Communitisation of Public Services in Nagaland: A step towards creating alternative model of delivering public services? Neema Pathak Broome | November 2014 Project on ALTERNATIVE PRACTICES AND VISIONS IN INDIA: DOCUMENTATION, NETWORKING, AND ADVOCACY Sponsored by Heinrich Boll Foundation, New Delhi Citation: Pathak, N. (2014). Communitisation of Public Services in Nagaland: A step towards creating alternative model of delivering public services?. Pune, Maharashtra: Kalpavriksh. Author: Neema Pathak Broome Published by: Kalpavriksh 5, Shree Dutta Krupa, 908, Deccan Gymkhana, Pune 411004 www.kalpavriksh.org Date of First Publication: November, 2014 Cover Photo: Landscape of Nagaland Photographs: Ashish Kothari No Copyright: No copyright is claimed on this work. You are free to copy, translate and distribute, without modification of the content. The only request is to acknowledge the original source and to share with us a copy of your reprint or translation. This case study is an outcome of a project 'Alternative Practices and Visions in India: Documentation, Networking and Advocacy', supported by Heinrich Boll Foundation, India. It is part of a larger process towards exploring alternative frameworks and practices in India, that demonstrate ecological sustainability, social well-being and justice, direct democracy and economic democracy. To know more, see www.vikalpsangam.org. To join a list-serve for discussions on the subject, contact [email protected]. Design & Layout: Tanya Majmudar Contents 1 | The Context ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 | Nagaland: A Different Approach towards Public Services and their System of Delivery ... 2 2 | Objectives and Methodology ........................................................................................... 3 2.1 | Objective of this Study ............................................................................................... 3 2.2 | Methodology ............................................................................................................. 3 2.2.1 | Limitations of the Methodology and the Case Study........................................... 4 3 | Nagaland State – A Background ....................................................................................... 5 3.1 | Local Administration and Social Organisation ........................................................... 5 4 | Legal Context of Communitisation ................................................................................... 7 4.1 | Objective of the Act ................................................................................................... 7 4.2 | Institutions for Implementation ................................................................................. 8 4.2.1 | Communitisation of Health ................................................................................. 8 4.2.2 | Communitisation of Elementary Education ........................................................ 9 4.2.3 | Communitisation of Power ............................................................................... 10 5 | Monitoring and Evaluation ............................................................................................. 11 6 | Impact ............................................................................................................................ 12 6.1 | Communitisation of Education in Nagaland and its Impact on Education and Communities .................................................................................................................. 12 6.2 | Communitisation of Health Services in Nagaland and its Impact on Health and Communities .................................................................................................................. 17 6.3 | Communitisation of Water Supply and Sanitation in Kohima District ...................... 19 6.4 | Communitisation of Power Sector in Kohima District .............................................. 19 7 | Communitisation in Nagaland – Pros and Cons .............................................................. 23 7.1 | Positive Impacts and their Reasons .......................................................................... 23 7.1.1 | Greater Local Participation and Sense of Ownership Resulting in Better Delivery .................................................................................................................................... 23 7.1.2 | Factors affecting success ................................................................................... 24 7.2 | Limitations of Communitisation .............................................................................. 24 7.2.1 | Significant Variability in Being Able to Mobilize Resources ............................... 24 7.2.2 | Visioning, Planning and Experience Sharing Deficit .......................................... 25 7.2.3 | Lack of Effective Monitoring, Evaluation and Feedback Mechanism ................. 26 7.2.4 | Lack of Overall Coordination of All Committees in the Village .......................... 26 7.2.5 | Issues of Local Social Context and Equity .......................................................... 26 7.2.6 | Lack of Integration with Traditional Knowledge Systems ................................. 27 8 | Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 28 This report is written by Neema Pathak Broome, Kalpavriksh in November 2014, based on secondary literature, interviews of local villagers, government and non government actors; and meetings with the members of various communitisation committees during visits to a few villages. She would like to thank Ashish Kothari for his guidance, accompanying in one of the field visits and sharing detailed field visit notes. 1 sub-centres and aid posts and 36% were 1 | The Context absent from Primary Health Care Centres.3 One of the primary responsibilities of the Poor Infrastructure, Poorer Maintenance: government of India towards its people is to Poor infrastructure is also shown as a reason provide basic public welfare services, for poor implementation of public services, including access to adequate and affordable however while the National Sample Survey education, health services, transport, Organisation shows an increase in public electricity and water. Since the Independence service infrastructure there continues to be the government has set up an extensive poor maintenance and hence leading to poor network of institutions and administrative services.4 infrastructure to fulfil this responsibility such as rural primary and secondary schools, Centralised Distribution of Material: One of health services, water supply, transport and the major reasons for non availability or poor rural electricity. While this spread and reach is quality of material provided by the extensive their efficiency and effectiveness is government such as books, uniform, abysmally low as has been shown in studies medicines, food, etc. is often shown to be the conducted for different public services centralized distribution and procurement. sectors2. This leads to, poor quality material, increases possibilities of corruption, delays due to Amongst the various reasons for this situation bureaucratic procedures. as have been indicated by these studies include; Similarly, theft of power – often in collaboration with government staff Employee Absenteeism: A World Bank Report responsible for billing and collecting tariff - is of November 2004 showed that 25% of often cited as a major reason for losses teachers were absent, while half of the ones incurred by the power department. present were actually engaged in teaching Maintenance of water supply is in a similar related activities during surprise visits to a state with poor maintenance and supervision. nationally representative sample of government primary schools in India. Most government public services and facilities Although the absence varied from state to suffer from lack of maintenance, inadequate state with 15% in Maharashtra to 42% in accountability and supervision. The Jharkhand. In surprise surveys carried out by employees entrusted to deliver these services the researchers of People’s Report for Basic have little direct stake, motivation or interest Education (PROBE) in 1996, showed that only in their delivery (with few exceptions), 53% of the sampled government schools were systemic corruption thus becomes rampant. engaged in any educational activity. Many of On the other hand the people for whom these these schools did have good infrastructure, services are meant are not in any way teaching aids and pupil-teacher relationship. authorized or responsible for their effective Hence those were not the reasons for poor delivery. education quality. Similarly, in a Survey of 100 The private sector has taken advantage of this villages in Udaipur district of Rajasthan, over situation and mushroomed to occupy the 2002 and 2003, it was found that 45% of vacuum. The private sector services are medical personnel were absent from health perceived by general public as better at delivering these services albeit at a cost. The staff in the private sector is not necessarily better qualified as compared to government 3 (Abhijit Banerjee, Angus Deaton, Esther Duoflo; Economic and 1 This section has been modified from Pandey, R.S. 2010. Political Weekly, February 28, 2004). Cited in Pandey,