Public – People’s -Partnership (PPP)

Ramesh: Why did you throw the garbage on the streets?

Suresh: So, where should I throw?

Ramesh: you must throw the garbage in the dustbin.

Suresh: But there are no dustbins near my house.

Ramesh: They have been installed near the ground.

Suresh: Why should I walk so far? I will throw on the street. It is the responsibility of Gram Panchayat to clean it up.

What can you derive from the above dialogue between Ramesh and Suresh? Ramesh is telling Suresh to throw the garbage in the dustbin. Since, the dustbins are far enough from Suresh house, he throws the garbage on the street. This scenario is similar in most of the villages.

So why is this happening? What is the responsibility of the Gram panchayat? What are the responsibilities of the villagers? There are many factors related to this issue. Let us decode one by one.

Sarpanch and the members of the Gram Panchayat are being elected by the people of the village for a tenure of five years. They have the responsibility of running the day-to-day business of Gram Panchayat (GP) with the help of secretary who is the administrative head of GP. They take decisions on various issues pertaining at the village level.  

Gram Sabha is constitutionally approved body for discussion, debates, and decision-making.

what is the issue over here?

Lack of people’s participation in Gram Sabha: why so?

– People have lost faith in the Gram Panchayat as they feel that their voice is not been heard.

– Timings of Gram Sabha are kept in such a way where people are unable to attend.

– Issue of lack of transparency, accountability of Gram Panchayat.

How the issue can be resolved?

Public – People’s – Partnership (PPP)

Public i.e. the Govt. institution, people represent the villagers and their partnership for the development of the village. The Cooperation of every stakeholder is the first step towards finding solutions to any problem. People must be taken into consideration by the members or the heads of the institution while policy making and its implementation.

Sarpanch and members are been elected from their respective wards. So, the ward sabha plays the first point of contact between the members of the GP and their respective ward members.

Ward Sabha:

Every member of GP must take ward sabha once in a month where he can address the issues of the members staying in their wards. This will lead to people’s participation in discussing various issues at the micro level.

Bal Sabha:

Childrens are equally important as adults in the village. Bal Sabhas can be arranged in schools where the students can collectively raise their issues in front of the school management committee.

Formation of various committees:

As Gram Panchayat handles 29 subjects under its jurisdiction, it plays an important role in decision making. Most of the time, every issue is being handled by the sarpanch and the secretary which leads to overburden of work and delay in decisions making.

Formation of various committees like committee on water and sanitation, infrastructure development, aanganwadi, school management committee, health committee, safety and security committee, etc can help in decentralising the work of GP. Here member of the GP can head one of the committees and the villagers can become part of committees.

Every committee must meet once a month and discuss their issue in depth and the member of the GP who is also the head of the committee must submit the proceedings to the Gram Panchayat during the monthly meeting.

Gram Panchayat Monthly meeting:

This meeting takes places once in a month. Here the members who heads various committee can submit their issues in front of the GP body and thus they can collectively take a decision on the same. It will help them to have a holistic view on all the issues.

Mahila Sabha:

Mahila Sabha plays an important role where the issues related to women are being discussed here. Only the female members are allowed to be part of this sabha.

Women can raise their issues and the same can be highlighted during the Gram sabha.

In short, people’s participation can take place directly through participating in Gram Sabha while discussing on range of issues and indirectly participating in various committees. This will lead to the achievement of public – people’s – partnership.  

So, as we earlier saw the issue of garbage came up since there were no dustbins near the house of Suresh, this happened because the decision was taken by the Gram Panchayat without consulting the villagers.

But now taking into consideration the above mentioned Sabhas and committees, the PPP model where community participation with the active role of Gram Panchayat in planning, organizing and decision making will help every stakeholder in the village to walk collectively on the path of sustainable development.