India is developing but not Indians

Says Mani Shankar Aiyar, former Panchayati Raj Minister present at the National Consultation on Governance

p>A talk of ‘inclusive growth but not inclusive governance’ is what disturbs Mani Shankar Aiyar as he addressed the consortium to assess the performance of the UPA Government’s 100 days agenda. He said that while the economy is growing at a fast pace the human development index is struggling to progress. The Rights and Policies constituted by the current UPA government are sufficient and good enough to improve the human development index if implemented properly. He encouraged the people to depend on themselves and their capabilities rather than just on elected representatives.

The government also wants inclusive growth and is with the people in fighting against poverty replied Mr. Oscar Fernandes a member of Rajya Sabha and senior member of the Congress Party who was the Chief guest at the event. He endorsed the significance of the role of CSOs in helping people take benefit from the flagship programmes of the government like NREGS and the Insurance for the unorganised sector. He said that we need to deal with the corruption which is widely prevalent in the system. It is not justified to expect only the centre to take up all the responsibilities but there is a need for the state, the MPs and the Panchayat to do their bit.

To review the performance of the UPA Government’s 100 days agenda and facilitate the process of engaging with the government, WNTA organized a 1 ½ day National Consultation on Governance from September 15 – 16, 2009. This National Consultation brought together People’s representatives, political groups, academia and media from a broad spectrum of thoughts and ideas on civil society platform for proactive engagement with the Government, Alia and Ritu from CNI SBSS participated in the event. Wada Na Todo Abhiyan(WNTA)is a national campaign which emerged from the consensus among human rights activists and social action groups working towards holding the Government accountable to fulfill its promise to end poverty and social exclusion.

There were panel discussions on thematic issues of Basic Services (education & health), Livelihood, Food security, Climate Change, Social economic justice of marginalized groups and the 100 days of UPA Governance. This was followed by the Rapporteur’s presentation of the previous sessions to the UPA Government representative, followed by the presentation of the CSO Charter to the government.

The UPA Government in its last 5 year tenure has brought about a change in our economy and aspires to become a super power by 2020. In this rush to become a super power the UPA Government did not forget the common man and did come out with some flagship programs for the poor. National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) launched in August 2005, Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) launched in December 2000 are some of the schemes that have benefited the poor and marginalized.

Evaluation of the UPA’s 100 days is important but judging them on the basis of their performance in just 100 days is not justified. The participants also agreed that despite being a Right based governance and there are some flaws and shortcoming that lie in the politics of non implementation. Notwithstanding all arguments we have to agree on the fact that this governance has been pro poor and it is this perspective of the UPA government that it has been unanimously elected by the people for the second tenure. There is time in between the sowing and reaping and for every seed sown it needs to be watered and cared for. The seed has been sown, we as CSOs need to take initiative to water and weed the field to experience the full potential of the seed.