E-PANCHAYAT A REVOLUTION

Transcription

1 E-PANCHAYAT A REVOLUTION Ms. Sonali Jindal 1, Dr. Vinay Ojha 2 1 PGDM Student, IAMR, Ghaziabad, India 2 Assistant Professor, Department of MBA, KIET Ghaziabad, India ABSTRACT Panchayat is an elected village council in India. The word panchayat means assembly (ayat) of five panch and raj means rule. Traditionally these assemblies settled disputes between individuals and between villages. But now to improve the quality of governance of these PRIs has initiated the e-governance scheme known as e- Panchayats. E-panchayat is a functional and dynamic digital platform and working station designed and created for each Pancahyat. The main objective of e-panchayat is to empower citizens of every panchayat with bottom up and top down information and content. Ramchandrapuram village near Hyderabad, has become India s first e-panchayat, enabling villagers to settle disputes through an express web-enabled system. The Information and communication technologies play an important role in rural development. So e-panchayatis a need of present scenario. The objective of this paper is to know the e-panchayat for rural development. The paper also describes what are action taken by the government. I. INTRODUCTION The panchayat raj is a south Asian political system found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Trinidad, Tobago and Nepal. Panchayat literally means assembly (yat) of five (panch) wise and respected elders choosen and accepted by the village community. The leader of the panchayat was often called mukhiya or sarpanch. Panchayats have been the backbone of the Indian villages. Mahatma Gandhi advocated panchayat raj as the foundation of Indian s political system. It would have been a decentralized form of government where each village would be responsible for its own affairs. Panchayat or panchayati raj is a system of governance in which gram panchayat are the basic units of administration. It has 3 levels: village,block and district levels. In the history of Panchayati raj in India,on 24 April 1993, the constitutional (73rd amendment) Act,1992 came intoforce to provide constitutional status to the Panchayati raj institutions. This act was extended in Panchayats in tribal areas of eight states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan from 24 December Now Panchayati raj system exists in all the states except Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram and Also all the Ups except Delhi. II. BRIEF ABOUT OF START OF PANCHAYAT The genesis of Panchayat Raj dates back to 1958, when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru popularized the ideas after the recommendations of the Community Development Programme (1952) and the National Extension Service (1953), were approved by the NDC (National Development Council). Nehru actually coined this term as an extension of Gandhiji s belief, that each village should be made responsible for its own affairs. His vision of village self-governance (Gram Swaraj). The objective behind establishing such a system is to take democracy to the village level, by delegating powers to the people at the grass roots level. Rajasthan was the 797 P a g e

2 first state to adopt Panchayat Raj in The implementation of the act (PanchayatSamiti and ZilaParishadAct of September 2, 1959) came into effect from October 2 when Panchayati raj was formally launched from Nagaur. Andhra Pradesh had launch soon after,on October 11 while Assam, Karnataka,and madras had it in The state of Maharashtra had launch in One by one all the other states follow the suit later. III. ROLE OF PANCHAYAT The role of panchayats varies from state to state in the implementation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSs), which are administered by Central Ministries. Further, since Panchayat is a states subject, states vary in the extent to which they devolve role and responsibilities to Panchayats in planning, implementation and monitoring of different CSSs. Among the major CSSs, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGS), Saakshar Bharat Mission, Indira AwasYojna(IAY) and National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP),provide significant roles and responsibilities to Panchayats. Gram Panchayats are given financial aids on recommendations of state finance commission. SampoornaSwachchtaAbhiyan (Complete Cleanliness Mission) is a programme financed by the Indian Government with an objective to provide toilets to all rural families by the end of year IV. E-PANCHAYAT Ramchandrapuram village near Hyderabad, has become India s first e-panchayat, enabling villagers to settle disputes through an express web-enabled system.the Andhra Pradesh unit of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has implemented the pilot project labeled as, The Electronic Knowledge-based Panchayat (EKPanch) project. E-panchayat is a software product conceptualized, designed and developed by National Informatics Centre, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, as a part of its e governance initiatives. E-Panchayat has been designed taking into consideration all the information and knowledge management requirements in a Gram Panchayat. There are approximately panchayats in India mapped by NIC and ministry of Pancahyati Raj on the Ministrywebsite under the project called E-Panchayat. However,it is difficult to find any information about single Panchayat. With this background the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)and the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) initiated and rolled forward the concept of Digital PanchayatProgramme across the nation.e-panchayat means a web based dynamic digital interface created for each and every panchayat in India, giving information about particular Panchayat in a two way flow of content. The objective is to facilitate and improve Panchayat functioning on day-to-day basis,through two way flow of information and content. V. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN E-PANCHAYAT AND PANCHAYAT The 73rd amendment of the constitution is a watershed development that could genuinely impact the role of panchayati raj institution in self-governance. The software facilitates generation of certificates. Rural local governments (henceforth referred to as Panchayats) have been given a wide range of powers and duties related to rural development, implementation of anti-poverty programs, job creation, rural marketing, social and political empowerment of weaker sections of the society, and so on. Panchayats are also instrumental in mobilizing the dwellers and other agencies for designing and implementing rural development initiatives that 798 P a g e

3 are more adapted to local needs payment gateway for citizens, E-sign facility for Panchayat functionaries SMS and alerts. The computerization of all 3-tiers of PRIs i.e. Zila Praja Parishad, Mandal Praja Parishad (block) and Gram Panchayats. It creates an environment in which people feel empowered, establishes a system that ensures people can easily avail their fundamental rights to information, and broadens the scope of local government. Establishment of the e-panchayat in every village across the country is an elaborate process. ICT intervention should not be understood in isolation. ICTs function in a socio-cultural, political, and economic milieu. Their efficacy is contingent on the various forces and realities that coalesce to shape the environment into which they are introduced. To equip every Panchayat with a computer and to provide it with Internet connectivity would not be an easy task, if we look at the current status of Internet connectivity and other prerequisites for ICT enabled system of governance in rural areas. A workable system of e-panchayats warrants financial resources, computer applications, skilled human resource and political will. VI. Places Where E-Panchayat Are Carried Out In India Several state governments have also taken initiatives to set up the e-panchayats to facilitate the development process and provide easy access to information to citizens. States such as Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Haryana have set up Panchayat portals to provide information regarding development schemes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, organizational/departmental set up, developmental policies, annual reports, notification, evaluation reports of development programmes, status of development schemes, revenues etc. Ramchandrapuram village near Hyderabad, has become India s first e-panchayat,enabling villagers to settle disputes through an express webenabled system. The Andhra Pradesh unit of NIC has implemented the pilot projects labeled as, EKPanchproject. Now, taking the online services to the doorsteps of panchayats, the Telangana government has kicked off the e-panchayat initiative. Also called PalleSamagraSevaKendram(PSSK). These service would be available in 100 panchayats,including 23 in Karimnagar, 13 in khammam and an 10 in Nizamabad districts.in an effort to take e-governance to the grass-roots level, telanganapanchayat raj department is set to launch e-panchayat initiative soon in DomakondaMandal of Nizamabad District. E-panchayatprogramme will cover 18 gram panchayats and all of them will be connected with internet, enabling them to offer a wide range of services to the rural people. VII. BEST E-PANCHAYAT IN INDIA 2015 Maharashtra has won the first place for the best E-Panchayat in the country, and has bagged an award of 50 lakh, followed by West Bengal at the second position who was awarded Rest. 30 lakh. The third position was shared by Tamil Nadu and Bihar, each winning a cash amount of Rest. 20 lakh. The awards were given on April 24,2015, on the occasion of Panchayati Raj Day. 16 Gram Panchayats were awarded the RashtriyaGauravGramaSabha(RGGS) Puraskar. 799 P a g e

4 Under the Rajiv Gandhi PanchayatSashktikaranPuraskar for , the highest award was given to Uttar Pradesh, where 30 Panchayats were selected and 332 lakh has been given to them VIII. TRANSFORMATION OF THOSE VILLAGES In a major push for digitization and digital empowerment of villages in Maharashtra, the state government is rolling out an ambitious plan to connect all gram panchayats through an optical fiber network. On May 1, chief minister DavendraFadnavis launched the digital village scheme in five gram Panchayats in his home district of Nagpur. These gram Panchayats were enabled with 4mbps connectivity with assured Wi-Fi hotspots and use of this facility for e-education, e-health, e-agriculture and G2C services. 800 P a g e

5 IX. USE OF IT IN PANCHAYAT The e-pri campaign aims to progressively support all State Governments and Panchayats in the country to make effective use of IT in various activities defined below-. Improving internal management processes and decision making in Panchayats Panchayats using IT as a tool for transparency, disclosure of services to Citizens and social audit Enabling Panchayats to better deliver its mandated services to the Citizens through IT. Panchayats using IT for electronic tagging and tracking of funds transferred to Panchayats from higher level of governments, including rapid bank transfer of funds, tracking fund transfers to, expenditures of the Panchayats. X. KEY CHALLENGES IN E-PANCHAYAT The key challenges being faced for implementation of computerization in Panchayat include The issue of electricity comes first. More than half of the rural households are still not connected with electricity. Most Gram (village) Panchayat representatives and villagers are not computer-literate; even a simple computer application would be difficult to handle for them. Content creation in local language is another challenge. English is still an alien language in rural areas. High Capacity Building No Back-end support at all levels of PRIs/ PR Departments for Operationalising computerization of services 136 No Centralized decision support system ( MIS) for monitoring the Schemes and taking informed decisions The genuine problems of infrastructure and other prerequisites for epanchayats in rural India. Application of ICT is a political issue because it has the potential to transform the socio-political dynamics of national and local polity. XI. PROCESS OF E-GOVERNANCE The process of e-governance has already been started. The Government of India has decided to open one lakh common services centers across the country under National e-government Plan (NeGP) in order to make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, and ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man. ( Now the Government of India has initiated the process to equip all Gram Panchayats with computers, or provide access to computers with broadband connectivity. All Panchayats at all levels need to be equipped with computing hardware and connectivity over the next few years. The approach would be to first use the kiosks being set up under the NeGP s Common Services Centres initiative. For the remaining Panchayats, it is proposed to engage independent service providers who would be selected on the basis of a bidding process. It has been also planned to equip all Panchayats with necessary software and skills to handle e-governance for better delivery of services to citizens. The other major component of epanchayats would be that of capacity building of functionaries of Panchayati Raj Institutions. The 801 P a g e

6 infrastructure that is proposed to be created through e-pri would be utilised for training of elected representatives about their responsibilities and for giving them functional knowledge of the schemes that are implemented through the Panchayats or their statutory committees.( D. K. Jain, epanchayats in India, I4D, Vol. 7, No. 4, April 2009, pp. 6) XII. ACTION TAKEN BY INDIAN GOVERNMENT Governments at both the central and state levels have the vision and strategies to bridge the digital divide and provide supporting infrastructure in rural areas to enhance the capacity of Panchayats. Under the Bharat Niram programme, the Government of India has emphasized connectivity and other basic facilities. The Ministry of Power has introduced a scheme that aims at providing electricity in all villages and habitations within four years, thereby providing access to electricity to all rural households.(ministry of Power, Government of India, Bharat Nirman-Electrification)It has been also proposed to achieve a rural tele-density of 25 per cent by means of 200 million rural connections by the end of the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The Eleventh Five Year Plan has also targeted providing broadband connectivity for all secondary and higher secondary schools, all public health care centers and Gram Panchayats. (Ministry of Finance, Government of India, Economic Survey , p.247) XIII. KEY CHALLENGES IN E-PANCHAYAT The key challenges being faced for implementation of computerization in Panchayat include The issue of electricity comes first. More than half of the rural households are still not connected with electricity. Most Gram (village) Panchayat representatives and villagers are not computer-literate; even a simple computer application would be difficult to handle for them. Content creation in local language is another challenge. English is still an alien language in rural areas. High Capacity Building No Back-end support at all levels of PRIs/ PR Departments for Operationalising computerization of services 136 No Centralized decision support system ( MIS) for monitoring the Schemes and taking informed decisions The genuine problems of infrastructure and other prerequisites for epanchayats in rural India. Application of ICT is a political issue because it has the potential to transform the socio-political dynamics of national and local polity. XIV. PROCESS OF E-GOVERNANCE The process of e-governance has already been started. The Government of India has decided to open one lakh common services centers across the country under National e-government Plan (NeGP) in order to make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, and ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man. ( Now the Government of India has initiated the process to equip all Gram Panchayats with computers, or provide access to computers with broadband connectivity. All Panchayats 802 P a g e

7 at all levels need to be equipped with computing hardware and connectivity over the next few years. The approach would be to first use the kiosks being set up under the NeGP s Common Services Centres initiative. For the remaining Panchayats, it is proposed to engage independent service providers who would be selected on the basis of a bidding process. It has been also planned to equip all Panchayats with necessary software and skills to handle e-governance for better delivery of services to citizens. The other major component of epanchayats would be that of capacity building of functionaries of Panchayati Raj Institutions. The infrastructure that is proposed to be created through e-pri would be utilised for training of elected representatives about their responsibilities and for giving them functional knowledge of the schemes that are implemented through the Panchayats or their statutory committees.( D. K. Jain, epanchayats in India, I4D, Vol. 7, No. 4, April 2009, pp. 6) XV. HOW TO IMPLEMENT E-PANCHAYAT Once e-panchayat is developed, it would be possible to know how government schemes are being implemented through the local bodies. To be integrated directly with Panchayats portals at state and national levels, it would provide complete data like infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate, child enrolment at the primary level, status of rural infrastructure like roads, land development, rural electrification, community assets, woman and child development, drinking water supply, poverty alleviation programmes, and so on. XIV. DIT S E-GOVERNANCE RELATED STRATEGIC PLAN FOR NEXT FIVE YEARS The Government of India launched the National e-governance Plan (NeGP) in May, 2006, with the vision to make all government services accessible to the common man in his locality through common service delivery outlets and to ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man. Under NeGP, 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and 8 Support Components have been identified that cover activities related to the individual Line Ministries / Departments under the Central and State Governments. Setting up of State Wide Area Networks Setting up of State Data Centres Setting up of additional Common Services Centres Appraisal of Mission Mode Projects Implementation of Capacity Building Scheme Strengthening of SeMTs Provide High speed & Secured e-governance Network Design, develop and implementation of E-Gov applications The eight action items as described above were then clubbed into four broader areas under which the Working Group proposed to prepare its strategy document. These four areas are: e-governance, Infrastructure, Network Services and Security Emerging Technologies Human Resource infrastructure for e-governance Accelerating delivery of services through development of e-gov applications and identifying enablers for e- Governance 803 P a g e

8 The Working Group also identified the following goals for DIT under e-government core area: Identify the Non-technology related areas where DIT can intervene Define the enablers for e-governance Government and concurrently define the number of services that will be accessible to the citizen through these touch points Identify the mechanism to encourage the participation of Indian IT industry into egovernance. The three areas to be studied are: 1. Technology Development Supporting government into building government services Encourage industry into service delivery domain 2. Define a methodology to make citizen access points more ubiquitous 3. Explore the use of next level of technology i.e. using technology as a service The strategy plan under e-government has been developed keeping in mind the four areas identified by the Working Group and aligning them to the identified goals mentioned above. XV. VISION AND PURPOSE The following vision and purpose have been identified as part of the strategy for egovernment: 17.1 Vision Inclusive development of India through creation of shared and affordable e-service infrastructure and to facilitate e-delivery of public services in order to transform India into a truly developed and empowered society by Purpose To leverage Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in all aspects of governance including its internal business processes, external interfaces with the citizens and the businesses, for delivery of government services. XVI. SWOT ANALYSIS An analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats with regard to the long term outcome goals and results, as defined in the previous section, is as follows: Strengths Weakness Experience of over 4 years of e-governance project Most of the Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) are still in implementation and program management under the implementation stage NeGP Widespread willingness to take up egovernance Slow change management within Government with initiatives within and outside governments little or no mechanism for feedback from the citizens Low levels of computer/english literacy coupled with low availability of local language content are the major hindrances towards adoption of e-governance service delivery mechanisms 804 P a g e

9 Manifold increase in the outreach of mobile telephony has opened up the possibility of utilizing these technologies as alternate channels for public service delivery. DIT has established a National egovernance Division (NeGD) at the central level and several State emission Teams (SeMTs) across various states/ UTs. This institutional structure is already assisting the State IT Departments in planning, execution and project management of their e-govprogrammes An increasing amount of funds are becoming available at the disposal of central and state government for carrying out e-governance initiatives Opportunities The cost of hardware is continuously decreasing. This will promote the growth of ICT at the grass root level. This growth can then be leveraged by the Government in providing public services to the citizen. Low cost of mobile telephony is strengthening the outreach of mobile telephony at the rural level A model for financial inclusion of the rural poor using mobile technology has already been approved by the Government. This model can now be implemented in order to take the banking and other government services to the citizen s door step With the increased media coverage and multiple channels for awareness building, the expectations of citizens from the Government are very high. The overall sphere of e-governance is expanding at a fast pace and an increasing number of private sector players are showing interest in partnering with the Government. This will propel competition and will Low levels of broadband penetration are impacting the outreach of e-governance applications to only limited number of households. Still a majority of Central and State Ministries/Departments do not have the required manpower for executing egovernance projects and hence they are primarily dependent upon external consultants. Majority of the funds placed at the disposal of Central/State Governments are either unutilized or being spent on departmental infrastructure. There is a need for proper planning and utilization of these project funds. Threats. The manpower costs are continuously increasing.. The access cost for the broadband and other network access services need to come down. Without these the internet penetration levels may not increase and hence the real benefits of e-governance will be difficult to realize In order to implement a uniform policy/framework, a consensus from a number of ministries / departments / external stakeholders is required. In the absence of such a consensus, the policy/framework may not get implemented Low availability of local language content and delays in the project implementation may negate the expectations and affect acceptability Contracting difficulties may scare away the private sector 805 P a g e

10 bring the necessary competencies to the Government There is an increasing amount of talent available in the private sector that can utilized by the Government for building necessary capacities at various levels Computer and English Literacy has still not picked up as part of school education curriculum in India, more so at the village level. The job opportunities at the rural level may therefore remain limited. 1. Implementation Roadmap An indicative implementation roadmap to achieve various goals identified by DIT as part of its strategy plan is as follows: Timeline Action Items Year-1 Discussion with various stakeholders and constitution of different teams to conceptualize in detail the various solutions and policies identified Taking necessary approvals on various policy initiatives from the appropriate authorities Year-2 Program Management of policy initiatives to ensure Year-3 their execution within the stipulated time Year-4 Implementation of policy initiatives in phased manner Assessment Refinement of policy initiatives Year-5 Formulation of strategic plan for the next five years XVII. CONCLUSION Lastly, I conclude that epanchayats are the need of the hour as people in rural areas are still deprived of basic facilities for a decent life. They should be provided with adequate technological resources in order to be able to play a meaningful role in the course of development. REFERENCES [1] timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city [2] launches country s first e-panchayat [3] [4] Egov.eletsonline.com [5] Epanchayat.in [6] [7] shubharthi.blogspot.com,importance of e-panchayat for rural development in india [8] of panchayati raj institutions in rural development [9] m.thehindubusinessline.com/national 806 P a g e

11 [10] Maharashtra,with 85 points,becomes the best epanchayat in india [11] C. S.R. Prabhu (2007), Cost Effective Solution for Effective e-governance-e-panchayat, Computer Society of India, accessed on 11th September 2009, [12] Department of Information Technology, (Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India), CSC Implementation Status Across India as on August 31, 2009, accessed on 17th September 2009, [13] D. K. Jain, epanchayats in India, I4D, Vol. 7, No. 4, April 2009, [14] [15] Ministry of Power, Government of India, Bharat Nirman-Electrification, available at P a g e