THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: When the then EK Nayanar government launched the People's Plan Campaign for democratic decentralisation on August 17, 1996, the concept was viewed with much scepticism and genuine concern over possible corruption.
But 24 years later, it can be said that the plan has undoubtedly empowered local self-government institutions, brought in qualitative changes, while lending a new perspective to development.
However, public planners and experts are of the view that the Plan requires an objective critical analysis to check whether it has achieved all its desired goals.
Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, one of the leading ambassadors of the Plan, believes that it has had a positive impact on the quality of services rendered, primarily in sectors like public education, health, drinking water, sanitisation, roads, energy and housing.
Poverty reduction has been another significant result of the People's Plan.
"The proportion of the poor in Kerala declined from 13 per cent to 1 per cent between 2005 and 2016. Not only is this poverty ratio the lowest in India, but the Kerala annual rate of decline was the highest in the country at 22 per cent," Isaac pointed out, referring to a 2019 initiative under UNDP.
The state finance minister is busy writing an updated version of his book, Local Democracy and Development - The Kerala Peoples' Campaign for Decentralized Planning with US academic Richard Franke.
Thomas pointed out that a reverse migration has taken place in the education sector. As opposed to a general trend of students moving from public to private schools during the 90s, public education is in high demand now. While government schools taught around 1.5 lakh children in 1991, this increased to 3.6 lakh by mid-2000s and reached 4.1 lakh during 2016-17. Continuing the trend, more than 5 lakh students from Classes 2 to 10 have migrated from the unaided sector to public schools in the past three years.
Similar trend has also played out in the health sector. A recent analysis, before the Covid spread, showed that 48 per cent of the population approaches the government hospitals compared to 24 per cent in 2015.
Yet another achievement, though not part of the original plan, is the way panchayats excel in 'Care and Compassion' initiatives.
"Decentralisation through People's Planning ensured a substantial fund flow to every nook and corner of the state. There's a diffused economic stimulus and hence a regular fund flow to panchayats, irrespective of political affiliations, with some weightage given to backward panchayats," says former Chief
Secretary SM Vijayanand, who has been actively involved with the movement right from it beginning in 1996.
In a highly politicised state where at any given time, about 40 per cent local bodies are run by Opposition parties, regular fund flow is not an easy task.
People's Planning ensured that local bodies are accorded the status of self-governments, not seen anywhere else in the country.
Haritha Kerala Mission vice-chairperson TN Seema said incorporating a gender component into the plan process was one of the biggest achievements.
"Gender component in plan processing and implementation was ensured with the 10 per cent Women Component Plans and special projects for women. The gender impact is regularly assessed hence making the society more sensitive towards the issue," she said.
However, a thorough analysis shows that the movement has failed to yield results, when it comes to the development of tribal communities and offering support to traditional fisherfolk.
Similarly, though local bodies have effectively intervened in social justice, they failed to do much when it came to increasing local economic development.
Whether the local bodies were effective in using their regulatory powers - related to nature protection, pollution and waste management - is another point of contention. Experts point out that environment and resource mobilisation will pose a major challenge for local bodies in future too.