Earlier this year, in the month of February, when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi was hosting the US President Donald Trump, including the Namaste Trump event at Ahmedabad in Gujarat attended by over a lakh people, some 1,100 kilometres (kms) away, 64-year-old Prema Timmanagoudar, president of RedderNaganur gram panchayat in Gadag district of Karnataka was busy working in the fields with the farmers of her panchayat.
She had read about the coronavirus disease (COVID19) spreading fast across the world, including India that recorded its first COVID19 positive case on January 30 in Kerala, and wanted her gram panchayat — one of the smallest in the state with just three villages and a total population of 3,500 — to prepare in advance.
“Along with the gram panchayat members, I informed villagers about the threat of coronavirus. Farmers in all the three villages in my panchayat decided to sow 6-7 types of vegetables in February itself to take care of our nutrition needs,” Timmanagoudar told Gaon Connection. “Today, amid the lockdown, farmers in my panchayat are selling their produce and local villagers are buying directly from them. We have enough brinjal, tomato, ladyfinger, green chilli, coriander, ridge gourd and guar beans in our panchayat. We do not need any outside help,” she added.
This is not all. Timmanagoudar also has three village committees and a panchayat task force (she is its chairperson) responding to the health and livelihood challenges posed by the COVID19 pandemic.
“Through village committees and panchayat task force, we have distributed free face masks to the entire population of the panchayat. Regular surveys are being conducted to make a list of outsiders visiting the panchayat and recording their travel history and health status,” she added.
Thimmanagowda’s gram panchayat is not the only one responding to the COVID19 crisis. In the last week of March, just when the nationwide lockdown was announced by Modi, the Karnataka government set up village level committees and gram panchayat level task forces to address challenges of the ongoing pandemic.
Each village in the state now has a village committee and group of villages forming one gram panchayat have their own gram panchayat task force. The state has a total of 6,018 gram panchayats.
The panchayat task force members include the elected representatives of the panchayat (such as Timmanagoudar), ASHA worker, anganwadi worker, school teacher, representative of the local police station, women self help group leader, gram panchayat development officer, etc.
This task force has a series of responsibilities including conducting repeat surveys to collect information on migrant workers, homeless, destitute and vulnerable households; informing the local population about coronavirus and its precautions; making arrangements for drinking water and public hand wash facilities; delivering dry ration to anganwadi kids and pregnant and lactating mothers; monitoring MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) works, etc.
“The gram panchayat task forces were set up in the context of controlling the immediate pandemic. They have readily come forward to take up this crucial responsibility, leading from the front as they ensure physical distancing and precautions, supply of essentials to those in need, support during medical emergencies, and more,”said Uma Mahadevan, principal secretary (panchayat raj) with the Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Department of Government of Karnataka told Gaon Connection.
“The elected representatives have accompanied frontline health workers on home visits, supporting them in their work and home quarantine checks. They conduct daily reviews and meet twice weekly, alerting the district administration of any issues,” she added.
Neelamurthi is the president of Kanthapura gram panchayat in Mandya district of Karnataka and has 24 villages with a total population of over 6,000 in her panchayat. Married at an age of 18 years, she has an MBA degree and is also a commerce degree college lecturer.
“We have formed village level committees in all villages of the gram panchayat to take care of day-to-day issues related to COVID19. There is a panchayat level task force, which meets every Monday and Thursday. Through WhatsApp groups, village committees and task force remain in constant touch,” Neelamurthi informed Gaon Connection.
“In the last one-and-a-half month, we have conducted COVID19 training of ASHA and anganwadi workers for which each panchayat received Rs 20,000 from the state government. Through public address system [mike mounted on an auto-rickshaw], we have created awareness about the virus and its precautions. Hand wash facilities have been set up at public places,” she added.
Because of the lockdown and loss of livelihood for a large number of migrant workers in the cities, reverse migration has started in the country as these stranded workers are now trying to get back to their home states — either on foot, or bicycles. Till May 12, at least 418 deaths are recorded due to non-COVID issues, such as road accidents, hunger, exhaustion, lack of access to medical care, etc. Recently, 16 migrant workers were mowed down by a goods train as they fell asleep on the railway tracks in Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
In spite of 50 days of the lockdown, both the Central government and the states have failed to address the humanitarian crisis being faced by the migrant workers in the country. It is only now that some Shramik special trains have been pressed into service to transport migrant workers back home. But that is just a drop in the ocean. Migrant workers are still walking kilometres without food and wages.
And, as these workers return home, panchayats need to address both their health and livelihood challenges. “Our ASHA and anganwadi workers, who are part of both the village committee and gram panchayat task force, are keeping a daily check on any outsiders or migrant workers returning to the village. They inform us and we make a visit to that household,” said Neelamurthi.
“Along with a local health official, the travel history and health status of the person is recorded and he/she is put in home quarantine. If the person shows COVID19 symptoms, a test is done,” she added.
These village committees and gram panchayat task forces are ensuring the regular schemes and programmes of the government continue to be made available to the people amid pandemic.
Leelavathi is the panchayat development officer with Hemmanahalli gram panchayat in Mandya district. The panchayat covers five villages and a population of over 6,000. “We have set up dry ration centres in each village of the gram panchayat from where ration is distributed to the local people. Milk federation centres have also been set up in each village where local dairy farmers can sell their milk and other villagers can buy,” she told Gaon Connection.
“If someone returns to the panchayat villages from corona-affected area, then we ask that person and his family to remain at home and their ration is home delivered,” she added.
The village committees and panchayat task forces are ensuring anganwadi kids and pregnant and lactating mothers covered under the Mathrupoorna scheme of the state government get their regular access to the ration.
“Apart from the ICDS meal package, we are also delivering milk [milk powder] and eggs to both the anganwadi kids, and the beneficiary women under Mathrupoorna,” said Leelavathi. “We deliver one month’s dry ration in advance and have already delivered ration for the month of May,” she added.
In spite of the lockdown, Karnataka has continued with the MGNREGA works to provide livelihood to local people hit hard by COVID19. And these works are also being monitored by the gram panchayat task forces.
“At present, desilting works are going on in our panchayat under the MGNREGA. Labourers are following physical distancing and we are also holding health camps at work sites to check the health status of workers,” informed Leelavathi.
Thimmanagowda also has been organising health check ups in her RedderNaganur gram panchayat. “We invited a group of doctors who conducted health check up of all pregnant women and old people in our panchayat,” she said.
In this health and humanitarian crisis, Rajanukunte gram panchayat (covering seven villages and over 10,000 population) in Bengaluru Urban district is running a voluntary community kitchen for migrant workers stranded in the state.
“A large number of migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, West Bengal and Assam are stuck in the state due to the lockdown and lack of transport. We are daily supplying 2,500 cooked meals to migrant workers,” Rajesh, panchayat development officer with Rajanukunte gram panchayat told Gaon Connection.
“The entire community kitchen is being run on voluntary basis through local people’s contribution in terms of vegetables, cooking gas, dry ration, etc,” he added.
Rajanukunte gram panchayat has 200 children in the age group of 3-6 years enrolled with its 10 angawnadis. “We have already distributed dry ration, milk and eggs for the month of April and May. One local villager also distributed free fruits to anganwadi kids for five days during the lockdown,” said Rajesh.
Clearly, amid pandemic, gram panchayats are rising to the occasion and trying to address the challenges posed by COVID19 with their limited funds and powers.
India has a wide network of panchayati raj institutes that got legal recognition with the passage of The Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992. As per the National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Hyderabad, there are 253,047 gram panchayats in the country with 2,903,277 elected representatives.
As the country witnesses reverse migration (from cities to villages), the role of gram panchayats has come into the focus. It would not be incorrect to say that cities have dumped the very workers who have toiled to build them. Hapless migrant workers are returning to villages without wages. Meanwhile, states are passing ordinances and circulars to weaken the labour laws to boost their economies.
“This pandemic is making it clear that villages need to rebuild themselves and their economies, and we need to seriously work towards gram swaraj, which will also arrest the problem of migration from rural to urban,” said C S Pran, founder of Teesri Sarkar Abhiyan and an expert on panchayati raj told Gaon Connection.
“Our Constitution talks of gram panchayat in reference to self government of village — gaon ki apni sarkar. And this can only be achieved if there is complete devolution of power in terms of finance, planning and implementation,” he added.
According to him, at present such devolution is only on paper, except in Kerala. In most states, gram panchayats do not have real power of decision making and planning. A large number of works in villages are still directly carried out by the line departments without any involvement of the local panchayat.
There are three ways panchayats are funded in the country. “First is the Finance Commission funding (right now 15th Finance Commission), which is untied fund, and is based on population in a gram panchayat,” C Kathiresan, associate professor & head of Centre for Panchayati Raj, National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Hyderabad told Gaon Connection.
“Second source of funding is the 6-7 schemes that panchayats implement, such as MGNREGA, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, etc. This is a tied fund and has to be used for the said scheme,” he added. The third and last source of funds is the own revenue of panchayat generated through taxes (house tax, water tax, parking tax, donations, etc).
“We face financial problems as people do not pay their taxes. And without funds, planning is meaningless,” said Thimmanagowda.
The success of panchayati raj depends on how much control panchayats have over funds and how much freedom they have to do need-based planning. Of the total 29 subjects, panchayats in Kerala control 21 subjects and have complete control over their planning and financing. Other states are severely lacking in such devolution of power to gram panchayats.
In his recent article, T R Raghunandan, former secretary, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Karnataka, and former joint secretary, Ministry of Panchayat Raj, Government of India writes: “… no State has such a panchayat-friendly fiscal system. Nearly a third of Kerala’s plan funds have been given to the panchayats as flexible development and maintenance funds, a policy that the government follows even though it suffers from chronic fiscal stress.”
He further notes the Kudumbashree system in Kerala encourages women to form self-help groups and their federations act as an organised civil society counterpoint to the panchayats, collaborating with and yet holding to account the latter for their performance. Nearly 65 per cent of all women elected to the panchayats are Kudumbashree members.
Last year, under the Teesri Sarkar Abhiyan, panchayat parliaments were held in various gram panchayats of Uttar Pradesh. At 58,757, the state has highest number of gram panchayats in the country. The aim of these panchayat parliaments was bottom to top planning for the villages.
“Gram panchayats have a larger role beyond just COVID19. COVID19 is only an example of how local governments can provide inclusive care to all their residents, not only as first responders in a pandemic but every day, especially for the most vulnerable,” said Mahadevan. In the matter of ensuring quality services for antenatal and maternal care, proper birth registration, immunisation, enrolment for early childhood care and school education – in short, across the life cycle of care- the role of the local governments is fundamental. “We need to trust our elected local governments, repose our faith in them and support them to succeed,” she added.
Will COVID19 push us towards the goal of self-reliant and self-governed village republic?
