SEN COMMITTEE
The Philosophy of Devolution: Sen Committee to Strengthen Decentralised Governance
Two far reaching decisions taken by the Government that came to power in 1996, were to:
- devolve 35 per cent of plan funds to local governments
- appoint a Committee on Decentralisation to restructure the Kerala Panchayati Raj and
- Municipality Acts (1994) to usher in a participatory local governance system.
A committee headed by Dr Sathyabrath Sen was constituted in 1996 to submit recommendations on strengthening local governance system in Kerala. The Sen Committee postulated the devolution of the three F’s -Funds, Functions, and Functionaries- which became an essential part of the vocabulary of decentralised governance in the whole country. The Key recommendations of the Sen Committee touched upon:
Autonomy
To ensure the autonomy of local governments, Government supervision should be limited to the obligatory and regulatory functions of the LSGIs. In developmental matters, only national and state priorities and general guidelines need be indicated to help them take their own decisions. Autonomy has three basic aspects:
(i) Functional autonomy
(ii) Financial autonomy
(iii) Administrative autonomy
LSGIs have to be assigned clear functional areas with the required resources, staff and administrative infrastructure and enabled to raise resources and to take independent decisions and implement them. Autonomy implies that various levels of LSGIs especially the Panchayats should not be seen as hierarchically organized, with one unit controlling the others below it. However there is need for active co-operation, co-ordination, complementation and integration. These could be attained by the iterative process of consultation and the system should be so designed as to facilitate such a process.
Subsidiarity
It means what can be done best at a particular level should be done at that level and not at a higher level. If this principle is applied, the process of transferring functions and powers should start from the level of the Grama Sabhas and Wards Committees and go up to the Union Government. Only residual functions need get allocated to the higher level.
Role-clarity
Decentralised development calls for a clear perception by the various levels of their role in the developmental process. There must be clarity at the conceptual and operational level about what each tier of local self-government can do in each area of development. Role clarity extends to the respective roles of the elected leadership and the bureaucracy, the relational dimensions of communities and traditional structures with the formal governance unit of the local government, and the inter se roles of the various arms of the administration – technical, administrative, sectoral.
Complementarity
This is closely related to the principle of role-clarity. While functions should not be overlapping and repetitive, they should merge into an overall unity through a process of horizontal integration. This would mean that the activities of higher levels should complement those of the lower levels and the programmes implemented by all agencies in a given LSGI would be consistent with local needs and priorities and would converge into an integrated local plan.
Uniformity
This implies that the norms and criteria for selection of beneficiaries, sites or prioritization of activities and pattern of assistance within a given LSGI would be the same for all programmes implemented within its area irrespective of the agency sponsoring such a programme.
People’s Participation
It is necessary to involve the people fully, including those hitherto marginalised in the development process. Participation should reach the level of empowering the people to take informed decisions. It is about exercising true citizenship for inclusive governance.
The LSGIs provide the institutional structure to facilitate participatory democracy. The reservation of seats for women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the various LSGIs is meant to ensure greater participation of vulnerable sections in the process of development. People’s participation should be there in all stages of a development programme right from identification of a need and formulation of a scheme through its planning, implementation, operation and maintenance as well as monitoring and evaluation phases. The Grama Sabhas and Ward Committees are ideal vehicles for promoting direct decision-making and mobilizing local resources.
Accountability
The LSGIs are accountable to the people within their jurisdiction. The accountability of the LSGI to the people is not left to the elections alone, but is an everyday process enabled by people’s participation in governance through community structures, the gram and ward sabhas, and other participatory fora mandated for local governments. The proximity to the people and to their everyday concerns make the actions of local governments visible and liable to questioning and assessment. Social audits are community driven accountability mechanisms that have been inbuilt into the local governance system.
Transparency
Every decision taken has to be based on norms and criteria evolved on the basis of social consensus and the rationale behind each decision has to be made public. There should be freedom to the people to know every detail of how money is going to be spent, before a scheme is taken up; and how it was spent, after its completion. The procedures and the language of the administration need to be demystified and made people- friendly.
The Kerala Panchayati Raj and Municipality Acts were comprehensively amended in 1999 based on the recommendations of the Sen Committee.
