Model Village and our MPs'

How come mos t of our people's representatives are unable to sus tain thei r interest in the development of villages they represent? I am raising this issue in the wake of a recent report which says that as many as 475 out of 543 Lok Sabha MPs have not even cared to identif y the village they would develop under Phase- III of the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna (SAGY) launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi amidst great fanfare in 2014.

Narendra Modi Under Phase-1 of the scheme, each MP from the two Houses of Parl iament i s supposed to identif y a gram panchayat in his cons t i tuenc y wi th a view to turning it into a model village of development by 2016. Two more gram panchayat s – three in all – would acqui re Model Vi l lage de velopment s tamps by 2019. This is surely a laudable scheme by the Pr ime Mini s ter which could keep the MPs grounded to the soil for all-round growth at the grassroots.
It all started of f very well, to begin with. As many as 500 Lok Sabha MPs and 203 Rajya Sabha MPs identif ied villages in the f irst year of the launch of the SAGY scheme. In Phase II, 234 Lok Sabha members and 136 of 243 upper House members failed to identif y villages . For the latest Phase – III, 90 per cent of MPs are yet to adopt a village while the time is running out fas t for the 2019 deadl ine. Does thi s waning interest among MPs suggest some inbuilt f laws in the scheme? Or, have MPs found the proposition to be time-consuming and not lucrative enough, politically and otherwise? No doubt , the scheme suf fers from some serious f laws . In the f irst place, it does not provide for a separate budget since it seeks convergence of var ious schemes and programmes already in vogue.
Second, parl iamentar ians , especial ly f rom the Lok Sabha, feel that picking up one village in the cons t i tuenc y could create adver se reaction in other villages under their domain, to their pol i t ical di sadvantage. Thi s i s understandable.
Third, the MPs have to focus on micro-level monitoring work in gram panchayat s – the job which comes under the jurisdiction of MLAs . This could unnecessarily generate conf l ict s of interes t , especially if parliamentarians and legislators happen to belong to two dif ferent political outf its . The SAGY is typical of Modi's de velopment mant ra which i s hur r iedly conceived wi thout giving due weightage to the ground realities . This was seen in the case of Demonetisation as well as GST. Both the schemes were ful l of f laws , operationally and otherwise.

The government is expected to be a "prime mover" in the development process. But in a vibrant democracy like ours, it cannot blindly or instantly transplant one Model or the other. Our "development strategy" has to be tailored to the actual conditions prevailing in our villages.

The Hon'ble Prime Minister ought to realise that mi splaced thought s could become counter-product ive in the long run. Ever y development scheme and initiative for reforms needs to be in tune with ground realities . Also, it needs to be appreciated that we cannot have a uniform approach to development tasks in a country of diversity like ours . The face of India changes af ter every 25 or 30 districts .
The only answer to this onerous challenge is decent ral izat ion of pol ic y and planning . Equal ly crucial for rural de velopment i s empowerment of the panchayat s , both f inancially and functionally.
The moni tor ing work of de velopment i s general ly done by the di s t r ict- le vel - admini s t rat ion. MPs and MLAs could be associated with it for a six-monthly or yearly review for re-f ixing of priorities , depending on changing demands and expectat ions of the villagers concerned.
What is needed in today's complexities is depoliticisation of the development process . Development tasks must not be seen through political or sectarian angularities . Development demands empowerment of the people, educationally, health-wise as well as in meet ing thei r bas ic neces s i t ies of l i fe and inf rastructural connect ivi ty between Bharat and India.
As it is , the overal l development in the countr y is far from f lattering. I do not wish to talk of big projects or schemes which have their own tales of f laws . What disturbs me is the lates t repor t f rom the Washingtonbased International Food Pol icy Research Ins t i tute ( IRPRI ) 's 2017 Global Hunger Research Index (GHI) , in which India ranks 100 among 119 count r ies s tudied. The countr y's rank, in fact , has fal len by three places compared to 2016. Signi f icantly, in the 2017 Hunger Index, India fal ls behind even war-ravaged Iraq and North Korea. The only consolation that could be derived by of f icial s i s that in As ia , Paki s tan and Afghanistan are below the ranking of India!

A number of global and Indian studies have talked about the suf ferings of the common men on var ious count s l ike nutr i t ion and chi ld mortality, awfully poor standards of primary and secondary schooling, lopsided growth and the prevai l ing i l l i terac y. These harsh fact s show how precarious the country's social and human conditions are.
True, major changes relat ing to human af fairs , including in education, public health and inf ras t ructure development , cannot be brought about overnight by the Modi government . All the same, decades of failure demand changes in pol icies , strategies and prioritization of the very concept of Vikas. Development tasks must be in tune wi th grassroots realities in villages . Here, areas of f laws have to be identif ied afresh and new plans of action evolved and operationalised on a war-footing basis .
Indeed, the real challenge before the Niti Ayog planners and leaders is to ensure that the poor get a reasonable share in the "human resource and economic cake" through new avenues of growth and development . This is possible if the rulers at the helm adopt the required correctives urgently to rid the Indian society of the imbalances that make the poor poorer and the rich richer.
The government is expected to be a "prime mover " in the development process . But in a vibrant democracy like ours , it cannot blindly or instantly transplant one Model or the other. Our "development strategy" has to be tailored to the actual condi t ions pre vai l ing in our villages .
I hope the Prime Minister would think along new lines . He needs to appreciate that the central izat ion of deci sion-making does not improve performance on the ground. Rather, it creates obstacles for innovations and creativity of indigeneous talents at the grassroots . A de veloping economy l ike our s cannot af ford extravagance to support the whims of politicians and the indif ferent functioning of the bureaucracy in the name of Model Village Development!

Rising crimes speak for poor governance

India has reasons to be terribly concerned about its disquieting Social Index. By the Social Index, I am specifically referring to the rising graph of various categories of crimes which have both social and economic components and they reflect on the quality of governance. Look at any area of crime graph – rape, dowry, domestic violence, female infanticides, trafficking in girls, drugs and arms and petty crimes, the overall picture is grim to the core. The 2016 data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) speak for themselves.
What is particularly disturbing is the rising graph of crimes against women and children. There has been 82 per cent increase in incidents of rape of children compared to 2015. The highest rise on this count has been recorded in Uttar Pradesh, where figures have trebled. UP recorded 400 per cent jump in child rapes.

Madhya Pradesh has witnessed over a 60 per cent rise in sexual abuses of children. The case of Maharashtra is equally bad. In Tamil Nadu, where no case of child rape was registered in 2015, it reported 1169 such cases in 2016. Could this be because of the exit of Jayalalithaa from the state's political scene on December 5, 2016 after her prolonged illness? The former Chief Minister was known for her ruthless governance when it came to the safety of women and children. She knew how to make the police accountable for lapses in law and order issues. The tragedy of the country since Independence has been its poor police outfit, despite attempts at occasional patch-work reforms. Whatever changes have been initiated for police reforms from time to time are far from satisfactory. They hardly meet the changing profiles of crimes in various segments of society.
The NCRB's latest figures by themselves are alarming. The ground realities, however, could be far worse because of Poor Police Performance we all are familiar with.
Nothing could be more shameful than to see 82 per cent rise in rapes of children in 2016 from the 2015 data. Equally worrying area is the rising graph of sexual assaults on women. The post-Nirbhaya Delhi looks like a lost dream. Delhi reported the highest crime rate against women – 160.4 – compared to the national average rate of 55.2.
Crimes against women rose from 3, 23, 243, in 2015 to 3, 38, 954 in 2016. These include cruelty by husband or relatives, followed by assault on woman with intent to outrage her modesty, kidnapping, abduction and rape. Among 19 metros analysed by NCRB, Delhi, followed by Mumbai and Bengalaru reported most number of crimes against women. India recorded 106 rapes a day, despite several tough court rulings and tightening of laws to deal with this menace. What a shameful commentary on the deteriorating social environment and on the state of the nation which boasts of its great tradition of respect for women! This underlines one harsh reality: there is nothing like the fear of law and law-enforcing agencies in the country among crime-prone persons. This prompts me to suggest that we should look afresh at the country's crime scene and work out a new plan of action. It must be appreciated that everything boils down to good governance, which includes both the tightening of laws and efficient working of the police. There can be no short-cuts to good governance with accountability in critical areas which remain neglected by the central and state governments.

The National Crime Records Bureau has also highlighted several disturbing social and economic trends which must not be lost sight of. We see a rising trend in the number of economic offences like cheating, breach of trust, forgery and counterfeiting, illegal gains through cyber crimes. Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur figured prominently in these areas. We have also to seriously look at the agrarian distress which led to a series of protests and riots. The NCRB reports suggest that farmers took to streets in large numbers demanding their rights last year with 4,837 riots taking place across the country. The number of riots incidents doubled in 2016 because of shrinking farm lands, failure of crops, poor irrigation facilities, bad seeds, drought, the rising burden of debts etc. This agrarian crisis, again, brings me to the critical question of governance. For one, India just does not have enough cold storage. Secondly, there is not adequate processing of food to ensure that crops do not perish or go waste, leading to the farmers' distress.

Farming policies actually need a radical overhaul in varied areas to quell farmers' revolts. They must not be taken for a ride, whether it is the question of loan waivers or insurance payments! The point which I wish to reiterate is that the rise in the crime graph is proportionate to - rather more than proportionate – if the governments at the Centre and in the states fail to manage grim ground realities, whether they relate to the safety of children, women, farmers' distress signals or atrocities against Dalits or the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The country is indeed paying a heavy price for poor governance by the authorities concerned in varied areas of economic and social conflicts.
Looking beyond the 2016 NCRB data, we also must take cow-related hate crimes seriously. IndiaSpend's database records suggest that 97 per cent of all such incidents have occurred since the BJP regime came to power in May 2014. This is highly disturbing.

According to Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights watch; "Attacks based on race, religion, caste ethnicity in India occur when the attackers believe that they have political cover and will not be prosecuted and punished". Meenakshi is right. The ruling class must not be party to such crimes. Such an approach would undermine the people's faith in the justice system and the fairplay of our leaders at the helm.



		EDITOR'S MAIL MATTERS OF PUBLIC POLICY LOOKING BEYOND SIGNALS FROM GUJARAT SAFFRON IN HIMACHAL FRANKLY SPEAKING KARNATAKA SCENE CONGRESS SUCCESSION REALPOLITIK STATE OF ECONOMY FRDI BILL LEGENDARY DYAL SINGH WOMEN IN VALLEY 2G CASE VERDICT BHOPAL DIARY SIKHISM CHANDIGARH DIARY HITS & MISSES SPORTS FOREIGN MINISTERS'.. AMERICAN DIARY HIMALAYAN BLUNDER SIGNS OF THE TIMES INTERVIEW BEYOND RELIGIOUS BARRIERS BOOK BAZAAR TRIBUTE YOGA IN DAILY LIFE ART OF LIVING Issue:Jan' 2018 Subscribe Now	MATTERS OF PUBLIC POLICY Model Village and our MPs' How come mos t of our people's representatives are unable to sus tain thei r interest in the development of villages they represent? I am raising this issue in the wake of a recent report which says that as many as 475 out of 543 Lok Sabha MPs have not even cared to identif y the village they would develop under Phase- III of the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna (SAGY) launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi amidst great fanfare in 2014. The Hon'ble Prime Minister ought to realise that misplaced thoughts could become counter-productive in the long run. Every development scheme and initiative for reforms needs to be in tune with ground realities. Also, it needs to be appreciated that we cannot have a uniform approach to development tasks in a country of diversity like ours. The face of India changes after every 25 or 30 districts. Narendra Modi Under Phase-1 of the scheme, each MP from the two Houses of Parl iament i s supposed to identif y a gram panchayat in his cons t i tuenc y wi th a view to turning it into a model village of development by 2016. Two more gram panchayat s – three in all – would acqui re Model Vi l lage de velopment s tamps by 2019. This is surely a laudable scheme by the Pr ime Mini s ter which could keep the MPs grounded to the soil for all-round growth at the grassroots. It all started of f very well, to begin with. As many as 500 Lok Sabha MPs and 203 Rajya Sabha MPs identif ied villages in the f irst year of the launch of the SAGY scheme. In Phase II, 234 Lok Sabha members and 136 of 243 upper House members failed to identif y villages . For the latest Phase – III, 90 per cent of MPs are yet to adopt a village while the time is running out fas t for the 2019 deadl ine. Does thi s waning interest among MPs suggest some inbuilt f laws in the scheme? Or, have MPs found the proposition to be time-consuming and not lucrative enough, politically and otherwise? No doubt , the scheme suf fers from some serious f laws . In the f irst place, it does not provide for a separate budget since it seeks convergence of var ious schemes and programmes already in vogue. Second, parl iamentar ians , especial ly f rom the Lok Sabha, feel that picking up one village in the cons t i tuenc y could create adver se reaction in other villages under their domain, to their pol i t ical di sadvantage. Thi s i s understandable. Third, the MPs have to focus on micro-level monitoring work in gram panchayat s – the job which comes under the jurisdiction of MLAs . This could unnecessarily generate conf l ict s of interes t , especially if parliamentarians and legislators happen to belong to two dif ferent political outf its . The SAGY is typical of Modi's de velopment mant ra which i s hur r iedly conceived wi thout giving due weightage to the ground realities . This was seen in the case of Demonetisation as well as GST. Both the schemes were ful l of f laws , operationally and otherwise. The government is expected to be a "prime mover" in the development process. But in a vibrant democracy like ours, it cannot blindly or instantly transplant one Model or the other. Our "development strategy" has to be tailored to the actual conditions prevailing in our villages. The Hon'ble Prime Minister ought to realise that mi splaced thought s could become counter-product ive in the long run. Ever y development scheme and initiative for reforms needs to be in tune with ground realities . Also, it needs to be appreciated that we cannot have a uniform approach to development tasks in a country of diversity like ours . The face of India changes af ter every 25 or 30 districts . The only answer to this onerous challenge is decent ral izat ion of pol ic y and planning . Equal ly crucial for rural de velopment i s empowerment of the panchayat s , both f inancially and functionally. The moni tor ing work of de velopment i s general ly done by the di s t r ict- le vel - admini s t rat ion. MPs and MLAs could be associated with it for a six-monthly or yearly review for re-f ixing of priorities , depending on changing demands and expectat ions of the villagers concerned. What is needed in today's complexities is depoliticisation of the development process . Development tasks must not be seen through political or sectarian angularities . Development demands empowerment of the people, educationally, health-wise as well as in meet ing thei r bas ic neces s i t ies of l i fe and inf rastructural connect ivi ty between Bharat and India. As it is , the overal l development in the countr y is far from f lattering. I do not wish to talk of big projects or schemes which have their own tales of f laws . What disturbs me is the lates t repor t f rom the Washingtonbased International Food Pol icy Research Ins t i tute ( IRPRI ) 's 2017 Global Hunger Research Index (GHI) , in which India ranks 100 among 119 count r ies s tudied. The countr y's rank, in fact , has fal len by three places compared to 2016. Signi f icantly, in the 2017 Hunger Index, India fal ls behind even war-ravaged Iraq and North Korea. The only consolation that could be derived by of f icial s i s that in As ia , Paki s tan and Afghanistan are below the ranking of India! A number of global and Indian studies have talked about the suf ferings of the common men on var ious count s l ike nutr i t ion and chi ld mortality, awfully poor standards of primary and secondary schooling, lopsided growth and the prevai l ing i l l i terac y. These harsh fact s show how precarious the country's social and human conditions are. True, major changes relat ing to human af fairs , including in education, public health and inf ras t ructure development , cannot be brought about overnight by the Modi government . All the same, decades of failure demand changes in pol icies , strategies and prioritization of the very concept of Vikas. Development tasks must be in tune wi th grassroots realities in villages . Here, areas of f laws have to be identif ied afresh and new plans of action evolved and operationalised on a war-footing basis . Indeed, the real challenge before the Niti Ayog planners and leaders is to ensure that the poor get a reasonable share in the "human resource and economic cake" through new avenues of growth and development . This is possible if the rulers at the helm adopt the required correctives urgently to rid the Indian society of the imbalances that make the poor poorer and the rich richer. The government is expected to be a "prime mover " in the development process . But in a vibrant democracy like ours , it cannot blindly or instantly transplant one Model or the other. Our "development strategy" has to be tailored to the actual condi t ions pre vai l ing in our villages . I hope the Prime Minister would think along new lines . He needs to appreciate that the central izat ion of deci sion-making does not improve performance on the ground. Rather, it creates obstacles for innovations and creativity of indigeneous talents at the grassroots . A de veloping economy l ike our s cannot af ford extravagance to support the whims of politicians and the indif ferent functioning of the bureaucracy in the name of Model Village Development! Rising crimes speak for poor governance India has reasons to be terribly concerned about its disquieting Social Index. By the Social Index, I am specifically referring to the rising graph of various categories of crimes which have both social and economic components and they reflect on the quality of governance. Look at any area of crime graph – rape, dowry, domestic violence, female infanticides, trafficking in girls, drugs and arms and petty crimes, the overall picture is grim to the core. The 2016 data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) speak for themselves. What is particularly disturbing is the rising graph of crimes against women and children. There has been 82 per cent increase in incidents of rape of children compared to 2015. The highest rise on this count has been recorded in Uttar Pradesh, where figures have trebled. UP recorded 400 per cent jump in child rapes. The National Crime Records Bureau has also highlighted several disturbing social and economic trends which must not be lost sight of. We see a rising trend in the number of economic offences like cheating, breach of trust, forgery and counterfeiting, illegal gains through cyber crimes. Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur figured prominently in these areas. Madhya Pradesh has witnessed over a 60 per cent rise in sexual abuses of children. The case of Maharashtra is equally bad. In Tamil Nadu, where no case of child rape was registered in 2015, it reported 1169 such cases in 2016. Could this be because of the exit of Jayalalithaa from the state's political scene on December 5, 2016 after her prolonged illness? The former Chief Minister was known for her ruthless governance when it came to the safety of women and children. She knew how to make the police accountable for lapses in law and order issues. The tragedy of the country since Independence has been its poor police outfit, despite attempts at occasional patch-work reforms. Whatever changes have been initiated for police reforms from time to time are far from satisfactory. They hardly meet the changing profiles of crimes in various segments of society. The NCRB's latest figures by themselves are alarming. The ground realities, however, could be far worse because of Poor Police Performance we all are familiar with. Nothing could be more shameful than to see 82 per cent rise in rapes of children in 2016 from the 2015 data. Equally worrying area is the rising graph of sexual assaults on women. The post-Nirbhaya Delhi looks like a lost dream. Delhi reported the highest crime rate against women – 160.4 – compared to the national average rate of 55.2. Crimes against women rose from 3, 23, 243, in 2015 to 3, 38, 954 in 2016. These include cruelty by husband or relatives, followed by assault on woman with intent to outrage her modesty, kidnapping, abduction and rape. Among 19 metros analysed by NCRB, Delhi, followed by Mumbai and Bengalaru reported most number of crimes against women. India recorded 106 rapes a day, despite several tough court rulings and tightening of laws to deal with this menace. What a shameful commentary on the deteriorating social environment and on the state of the nation which boasts of its great tradition of respect for women! This underlines one harsh reality: there is nothing like the fear of law and law-enforcing agencies in the country among crime-prone persons. This prompts me to suggest that we should look afresh at the country's crime scene and work out a new plan of action. It must be appreciated that everything boils down to good governance, which includes both the tightening of laws and efficient working of the police. There can be no short-cuts to good governance with accountability in critical areas which remain neglected by the central and state governments. The National Crime Records Bureau has also highlighted several disturbing social and economic trends which must not be lost sight of. We see a rising trend in the number of economic offences like cheating, breach of trust, forgery and counterfeiting, illegal gains through cyber crimes. Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur figured prominently in these areas. We have also to seriously look at the agrarian distress which led to a series of protests and riots. The NCRB reports suggest that farmers took to streets in large numbers demanding their rights last year with 4,837 riots taking place across the country. The number of riots incidents doubled in 2016 because of shrinking farm lands, failure of crops, poor irrigation facilities, bad seeds, drought, the rising burden of debts etc. This agrarian crisis, again, brings me to the critical question of governance. For one, India just does not have enough cold storage. Secondly, there is not adequate processing of food to ensure that crops do not perish or go waste, leading to the farmers' distress. Farming policies actually need a radical overhaul in varied areas to quell farmers' revolts. They must not be taken for a ride, whether it is the question of loan waivers or insurance payments! The point which I wish to reiterate is that the rise in the crime graph is proportionate to - rather more than proportionate – if the governments at the Centre and in the states fail to manage grim ground realities, whether they relate to the safety of children, women, farmers' distress signals or atrocities against Dalits or the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The country is indeed paying a heavy price for poor governance by the authorities concerned in varied areas of economic and social conflicts. Looking beyond the 2016 NCRB data, we also must take cow-related hate crimes seriously. IndiaSpend's database records suggest that 97 per cent of all such incidents have occurred since the BJP regime came to power in May 2014. This is highly disturbing. According to Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights watch; "Attacks based on race, religion, caste ethnicity in India occur when the attackers believe that they have political cover and will not be prosecuted and punished". Meenakshi is right. The ruling class must not be party to such crimes. Such an approach would undermine the people's faith in the justice system and the fairplay of our leaders at the helm.