Section - XXI - Empowerment in Gram Sabha through Entitlements and the way out of the Crisis of Rural Economy

EMPOWERING THE GRAM SABHAS THROUGH ENTITLEMENTS

There is enough and more talk about the need to promote the decentralised Gram Swaraj Concept through the strengthening of the Panchayat Raj Institutions. There is also lots of action / campaign by various organisations to mobilise communities towards empowerment. But what is not understood is that the community would not come forward to realise their Rights till there is sufficient incentive for them to take such an action. So no amount of Philosophical preparation of the people towards their Rights would make them demand their Rights. Only when there is sufficient sense of belonging, ownership etc., to the processes will the community be interested in the same. So if there were to be entitlements created for these communities to enable them to demand more services from the Gram Sabhas ( in a bottom-up approach) will the people come to the Gram Sabha to demand their Rights.

For some organisations which are mobilising communities on the twin issues of NREGA and RTI, this could be a very good case of value addition with the community itself demanding these at the Gram Sabhas. One the other hand there is one more segment of organisations which would want to start some action on NREGA but not getting some starting points. Even for such scenaios if in the first year they are able to do the 0.5 acre and ensure the landless entitlements then they dont need to do any work in empowering them only they need to lead the people to the Gram Sabhas and they would start demanding the same from the Panchayats

THE WAY OUT OF THE CRISIS OF RURAL ECONOMY

The present crisis of the rural economy is not simply a crisis of agriculture. It is also an energy and infrastructure crisis. The farmers are unhappy about the performance of high yielding varieties and are concerned about degrading soils (due to fertilizers), pest and pesticides, prices of agricultural produce, crisis of debt & last but not the least about unavailability of energy on demand. The labour is also not available when required because either they are migrating in the search of work or co-opted in the half heartedly implemented employment guarantee schemes. The other possibilities of generating incomes from rural industries are also very bleak, as they have not gone beyond conventional agro and forest product processing and handicrafts. The development of infrastructure is slowed down because of the cost escalation of energy intensive construction techniques requiring cement & steel & heavy machinery. The debt-ridden State is facing resource crunch while private investment is not forthcoming for rural infrastructure and irrigation since the charges they would demand (for rates of return expected by them) are beyond the paying capacity of the farmers & the rural community.

What we have to look for are the ways in which agriculture (& diversified biomass production as an input for infrastructure, chemicals & energy) & rural industry can be integrated at the household as well as the group level.

Crop diversification is necessary along with shift to low external input and limited irrigation practices. This will call for dispersal of irrigation facilities and as a result the irrigation demand will be small and widely distributed. To meet such demands, energy from renewable sources will be more appropriate.

It is also necessary to avail of advances in technology to produce chemicals from biomass and provide inputs for infrastructure development. Wood-bamboo fiber composites have good potential to use local labour and solar thermal energy for processing.

Recycling wastes to save cement can generate incomes, for this purpose the process energy can be renewable. The dispersal of industry calls for an emphasis on use of renewable resources biomass (bio-fuels, wood-bamboo fibers) and energy in various forms (i.e. solar thermal, wind, hydro).

For dispersal for irrigation facilities & dispersal of industry, we can no longer depend on electricity produced in mega plants and distributed through the grid to serve the distributed power needs with low load factors for irrigation and small industry needs. We cannot meet these needs from petroleum fuels because of the end of the era of cheap oil and gas. The price rise in petroleum fuels makes the diesel and gas unaffordable to the small and marginal farmers in areas poorly endowed with regard to water for irrigation. The shift to renewable has also become obligatory because of the political pressure on the subsidies for diesel and gas that are creating an unbearable burden on national economy.

The key issue that needs to be addressed is to make energy available and affordable to rural & small town communities. Priority should be given to the needs of small farmers, small industry, and unorganized workers as also to income generation through renewable energy production and utilisation. This can happen only when there is participation of this section of society in the policymaking process regarding promotion of biomass based energy production.

Incomes can be generated for the poor in rural areas through entitlements to biomass produced on lands with irrigation facilities developed at public costs. Further, locally produced solar-thermal energy can be used for value added processing in small, dispersed industries. Viability of these income-generating activities can be enhanced by heat used in co-generation to provide process heat for recycling wastes and biomass processing.

In order to sustain the income generation, integration is required of primary production of biomass and use of renewable energy produced locally for processing. The challenge is to use employment assistance and credit concessions (justified on ecological considerations) to reduce the liability for capital costs recovery as well as operating costs. In order to meet this challenge, priority should be given in rural development programme to building of the local bio-resource base. Diversification is also necessary to achieve ecological balance by establishing shallow, medium, as well as deep-rooted vegetation. For wasteland developed at public costs, priority should be given to the choice of species for annuals and perennial trees having high-energy value directly or through value added processing.

It is necessary to avail of advances in technology to make the small-dispersed industries competitive in the rural and urban market. A wide range of products of small industries can compete with the products of large centralized fossil energy based industries. Engineering materials and chemicals using energy saving inputs such as biomass, recycled wastes, and local minerals are always in demand and in a growth economy they have no hazard of market saturation

Optimization of the product mix for energy production from various renewable sources is necessary to reduce the cost of energy generation and upgrade the quality of service for serving various end uses. By developing solar, thermal, wind, small hydro energy sources & their integration with biomass energy should be possible to provide energy to users "on demand" in the desired form i.e. thermal, mechanical, or electrical.

The first step in the restructuring of the energy system is estimation of energy production potential of various renewable resources. This should be followed by need assessment for marginal sections of the rural, small town communities. This will facilitate demand management and optimization of the energy mix from the various sources and thereby matching energy need and availability for everybody including the poor and deprived.

It is essential to motivate energy users and providers to build capability for implementing programs of technology upgradation. Incentives for demand management can be created through differential pricing of energy services and products of process industry. Reorientation of the system of financing through combination of employment assistance commercial and concessional credit also is necessary. The concurrently awareness should be created of prospects of accelerated growth through the necessary restructuring of the development administration and financial intuitions ultimate objective is to make decentralizations work by building capacities to take informed decision at all levels with regarding pricing & terms of capital cost recovery.