Tag: #rural

Participatory Rural Appraisal

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA): A Comprehensive Approach to Rural Development

Introduction

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is a methodology used to enable rural people to share, enhance, and analyze their knowledge of life and conditions, allowing them to plan and act for their development. It is rooted in the principles of participation, flexibility, and empowerment, encouraging communities to take control of their development processes. PRA has gained prominence as an effective tool for rural development, particularly because it fosters collaboration between local communities, development practitioners, and other stakeholders.

Historical Background

PRA evolved from earlier methodologies such as Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), developed in the 1970s as an alternative to traditional survey methods. RRA aimed to provide quick, cost-effective, and relevant information on rural conditions. However, PRA goes beyond RRA by involving rural communities in the process of data collection, analysis, and decision-making. It recognizes that local people, due to their everyday experiences, possess valuable insights into their environment and are best positioned to identify their own needs and solutions.

PRA was developed in the 1980s and 1990s by development practitioners, including Robert Chambers, who emphasized the need for “putting the last first”—a shift in focus towards the most marginalized communities in rural areas. Since then, PRA has been widely adopted in development projects across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Key Principles of PRA

1. Participation: PRA involves the active participation of community members, ensuring that they play a central role in gathering information, identifying problems, and proposing solutions. It empowers local people to be agents of their own development rather than passive recipients of aid.

2. Flexibility: PRA is not a rigid, one-size-fits-all approach. It adapts to the specific cultural, social, and economic conditions of a community. PRA tools and methods are selected based on local context, ensuring relevance and appropriateness.

3. Empowerment: One of the core goals of PRA is to empower rural people by valuing their knowledge and perspectives. By involving them in decision-making, PRA enhances their confidence and capacity to manage their development efforts.

4. Learning and Sharing: PRA is based on a two-way learning process between community members and external facilitators. It encourages open dialogue, where both parties share knowledge and perspectives, fostering mutual respect and collaboration.

5. Holistic Approach: PRA takes a comprehensive view of rural development, considering economic, social, environmental, and cultural dimensions. It promotes integrated solutions that address multiple aspects of rural life.

PRA Techniques and Tools

PRA uses a range of visual, interactive, and participatory methods that enable communities to articulate their realities in ways that are easy to understand and act upon. Some common tools used in PRA include:

1. Mapping: Communities create maps of their village or locality, identifying resources, infrastructure, land use, and important landmarks. Mapping helps in understanding spatial relationships, identifying problems, and planning interventions.

2. Transect Walks: Facilitators walk with community members through their village or surrounding areas to observe and discuss various aspects of rural life, such as agriculture, water sources, and housing. This method helps in gaining a deeper understanding of the community’s environment.

3. Seasonal Calendars: Communities create calendars showing changes in key variables (e.g., rainfall, crop cycles, labor demand) throughout the year. Seasonal calendars help identify patterns and challenges related to food security, labor, and income.

4. Ranking and Scoring: Participants rank or score different issues, resources, or options based on their importance or preference. This method helps in prioritizing community needs or evaluating the effectiveness of interventions.

5. Venn Diagrams: Communities use Venn diagrams to represent relationships between individuals, groups, institutions, and resources. This helps in understanding power dynamics, social networks, and decision-making processes within the community.

6. Timelines: Timelines document significant events or changes in the community over time. This tool helps in understanding historical trends, identifying causes of problems, and recognizing shifts in community dynamics.

7. Focus Group Discussions: Small groups of community members discuss specific issues in a structured format, providing detailed insights and opinions. Focus groups allow for the exploration of topics such as health, education, or livelihood strategies.

Applications of PRA

PRA has been applied in various sectors of rural development, including agriculture, health, education, natural resource management, and disaster risk reduction. Some of its common applications include:

1. Agricultural Planning: PRA has been used to improve agricultural productivity by involving farmers in identifying constraints, such as soil degradation or water shortages, and developing sustainable farming techniques.

2. Community Health: PRA techniques help identify health challenges, such as access to clean water or prevalence of diseases, and develop locally appropriate solutions, like promoting sanitation practices or introducing community-based health workers.

3. Natural Resource Management: Communities use PRA tools to analyze the state of local ecosystems, such as forests or rivers, and develop conservation strategies. This participatory approach ensures that resource management plans align with the needs and knowledge of local people.

4. Disaster Risk Reduction: PRA helps communities assess their vulnerabilities to natural disasters, such as floods or droughts, and create disaster preparedness plans that build resilience to future risks.

Benefits of PRA

1. Community Ownership: Since PRA involves local people in every stage of the development process, it promotes a strong sense of ownership over the projects and interventions. This often leads to greater sustainability and long-term impact.

2. Empowerment and Capacity Building: PRA not only generates valuable data but also builds the capacity of local people to analyze and address their own challenges. It fosters leadership and self-reliance within communities.

3. Culturally Appropriate Solutions: PRA ensures that solutions are tailored to local conditions, customs, and needs. This reduces the risk of external interventions being inappropriate or ineffective.

4. Building Trust and Collaboration: PRA promotes trust and cooperation between external facilitators and local communities. By involving communities in decision-making, it strengthens relationships and ensures that development initiatives are more inclusive.

Challenges and Criticisms of PRA

While PRA has numerous benefits, it also faces certain challenges and criticisms:

1. Time-Intensive: PRA is often time-consuming compared to traditional data collection methods. The participatory nature of PRA requires facilitators to spend significant time building relationships with the community, facilitating discussions, and analyzing data together.

2. Risk of Elite Capture: In some cases, powerful individuals or groups within the community may dominate the PRA process, leading to biased outcomes. This can undermine the inclusive nature of PRA, especially when marginalized groups are not adequately represented.

3. Quality of Facilitation: The success of PRA depends heavily on the skills and attitudes of facilitators. Poor facilitation can lead to misrepresentation of community views, shallow analysis, or disengagement of participants.

4. Limited Generalizability: Since PRA is context-specific, its findings may not be easily generalizable to other communities or regions. This can limit its utility for large-scale development planning or policy-making.

Conclusion

Participatory Rural Appraisal represents a shift in development practice from top-down, expert-driven models to a more inclusive, bottom-up approach. It recognizes that rural communities are not merely beneficiaries of development but possess rich knowledge and resources that can drive sustainable change. Despite some challenges, PRA has proven to be an invaluable tool in fostering community participation, ownership, and empowerment in rural development initiatives. By promoting local solutions to local problems, PRA continues to shape the future of rural development in a more equitable and sustainable way.

Panchayati Raj

The term “Panchayati Raj” in India signifies the system of rural local self-government. It has been established in all the systems of India by the Acts of the state legislative to build democracy at the grass root level. It is ensured with rural development. It was constitutional through 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992.

Ø A three-tier structure of Indian administration for rural development is called panchayati Raj. The aim of the panchayati Raj is to develop local self government in districts, zones and villages.

Ø Rural development is one of the main objectives of panchayati Raj and this has been established in all states of India except Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram. In all union territories except Delhi and certain other areas. These areas include:-

a) The scheduled areas and the tribal areas in the states.

b) The hill area of Manipur for which a district council exists and

c) Darjeeling district of West Bengal for which Darjeeling Gorkha Hill council exists.

Evolution of Panchayati Raj

Ø The panchayati system in India is not purely a post-independence phenomenon. In fact, the dominant political institution in rural India has been the village panchayat for centuries. In ancient India, panchayat were usually elected councils with executive and judicial powers.

Ø The evolution of the Panchayati Raj system, however, got a trip after the attainment of independence after the drafting of the constitution. The constitution of India in Article 40 enjoined, The state shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government.

Ø There were member of committees appointed by the government of India to study the implementation of self-government at the rural level and also recommend steps in achieving this goal.

Ø The committee appointed are as follows:-

a) Balwant Rai Mehta Committee

b) Ashok Mehta Committee

c) G V K Rao Committee

d) LM Singvi committee

A. Balwant Rai Mehta Committee and Panchayati Raj

The committee was appointed in 1957, to examine and suggest measures for better working of the community development programme and the national extensions services. The committee suggested the establishment of a democratic decentralised local government which came to be known as panchayati Raj.

Recommendations by the Committee

Ø Three tier panchayati raj system: Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad.

Ø Directly elected representatives to constitute the gram panchayat and indirectly elected representative to constitute the panchyat samiti and zila parishad.

Ø Planning and development are the primary objectives of the panchayati raj system.

Ø Panchayat Samiti should be the executive body and zila parishad will act as the advisory and supervisory body.

Ø District collector to be made the chairman of the Zila Parishad

Ø It also requested for provisioning resources so as to help them discharge their duties and responsibilities.

v The Balwant Rai Mehta committee further revitalised the development of panchayati in the country, the report recommended that the panchayati raj institutions can play a substantial role in community development programmes throughout the country.

v The objectives of the panchyat, thus was the democratic decentralisation through the effective participation of locals with the help of well-planned programme. Even then prime minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, defended the panchyat system by saying, “authority and power to the panchayats”.

B. Ashok Mehta committee and Panchayati Raj

Ø The committee was appointed in 1977 to suggest measures to revive and strengthen the declining panchayati raj system in India.

The key recommendations are:-

Ø The three-tier system should be replaced with two-tier system: Zila parishad (District-level) and the mandal panchayat (a group of villages).

Ø District level as the first level of supervision after the state level.

Ø Zila Parishad should be the executive body and responsible for planning at district level.

Ø The institutions (zila parishad and the mandal panchayat) to have compulsory taxation powers to mobilise their own financial resources.

C. G V K Rao committee and Panchayati Raj

Ø The committee was appointed by the planning commission in 1985. It recognised that development was not seen at the grass root level due to bureaucratisation resulting in panchayat raj institutions being addressed as “grass without roots”. Hence, it made some key recommendations which were as follows:-

Ø Zila Parishad to be the most important body in the scheme of democratic decentralisation. Zila Parishad to be the principal body to manage the development programmes at the district level.

Ø The district and the lower levels of the panchayati raj system to be assigned with specific planning, implementation and monitoring of the rural development programmes.

Ø Post of district development commissioner to be created. He will be chief executive officer of the zila parishad.

Ø Elections to the levels of panchayati raj system should be held regularly.

D. L M Singhvi committee and panchayat raj

The committee was appointed by the government of India in 1986 with the main objective to recommend steps to revitalise the panchayati raj system for democracy and development. The following recommendations were made by the committee:-

1. The committee recommended that the panchayat raj system should be constitutionally recognised. It also recommends constitutional provisions to recognise free and fair election for the panchayati Raj system.

2. The committee recommended reorganization of villages to make the gram panchayat more viable.

3. It recommended that village panchayats should have more finances for their activities

4. Judicial tribunals to be set up in each state to adjudicate matters relating to the elections to the Panchayat Raj institutions and other matters relating to their functioning.

Ø All these things further the argument that panchayat can be very effective in identifying and solving local problems, involve the people in the villages in the development activities, improve the communication between different levels at which politics operate, develop leadership skills and in short help the basic development in the states without making too many structural changes. Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh were the first to adopt panchayati raj in 1959, other states followed them later.

Ø  The act is a very significant step in creating democratic institutions at the grassroots level in the country. Art has transformed representative democracy into participating democracy.

Salient features of 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act , 1992

1. Gram sabha

2. Three-tier system

3. Election of members and chairperson

4. Reservation of seats :-

a) For SC and ST

b) For Women

c) The state legislatures are also given the provision to decide on the reservation of seats in any level of panchayat or office of chairperson in favour of backward classes.

5. Duration of panchayat

6. Disqualification

7. State election commission

8. Powers and functions

9. Finances

10. Finance commission

11. Audit of accounts

12. Application to union territories

13. Exempted state and areas

14. Continuance of existing law

15. Bar to interference by courts.

In India, the panchayati raj system is not a post-independence development. For decades, the village panchayat has been the most powerful political entity in rural India. Panchayats were elected councils in ancient India that had administrative and judicial authority. Panchayat Raj is a three-tiered administrative framework in India that focuses on rural development. The panchayati Raj is a system of local self-government that is used to build districts, zones and villages.

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

                                                               (Photo: ClearIAS)

According to D. Lockard, local government may be loosely defined as a public organization, authorized to decide and administer a limited range of public policies within relatively small territory which is a subdivision of a regional or national government.

A nation develops from its roots and for a nation to develop we need a strong base and in a country like India, the base is the local self-government like municipalities and panchayats, etc. These are the grassroots of a democracy in our country. It gives a good amount of exposure to the people who participate in the governance and running of these institutions, in both political and social aspects, making our democracy more participative as well as substantive. In rural areas, the self-governing bodies are the Panchayats and in urban it is the municipal corporations, etc. Local self-government consists of rural local self-government and urban area local self-government.

In India, villages are always considered as strength of this country. It is said that the soul of India lives in villages and a majority of 60% of the total population currently lives in rural areas. The exponents of the local self-government institutions hold the view that such local self-governments are the basis of democracy and the best way to develop political consciousness among the people. Through the local self-government, the regional and local interests convert into national interest. The Rural Local self-governments are the result of most landmark year 1992, when the 73rd amendment was incorporated in the constitution. Necessary related provisions were added in 1992 by the way of the 74th amendment act, 1992. It bifurcated the urban local self-government system.

Gandhi Ji also emphasized local self-government. To him, development meant a fuller participation of people in the achievement of essential goals. Village is the primary unit of government and from the village upwards, units of government with residuary powers, are to be established. And at each level, complete democracy and freedom are to be guaranteed.

Thus, the local self-government holds a vital role when it comes to the strengthening of democracy. It encourages local, political, and social leadership, thus making people more participative. It makes democracy substantive with its very own existence. These have to shoulder manifold and complex responsibilities. Hence, they are the grassroots of our democracy.

Indian Sugar Industry – Key driver of Rural India and job provider for Urban India

Sugar has been produced in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times and then it spread to other parts of the world. Sugarcane is a native of tropical Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. In India, sugarcane is planted thrice a year in October, March and July depending on part of the country. Most of the sugar production in India takes at local Cooperative Sugar mills. After gaining Independence, India made serious plans for overall industrial development of sugar industry.

Indian sugar mills association has estimated around 24 million tones sugar production in 2012-13 seasons. Indian sugar industry is highly fragmented with organized and unorganized players. The unorganized players mainly produce Gur and Khandari, the less refined forms of sugar. The government had a controlling grip over the industry, which has slowly yet steadily given way to liberalization. The production sugarcane is cyclical in nature. Hence the sugar production is also cyclical as it depends on the sugarcane production in the country.  

At present, the government controls the sugar industry right from fixing the support price of sugarcane and allocating the monthly quota for mills to sale in the open market. The government levies a fee of Rs.240 per ton of sugar produced by mills to raise a Sugarcane Development Fund (SDF), which is used to support research, extension, and technological improvement in the sugar sector. The SDF is also often used to support sugar buffer stocks operations, provide a transport subsidy for sugar exports, and provide an interest subsidy on loans for the installation of power generation and ethanol production plants.  

Moreover, currently, sugar mills are obliged to sell 10 per cent of their produce at a regulated price for the government’s public distribution system. Currently, the average open-market price of sugar is Rs 36,000 a tonne, while the government pays only Rs 19,050 a tonne to the mills for levy sugar. This does not even cover the cost of sugarcane, the raw material, above which mills have to incur processing costs, interest cost and wages Moreover; cane price has been going up sharply year-on-year, while there has been no corresponding increase in levy price. While imposing a levy obligation, the government also follows a hawkish strategy towards open market sugar prices. Every time prices go beyond a certain level, the government intervenes with additional sale quota. Under release mechanism, it is the government that decides the quantity each mill can sell every month.  

So, on the one hand the central and state governments increase sugarcane price every year, on the other the Centre does it bit to keep sugar prices under check even though several studies have pointed that more than 60 per cent of sugar is consumed by bulk buyers like beverage manufacturers, pharma industry and confectioners.   

Not just the price of sugar, but the price of sugar-cane is also regulated by the government through Statutory Minimum Price (SMP) which mill owners pay to the farmers. Thus, neither the price of sugar cane nor the price of sugar is determined by market forces leaving a very little elbow space for the industrialists. Since SMP determines the level of income of sugar-cane farmers, too low price of sugar cane may risk the lives of farmers, but somehow government may determine the price of sugarcane on the lines of minimum support price where if the market price of a crop falls below a certain level, government will buy any amount of crop at MSP. Though it may provide additional fiscal burden on the government but it may be instrumental in reforming the sugar industry.   

India is located close to major sugar deficient markets. The Indian Ocean countries of Indonesia Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE and some East African countries are sugar deficient and import sugar regularly. India has a natural freight advantage to these countries due to its geographical proximity. Historically, India has exported sugar to the identified deficient countries. In case of surplus domestic production, India can expect to export to these geographies. At present, these countries import primarily from Brazil, Thailand, EU and Australia. Thailand, Australia and South Africa are present in only a few of the target countries, while Brazil and EU supply sugar to most of these deficient markets. These geographies would be the key competitors for India in the future.  

At the current cost of production and world raw sugar prices, the Indian exports of raw sugar looks unavailable. However, the reduced cost of production and a sustainable cane price can improve India’s competitiveness for global trade. To be able to export to the target markets, India would need to improve its cost structure through productivity and efficiency improvements in the long term. In addition, to export raw sugar, mills would need to make the necessary investments.  

Currently, India only produces plantation white sugar. Considering that export demand for raw sugar and refined sugar will increase going forward, India would need to develop the capability to produce these varieties in order to leverage the export opportunity.