37 E- Panchayat

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Role of IT in Empowering PRIs

 

The development of civilization, information and communication technologies plays a vital important.Advancements of technologies in this area support this fact. With the improvement of digital age and development, information plays a important role and for the economic development.

 

Information technology (IT)

 

Information technology (IT) implies toolslike telecommunication, internet, etc. which facilitate paperlesselectronic production, transmission and processing of data in real time. Like any other new technology , IT has also the potential of double- edged impact on the process of social development, but the IT Policies of the Centre and the States seem to generally hold that if any technology can create new opportunities to bridge the gap between the haves and have -nots in society in the present times, it is IT.

 

IT aids in the process of development by sharing knowledge, increase productivity, overcoming geographical boundaries and procedural openness. Though modern media are considered to be very poor source forchanging the attitude level of the audience, but they are good source of creating awareness and imparting complete knowledge about a topic. IT leads not only to increase in supply of information with economy and reliability, but also consequently, to better decision making and innovations.

 

IT alsoenhances productivity through the creation of new models for turning inputs into products and/ or services. An organization learns andadapts tonew technologies .In a study for the World Bank , Jeremy Grace et.al. (2004) find that IThas the potential to promote rural incomes. The study also suggests that networking and informing sharing also lead to demands for greater openness and transparency. It is powerful tool of empowerment and might be helpful in consolidating democracy. It can improvegovernance in three district, yetoverlapping ways.

  • Firstly , it creates efficiency benefits’ in the policy cycle. By acquisition, transfer and management of complex policy information and data, it helps decision-makers in taking an informed decision.
  • Secondly , they improve and data, it helps decision- makers in taking an informed decision and they improve the delivery of government services.
  • Thirdly , the government – civil society interface gets a  facelift by increased access to government information and facilitating dialogue and public feedback  on government projects and performance. The study further adds In areas as diverse as tax administration, fiscal planning and administration , and economic reforms, ICT plays an increasingly important role in helping policy- makers and administrators to better manage the provision of public goods and services. At both the national andlocal levels, ICTS can enhance basic infrastructure services such as water, sanitation and electricity, speed up the approval requests.

   Information technology  as an  successful  tool to  connect  millions  of people  and  to  the government. To get  benefit in this sector, the both central and state  IT policies highlights application of IT to bring aboutSMART ((Simple,  Moral,  Accountable,  responsive  and transparent) governance. 73rd constitutional amendment act, panchayat raj institutions are no more units of self government. IT for mass perceives IT providing a unique and new opportunity, to address age-old problems in the field of education, health, rural development, poverty alleviation , employment etc. and be a major facilitatory for information transparency, good governance, empowerment, participatory management and grassroots democracy.

 

IT enabled PRIs or e-panchayat   does not   mean merely   computerization   of backroom offices, but  encompasses  a  wide  range    of  activities  and  actors.  This  can  result  in  4-dimenstional interface:

 

P2P –

P2B,-

P2G and

P2E.

  • P2P (Panchayat to Panchayat) may involve sharing of data andconduct of electronic exchanges amongst different tiers of the PRIs . This also mayentail horizontal information- sharing withother agencies. In their geographical jurisdiction. District panchayatLAN would be connected to higher levels of the government through the internet. DMIS (District Management Information System), based on botton-up approach would utilize the LAN. P2P would help in better coordination of resources, comprehensive planning andeffective implementation.
  • P2B (Panchayat to Business)may involve sale of surplus PRI’S goods to the public a well as procurement of goods and services by them. This would require the maintenance of electronic catalogues for purchasing , electronic tender floating and displaying the award and terms of the contract on the net. This may lead to improved transparency and accountability in the transactions of the PRIs
  • P2G (Panchayat to Gram panchayat) is the foremost objective of e-panchayat, which is designed to facilitate interaction between themembers of Gram Sabhas and the PRIs . E-Panchayat can only be realized by e-gram Sabha. Generally, P2G is thought to be confined to information related with schemes, procedures and forms. But experiences in citizen-government interface indicate that this would be the first level of P2G. In the next level, the members would try to obtain the information about laws and rules. After this, efforts to know about the facts related with fund flows would be made. Lastly, the people would start questioning the decisions and their rationale and this would make P2G a potential weapon of democratic decentralization
  • P2E (Panchayat to Employees) can cover work guidelines, rules and regulation, salary structure and training modules. The local government functionaries including elected structure and training modules. The local government functionaries including elected representatives are expected to know about panchayati raj acts, numerous rules framed underthem andvarious orders issued by diverse governmental agencies. The lack of accessibility to such updated documents may cause faculty decisions and the application of IT may fill this void.

Application Areas: participatory planning

 

Power and responsibilities upon PRIs with respect to:

 

a.   The preparation of plans for economic development and social justice

b.   The implementation    of schemes  for economic  development and social justice as manybe entrusted  to them   including   those in   relation   to the matter   listed in the eleventh schedule .

 

Successful realization of both these needs a lot of information input and their efficient analysis.As per the guidelines , issued in 1969 suggesting the format of local level plan, section 1 of the document was to discuss the existing level of development in the district. It was supposed to be based on systematic appraisal of ongoing programmes, available administrative and statistical data and suggestions given by local officials, farmers available administrative and statistical data and suggestions given by local officials , farmers and entrepreneurs. The plan has to Include among others and infrastructure and social services, natural resources ,administration and institutional structure, problems of employment and local mobilization of resources. government has launched a project to connect 1,60,000 villages through internet to ensure speedy rural development . The on-line management and monitoring system will make information available to MPs, state legislators and the public at the click of mouse.

 

Taxation

 

Experience of integrating ITwith the Central and states tax administration shows more revenue collection and less corruption. The same canbe replicated with tax administration and fiscal planning of PRIs .

 

Education

 

Subject to state laws, primary and secondary education, technical training and vocational education and adult and non formal education are the responsibility of the PRIs. Under SITE scheme, TVs were provided for spreading education, but the convergence of IT tools

 

Thus, it can be seen that participatory approach needs access to a wide variety of information by the officials as well as the people and civil society. IT has the potential to increase the speed and quality of this process.

 

The concept of GIS (Geographic Information System) can be applied to three major sections, viz. inventory, analysis and planning . GIS consists of reliable and accurate spatial and non-spaital information on land and land resources. Panchayat Resource mapping (remote sensing is also to be used ) can help not only in preparation of local plans, but also in consolidation of these plans at district level. Subject to the state laws , the PRIs have the responsibility of agriculture, including agricultural extension : land improvement and soil conservation: farm forestry and drinking water , all of which needs the aid of GIS and remote sensing for efficient performance.The effective use of the GIS and remote sensing is closely connected with development of IT .At the implementation stage,application of Information and Technology can leads to IT can lead to better resource enlistment and employment,Manpower administration and technologicalsupport. IT can make speedy , broad and clear impact as assessment potential, which can produce better completion of the projects and devices. Like, in case of Assam , The NIC has introdummmmced a software , called Rural Soft 2000 to improve the review of rural developmentschemes.This software can be installed in the PRIs networks. The union government has launched a project to connect 1,60,000 villages through internet to ensure speedy rural development . The on-line management and monitoring system will make information available to MPs, state legislators and the public at the click of mouse.

 

 

Training

 

Training of numerous functionaries as well as elected representatives ( especially women and SC/STs) has one of the important field in the valuable functioning of the PRIs. Training is a continuous process it requires constant monitoring on the recipients.

 

Developing appropriate training module needs expertise. Information technologies easing the work through panchayat LAN (for local contents) and internet, video conferencing etc. IT can a also provide cyber platform to share variety of panchayat related experiences from across the country.

 

Accountable PRIs

 

IT application has vast potential to ensure a more accountable, responsive and citizen friendly PRIs . Wired PRIs would be, not only more transparent, but also more open to social Audit. People can easily register theirgrievances through email (like Gyandoot in  M.P) .

 

IT Policies and PRIs

 

Working group of IT for masses of the union government recommends, it is obvious that in order to have a visible impact of the benefit of IT on people, government must select major services at different levels to local government at block/ panchayatlevel,a nd reengineer them through extensive use of IT. It also recommends that IT should provide relevant information while fulfilling localinformation needs of the people.

 

 

One of the goals of IT policy of Andhra Pradesh is to take internet to villages. It envisages to take the connectivity of APSWAN to the level of mandals and villages in a couple of years. One of the IT projects of the state is mandal level horizontal integration of departments (one of them is Panchayati raj) enablesinteractive learning. Panchayat centersequipped withIT tools and services can become major hubs for educating people on mass scale. Very soon,the ISRO is going to launch EduSat will enable radio and TV broadcast , Internet based education , data broadcasting , talk- back option, audio video interaction andvideo conferencing .This will be real –time interactive learning available 24 hours a day. By spreading around 2 lakh for its infrastructure ,the PRIs can take the much- needed education to the doorstep of target group of down trodden and poor people .

  • Building up resource based data respositories and citizen database for decentralized planning
  • Implementing computerized services at the panchayat level in issue of certificates, licences, etc and in tax- collection which result in perceptible improvement of licenses available to the common man.
  • Providing internet/intranet services at the panchayat level with the specific objective of fullfiling the right information of the community at large

 

Project information Kerala is a Rs 43 crore project to be implemented in 1300 of its panchayats. Software for the project has been developed covering most of the transactions at Panchayat level. Applications havebeen divided into to three areas: certificates such as birth, death, caste, ration card etc. social welfare schemes such as pension, housing etc. and subsidies and incentives.

 

As a   part of   e-government, IT policy  of west Bengal  visualizes  that the zillaparishads will gradually adopt  GIS based  planning, and websites will be progressively  set up for PRIs. It also envisages   formulating   strategies for training , hardware , acquisition, designing   network and software development for PRIs and their phase  wise implementation.

 

Karnataka has titled  its policy as “ the Millenium IT policy : information technology for very effective decentralized democratic system of government. All the ZPs in the state spend more thanRs 4,000 crore a year on various social sector schemes. The ZPs money is kept in treasury as well as in commercial and regional rural banks.

 

Survey of IT policies of the different state governments clearly reveal that the PRIs has found to have some significance only in those states(like kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal) which has a long and strong tradition functioning of the PRIs . So, doubtedly thecommitmentt of policy makers and ruling elite to the PRIs is prerequisite of realization o goal of e Panchayat.

 

Challenges

 

Excellent track record of Indians in IT sector makes observes highly optimistic towards e-panchayat , but challenges in terms of cost and variations are no less daunting. Application of IT to the PRIs must look beyond the paradigm, generally comes in close association with any western technology . Any MIS, to be relevant to the PRIs has to be ethnocentric, need based and bottom-up approach. It will have to transcend its glamour and ego to accord due place to the tradition folk media, which is more suitable to bring attitudinal change in the rural society. IT  also tends  to aid centralization  of data  and consequently , centralization of decisions . This may lead to a pyramid where decisions are at  the top and service  delivery at the  bottom. -panchayat    would    have  to    steer    clear    of  this  procedural     hazard  to  accomplish  the constitutionally mandated goals.

 

Shortage of software and quality content in regional languages is another big barrier in the journey from panchayat to e panchayat . State IT policies have emphasized the promotion of respective regional language in this regard. Use of translation software may be helpful to some extent.

 

If there are threshold effects at work , and a certain minimum level of infrastructural provision is required to benefit from the vast opportunities offered by IT, some PRIs may fall in to a negative trap of not being able to provide such a level of services. This may aggravate the existing problem of regional imbalance in terms of the PRIs . Besides regional imbalance, gender imbalance in the use of high end technologies in Indian society would also need serious attention of policy makers.

 

High cost input in networking of PRIs is considered to be a major road block. But in cost – benefit analysis, the balance seems to be titled towards benefits of e-panchayat: it may be implemented in a phased manner. Till then , PRIs may benefit from using the existing IT infrastructure of other agencies (governmental as well as private) situated in their respective geographical jurisdictions. The central and the state governments have already collected a lot of data for their projects. These data can be reengineered and utilized for MIS of PRIs

 

Conclusion

 

IT makes decentralized and participatory planning a smooth and simple affair and helps in realizing its ( decentralized planning) inherent benefits eg: efficiency , equality and empowerment.

 

Like any other technology, IT is not inert andneutral, rather it is also subject to political and economic ethos of the society. Positive harnessing of IT can open new vistas for the PRIs efficiency and effectiveness. All the government would bereduced tomerely glamoroustechnical enterprise in the absence of e- panchayat. E- panchayat can give a firm base to e-government, the governments and above all, to democracy.

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