Decentralized Planning and Participatory Development

In the context of development, decentralization means the delegation of powers from a central
authority to regional and local authorities. It implies transfer of decision making powers from the
center of an organization to sub-units. Decentralization as an instrumental or value defined as the
empowerment of the common people through the empowerment of the local bodies. Thus,
decentralized planning can be defined as a type of planning of local authorities and institutions to
formulate, adopt, implement and administrate the plan without central control. More clearly,
decentralized planning can be interpreted as “planning at below”.

The central focus of development is not necessarily to boost production of material goods;
instead, it should be to foster and enhance people's capability to have a role in their society's
development. To this end, people should be willingly involved in a wide range of development
activities, as agents and beneficiaries of development. It is this participation that is important.

Participatory Development
Participatory development is an approach to development that is designed to enhance
sustainability and self-reliance and to achieve social justice through improvements in the quality
of people's participation. Thus the focal point of participatory development should be the
qualitative enhancement of participation in local societies which can be defined as groups of
rural communities and as administrative and developmental units.
Participatory development is not an attempt to replace the top-down development approach with
a local-community-led approach. Rather, it is a viewpoint that simultaneously stresses the need
for the government-led approach in terms of national-level economic planning and coordination
of development planning and the demerits of widening disparities and worsening poverty
inherent in that approach when used alone. Participatory development attempts to introduce a
bottom-up style of development in order to remedy the government-led approach's shortcomings,
specifically by focusing on qualitative improvements in local society's participation.

India has created a landmark through the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts, made
the principle of “co-operative federalism”; the central and state governments transfer powers to
and strengthen the local governments at the district, block and village levels. The significant
factor of the India’s decentralization is three-tier system with 35-40 percent of the plan outlay
devolved to Local Self-Government Institutions (LSGIs). The main goal of such reform was to
enhance equity, increase efficiency and ensure more participation and responsiveness of
government to citizen.
(Sir’s PPT includes a part about the historical Phases of Decentralized Planning in India which has
pointers about the various committees that were set up for it and their recommendations)
It gave the Gram Sabha powers such as:
 Safeguard and preserve traditions, customs, cultural identity, community resources and
customary mode of dispute resolution.
 Approve the plans, programs and projects for social and economic development,
 Identify beneficiaries under poverty alleviation and other programs,
 Certify utilization of funds by the Gram Panchayat,
 Protect common property resources, including minor forest produce,
 Be consulted prior to land acquisition.

The Process of Village Panchayat Planning:

1. Identification of issues by gram Sabha and ward Sabha, based on the vision of the
Panchayat.
2. Determination of solutions by working groups and standing committees of the Village
Panchayat.
3. Prioritization of solutions and fund allocation by standing committees of the Village
Panchayat resulting in preparation of the first draft Village Panchayat plan
4. Reconsideration of the draft plan in the Second Gram Sabha meeting
5. Finalization of the sectoral plans by standing committee/working groups
6. Finalization of Village Panchayat plan by the full meeting of the Panchayat

Micro Planning

Micro Planning is a community based empowering process for preparing a road map for
development and management of forest and livelihood enhancement of the forest dependent
communities with properly defined roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders, clearly set
targets and well discussed deadlines.
Village micro planning, as being practiced in India, is a participatory process of community
mobilization and need-based planning at the Gram Panchayat level, which can serve as the
starting point for the integrated district plans to be prepared by the DPCs. Micro planning is
facilitated by teams of local youth rigorously trained in Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)
techniques and behavior change communication (BCC).
The village micro planning process takes place in four stages: stocktaking, visioning, need
identification and preparation of a village plan. The village plan is presented to the village
council called Gram Sabha on the last day of the process, and is thoroughly discussed and vetted
by the Gram Sabha. The participatory process makes a threefold impact: the community gets
mobilized, a collective review of village needs and problems takes place and a concrete village
plan document rolls out with the approval of the Gram Sabha.

It leads to
 Enhancing orientation about the village problems such as sanitation, drinking water
sources, electricity, transport etc. for the village development
 Tapping the natural, physical, financial and human sources for the village development
 Designing suitable solutions to the specific problems of the village
 Increasing unity among different types of community people in the village
 Developing the village through people’s participation
 Developing a shared vision and plan for the development of the village

The 4 A’s of Micro planning:

 Assessment by the community of health and education standards, water availability, and
sanitation
 Analysis of causes and possible solutions
 Action to address the selected issues
 Association with agencies like the local government, NGO and corporation

Steps Involved
1. Environment building: Meetings, visits, explaining purpose, sharing schedule, seek
participation of entire community in a Gram Sabha meeting.
2. Creation of village data base- village mapping, participatory household survey,
assessment of infrastructure and services.
3. Data Analysis and identification of issues- comparative analysis, seasonality analysis
4. Visualization of solutions and prioritizing strategies- formation of committees
5. Formulation of village action plan-sector plans-special consultations and consolidation
of Sector plan

How to encourage better participation in Gram Sabha Meeting:

• Fixing meeting dates well in advance
• Printing and wide distribution of notices
• Encouraging elected representatives of PRIs to promote better attendance
• Involvement of special interest groups such as SHGs
• Campaigns, House visits through volunteers
• Small group discussions in the Gram Sabha