Role Sharing and Collaboration between Governments and NGO's in National Development

Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan
National Coordinator, LOK SATTA People Power, India

November 2002

“Never doubt that a group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever did”

Margaret Mead

Voluntarism in India

Two fountainheads

• – Charity (paramartha)
• – Service (seva)

More an extension of religion

What is missing

• A sense of common fate
• Trust in people’s capacity
• Sense of equality

Early voluntarism

• Enlightened Christian missionaries (Religious)
• Ramakrishna Mission (Religious)
• Tagore’s Sriniketan in Bengal (Rural Development)
• Spencer Hatch of YMCA (Martandam, Kerala) (Rural Development)

Voluntarism and social transformation

• Raja Rammohan Roy (Women’s upliftment)
• Iswarchandra Vidya Sagar (Women’s upliftment)
• Dayanand Saraswati (Religious reform and education)
• Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (Religious reform and education)
• Mahatma Jyotibha Phule (Fight against caste)
• Ramaswamy naicker (Tamilnadu)
• Narayana Guru (Kerala)
• Panduranga Sastry Athavale (Swadhyaya movement)

Gandhian voluntary action

• Ambulance corps in South Africa (Boer war)
• Champaran – political struggle combined with constructive action
• Basic education
• Harijan welfare and removal of untouchability
• Sanitation
• Leprosy eradication (HLNS)
• Handlooms and Handicrafts

Post-Independence India

Government support to Gandhian concepts and Institutions

Example:

• Harijan Seva Sangh
• Khadi and Village Industries Commission
• Khadi and Village Industries Board
• Sarvodaya movement
• Bhoodan Movement

Voluntarism with professional inputs

• Bunker Roy – SWRC (Tilonia)
• Dr Anil Sadgopal – Hoshangabad education project
• Dr R S Arole – Healthcare, Maharashtra
• ASHA - Education
• Rajendra Singh – Watershed development
• Anna Hazare - Watershed development

Voluntarism and social activism

• Left wing movements (eg: Rythu kuli sangham)
• Labour movements (Sankar Guha – Neogy)
• Environmental movements (Narmada Bachao Andolan)
• Religious revival movements (Hindu & Muslim organizations)

State and NGOs

1947 -1970s :
State collaboration

1970s-80s :
JP movement (confrontation)

1990s- :
Development work
- collaboration
- collusion
Ideological activism
- adversarial
- collusion
Governance reform
- adversarial
- limited collaboration

State ’ s felters

• Clampdown during emergency
• A ttempts to stifle voluntary societies through over-regulation
• Not enough incentive for contributions (limited tax exemption)
• FCRA as a means of corruption and control
• State support tainted by corruption

Governance and human rights

Three key goals

Political process vs Civil society

In a sane democracy

• Political process should resolve the crisis
• Parties, elections and public office are the route to reform
• In India a vicious cycle operates

Distortions of state power

• Positive power restricted
  Negative power unchecked
• All organs are dysfunctional
• Crisis is systemic
• Political process ought to be the solution but has become the problem itself

Flawed political process

• Institutional rigidities
• System of alibis
• Change of players vs rules of the game
• Over-centralization
• Vote -> Public good
• Taxes <- Services
• Authority <- Accountability
• Incapacity to institutionalize innovations

Flawed democracies - elections

What is wrong with electoral process?

• Illegitimate and unaccounted money power (10-50 times legal ceiling)
• Criminalization of politics (700/4072)
• Voting irregularities
• Caste and divisive impulses

Key reforms

Civil society ’ s role

• Mobilize people for reforms
• Local
• National
• Strengthen democratic processes
• Adversarial and collaborative

Illustrations of engagement

• Election Watch - Non partisan activism impact on criminalization (facilitatory + exposure)
• Candidate disclosures - Adversarial activism
• Right to information - Advocacy and mass mobilization
• Funding reform - Collaborative activism

Approaches to citizens ’ activism

• Collective informed assertion
• Wide dissemination of information
• Effective mass communication
• Strategic intervention

Dangers of status quo

• Fiscal collapse
• Anarchy
• Authoritarianism
• Balkanization
• Unfulfilled potential
• Avoidable suffering

Future of voluntarism

• Public service contractor (education, health care, slum resettlement etc.)
• Collaborator with state (community participation, watershed development etc.)
• Social innovators (new technologies, organizations and services)
• Social critics and policy advocates (child labour, environment etc.)
• Building civil society institutions ( electoral reform, right to information, decentralization, police and judicial reform etc.)

Key requirements

• Inspiration
• Leadership
• Legitimacy
• Funding
• Linkages

State ’ s role in future

• Rule of Law
• Public Order
• Justice
• Education
• Health care
• Infrastructure
• Natural resources development

Civil society ’ s role

• Make the state do its job
• Take charge of areas un-addressed by state and market
• Assert people’s sovereignty and community control
• Build a framework for social cohesion and a sense of common fate

“The punishment suffered by the wise who refuse to take part in the government, is to suffer under the government of bad men.”

Plato