NEW DELHI: The NDA Government is taking a leaf out of Chinese wisdom to train Indian babus for citizen-centric governance. The recently developed training manual for non-gazetted officers, who act as cogs in a wheel for the government, includes a Chinese graphic story to motivate them.
The story is about a Chinese woman who used to carry two pots of water every day from a pond. One of the pots was cracked, and by the time she reached home, it was half full. This went on for two years. One day, ashamed of its imperfection, the pot asked the woman why she didn’t get a new one. The woman smiled and said, “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path but not the other pot’s side. Because I have always known the flaw in you, I planted flower seeds on your side.”
“Each of us has unique flaws but it’s the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding,” says the training module number 4 for babus, which focuses on qualities of an excellent government employee.
The Centre spends over Rs 150 crore every year on training officials, including grants for several training institutes and expenditure on domestic and foreign travel and course fees etc. A research by the International Research Journal of Social Sciences states that the training division of the Department of Personnel and Training sponsored 188 training programmes on various packages during 2012-13.
From the Swachh Bharat Mission to managing conflict, there are many firsts in the new training module that clearly has Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s style of governance.
The manual released last week is divided into 17 modules, and for the first time the PM’s pet project, the Swachh Bharat Mission, has been included in the training programme where two modules will be dedicated to motivation and personal effectiveness of officers.
The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has included 11 key sectors training babus, including health, urban planning, rural development and social welfare.
The training programme will be for two weeks over three sessions of 5-2-5 day module.
“The aim of the training is to build a citizen-centric and inclusive governance to offer transparent, accessible and responsive services to citizens,” a senior government official said.