This document discusses decentralization and local governance in Kerala, India. It outlines how Kerala strengthened local bodies through legislation in 1994, transferring powers, functions, and finances. A key program for poverty alleviation was Kudumbashree, which organizes poor women into neighborhood groups for microfinance and development planning. The result of Kerala's decentralized approach is remarkable social development outcomes like high literacy, life expectancy, and low infant mortality, despite relatively low income levels.
2. • The 21st century paradigm of development: ‘Government failure’ is much more important
problem than ‘market problem’
• Role of local government is increasing; local economic development and the protection of the
poor has become the responsibility of local bodies
• The State should ensure that all citizens are getting their basic entitlements of public goods and
services and empower the poor so that they have equal rights (and responsibilities) with the
better-off citizens.
• Developing a good local governance system is one of the strategies for sustainable human
development. Particularly for poverty alleviation, interventions are more effective when they are
initiated through local governments.
• The Government of India’s commitment to decentralisation became more explicit with the 73rd
Amendment (for rural areas) and 74th Amendment (for urban areas) to the Constitution of India
in 1992, making local government institutions constitutionally mandatory.
• The state governments, therefore, are to take steps towards the creation of the Panchayats and
Municipalities and to endow them with “such powers and authority as may be necessary to
enable them to function as institutions of self government”.
3. • Kerala – the southernmost state in India – made use of the
opportunity to strengthen the local governance system by
legislating the Kerala Panchayati Raj Act 1994 (for local
bodies in rural areas) and the Kerala Municipality Act 1994 (for
the local bodies in urban areas).
• Powers, Functions and Finance have been transferred to these
local bodies which function as institutions of self-governments.
• A committee system has been introduced at all levels with a view
to further decentralisation within local bodies and to make
more opportunities for participation.
• Local institutions under line departments have been transferred to
the local bodies along with its functionaries.
• The local bodies have been virtually made responsible for
planning for economic development and social justice.
• The decentralisation process in Kerala may be better understood
by means of observing the six principles which governed the
process.
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4. Autonomy
• Administrative, financial and functional
dimensions
• The administrative autonomy of local bodies limits
the supervision of the state government to the
regulatory functions and makes the elected body
responsible
• Panchayats at all levels are administratively
independent units
• Cooperation, coordination, complementation and
integration among 3 tiers of panchayat:
Development activities
• Based on the functional responsibilities, financial
resources are shared
• 1/3rd of the plan Grant-in-Aid of the state has been
earmarked for the local bodies in Kerala
• Functional autonomy is achieved by earmarking the
functional areas for each local body very clearly by
legislation
Subsidiarity
• Division of functions
• Subsidiarity implies what can be done best
at a particular level shall be done at that
level and only residual functions are given
to the higher level
• Transfers the institutions underline
departments to the local bodies
• 13 departments in Kerala
• The process starts from below, transferring
powers and powers from the level of grama
Panchayats to district Panchayats.
5. Complementarity
• Integration of functions is the most important
task in the decentralised planning
• Activities of higher level should complement those
of the lower levels
• Local needs and priorities of a local body are
considered during the implementation of
programmes and also in the integrated local plan
Uniformity
• Norms and criteria for the selection of
beneficiaries, the identification of sites,
the prioritisation of activities and the
pattern of assistance in a given local body
shall be the same for a particular
programme irrespective of the agency
sponsoring such programmes
Participation of people
• Decentralised Governance: people take their own
decisions after analysing their problems
• An Institutional Framework for Participatory
democracy: local self-government
• People’s participation is expected in all stages of
development programmes, including the
identification of needs, formation of schemes, its
implementation, monitoring and evaluation
• Local self government institutions are
primarily accountable to the people and this
ensures transparency in its functioning
• Social audit system: performance of LB’s
• Grama sabhas: social auditing of
development programmes in the area
• For every decision taken, the rationale
behind it has to be made public
Transparency & Accountability
6. Grama Sabha
• Understands
the felt needs of
the people and
also identifies
the potential
areas of
intervention
• Group
discussions are
conducted
• All the
suggestions of
the sabha are
forwarded to the
local body
Development
Seminar
• Analysis
• Publication of
draft
Panchayat/
Municipality
Development
Report
• The seminar will
discuss and
suggest
strategies and
identify projects
to be taken up
for the
development of
the region
• Development
Report will be
published
• 1215 local
bodies in Kerala
Preparation of
Projects
• The
development
strategy will be
transformed
through in the
form of
projects
• Done by task
forces
• 10 working
groups
• Details of
project include
specific
objectives,
expected costs,
source
resources,
contribution
from
beneficiary,
mode of
execution,
mechanism for
monitoring and
the time frame
Preparation of
Plan Document
• Local bodies
finalise their
plan document
• Projects
prepared by the
working groups
are to be
prioritised
within the
resource limit
and long term
perspective of
the people for
local level
development
• Allocation
based on
priorities
• Projects are
included in the
published plan
document
Plan approval by
district planning
committee
• District
Planning
Committee
(DPC) approves
every local
government's
plan
• Technical
Advisory
Committee
(TAC) assists
DPC
• TAC examines
the technical
viability of the
projects and
recommend for
the approval of
DPC
• TAC neither
rejects nor
changes the
priority of the
project
Implementation,
monitoring and
evaluation
• Each plan will
be implemented
under the
supervision and
control of local
bodies
• Monitoring
committee
monitors the
progress of the
work
• Grama Sabha
examines the
progress and the
other details of
the project
• Local bodies do
not have the
authority to
change the
priorities given
by the grama
sabhas
7. • In 1998, Kudumbashree was introduced for ensuring comprehensive social protection
• ‘Kudumbashree’ means prosperity for the family, which is a participatory poverty eradication
programme
• The mission of Kudumbashree is “to eradicate absolute poverty through concerted community
action under the leadership of local governments, by facilitating organisation for the poor
combining self-help with demand-led convergence of available services and resource to tackle the
multiple dimensions and manifestations of poverty holistically.”
• A major departure from conventional poverty alleviation programmes is the process of
identification of poor by means of survey based on the following nine indicators of risk factors:
Poor quality of house
Lack of access to drinking water
Lack of access to sanitary latrines
Number of illiterate adults in the family
Single income households
Number of individuals getting barely two meals a day or less
Number of children below the age of five in the family
Number of cased of alcoholism or drug addiction in the family and
Scheduled caste or scheduled tribe families (socially disadvantaged groups).
The households with four out of nine factors are considered as poor
8. • It has a three-tier system.
• At the lowest level there are Neighbourhood Groups (NHGs) of 15-40 adult women, one each
from the identified risk families.
• Area Development Societies (ADS) are formed at the middle level by federating the NHGs
within a ward of a local body.
• At the local body level there are Community Development Societies (CDS), federating the ADS
in the local body.
• At present, there are 1,25,735 NHGs, 13,766 ADS and 1,049 CDS functioning in the State
covering 26,45,369 families below poverty line.
A major function of the organisation is to act as an informal bank for the poor. Women pool their
savings at the weekly NHG meetings. The ADS is authorised to open bank accounts in banks to
deposit the savings.
NHGs ADs CDS
DECENTRALISED PLANNING PROCESS:
• Prepares micro plans
based on previous
surveys and
discussions
• Mini plan for the ward of
panchayat/ Municipality
• A monitoring and advisory
committee is formed
• Prepares development
plans at the local level by
consolidating the plans
prepared by the ADs
9. • A human development approach to poverty alleviation considers the situation of
appalling deprivation – in conditions of hunger, ill-health, homelessness, illiteracy and
different forms of class, caste, and gender oppression.
• Among the states of India, Kerala’s performance in the spheres of social development is
remarkable.
• It is very important to underline the fact that all these achievements are made with a
relatively low per capita income.
• Thus the Kerala experience indicates that the well-being of the people can be improved,
and social, political, and cultural conditions transformed, even at low levels of income,
when there is appropriate social mobilisation and public action.
S. No Factors Kerala National
1 Literacy rate 90.2% 65.38%
2 Life expectancy at birth 73.3 yrs. 61.1 yrs.
3 Infant mortality rate 14 70
