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UNPACKING PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY from Theory to Practice and from Practice to Theory

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UNPACKING PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY from Theory to Practice and from Practice to Theory A REPORT ON TWO WORKSHOPS Montreal • Thiruvananthapuram UNPACKING PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY From theory to practice and from practice to theory 1 Acknowledgements Part A. Unpacking Participatory Democracy: An Overview I. Unpacking Participatory Democracy: A Review II. Culture and Democracy Part B. Detailed Reports of the two Workshops III. Unpacking Participatory Democracy From Theory To Practice: The Montreal Workshop (November 2016) • Executive Summary • Details of Workshop Discussions IV. Unpacking Participatory Democracy From Practice to Theory: The Thiruvananthapuram Workshop (30 Jan 2017 - 1 Feb 2017) • Executive Summary • Details of Workshop Discussions CONTENTS 2 3 Acknowledgements he two workshops would not have been We are also grateful to the Chief Minister and This document rests on the excellent possible without the financial support of Chief Secretary of the Government of Kerala, summaries and reports of Moyukh Tthe Erin Jellel Collins Arsenault Trust. the Institute of Management and Governance Chatterji and Suchi Pande of the Montreal (IMG) Thiruvananthapuram and the Tata and Thiruvananthapuram workshops. I want to acknowledge the generous support Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai S. Anandalakshmy, Siddhartha and Nikhil Dey of time and help from Sonia Laszlo, Iain Blair for support in Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala. We helped with putting all the writing together. and Sheryl Ramsahai at the ISID, McGill would like to thank IMG for their affectionate Vinay Jain did the designing of the report and University and McGill Centre for Human hospitality and Dr. Parasuraman & TISS for the booklets, McGill, Anurag Singh and Taru Rights and Legal Pluralism. The efficient the offer to help with emergencies. A heartfelt for the photos. Finally, Laxman has helped support of Ayesha Vemury who helped manage “shukriya” to the Panchayats we visited, their with putting the report in a correct format and the workshop efficiently, and Sara Mehboob elected representatives and officials. collating the photos. helped in many ways, including making the link between the class and co-ordination with I would like to acknowledge the support We would like to specially thank the rapporteurs, both Research Assistants to of the Director of ISID, Sonia Laszlo for S.M. Vijayanand (then Chief Secretary, the 2016 Professor of Practice. Thanks to the attending the Kerala workshop, and her deep Government of Kerala) for his support and professional efficiency of Stewart McCombie appreciation and support to a workshop held suggestions all through. A very big thanks to and the film unit in McGill, for an excellent job on the other side of the Globe. participants who traveled miles to reach us filming the proceedings. and a special thanks to those who attended to I would like to acknowledge the hard work the logistics of both the workshops. Thanks to Nandini Ramunjam, Centre for and untiring cheerfulness of Ira Anjali Anwar, Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, McGill Research Assistant for the Kerala workshop, Aruna Roy University, Montreal. Thanks also to Vrinda the team from the School for Democracy (SFD) Narain, Assistant Dean, Faculty of Law, and the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan McGill University for her support in many (MKSS), the Kerala Unit of the NCPRI and invisible ways, and giving me time and space friends who gave unstinting time. A big for discussion on many issues. Thanks too thanks to the staff and students of TISS, for to Phil Oxhorn for inviting me to be the 2016 reapportioning and to Cheryl D’souza for Professor of Practice in ISID, McGill. coordinating the effort. Thanks to Anurag Singh and his team from “Rough Cut”, for A special thanks to Patrick Brennan for getting support with film documentation. in touch with the Elder from Kanien’kehá:ka Otsi’tsaken, whose invocation made all the difference to the context of the workshop in Montreal by bringing in the voice of the people. I would like to extend my deep appreciation to the students of my class at McGill University Montreal for being the inspiration, bringing in energy and hope into the workshop with their intelligent participation and rapporteuring skills. 4 5 PART A UNPACKING PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY: AN OVERVIEW 6 7 The Context The Workshop Framework: The UPA (I) government came to power I. Unpacking Montreal to Thiruvananthapuram in 2004 and promised the people (and the Participatory runa Roy was invited to teach a campaigns by inference) the implementation seminar course as the 2016 Professor he campaigns to demand freedom from of many of their demands in a document Democracy: Aof Practice at ISID, McGill University. poverty, corruption, hunger and tracing called the “National Common Minimum This was, amongst other things an Tit to secrecy and lack of accountability Programme” (NCMP). This document was a A Review acknowledgement of the role that she, and of oppressive governance, began a new phase set of promises of legislations for the social her organisation – The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti in the history of the role of social movements sector published and placed in the public Sangathan (MKSS) played in the successful and people in the formulation and passage domain like a joint manifesto- and accorded people’s campaigns which led to pro-people of legislation in India. It promoted dialogue as much importance. The Government set up legislations being passed in the Indian between people on one hand, and the political the National Advisory Council (NAC), Chaired parliament in the period between 2004 establishment and the government on the by Sonia Gandhi (President of the Congress and 2014. other, on fulfilling obligations to citizens – party), to monitor and ensure that these particularly, those who had been marginalised promises were realised. The NAC consisted of The context of this report is the two part in a representative democracy framework. a small group of civil society members from workshop – “Unpacking Participatory Most of these promises were made with campaigns as well as other eminent people Democracy: from Theory to Practice” – independence - in 1947- and later in 1950 - economists, members of parliament, and based on Aruna Roy’s seminar course with India’s proclamation of the Republic. representatives from different sectors - to join on, “Transparency, Accountability and They remained mere platitudes for large the NAC and help in the implementation of Participatory Governance – Lessons from sections of Indians, despite every successive these sets of promises. People’s Movements in India”. government, which made and remade policies and attempted administrative reform. The rights based legislations that emerged The position of the Professor of Practice, Economically and socially marginalised from this unique set of circumstances, and which formed the basis of these workshops people and communities remained where institutional platforms, could trace their is an ingenious concept, and an ‘inclusive’ they were, and failed to access long promised roots to decades of struggles for participatory approach to the idea of development, and livelihood, dignity, and freedom from democracy, and people’s rights. However, the democratic concerns. The fault lines in endemic hunger. The quest for the reasons fact that the policy and legislative framework contemporary democracies can be addressed and solutions resulted in peoples’ campaigns drew upon this body of experience in a only if there is a conscious examination of organising from the grass root to parliament, deliberate and concerted manner between the dialectic between democratic concepts, and a growing understanding that real 2004 to 2014, allowed the polity a sense and actual practice. As a result, an interesting democratic governance (participation) is of what could be the results of looking at series of people concerned with public action a key in transforming constitutional and democracy through the lens of ordinary and policy have been professors of practice in legislative promise to delivery. citizens. It underscored the peoples’ role in ISID. Aruna Roy was the first person from a defining policy and legislative priorities. The continent other than North America, invited The Right to Information campaign and legislations have contributed both in etching to occupy the position, and as a result many the successive campaigns for employment, a new architecture for enabling people to of the important democratic practices of the forest rights, food, against discrimination participate in the process of drawing up countries and people from the ‘global south’ and violence on women amongst others, legislations, and demonstrating the role of have become part of what is a continuing and introduced a new phase in the people driven citizenry in shaping democracy. Peoples’ developing discourse. This report further legislative history, in India. It deepened campaigns and their engagement with the establishes and underscores the importance democracy- by including participatory NAC and the government – contributed to of this platform of learning. It is therefore not democracy, as a way of keeping representative the changing political discourse, which led in just an endorsement of the ‘Position’ in ISID, politics transparent and accountable. The turn to the drafting of the final legislations McGill but, also is a suggestion for many dialogue between people and the political and their passage. The trajectory of these law other universities to consider this practice as establishment led to redefining democratic making processes had
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