9 Social Planning Part II

Keshav Walke

Content Outline:

Ø  Goals of Social Planning

Ø  Process of Social Planning

Ø  Components of Social Planning

Ø  Why Social Planning

Ø  Social Planning in India, its organization and structure

Goals of social planning:

·   The general goal of all social planning is to “improve” society, but the definition of improvement differs, depending upon the underlying values of the social system.

·   Assuring justice and providing equal socio-economic opportunities to all and achieving economic progress and political stability can be said to be the meaning of

‘improvement’ in the Indian context,

·   Achieving increase in efficiency and widening democracy may mean improvement in the American context.

·  To improving environments and communities for populations such as children and youth, seniors, or immigrants, or address challenges such as housing, transportation or gambling and addiction. Regardless of the challenge a communities faces, a important goal common

   ·   To provide attention to the process a community undergoes to solve its challenges.

· To ensure collaboration between the communities for wide range of partnerships to address challenges, greater community knowledge and understanding is gained, strong relationships are formed and solutions can be realized.

Process of social Planning:

—  Make an assessment – Material, Capital and Human Resources of the country.

—  Formulate a Plan – for the most effective and balanced utilization of country’s resources.

—  Determination of priorities

—  Indicate factors and Determine the conditions – Social, Economical and political situation.

—  Determine the Tools/Techniques.

—  Monitoring at regular intervals – Progress in execution of each stage, Recommend adjustments of policy and measures.

Components of Planning:

a)   Spatial Component: Spatial plan would need to consider the physical resources, land use and all human settlements in a region right from smallest settlement to the city. The spatial component would be such as to guide the development programmes through a location blue print, ensure distributive justice and bring about rural-urban integration and continuity.

b)   Economic Component: Economic planning has traditionally been the case of core of planning, since a principle aim of development planning has been to increase employment and income. Essential prerequisites of economic planning are knowledge about the state of following in the district:

·          Resources;

·          Demographic features;

·          Agro economic features;

·          Socio-economic features;

·          Infrastructural factors

·          Sectoral profiles

c)    Social Component: The task of a plan is also to reduce social inequalities, provide social services and ensure public participation. For any plan, public participation is both an important tool and a goal for development since planning is the medium of social transformation and means to bridge the gap between government and the people.

d)   Administrative Component: success or failure of social planning is ultimately influenced by the political and administrative set up of planning machinery. Administrative arrangements of development were discussed in a number of workshops and committees in India. The working group on district planning in its 1984 report, considered the following administrative aspects for smooth functioning of planning process

·         Establishing mechanisms for coordination and implementation of plan;

·         Introducing procedural innovations for release of funds and procedures for effecting intersectoral and intra-sectoral transfers;

·         Establishing procedures for monitoring and review of schemes. C

Collaborative Planning:

Another important aspect of social planning is that of collaborative planning, in which the targeted community plays a significant role in the planning, design and implementation process.

Social planning is, by its nature, community based. As such, it requires the support of the whole community – from political leaders to key stakeholders to the general public. Without broad based support, a potentially successful plan may become a futile exercise relegated to a few interested individuals, with no community ownership or commitment. Only with community support will a plan lead to meaningful results.

To ensure collaborative planning, support must be sought even before the program is formally initiated. All major interest groups should be informed and given the opportunity to be represented, such as key officials, local managers, community stakeholders, informal leaders, institutions and existing community groups. Each group should be informed as to why a project has been proposed, how it is expected to work and what it hopes to accomplish in terms of outcomes and benefits to the community.

Involving the community allows for the project to be strongly geared to their values; provides a greater sense of ownership; ensures a shared community image of the future; and allows for the inclusion of additional ideas on the design and implementation of the project.

During the formal stages of a community planning exercise, there are a number of ways in which to include collaborative planning. Different types of community will require different forms of collaboration. In reality, a comprehensive process will only be possible where there is sufficient time and resources. Usually, the project coordinators will attempt to ensure a project has targeted representation, rather than attempt to include all of the public. These ‘representative’ groups should come from a cross-section of the community, and be chosen based on their orientation to the entire community. As such, some or all of the following methods may be utilized (see the Oregon Visions Project, 1998: 18):

§  Surveys on public attitudes and values

§  Public meetings

§  Planning workshops

§  Focus groups

§  Representative groups

§  Community tours

§  Newsletter and publications

§  Special events and activities

Another way of improving a project’s chances of success is to arrange a steering committee or task force run by the community. This helps to ensure the public’s involvement, and also helps the project reach its longer-term goals. These groups may oversee the implementation of the final design, review and approve policy decisions, or be involved in the grass roots planning stages. If the overall project is complex, it is advisable to ensure the committees include members of the public with a variety of skills, such as project management, practical abilities, and the “visionaries” who are able to see the community from a large scale and more creative aspect.

Finally, as part of the collaborative process, efficient and successful communication is crucial. In order to ensure the community feels they are involved and have ownership, they must be continuously be kept up to date with the status of the project. This allows them to understand “where they are” in the process, and what is expected of them. Good communication also assists the coordinators, in that by regularly providing updates, they are able to keep track of who needs to know what, and when.

Although collaborative planning, with its corresponding large numbers of views, interests and agendas, has the potential to become unwieldy, ultimately it is a vital tool in the goal of ensuring a broad representation of, and ownership by, the targeted community.

Who should be involved in social planning?

For social planning to work well, both policymakers and all stakeholders should at least be invited to participate; the more are actually represented, the better. “Stakeholders” is a term that includes all of those directly affected in some way by the potential policy changes or by the issues under discussion. Some examples of stakeholders include:

·   Those whom a policy is meant to benefit.

· Those whom a policy is meant to control in some way. Land use policy, for instance, may place restrictions on developers, so they should be represented in discussing and creating it, although their voice should not dominate. They are one interested party among many.

·  Those who will have to administer or enforce the policy.

· Those who work with or serve a population that is directed affected by a policy. This category may include health or human service workers, educators, clergy, etc.

·   Organizations or businesses that stand to gain or lose revenue or other resources, or will have to alter their mode of operation because of a potential change in policy.

·         Policymakers and public officials.

Why should policymakers engage in a participatory social planning process:

·         Community participation makes it more likely that you’ll come up with policy that’s effective. Without the knowledge of the history and social structure of the community that community members can contribute, there’s a risk of serious

error. Attempting to repeat something that didn’t work in the past, or assuming that particular groups will work together, when actually they’ve been at odds for years, can undermine a community development effort before it starts. Furthermore, community members can inform policymakers and planners of the real needs of the community, so that the most important problems and issues can be addressed.

· Community participation leads to community ownership and support of whatever initiatives come out of a social planning effort. When people have a hand in planning and decision-making, they feel that whatever plan is implemented is theirs, and therefore they’ll strive to make it work. The same is rarely, if ever, true about plans that are imposed on a community from outside.

·   Policymakers – particularly elected officials – can gain politically from involving the community. They will be seen as respecting their constituents, and will also gain respect and credibility if initiatives they sponsor prove effective. If they can help improve the quality of life for community members, their political capital will increase.

·Community members can inform policymakers about changes in circumstances that demand changes in policy over time. What is effective or appropriate today may not be in five years. Community participation puts eyes and ears in the community to pick up changes that policymakers may not be aware of, and to keep programs and initiatives from becoming outmoded or stale.

·  Community participation can create community relationships and partnerships among diverse groups who can then work together. By involving all sectors of the community, it can bring together groups and individuals who would normally not have – or might not want – contact with one another, and help them understand where their common interests lie.

· Community participation helps keep community building going over the long run. By placing planning and decision-making power partly or wholly with the community, the process assures that those who started the effort will remain interested and involved, and not be distracted by other issues, or by changes in the political climate.

· Community participation contributes to institutionalizing the changes brought about by changes in policy. Community members are far more likely to buy into policy that’s been created with the participation of all sectors of the community. Their support over time will lead to permanent change.

·   Community participation energizes the community to continue to change in positive directions. Once community members see what they can accomplish, they will be ready to take on new challenges. Community participation can change their attitude about what is possible – probably the single most important element to creating change.

Social Planning in India:

·  Jawaharlal Nehru, the architect of planning in India set up the national planning committee towards the end of 1938.

· He viewed planning as a way of developing the country avoiding the unnecessary rigours of an industrial transition in so far as it affected the lives of the masses living in India’s villages.

· Moreover, he recognized that planning was a positive instrument for resolving imbalances and contradictions in a large and heterogeneous country such as India.

·  The committee, set up by him, considered all aspects of planning and produced a series of studies on different subjects concerned with economic development. These, together with reports of earlier commissions and committees, prepared the ground for larger planned effort for the country after independence.

·  Just after the attainment of independence, government set up planning commission in 1950s to assess the country’s need of material capital and human resources so as to formulate plan for their balanced and effective utilization.

Objectives of Planning in India:

The Directive Principles of our Constitution visualizes an economic and social order based on equality of opportunity, social justice, and the right to work, right to an adequate wage and a measure of social security for all citizens. These directive principles provide a guideline of state policy.

Planning in India has to follow these guidelines and to initiate action, which will, in due course create, desired social and economic pattern. The directive principles are an expression of the will of people for economic growth and consequently the government adopted planning as a means for fostering economic and social development. Four long-term objectives were set out by the planners in India.

They were:

• To increase production to the maximum possible extent so as to achieve higher level of national and per capita income;
• To achieve full employment;
• To reduce inequalities of income wealth; and
• To set up a socialist society based on equality and justice and absence of exploitation.

Planning in India has thus been conceived as a comprehensive process of developing material and human resources in terms of defined social ends.

Structure of Planning in India:

The important feature of planning in India is that it operates in a democratic framework, through a federal system, involving concurrent planning at the national and state level.

The federal nature of India’s Constitution demands planning at least at two levels i.e. Union and States (economic and social planning being in the Concurrent list). However, in view of mixed economy resulting from a pluralistic socio-economic environment and the large size of some states, planning in India has to be viewed in terms of activities at different area and agency levels extending well beyond union and state framework.

• A multi-level structure of planning for the country based on the politico-administrative structure is shown in Table given below:

Approaches to Social Planning:

Approaches to social planning may be briefly recounted:

1. Sectoral Planning: Planning by individual sectors like education, health, housing and social security are included in sectoral planning. This approach advocates compartmentalization of development in different sectors as if these are watertight compartments and have nothing to do with each other. Its inadequacies stem from this compartmentalized approach. Little attempt is made to integrate them.
2. Area Development Approach: This approach contemplates that development of an area depends not only on the development of an adequate infrastructure network but also the way factors of the local economy are activated around the production infrastructure. In other words, for development of an area, spatial and functional integration is necessary. Thus, while rural growth centers provide ideal locations for the provision of infrastructural facilities, their hinterlands are regarded as basic planning units for integrated multi-sectoral planning to achieve integrated development of an area.

The approach, while taking area poverty into consideration, provides a balance between various sectoral activities as well as spatial pattern of growth; however, it does not ensure that economic growth is being shared by all classes and communities of the rural areas.

• Integrated Development Approach: In the context of problems in the area development approach as discussed above and the government policy to tackle the problems of rural poverty, a new strategy of development, i.e. the integrated development approach has been developed because the area development approach by and large failed to address the question of inequalities in the distribution of employment, incomes and assets. A mereical emphasis, as is the case with the area development approach, has been found to be inadequate in solving the problems. The Indian economy and social structure are characterized by widespread poverty, poor health conditions, illiteracy, exploitation, inequitable distribution of land and other assets and lack of infrastructure and public utilities (roads, communications etc). Clearly, this means that the problem requires an approach that will take into account all these factors in devising a comprehensive strategy to further rural development.

The concept of “integrated rural development” came into vogue with the need for a multipurpose thrust to rural planning. It stresses that various facets of rural development, which have an impact on rural life, are interrelated and cannot be looked at in isolation. Thus, an integrated approach towards rural development is essential. The various dimensions of rural life—growth of agriculture and allied activities, rural industrialization, education, health, public works, poverty alleviation and rural employment programmes — all form a part of an integrated approach to the problems of rural development.

References

1. Web links (Link of Wikipedia/Other Websites, e-journal articles/ Papers, Blogs, etc.)
2. http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195389678/obo-9780195389678-0123.xml
3. http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/promotion-strategies/social-planning-policy-change/main
4. http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/sociology/economic-institutions/social-planning-requisites-and-types-of-social-planning/31331
5. http://www.ignou.ac.in/upload/bswe-02-block5-unit-25-small%20size.pdf
6. http://www.urbancentre.utoronto.ca/pdfs/researchassociates/Social_Planning_SWK_ 4663_19.pdf
7. http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_196802_link.pdf
8. file:///C:/Users/Aman/Downloads/Social%20Planning%20JID%202003.pdf