Local Governance in India

Description

This volume analyses the complexity of local governance, both rural and urban, in contemporary India. It argues that there is more to local governance today than a focus on decentralization. The essays illuminate some of the lesser known aspects of the interface between panchayats and other institutions of local governance, whether district administration or parastatal agencies and civil society organizations. Sections in the book look at the relationship between these institutions and panchayats, sectoral experiences in health and primary education, local governance in the urban and rural setting, and finally issues of transparency, representation and accountability in local governance. Providing a unique analytical perspective to the issue of local governance in India, this volume will be useful to political scientists, sociologists, activists and bureaucrats in local governance mechanisms.

Niraja Gopal Jayal, Professor, Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Amit Prakash, Professor, Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and Pradeep K. Sharma, Senior Assistant Resident Representative, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Timor-Leste

Table of contents

1. Introduction (Niraja Gopal Jayal)
I Panchayati Raj and Traditional Institutions of Governance
2. Selection by Custom and Election by Statute: Interfaces in Local Governance in Karnataka (Kripa Ananth Pur);
3. Van Panchayats in Uttaranchal (Ashok Kumar);
II Panchayati Raj and the Administrative Structure
4. Writers Building and the Reality of Decentralized Rural Power: Some Paradoxes and Reversals in West Bengal (Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya);
5. Panchayats, Bureaucracy, and Poverty Alleviation in Uttar Pradesh (Ravi S Srivastava);
III Local Governance and Sectoral Experiences
6. Decentralization and Disease Control Programmes: The Case Of Filariasis (Rama V. Baru and Meena Gopal);
7. The New Segregation in Primary Education: Implications for Local Governance (Vimala Ramachandran and Aarti Saihjee);
8. Crisis of Governance and Peoples Alternatives: Schooling System in Some Villages of Western UP (Jagpal Singh);
IV Urban Governance
9. People-centred Development and Participatory Urban Governance: The Mumbai Experience (Marina R Pinto);
10. Urban Futures of Poor Groups in Chennai and Bangalore: How these are Shaped by the Relationships between Parastatals and Local Bodies (Solomon Benjamin and R. Bhuvaneswari;
11. Developing a Quantitative Framework for Determining Devolution of Funds from the State Government to Local Bodies (Ajit Karnik, Abhay Pethe and Dilip Karmarkar);
12. Urban Local Bodies and District Administration: An Empirical Examination of Some Issues Relating to Provision of Urban Water Supply in Karnataka (K P Krishnan);
V Gender and Local Governance
13. Mainstreaming Gender in District Plans in Madhya Pradesh (Anwar Jafri and Vikas Singh);
VI Participation, Transparency and Accountability
14. Accountability in Local Governance: Infrastructure Development in the Industrial Townships of Faridabad and Gurgaon (Amita Singh);
15. Transparency, Accountability and Governance: Local Government in Kerala and Karnataka (V. Vijayalakshmi);
16. The Salience of Poverty, Participation, Transparency and Security in Good Urban Governance (Rama Nath Jha);
Contributors;