom-i ….aami apnake ki bolte chaichi je CPM er sontrash er theke grambangla ke uddhar korbar lokhye aami politics join korechi.” (No! Why don’t you understand I came into politics only because I want to emancipate villagers from Terror of CPM).
I understood that she is just babbling some petty lines, which could be frequently heeded in any Election Campaign of Opposition party. Moreover, I also realized that she wants to establish the fact that it is ‘terror’ of ruling party, which provoked her to contest election for Panchayat leader. But perhaps the most striking feature which drawn all of my attention is that she indeed does not bother about her scheduled caste identity. It seems she is much more concerned about establishing her political identity which undoubtedly most fascinating to note. However, on the spur of the moment her uncomfortness helped me to decide that it would not be wise to prolong this discussion of ‘Scheduled Caste’ allegiance with her name. Therefore, I have moved to my next question
Q. did you ever join student politics in your college days or school days?
(Apni ki kokhono student politics –e join korechilen jokhon school kinba college e chilen) ?
A. Na! aamader school-e esob kichui chilo na ….aar aami college-e khub kom giyechi karon amar tokhon ami bibahito (No! in my school we have not seen any kind of political activism and I did attend very few classes in my college because by that time I already got married).
Q. apnar eei kota din-er Panchayat Pradhan hisabe obhigyota kamon? Aar apnar Kormosuchi sombondhe jodi kichu bolen? (would you please share your experience as Panchayat Pradhan even in these few days? And would you please share your future plans as Pradhan )
A. obhigyota bhaloi overall. Sudhu ekta kotha na bole parchi na …..ager panchayat Pradhan sotti-I kichui koren ni…..aar eto Panchayat-er taka noy choy koreche je ki bolbo….sudhu tai noy apni jodi khonj nen jante parben BPL, Indira Abash Jojona, sob kheteri ager Panchayat eto kruti je segulo ke sodhrate onek somoy lagbe…..
Kormosuchi to serokom kichu hoy na tamon Panchayat-er jonyo...ja Jela Parishad theke suchi aasbe tai Panchayat gulor modhye bhag kore deoya hoy….tobe ekhetre ekta asubidha-r sommukhin amra hochi ta holo….amra jehetu TMC er tai amader bibhinyo pokolpo theke bad diye deoya hoche. sudhu tai noy onek khetre amara nijera chanda tule manush-er seba korchi….jamon dhorun e bochor-er Madhyamik ebong Uccho madhayamik porikhar aage amara nijera taka tule oder test paper kine diyechi.
(the experience over all is very nice. However, I must mention in here that previous Pradhan of Panchayat did not do anything……..he was involved in massive corruption…..you can find out how whether it’s B.P.L or Indira Abash Jojona, everywhere they marked their sign of insincerity and corruption which need some times for mending.
We cannot make our own future plans. Generally, the Zila Parshad decided it then sends it to Panchayat Samiti and Samiti finally distributed those plans to various Panchayats. But in our case, we are facing a problem, due to the reason that we belong TMC we are often discriminated from many developmental projects.. Thus, now on many occasions, we tried to help people after collecting money from all members of the panchayat. For instance, in this year we have collected money for giving ‘Test Papers’ to students who are giving their Madhyamik (Secondary board exam) and Higher Secondary. )
Q. kichu mone korben na aami abar Scheduled Caste prosonge asschi karon amar paper ta ota niyei muloto (please do not mind because again I am going to ask you related to scheduled caste. In fact my paper will focus on that issue primarily)
A. Thik aache bolun ki jante chan (it’s okay! Tell me what do you want to know)
Q. apni Pradhan hobar pore kokhono ki emon hoyeche je apni kothao theke apomanito hoyechen scheduled caste bole? (after elected as Panchayat Pradhan, did you ever face any discrimination or anyone insults you because of your scheduled caste identity?).
She was smiling and I finally relieved to see that she did not get angry.
A. Na! ekta sotti kotha ki janen amader ekhane apni kon jati-r seta niye manush beshi matha ghamay na. Borong apni ki party koren seta onek beshi gurutyo purno. Ebong sotti kotha bolte ki amra jara birodhi party kori tara sokolei kom beshi jibone-r jhunki niye kaaj kori..
(No! in fact to be very honest, in here it is more important to know which political party you are supporting than whether you are scheduled caste or not. And indeed, people like us who are actively supported the opposition; we knew that we are working at risk of our life.)
Q. jesob sadharon manush sasok dol-er pokhye tara kamon apnar songe babohar koren?
(people who are staunch supporter of ruling party, how do they behave with you?)
A. dekhun aami to sob somoy aar tader songe dekha korchi na, tobe tader kache amra onek tai ochut. (see I do not always mingle with them, but undoubtedly they are treated us like an untouchable)
The last answer quite significant in many ways however, before moving onto evaluation of my field study, I should mention what indeed people think about the present Panchayat Pradhan and whether she is ever treated as ‘ochut’ or ‘untouchable’ due to her allegiance with opposition party.
Chandpur Pnachayat
People’s view
The rickshowpuller: -
When I first asked him do you know who is your Panchayat Pradhan.
He replied “kon ooi meye cheleta? Na jani na”( who? that ‘woman’, however in Bengali the word ‘meyecheleta’ used not only derogatory meaning to describe about a woman but it also signifies less respect for the woman). Therefore, I instantly found a sheer contempt for the Panchayat leader. But what is the reason? Did he use the term ‘meyechele’ only because the leader is a woman? Or she belongs to scheduled castes? To my utter surprise, I found that none of these identities not at all matter for that rickshaw-puller. The only identity he knows about the Panchayat leader is that the leader belongs to the opposition party. I thought he might be the staunch supporter of ruling lefts but later, when I asked him about what did he think about the panchayat at a glance, he gave me even more insightful answer.
He told me “what do we get from panchayat? Nothing. It has become an institution to increasing wealth for rich classes. We only know that building of Panchayat office is there but the office is not for us. I do not find any differences between the party that ruled now at panchayat and the previous one.” I found the true voice of people, diminishing my every possible assumption about him.
I again asked him “apni ki janen je ekhon jinni Panchayat Pradhan tini ekjon ongrosor jati-r ontorbhukto(do you know that the present Pradhan actually is Scheduled Caste)?
He replied “Na (No)”.
Q. Ta apni ektu Panchayat-er kaaj-e sontusto non (so you are not at all satisfied with the work of Pnachayat)?
A. Na! ektuo na amader Indira Gram Abash jojona er ghor pabar kotha chilo koi dilo nato…..dilo nijer lokder …jara oder party kore…..(No! not at all! We should get homes under Indira Gram Abash Youjna….but they gave those homes to their supporters).
he told me his name and surname which clearly signify his general caste. He is fifty six years old.
After talking with the Rickshaw-puller when I started to think that inhere unlike many other villages, at least people can even express their contempt, animadversions to even strangers like me, again my reverie broke. My next person completely denied to say anything about Panchayat because he did not want to get into any ‘mess’. He said “na dada! Aami kichu bolbo na….aami sonsari manush aami kono esob party politics-er jhalemay porte chain a (sorry brother! I can not say anything about Panchayat …I’m a family man …I don’t want to get into any trouble!). Despite my much attempt to comprehend him that I was asking about only Panchayat and its leader who is eventually a scheduled caste from complete opposite perspective from ‘party-politics’ and I’m a student, not a reporter or publicist of any party or political leader, he refused to comment anything about workings of panchayat. When I finally asked him ‘do u ever visit panchayat office?’ he replied long before when I was teenager. He is now forty four.
My next respondent is a survey researcher working on a N.G.O. but did not mention the name of N.G.O and requested me not to mention his name either. When I explained him about what I want to seek, he assured me that he could help me because he not studied this area since 1990 but also since childhood he frequently visits Chanpur. I start my conversation with him.
Q.what kind of differences you can see in the workings of Panchayat in pre-resevation era and post- reservation era?
A. In initial years. I thought the differences would have become very stark but to my surprise, gradually I do not find any differences.
Q. why are you saying this?
A. I can give you an example. In fact, I have studied a lot about how the list of B.P.L (Below Poverty Line) is made? Because the reports are coming that large numbers of people are dying due to starvation while Panchayat have released annual report of B.P.L. when I start to my survey that was in pre-reservation period. On that time the people could not choose their leaders in Panchayat. What I have found not only a very deep corruption in making the list of B.P.L.
In here I interrupted and asked him.
Q. How do you know that?
A. There are some requirements to enter your name in the list B.P.L. like for example, the family should not have a home made of bricks, electricity, bicycle and most importantly the monthly income have to be below Rs.1700. But when I got the list of B.P.L of 1990 and started to find what are their actual positions now, I not only found that many of them have already died but most importantly many of them can not include in BPL category in any way. I told you for example, an answer of a old man who on that time lived in a two storied house of bricks but also three of his children on that time had started to income more than Rs.1700 each, when I asked the old man how his name still in list BPL, why did not he inform panchayat that he could not be part of B.P.L category. He replied, “babu cholera amay khete dei na! B.P.L card-i amar sombol (my children did not tae care of me, they did not even feed me so this B.P.L card is my only ……”. Moreover, you know the most striking feature is when I first studied about B.P.L, in1990 and again in recent times I have found that lots of names did not remove from B.P.L list despite their death or even migration from the area.
Q. then where these resources gone?
A. hmmm….here lies the corruption. In here, you need to show your allegiance towards a particular political party in order to entry your name in the B.P.L . It has become an instrument of mobilization of people.
Q. so what is your take on the reservation?
A. reservation for SC/ST and women does not help much to accelerate the workings of panchayat. I don’t know about other states but I do not find any change between your ‘pre-era’ and post. Power makes everybody similar.
Q. why do you say this? Now suppose in here I mean in chandpur the present Panchayat Pradhan is a woman as well as a Scheduled Caste. Don’t you think she can take brighter steps for scheduled castes and women?
A. what kind of steps you mean to say? Even before her the leader was from backward community and member of ruling party. I did not see any step he had taken during his tenure in order to ameliorate the position of scheduled castes. In fact, you know, in villages like Chandpur, you can not identify who belongs to scheduled caste and who belongs to general and bramhinical caste unless you asked their surname, because in here you can not find untouchibility. People in here largely known by their political association specially in this time.
Q. do you have any expectation from this new Pradhan?
A. ask people of chandpur.
Conclusion:-
After my field survey, I got all answers of my questions but there are bevy of questions which will easily arise as a result of closer inspection of these answers. For example, answers panchayat pradhan of chandpur, she vehemently rejected any discrimination in the name of caste in west Bengal, but how could I forget her facial expression, which tried to conceal her Scheduled caste identity? Why she is uncomfortable with her identity if there is no such discrimination?
Moreover, it is clear that in west Bengal the identity of political allegiance is much more essential than the identity of caste. However, a closer inspection can easily show us that castism even in west Bengal played a very important role in a very subtle way. For example, in chandpur Panchayat, till 1990, every Panchayat Pradhan belongs to Bramhan clan. This very fact clearly indicates the domination of higher caste in parties but as I am mentioning in a very subtle way. I am using the term ‘subtle’ only show that unlike Maharastra , Uttar Pradesh, in west Bengal, the hatred towards Scheduled Castes and Tribes is much less intense although we can not ignore the fact that before the implementation of the 73rd amendment act, we did not find any scheduled caste or tribes Panchayat Pradhan in west Bengal. In here it should also be remembered that west Bengal adopted this decentralized model even just after Left has taken the power in end of 1970s.
However, after heeding people’s perception, I do not think that the real empowerment of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes could ever possible without promotion of proper training and education. For example, Mrs Dolly Naskar was quite hesitant to mention her educational qualification. In fact, without proper training and education I firmly believe these newly elected leaders from backward community will soon take the same carton of ‘ruler’ which indeed diminish any discrimination between previous and present situation.
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