Role of Digital India in Empowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions
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Transcript of Role of Digital India in Empowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions
IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 9 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print)
International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 153
www.irjmsh.com
Role of Digital India in Empowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions
Mr.Vijay Pal Chaursiya
Shaheed Bhagat Singh College
University of Delhi
Email:vpchaursiya @gmail.com
Abstract
Digital India is an „ambitious project‟ of ourPrime Minister NarendraModi who wants to
connect the entire Gram Panchayats of the country with broadband or Wi-Fi connectivity located
in remotest areas by 2019 in four phases. This is a NOFN project that is funded by USOF
(Universal Services Obligation Fund).According the project, it will help in development of
health and education facilities as well as it will be helpful in empowering the Gram Sabha.
Effective implementation of the project can make Gram Panchayat transparent, accountable,
effective and efficient. The project will enhance the potential of the rural people by creating
awareness and making information and services available. Thus, the project may bring
tremendous changes in the rural society.
Keywords: NOFN, BBNL, e-Panchayat, Social Audit, e-Kranti, Digital Revolution, Gram Sabha
Empowerment.
Introduction
The institution of Panchayat in India is as old as our Vedic Civilisation. The word
„Panchayat‟ literally means „assembly‟ of five wise and respected persons elected by the local
community. Indian government developed Panchayati Raj Institutions for promoting a system
for self-governance in the rural areas in which Gram Panchayats are the basic units of
administration. Gandhi advocated Panchayati Raj as he wanted to revive oldest village
administration system and to promote local self-government. Mahatma Gandhi said “The future
of India lies in the villages. If the village perishes India will perish too. India will be no more
India. Her own mission in the world will get lost. The revival of the village is possible only when
it is no more exploited. Industrialization on a mass scale will necessarily lead to passive or active
exploitation of the villagers as the problems of competition and marketing come in. Therefore we
IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 9 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print)
International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 154
www.irjmsh.com
have to concentrate on the village being self-contained, manufacturing mainly for use. Provided
this character of the village industry is maintained, there would be no objection to villagers using
even the modern machines and tools that they can make and can afford to use. Only they should
not be used as a means of exploitation of others.”1
The Government of India constituted many committees and commission time to time for
improving Panchayati Raj like Ashok Mehta Committee, BalwantRai Mehta Committee, GKV
Rao Committee, LM Singhavi Committee etc. These committees submitted their reports and
government passed the Constitutional Act, 1992 on the basis of these reports. The act came in
force on 24th
April 1993 and provided a constitutional status to Panchayati Raj Institutions. At
present, the Panchayati Raj System exists in all states and all Union Territories except Nagaland,
Meghalaya, Mizoramand Delhi. Some states have two-tier and others have three-tier Panchayati
Raj Institutions based on population. ButGram Panchayat is a basic unit for governing the village
so that the villages may be developed and made self-dependent. ArvindKejriwal opined that time
has come to amend the Panchayati Raj Act and empower the Gram Sabha rather than Sarpanchs.
Too much power has been vested with the Sarpanchs and the officials. As a result, the
panchayats have become yet anotherinstitutions of corruption. But his concept of empowering
Gram Panchayat and Gram Sabha is very ambiguous and a time consuming process. Now,
government took initiative to make ICT enabled panchayat system to improve social and
economic status of the villages.
Digital India
Indian cabinet approved an umbrella programme Digital India comprising various
projects that aim to ensure government services are available to citizens electronically and
people get benefits. Digital India is also known as e-India, Online India or Transformational
India. It is a diffused neologism that encourages the use of ICT to provide and improve
government services, transactions and interactions with citizens, business and other arms of
Indian government. Prime Minister NarenderModi launched a highly ambitious projects „Digital
India‟ that will not only teach computers to everyone, but it will also directly produce
employment opportunities for the youth. The programme would make internet facilities available
at around 4 lakh public places in the country. The programme claims that 1.7 crore job
1 http://www.mkgandhi.org/revivalvillage/
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opportunities would be created and 8.5 million people will be benefitted. Apart from these,
India‟s dependency on import for electronic products would also be over, once it is implemented.
e-India concept is developed from the concept of e-governance that helps the citizens to
access the latest information and government services economically on the concept of „always
on‟. It means any citizen may access this available information or services anytime
everywhere.One can‟t make available thousands of medical specialists or school teachers to the
remotest corners of the country, but one can make their services available through broadband at
multi-service centres in every village. Thus, the programme also developed a e-government
concept.Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce defined that “e-Government refers
to a situation in which administrative, legislative and judicial agencies (including central and
local government) digitize their internal and external operations and utilize networked system
efficiently to realize better quality in the provision of public services.”
The government will spend a hefty amount of Rs. 1.13 lakh crore on this project. The
project will be implemented in four phases till 2019. All the universities and around 2.5 schools
would be connected withWi-Fi facility and the government has allocated Rs. 500 crore in the
general budget for „e-Kranti‟.Digital India promises to transform the nation into a connected
knowledge economy offering world class services at a click of a mouse. Under this project, the
government will connect 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayat through the broadband connectivity or optical
fibre network.
The vision of the programme is centred on three key areas:
1. Digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen- digital identity, mobile phone
and bank account, safe and secure cyber space;
2. Governance and service demand-Service available in real time on Online and
mobile platform, making financial transaction electronic and cashless;
3. Digital empowerment of citizens- all documents, certificates available on cloud.
The programme will emphasize on digitization process of public information and services
provided by the government. Digitization is the process of converting information into digital
format. Hence, digital India means to convert all the information and public services of Indian
government into the digital format so that every citizen may access these services from
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everywhere at anytime even if he resides in the remotest corner of the country. PramodBhasin2
said, “To complement government‟s programme of digital inclusion, we must innovate and offer
the most advanced solution to the government which integrate data analytics, GIS, biometrics
etc. to enhance governance, food, health, physical and cybersecurity, energy, strengthen
education, healthcare, transportation and other public delivery systems to the last mile and
improve the standards of living of the people, especially in rural areas…India should aim to
replicate the countries like Brazil, China etc. and create Wi-Fi zones across cities and villages.”
Objectives
Digital India programme aims to connect all panchayats by internet, promote e-
governance and transform India into a connected knowledge economy. It will improve
information and service delivery, encourage effective people participation in the decision-
making process, and make government more accountable, transparent, effective and efficient.
The main objective of the programme is to exercise economic, political and administrative
authority, to better manage affairs of India at all levels. The initiative is to deliver government
services to the common man mainly through applications on mobile phones and hand-handled
devices. It will deliver health, education, judicial, banking and other social services over a
mobile device. Thus, it is a programme to prepare India for a knowledge future.
„e-Kranti‟ will play an important role in establishment of „Digital India‟. What will
happen if all things of India convert in digital? It will help in development of rural areas as rural
people are yetnot able to access all information due to different types of barriers in the society
like illiteracy, lack of infrastructure etc. It will give importance to behaviourism rather than
idealism and there won‟t be any issue that can‟t be solved. It will empower the rural people by
making them available all the information and services and the rural citizens will be able to have
complete information and knowledge about their Gram Panchayat.
Digital India and Panchayati Raj System
In 1978, Ashok Mehta Report observed that “PRIs are dominated by economically and
socially privileged sections of the society and have facilitated the emergence of oligarchic forces
yielding low benefits to weaker sections…Corruption, inefficiency, scant regard for procedures,
2Founder and Vice Chairman, Genpact India
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political interference in the day-to-day administration, parochial loyalties, motivated actions,
power concentration instead of service consciousness, and all these have seriously fractured the
utility of PRIs for an average villagers.” The Janata Party Government constituted a
committee in 1977 on weak functioning of the Panchayati Raj in the country and Ashok Mehta
was appointed as chairperson of the committee. The committee analysed the then PRI system,
and submitted the report to the government saying that there is a need of restructuring of PRIs.
Article 40 of the Constitution provides that the State shall take necessary actions to
organise village Panchayats and to endow them with such powers and authority as may be
necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government. So, the 73rd
Constitutional
Amendment Act envisages Gram Sabha as the foundation of grassroots democracy. A Gram
Sabha may exercise such powers and perform functions at the village level as the legislature of a
State may, by law provide. A Gram Sabha consists of all persons registered as voter in the
electoral roll related to the village Panchayat. Thus, it works like General Body of the village and
Gram Panchayat functions as Executive Body. Gandhi accepted that true democracy couldn‟t be
worked out by some men sitting at the top and it has to be worked out from below by the people
of every village. Hence, the basic aim of Gram Sabha is to let people plan and decide about the
development of their own village but all the activities carried out by Gram Panchayat should
have prior approval of Gram Sabha.
An active Gram Sabha is a key to empower people and make the panchayat accountable.
A Gram Sabha acts as legislative at village level and it ensures direct and participative
democracy. Gandhi said, “My idea of Village Swaraj is that it is a complete republic. The
government of the village has all the authority and jurisdiction required. Thus, panchayat will be
the legislative, judiciary and executive combined.” For a strong Gram Sabha, it is required that
people of the Gram Sabha should be aware about their rights and all the government activities &
projects which are made for them.Usually the sarpanchs without any responsibility by and large
dominate the Gram Sabhas. Sometimes Gram Sabhais seen helpless and Gram Sabha has no
control on Gram Panchayat.
More than 70% of the population lives in villages and rural part of India. They are
lacking basic facilities of education, health, financial inclusion etc. The rural people aren‟t able
to access the recent information and services which are provided by government for them. The
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government has introduced information and communication technologies to improve the rural
administration because ICT has strengthened the human intellectual capacity and formation of
modern lifestyle. To improve the quality of panchayat governance, NIC, Hyderabad has initiated
the e-governance scheme in Panchayati Raj Institution known as e-Panchayat.e-Panchayat is a
software that fits well into the information system at gram panchayat level . It is web enabled
and citizen-centric that encourages the digital panchayat.
Digital Panchayat is a functional and dynamic digital platform and working station
designed and created for each and every panchayat in India, powered by internet. It empowers
citizens with bottom up and top down information and content and improves public service
delivery at its level by creating a digital data house. It facilitates growth of panchayat economy
through promotion of panchayat tourism and e-commerce of local produce and generates an ICT
environment in every panchayat. In these efforts, government develops a comprehensive
Panchayat Digital Platform and trains panchayat representatives in IT skills and management of
Panchayat Platform so that these representatives may update and maintain the panchayat content
regularly. Digital Panchayat would be able to improve transparency and accountability in rural
administration.
Digital India empowers Gram Sabha. Every citizen may access all the information and
service easily at home without any trouble because e-governance makes the administration
transparent, accountable, efficient and effective through the project. Each and every citizen
maytake part in decision-making process at local level. The Gram Sabha actslike awatchdog of
Gram Panchayat. They may control the Gram Panchayats by supervising and monitoring the
functions of it. All the members of Gram Sabha can access entire information about the functions
of the Gram Panchayat through the internet or e-governance and they can participate in meeting
effectively.Hence, the Gram Sabhas can do social audit of the Gram Panchayats time to time.
Social audit is a process in which details of the resources is used by public agencies for
development initiatives and is shared with the people often through public platform. In other
words, social audit is a process of monitoring and controlling Gram Panchayat by asking
questions to the members of panchayat on controversial issues of its work done. If any Gram
Sabha member has any doubt about misusing of public fund, then Gram Panchayat has to clarify
the doubts. It helps smooth functioning of village level governance. It allows people to enforce
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accountability and transparency. So, social audit is an instrument of controlling Gram Panchayat
and Sarpanchs. Digital Panchayat will create awareness in rural people because all the
information regarding panchayat will be online and people need not to ask for the information
under the RTI Act. It can enhance the role of Gram Sabha in checking the functions of Gram
Panchayat. Thus, there is no doubt that Gram Sabha is an institution of direct democracy.
Digital India programme will reduce the corruption at the local levels. People can apply
for the certificates online like birth, death, income etc. It will be reachthe common people and
abolishes the role of the mediator or corrupt employees. It enhances the capacity building that
play an important role in empowerment of Gram Sabha. According to Article 40 of Constitution
of India, “the respective state government shall take step to organise village panchayat and
endow them with such power and authority as may be needed to enable them to function as the
unit of self-governance.” Corruption-free self-governance can be established only with be e-
governance.Hence, the government has to promote ICT enabled administration with whole-
heartedly.
The ICT enabled administration will reduce the cost of the services and saves the time of
the citizens because it provides the services everywhere,anytime. Whenever people have extra
time they can avail the public services round-the-clock. They need not go out and waste their
time. The prime vision of the programme is that the public services should reach everyone
especially, in rural areas. The programme will improve the speed and certainty in delivery of
public services. The citizens expect flexible, convenient interactions, sophisticated online
services and prompt responses to their requests.Digital India programme will save the time and
funds of these panchayats. All the activities of government and functioning process of
panchayats will be transparent. So, the panchayats can get all the information easily without any
hindrance and government can transfer their funds without any leakage. It will reduce the
corruption and abolish the role of mediators whoever provokes to increase bribes or corruption.
It will enhance and improve levels of public participation and citizen satisfaction through
sharing of information by using digital technologies. The government will connect all 2.5 lakh
Gram Panchayat through broadband and Wi-Fi facility. The villages will be prosperous in
storage of information and it will help citizens in taking participation in Gram Sabha meeting
and decision-making. Holding the Gram Sabha meetings help establish direct democracy.For
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instance, Andhra Pradesh government launched e-Panchayat that is electronic knowledge based
panchayat. It is a part of e-governance initiative. It has been designed taking into consideration
all the information and knowledge management requirements in a Gram Panchayat. It provides
all the information of the Gram Panchayat at a village level. It has nearly 30 main modules that
fulfil all the functions at the Gram Panchayat level. It has a module that is Gram Panchayat
Administration that facilitates provision of different types of information services regarding
Gram Panchayat. It provides the minutes of meetings, schedule of Gram Sabha, agenda updates,
certificates, licences, bill payments, attendance monitoring of the panchayat functionaries,
registration of birth/death/ marriages etc., pension scheme management system, self-help groups
and villagers welfare schemes management system property tax, law and order, government
orders and so on. All this information may help in empowerment of Gram Sabha. By this
information, Gram Sabha may easily check and balance onGram Panchayat and sarpanchs.
Thus,Gram Sabhas monitors and control the Gram Panchayat.It may be a „means‟ in long run to
regulate such projects as such.
Digital India will promote e-governance in rural administration that will be an active
means of public participation in political and government discussion by which citizen can
contribute their ideas and share their knowledge and information. In 2005, UNDP defined that e-
governance is the ICT with areas of improving information and service delivery, encouraging
citizen participation in the decision-making process and making government more accountable,
transparent and effective. Thus, digital governance creates better connection between citizens
and government. The ICT can be used for good governance, enhance democratization and citizen
empowerment. It improves efficiency of government as well as Gram Panchayat. Central and
state government of India initiate various e-governance projects under NeGP for rural areas like
e-Chaupal, Gyandoot, Akashganga, Drishtee, Lokmitra etc. These projects are working
effectively in rural areas for improving awareness in rural people.
Challenges
Despite of having 3rd
largest internet user base, India stands at 124th
rank [out of 190] in
UN survey on e-Governance, as our governance is neither participatory nor service
oriented.Furthermore, „policy making‟ is not analytics driven and hence, persisting lack of
transparency. UPA-II had approved National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) to provide
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broadband connectivity to all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats in the country and government had set
up Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) for establishment, management and operation of
NOFN. It was a special purpose vehicle and was incorporated on 25th
February 2012. The NOFN
has the potential to transform many aspects of our lives including videos, data, internet,
telephone services in different areas like education, health e-governance services etc.
The NOFN has a vision to provide secure, reliable, affordable and high quality
connectivity across India and BBNL was in process of building the NOFN. It had embarked
upon pilot projects in three blocks covering 58 Gram Panchayats in three different states. These
blocks were Arian (Ajmer, Rajasthan), Parvada (Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh) and
Panisagar (North Tripura, Tripura). But pilot project couldn‟t give dynamic result because the
project was facing different kinds of problems. Thus, Digital India may have to face the
following types of challenges:
Lack of will power: Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad recently admitted that optic-
fibre project has seen virtually „no-progress‟from the past three years. It means the
project is lacking will power. The Government of India had launched this project in 2011
but it is in same position since the time of incorporation. The government officials are
neither taking interest and nor providing basic infrastructure to complete this project. The
half-hearted implementation of the project will make it useless.But minister further said
that government will continue to implement the project through public sector units Bharat
Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Power Grid Corporation and RailTel and it will be
monitor by the Prime Minister himself.
Content Development: Digital India is an „ambitious‟ project of our PM NarendraModi.
But its prime challenge is content development. It needs to set up expert panels across the
areas of education, medicine, public services and in whichever field it wants to deliver
content. India is a multi-lingual country with 22 constitutionally recognized Indian
languages and only 6% Indian people are conversant with English. All content should be
in local lauguage to ensure wide adoption. It would have to be a wide-ranging
consultative process that would affect actual pick up of service by the citizens. Multi-
lingual contents will make it effective in different states. This is the most challenging
task, of devising the relevant content, that creates interest in the citizens.
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Digital Literacy: Due to urbanisation process, Gram Sabhas are facing of brain drain.
Mostly rural educated people migrate to urban areas in search of good jobs, health and
education facilities. That‟s why some people are influencing the Gram Sabhas and Gram
Panchayats. On weakening of PRIs, Ashok Mehta also said that economically and
socially privileged sections dominate the Gram Panchayat and Gram Sabhas. The rural
people are almost illiterate and they don‟t have knowledge of upcoming technologies.
However, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that government is going to launch
a project “Disha” very soon to enhance the digital literacy. Under this project, common
man will be given computer and digital training in their local language.
Lack of infrastructure: The prime constraint of the programme is failure of electricity in
rural areas. The state governments are yet not able to provide electricity in most
areasround-the-clock basis. If Digital India would be started and all the Gram Panchayats
are connected with broadband or Wi-Fi but it is useless until there is no electricity or
power back up for operating the kiosk or computer devices.
Thus, the project has many challenges to implement in rural areas. The Government of India
has to analyse all the challenges thoroughly and solve them. But, if the project is not an agenda
for election and government really wants to establish the projectthen first of all government
needs strong will power, as rightly said that where there is a will, there is a way. The government
will have to monitor the project timely.
Suggestions
Digital India is an ambitious project of our Prime Minister.The project will be very
useful and fruitful for rural areas because the rural people are still backward. Whether it is health,
education, or rural administration there is corruption everywhere in local self-government. They
are lacking basic facilities and are not even aware about their rights. But this project will
createdirect democracy and enhance public participation in decision-making process.. The
citizens will be able to share their views and information in political and government
discussions.The digital panchayat is an ICT enabled panchayat that has all the information and
services in digital mode. Only effective implementation of the project can improve government
process and build external interaction. There are some suggestions for implementing the project:
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Digital India project should be user-friendly. The contents of the project should be
simple and accessible so that everyone can access all the information and services
easily. The difficult content will make it useless. The state government should
help the experts in developing the content and in implementing the project
effectively. In other words, it should be citizen-centric and not technology-centric.
To improve citizen services, the government needs to collaborate as the major
challenge is that each department works in silos with its own infrastructure like
data centres, networks etc.
Due to failure of electricity in rural areas, the government needs to connect Wi-Fi
on Mobile tower through the Omni device and try to develop Wi-Fi enabled
desktops at cheapest costs. Every state government should promote solar energy
project so that the problem is solved and the project works properly.
The government should organise digital training programme for Gram Panchayats
and Gram Sabhas members. The government should instruct the Gram Panchayat
that the panchayat is required to upload all the information about the function,
tender and funds regularly so that citizens may come to know what panchayat is
doing at what cost. They need not to ask for information under RTI Act, 2005.
The government should also train the citizens how to access information about
their panchayats and how to control them. This process may enhance the
transparency and accountability of the panchayat.
Through the project, government can transfer all the required funds of panchayats
to them directly without any mediators or channels as these channels cause
leakage of the fund.
Digital India programme is an important project that will connect all the villages of our
country with each other. It is very useful for rural development and for increasing the public
participation. The effective and efficient implementation of the project can empower Gram
Sabhas and make Gram Panchayat transparent and accountable.
Conclusion
PM NarendraModi launched the Digital India Programme on 15th
August 2014 to further
bridge the divide between digital “have” and “have-nots”. He called it digital revolution. It aims
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to connect all 2.5 Gram Panchayats with broadband connectivity or Wi-Fi with high speed
internet services. The Government of India wants to connect rural areas or remotest areas for e-
governance, e-education, telemedicine, electronic harvest services etc. Digital panchayat aims to
cover all information requirement of the Gram Panchayat, both from the staff angle and the
citizens‟ angle.
The government promised to start digital education programme of 20 to 40 hours in local
language for a common man through community centres across the country. The government
will run a project „Disha‟ for digital education. It will make platform available to access the
information and services to citizens. It may possibly reduce the cost of the service and number of
inefficiencies in administration. It will help to increase the transparency and accountability of
decision-making processes and abolish the corruption of the panchayat.
The Government of Gujrat launched an eGramVishwagram Project for empowering
people through popular participation. The project is working effectively in Gujrat. It empowered
the Panchayat by creating of one job through entrepreneurship mode by Gram Panchayat. Now
in Gujrat, Gram Panchayat is known as „e-Service Delivery Center‟ in rural areas and developing
as „Rural Data Collection Center‟. It is one step towards „e-Gram Sachivalaya Concept‟. It means
Prime Minister Modi has will power to implement any project effectively and efficiently.
In brief, the Digital India project contributes in improving e-administration of Gram
Panchayats by cutting the process cost. It will make panchayat efficient and effective. The
project will empower the Gram Sabha and rural citizens by connecting citizens to government
and government to citizens direct. It will create e-society because such initiative will deal
particularly with the relationship between public agencies and other institutions. Thus, Digital
India project can change the political scenario in local self-government completely. The project
may develop intellectual, institutional and material capacity.
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