IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/qualqt/v59y2025i2d10.1007_s11135-025-02078-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Balai Adhikary

    (Panskura Banamali College (Autonomous))

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Balai Adhikary, 2025. "Citizen participation and policy challenges in rural development: Southern West Bengal, India," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 1461-1480, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:59:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s11135-025-02078-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11135-025-02078-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11135-025-02078-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11135-025-02078-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kuswanto Kuswanto & Irzal Anderson, 2023. "Structural Model of Community Participation in Rural Development in Jambi Province, Indonesia," Population and Economics, ARPHA Platform, vol. 7(2), pages 115-141, July.
    2. Raghabendra Chattopadhyay & Esther Duflo, 2004. "Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(5), pages 1409-1443, September.
    3. RatnaAyu Damayanti & Syarifuddin Syarifuddin, 2020. "The inclusiveness of community participation in village development planning in Indonesia," Development in Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(5), pages 624-634, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cho, Seo-young & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2010. "Compliance for big brothers: An empirical analysis on the impact of the anti-trafficking protocol," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 118, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    2. Kaivan Munshi & Mark Rosenzweig, 2008. "The Efficacy of Parochial Politics: Caste, Commitment, and Competence in Indian Local Governments," NBER Working Papers 14335, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Owen, Ann L. & Temesvary, Judit, 2018. "The performance effects of gender diversity on bank boards," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 50-63.
    4. Chau, Nancy H. & Qin, Yu & Zhang, Weiwen, 2015. "Networked Leaders in the Shadow of the Market – A Chinese Experiment in Allocating Land Conversion Rights," Working Papers 250022, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    5. Dostie, Benoit & Jayaraman, Rajshri, 2006. "Determinants of School Enrollment in Indian Villages," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(2), pages 405-421, January.
    6. Francois Maniquet & Massimo Morelli & Guillaume Frechette, 2005. "Endogenous Affirmative Action: Gender Bias Leads to Gender Quotas," Economics Working Papers 0051, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science.
    7. Baltrunaite, Audinga & Bello, Piera & Casarico, Alessandra & Profeta, Paola, 2014. "Gender quotas and the quality of politicians," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 62-74.
    8. Chi Trieu, 2023. "Who’s who: how uncertainty about the favored group affects outcomes of affirmative action," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 9(2), pages 252-292, December.
    9. Gutmann, Jerg & Metelska-Szaniawska, Katarzyna & Voigt, Stefan, 2024. "Leader characteristics and constitutional compliance," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    10. Elizabeth Kaletski & Nishith Prakash, 2017. "Can Elected Minority Representatives Affect Health Worker Visits? Evidence from India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 67-102, February.
    11. Michael L. Anderson & Fangwen Lu, 2017. "Learning to Manage and Managing to Learn: The Effects of Student Leadership Service," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(10), pages 3246-3261, October.
    12. Kahsay, Goytom Abraha & Medhin, Haileselassie, 2020. "Leader turnover and forest management outcomes: Micro-level evidence from Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    13. Mavisakalyan, Astghik & Tarverdi, Yashar, 2019. "Gender and climate change: Do female parliamentarians make difference?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 151-164.
    14. Joo, Hailey Hayeon & Lee, Jungmin, 2018. "Encountering female politicians," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 88-122.
    15. Alexandre Volle & Antoine Cazals & Bilal El Rafhi, 2023. "Another Wind of Change? Evidence about Political Outsiders in the French Parliament," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 133(2), pages 203-231.
    16. Paul Pelzl & Steven Poelhekke, 2023. "Democratization, leader education and growth: firm-level evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 571-600, December.
    17. Benjamin Marx & Vincent Pons & Vincent Rollet, 2022. "Electoral Turnovers," NBER Working Papers 29766, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Yuko Mori & Takashi Kurosaki, 2011. "Does Political Reservation Affect Voting Behavior? Empirical Evidence from India," Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series gd11-205, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    19. Fang,Sheng & Goh,Chorching & Roberts,Mark & Xu,L. Colin & Zeufack,Albert G., 2020. "Female Business Leaders, Business and Cultural Environment, and Productivity around the World," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9275, The World Bank.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:59:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s11135-025-02078-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.