Citizen participation and policy challenges in rural development: Southern West Bengal, India

Citizen participation is mostly needed in rural development work for a fruitful and holistic development for villagers. Five Subcommittees (Upasamiti) do not work properly in every pocket of villages in village development plan preparation phases and generate problems in the development of villages. The present paper attempts to study the problems of citizen’s participation in the rural planning process and the lack of village development work in different pockets of villages in the southern part of West Bengal in eastern India. The entire work is based on primary data collected from 12 sample villages of southern West Bengal through a purposive sampling method. The total sample size is 240. I have calculated the average, percentage and applied statistical techniques i.e. median, standard deviation and cartographic techniques for the analysis and interpretation of the available data. Citizens, including landless agricultural labour and females (34.17 per cent only), are less participatory in the rural planning process. Almost 40 per cent of respondents and their family members do not participate in the two Grass Root Forums (GRF), i.e. Gram Sansad and Gram Sabha, where rural development plans are prepared and implemented. Most of the participants (77.96 per cent) do not participate in the process of discussion of village development work. Consequently, priority and demand less village development plan preparation are often prepared. Insufficient implementation of village development plans and schemes and a lack of access to mandatory rural services can be prominently noticed in many rural pockets of southern West Bengal. Only 66.67 per cent of households access all-weather rural roads. 51.75 per cent of households are not able to access irrigation to practice agriculture during the dry season. Accessibility of safe drinking water during summer and rainy season is unavailable to 16 per cent of households. More effectiveness of local Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), especially Finance and Planning sub-committees, is greatly needed for the participation of rural communities in rural planning. This will also help combat the problem of insufficient rural development in the long run.