Journal of Public Policy Research Volume I, Issue I by School of Public Policy and Governance

January 2016

Volume I, Issue I

Journal of Public Policy Research GRADUATE JOURNAL OF THE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY & GOVERNANCE Conditions and Processes for Success of Urban Slum Transformation | Alen John Samuel C

Development Discourse and the Emergence of Microfinance – A Critique | Bagisha Suman

Urban Planning, Development and Social Justice - The Case of Industrial Relocation in Delhi | Priyanka Nupur

Urban Water Access - Formal and Informal Markets | Namrata Borthakur

An Elusive Culture: A Socio-Legal Inquiry into Corruption in the Contemporary Indian Public Administration | Amrita Pillai

! !

HYDERABAD CAMPUS

TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, HYDERABAD, INDIA

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! The Journal of Public Policy Research (JPPR) is a peer-reviewed journal focusing on different aspects of public policy and public affairs in India and the world. It invites scholars to apply diverse disciplinary lenses, methodologies, social science theories and concepts to pressing issues of public policies and public affairs. It endeavours to study governance, accountability and institutional frameworks that can create better human opportunities, promote well-being, generate wealth and deepen democracy. The journal serves as a platform to publish original and high quality research articles, perspectives, commentaries, book reviews, and case studies. Initiated by the graduate students of the School of Public Policy and Governance at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, the journal is published biannually. It welcomes contributions from all persuasions.â&#x20AC;Š

Editor-in-Chief Lakshmi Lingam, Professor & Deputy Director, TISS Hyderabad, Indiaâ&#x20AC;Š

Editors

Aseem Prakash, Associate Professor and Chairperson, School of Public Policy and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad

Chinmay Tumbe, Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad

Amit Upadhyay, Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad

Samyukta Bhupatiraju, Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad

Managing Editors Rajasindhura Aravalli, Graduate Student, School of Public Policy & Governance, TISS Hyderabad

Shreya Dixit, Graduate Student, School of Public Policy & Governance, TISS Hyderabad

Rajeev Agur, Graduate Student, School of Public Policy & Governance, TISS Hyderabad

Associate Managing Editors

Divya Ruth Jose, Graduate Student, School of Public Policy & Governance, TISS Hyderabad

Amish Sarpotdar, Graduate Student, School of Public Policy & Governance, TISS Hyderabad

Editorial Advisory Board Ajey Sangai, Research Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi, India

Badri Narayan Rath, Assistant Professor & Head, Department of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India

Himanshu, Associate Professor, Centre for Economic Studies & Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

Joerg Friedrichs, Associate Professor at Oxford Department of International Development, St Cross College, Oxford, England

Mitu Sengupta, Associate Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration, Ryerson University, Canada

Mohammed Ahsan Abid, Associate Professor & Chairperson, School of Human Resource Management, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, India

Padmini Swaminathan, Professor & Chairperson, School of Livelihoods and Development, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, India

Rekha Pappu, Associate Professor & Chairperson, Azim Premji School of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, India

Sanjeev Routray, Sectional Instructor, Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia, Canada

Sony Pellisery, Associate Professor, National Law School of India University, Bangalore, India.

Vidhu Verma, Professor, Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

Vindhya Undurti, Professor & Chairperson, School of Gender Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, India

! !

Foreword

!It is my pleasure to introduce the first issue of the Journal of Public Policy Research (JPPR). Conceived and launched by the graduate students of the School of Public Policy and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the JPPR is a forum for young policy researchers to share their research findings with the world. It is managed and published by group of young editors, thereby making it a journal by and for young researchers. It supports policy students and professionals in need of a vibrant platform to share their field experiences with the wider epistemic community. The peer review process, unlike most professional journals which only gauge the standard of the submitted essay, is designed to help prospective young contributors to structure their paper in a manner that orchestrates their arguments, refines the theoretical underpinnings that form the basis of their writing, and make richer sense of their data. With the help of its innovative peer review policy, the JPPR will encourage students from small towns and universities to publish their papers thus reducing the time taken to disseminate these internationally. It also endeavours to facilitate the democratisation of knowledge generation and dissemination, ensuring that geographical and social spaces are not a handicap for publication of innovative and well-researched ideas. Besides encouraging young policy researchers and professionals from diverse background, the JPPR is intended to be an online open-source platform where researchers, policy professionals, activists, government and non-government organisations can source rich primary and secondary information as well as analytical essays on themes of current and perennial importance.

This will not only rejuvenate public policy as a discipline, but will also facilitate critical awareness about how policy is conceived, implemented, monitored and complied with. Besides its regular biannual release, JPPR will also publish a special symposium issues where critical policy ideas - or entire policies in themselves - are debated from multiple vantage points to concretely and objectively effect policy interventions. The journal will not only engage with concrete policy situations, but will also encourage contributions and discussions on issues which are considered outside the purview of policymaking but go a long way in influencing ideas. Contributors are welcome to write articles that show connections between the cultural sphere (broadly film, theatre, literature, art and music) and their influence on policy ideas and outcomes. Lastly, the JPPR is committed to providing an enabling framework of publication to all those who believe in positive social change. It aims to promote articles, commentaries, data analysis, policy reviews and perspectives which propose policy ideas and frameworks towards equity, justice and better human opportunities.

! I wish the JPPR community success in their professed endeavours.

! Aseem Prakash

Associate Professor and Chairperson School of Public Policy and Governance Tata Institute of Social Sciences Hyderabad Campus

Contents

Conditions and Processes for Success of Urban Slum Transformation: A Case Study 1 Alen John Samuel C

Development Discourse and the Emergence of Microfinance: A Critique 31 Bagisha Suman

Urban Planning, Development and Social Justice: The Case of Industrial Relocation in Delhi 61 Priyanka Nupur

Urban Water Access: Formal and Informal Markets - A Case Study of Bengaluru, Karnataka, India 94 Namrata Borthakur

An Elusive Culture: A Socio-Legal Inquiry into Corruption in the Contemporary Indian Public Administration 147 Amrita Pillai

Notes for Contributors

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199

Conditions and Processes for Success of Urban Slum Transformation: A Case Study1 Alen John Samuel C2

! Abstract: Housing for the urban poor has been a gripping problem in India. Although housing has been on the agenda of the government since the First Five Year Plan, little has been achieved since then. The dominance of private players in the housing sector accompanied by the change in the role of government from that of a builder to a facilitator, which are the results of the economic liberalisation started in the 1980s, have not produced admirable results. Under these conditions, it becomes essential to understand how interventions by the state can provide solutions to the housing problem of the urban poor. This paper presents the factors and processes which resulted in the success of an urban housing project, under a welfare state framework. Key actors are identified and their role under the social and political environments is studied. Policy lessons are drawn although their applicability elsewhere has to consider the local circumstances. Finally, the unaddressed issues and concerns for the future are recognised. The paper concludes that successful slum transformation is a multi-stakeholder process which demands continuous and proactive participation of all the actors involved and can be influenced by the existing political culture. Key words: Housing, welfare state, five year plan, slum transformation

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I would like to express my gratitude to Dr Aseem Prakash, Chairperson and Associate Professor, School of Public Policy and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, and Prof K.P. Kannan, Chairman, Laurie Baker Centre for Habitat Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, and Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development, Thiruvananthapuram for their priceless guidance and support.

Junior Research Fellow, Andhra Pradesh State Development Planning Society, Planning Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh, India. This paper is a modified version of the authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s graduate thesis. 2

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Introduction A significant proportion of the Indian population is either homeless, or lives in slums or dilapidated houses. The state-owned National Housing Bank projects a housing shortage of 18.8 million units in cities alone, for the period 2012-17 (NHB, 2013). Going by the present average size of urban households, which is approximately 5.1, this figure implies that nearly 96 million people in the urban areas face the problem of housing shortage. Nearly 95 percent of this shortage is with regard to the Economically Weaker Sections (households with monthly income of less than Rs 3300) and Low Income Groups (households with monthly income between Rs 3301 and Rs 7300). In 1951, the urban housing shortage was 2.5 million (Government of India, 1956), which indicates that the shortage has increased by more than seven times in the past 60 years. Developing countries are home to 863 million slum dwellers and India houses nearly one-eighth of them (United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 2013). The gravity of the housing situation in India demonstrated through the above facts becomes more evident when one understands what it is that persons or households without proper housing lack. Housing is directly connected to the idea and realisation of entitlements apart from its basic utility as shelter and its role in leading a dignified and healthy life. When a household has a house to live in, owned or rented, it gives them an address which is an important window to a range of entitlements3. Entitlements lead to citizenship, as they create a claim on the state. Aalbers and Christophers (2014) point out that housing leads to acquiring citizenship rights in many part of the world. T. H. Marshall, in his exemplary essay Citizenship and Social Class, distinguishes between three

However, it must not be concluded that others do not have access to entitlements. Government policy can grant entitlements to people who do not have any legal title of property. For instance, the residents in the Karimadom colony, where the field work was done, had entitlements such as ration card well before they were granted housing rights. 3

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elements- civil, political, and social, of citizenship. The social element is defined as “the whole range from the right to a modicum of economic welfare and security to the right to share to the full in the social heritage and to live the life of a civilised being according to the standards prevailing in the society”. These encompassed not only rights to public education and healthcare but also to housing and legal aid (T. H. Marshall, as cited in Jayal, 2013). Jayal’s dissection of the concept of citizenship into its different dimensions also presents a similar picture. She points out that citizenship is not just a legal status, but also a “bundle of rights and entitlements, ... and a sense of identity and belonging” (Jayal, 2013). She also argues that housing is an entitlement which is operationalised by the state in different forms. Only the enjoyment of amenities like housing makes the people of a country its “full and true” citizens, who would otherwise remain “nominal” citizens. The motivation for this paper is derived from the conviction that the present status as well as the projected status for the immediate future of housing in India is in contradiction to the welfare ideology that the Indian state upholds. In such a scenario, it becomes crucial to devise ways to effectively address the problem. There are two directions in which one could proceed to find solutions; one could be to analyse how certain projects failed to understand what should not be done, and the other could be to examine how some of the projects succeeded, to arrive at what could be possibly done. There have been numerous studies on the former (Mahadevia, Datey, & Mishra, 2013; Mahadevia, Bhatia, & Bhonsale, 2014) which markedly point out the failures in policies and implementation. This paper has adopted the latter approach. It attempts to arrive at the conditions and processes of interactions among state, market, and people which result in the creation of housing rights for the economically weaker sections in urban India 3

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under a welfare state framework. This endeavour involves a case study of Karimadom slum transformation project in Thiruvananthapuram district of the south Indian state of Kerala. The aim of the study was to discover the factors and processes that enabled the project to become a success. How success is defined could be a subjective exercise, but for this paper, the qualitative analysis of the life of the beneficiaries before and after the project has been taken as the process to conclude that the project has been a success. Housing and the Welfare State Housing is presently seen as a component of the welfare state4 ideology. In fact, it has been one of the four pillars of the welfare state, the others being social security, health, and education. The place of housing within the welfare state has changed with the evolution of the concept of welfare state over time. Conley and Gifford (2006) point out that in the 19th century, housing was merely a health issue. Unsanitary urban living spaces were linked to the spread of diseases. After 1880, it attained an economic dimension as well. Regulation of rent and tenant rights emerged across Europe but housing was still not seen as a source of income support; it was a consumption good that a majority of people struggled to afford. The shift in perspective happened after World War II, when the countries that were badly affected by the war saw the provision of affordable housing as their chief concern. Other western countries which were not seriously affected by the war, could stress on increasing rates of home ownership. Lately, scholars have begun to recognise that welfare states are more than income redistribution and pension. Non-cash benefits like housing and education also have found space in the domain of welfare policies, mainly because they are an

Asa Briggs defines welfare state as â&#x20AC;&#x153;a state in which organized power is deliberately used (through politics and administration) in an effort to modify the play of market forcesâ&#x20AC;? (source included in bibliography). 4

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important source of income security. With the growth of Keynesian economic policy5, the welfare state and its provisions including housing came to be seen not as a burden on economies, but as stabilising factors (Offe, 1982). At present, one of the functions of the welfare state is “de-commodification of the needs of the citizenry- that is, the conversion of needs from goods allocated by the market to ones distributed as social rights” (Esping-Andersen, as cited in Conley & Gifford, 2006). With regard to housing, this implies that the citizens need not sell themselves to earn a house, that they need to perceive themselves as commodities which can be exchanged for housing. This is a significant concept, because the main problem associated with housing is not non-availability in the market but un-affordability to large sections of society. The Directive Principles of State Policy6 constitute the very soul of the Indian Constitution (Markandan, as cited in Hardgrave, 1968). They are “the embodiment of the ideals and aspirations of the people of India and the goal towards which they expect the State to march for their attainment (ibid.). Article 38 of the Constitution states that “The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and promoting as affectively as it may a social order in which justice, social, economic, and political, shall inform all the institutions of national life”. As Rao points out, “[i]n particular, the duty is enjoined upon the State of securing the citizens the right to adequate livelihood, of regulating the ownership of all material resources of the community in the interests of common good, of preserving the health and strength of workers, of protecting men, women, and children from exploitation on account of any supposed force of economic necessity (Rao, 1949).

5 Proactive

government intervention in the economy, as opposed to the Conservative idea of minimum state intervention.

Contained in Part IV of the Constitution of India. 5

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Briggs points out that in 19th century Britain, Booth and Rowntree found out that may people are poor not because of their fault but due to characteristics of the market system (Briggs, 1969). In the present day, if the housing sector dominated by the private players does not offer houses to low income groups at affordable prices, knowing that there exists a high income group which can well afford the high prices, the Directive Principles are a reminder that the state cannot let the former remain homeless. The duty to undertake such interventions in a market society bestows the welfare characteristic to the Indian state. Housing in India under the Plans, Policies, and Programmes Five Year Plans7 The Planning Commission was set up in India in 1950 with the primary tasks of assessing the resources of the country and formulating plans for effective utilisation of those resources. Since 1951, the Planning Commission has been formulating Five Year Plans (and Annual Plans when Five Year Plans could not be formulated due to reasons such as war and emergency) which allocated financial and other resources to different sectors. The Five Year Plans (henceforth Plans/ Plan) also have been the main instruments of development of the country. Each Plan analyses the performance under the previous one and sets targets to be achieved at the end of the normal five year tenure. Housing also has been given significant importance since the first Plan. Different plans have devised different strategies to suit the requirements of the corresponding time period. Table 1 summarises the major thrust areas and shifts in focus with respect to the housing sector from the First Plan until the Twelfth Plan.

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The website of Planning Commission has been referred to collect details regarding all the plans. 6

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TABLE 1: SUMMARY OF FIVE YEAR PLANS WITH REGARD TO HOUSING

Period

Approach towards housing

Remarks

First Plan period

Focus on low income groups

Middle income groups benefited

(1951-56)

as low income groups were not able to afford the houses

Second Plan period Slum clearance and rehabilitation of

Not effective, as the new housing

(1956-61)

stock was inadequate in number.

housing

People were unwilling to live away from their means of livelihoods Third Plan period

Slum improvement, in place of slum

Realised that evicting all slum

(1961-66)

clearance

dwellers and clearing slums are not practical

Fourth Plan period

Town planning, institutions for housing

First steps of planned urban

(1969-74)

finance

development

Fifth Plan period

Control of land prices, development of

Medium and high income groups

(1974-79)

medium towns

benefited as lion share of the funds from housing boards went to middle and higher income groups

Sixth Plan period

Provision of basic facilities in slums and

Not effective, as the period

(1980-85)

development of small and medium

witnessed large scale slum

towns

eviction in Delhi in 1976 when more than 7 lakhs people were uprooted

Seventh Plan

Government should focus more on

Government started withdrawal

period (1985-90)

facilitating housing by the private

as a major builder in the housing

sector and by people, and should

sector

focus on building houses only for the poor

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Eighth Plan period

Not only housing is enough, but an

Influenced by economic

(1992-97)

integrated approach including water,

liberalisation, housing was seen

sanitation, and other basic amenities.

as an economic component also

Housing not only as a necessity, but also an important economic activity Ninth Plan Period

Making land and finance available for

Further withdrawal of the state as

(1997-2002)

housing. Construction of houses only

a major, increased role for Urban

for priority groups

Local Bodies

Tenth Plan period

Dominance of neoliberal approach,

Housing seen as a major

(2002-07)

market driven urban development

component of urban renewal, against the backdrop of increasing urbanisation

Eleventh Plan

Further push for private sector, easier

period (2007-12)

framework related to land and laws for

Further push for urban renewal

private sector involvement Twelfth Plan period

In-situ rehabilitation of slums, rental

Private sector given leeway in

(2012-17)

housing

land development, state sticks to development of existing slums

! Policy Shifts from the Vantage Point of the Welfare State The approach towards housing by the Plans has changed with time. Plan outlays for subsidised industrial housing and housing for plantation workers in the first three Plans signify that the Plans had a wide target group with regard to housing. However, with time, the number of groups targeted as beneficiaries of housing programmes grew smaller. This was mainly due to the realisation that the housing shortage had grown to such a high level that it became practically impossible for the state to promise housing delivery to all. Under the First Plan, the total housing outlay was 1.96 percent of the total Plan outlay. This figure was reduced to 1.06 percent under the Eighth Plan. Similarly, public investment in housing under the

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First Plan stood at 22 percent of the combined public and private investment but was lowered to 8 percent under the Seventh Plan (Sivam & Karuppannan, 2002). The nature of the goals changed over time as well. The first three Plans targeted slum clearance. The fourth Plan marked a policy shift by noting that slum clearance would not be effective everywhere, especially in big cities. The sixth Plan clearly indicates the shift in approach from slum clearance to slum improvement. It notes that it would be a bad policy measure to demolish the existing housing stock in the form of slums, however inferior it may be, in the face of increasing housing shortage. Instead, the Plan envisioned improved sanitation and drainage facilities in the slums to make them better places to live. The argument of Sivam and Karuppannan that the numerous unauthorised settlements including slums stand as “evidence of the failure of the state and the market to provide housing at affordable prices to poor” (ibid.) is a direct critique of the state’s approach towards slums. Post economic liberalisation in the early 1990s, there was an influx of private players into the urban space. With the establishment of more firms- new, old, domestic, and international, combined with the growth of the economy, resources in the urban areas, especially land, became more sought after. Economic growth driven by the private sector gained priority on the government agenda. This reduced the government’s focus on housing for the urban poor, for which land is a necessary resource. The state is presently in a position where it merely acts as a facilitator for the private sector which mainly offers services to the middle and upper income groups. Lalit Batra points out that even the latest urban development flagship programme, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) “seeks to set in motion a predominantly market-driven process

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of urban development with the state merely playing the role of a ‘facilitator’ and ‘regulator’” (Batra, 2009). Public Housing in Kerala: Programmes and Schemes Krishna (2012) observes that Kerala’s initiatives in the housing sector were limited to implementing the various central government schemes until the 1970s. Seven out of the eight (88 percent) major housing schemes until 1972 for Economically Weaker Sections (henceforth EWS) in Kerala were implemented by the Central government. Contrary to this, from 1972-1999, 11 out of 14 (79 percent) major housing schemes for the same category were implemented by the state government. After the establishment of the Kerala State Housing Board (KSHB) in 1971, public housing grew rapidly. This shows a significant shift from the Central government to the state government as the principal agency for public housing (ibid.). The One Lakh Housing Scheme (OLHS) for poor landless agricultural labourers implemented during 1972-1976 was the first massive public housing scheme in Kerala. The striking aspect of the scheme was the resource mobilisation, which included collecting donations from the public, free labour provided by beneficiaries, members of voluntary organisations, and students (ibid.). The scheme built 60,000 houses against a target of 96,000. The success of the model of beneficiary participation led to the launching of Subsidised Aided Self-Help Housing Scheme (SASH) in 1983, for EWS. The third major programme was the Rehabilitation Housing Scheme which was launched after the devastating natural calamities in 1984-85, for members of EWS who lost houses. The scheme made use of the maximum available institutional finance from agencies like the Housing Development Finance Corporation, Housing and 10

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Urban Development Corporation etc. The Total Housing Scheme (THS) initiated in 1999 aimed at fulfilling the housing needs of the poor in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, and Kollam. The scheme constructed almost one lakh houses in the first two years. Kerala State Housing Policy 2011 The “updated version” of the State Housing Policy (SHP) of 1994 was introduced in 2011. The Policy views housing rights as basic human rights, as recognised by international conventions. It is a rights-based approach with focus on the needs of the marginalised sections such as SCs, STs, fishermen, the destitute, poorest of the poor, landless, and women-headed households. A target of closing the housing gap of 12 lakhs by 2017 and integration of livelihood support mechanisms were the key aspects of the policy (Kerala State Housing Policy, 2011). In tune with the national policy, the SHP also has sustainable development of habitats and affordable housing as major approaches. However, the major difference of the SHP from the national policy is with regard to the role of the government. While the national policy, following the trend in the recent decades, states that the chief role of the government is to create a favourable environment in which the private sector can lead the activities in the housing sector, the SHP mandates that the state government shall play the role of not only a facilitator but also a builder. Public sector agencies, especially the Local Self Government Institutions (LSGIs) “will be encouraged to have a more focused attention in this direction by providing adequate resources, supportive operational framework and professional capability building programmes” (ibid.). Institutional changes in public sector agencies have been suggested for this purpose.

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Another notable feature of the SHP is the Public Private Panchayat Partnership (PPPP) models. This stems from the fact that the LSGIs are the main implementing agencies of the development of the infrastructure of electricity, water supply etc. (ibid.). Therefore, the incorporation of LSGIs in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) models can boost the efficiency of the projects by ensuring timely completion of the projects and increasing quality of services (ibid.). Apart from these slightly distinctive aspects, the rest of the policy is majorly along the lines of the National Policy. JNNURM and BSUP in Kerala The JNNURM has selected Thiruvananthapuram and Cochin among the cities where the Sub-Mission on Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) is implemented. Kudumbashree8 functions as the state nodal agency for BSUP. Karimadom colony, where the field work was carried out, has been redeveloped under BSUP.

! Field Research Karimadom Colony and Slum Transformation Project- An Overview The fieldwork for data collection was undertaken in Karimadom colony in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala during the month of November, 2014. Karimadom is one of the largest colonies in the city of Thiruvananthapuram. The colony is home to 632 families and 2341 people. The baseline survey conducted in 2010 estimated that 57 percent of the residents are Muslims, while the others are Hindus and Christians. This proportion of Muslims is much higher than that of A women-centered poverty alleviation programme, initiated as a joint programme of the Government of Kerala and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). 8

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Thiruvananthapuram city, which has 15 percent Muslims, 18 percent Christians, and 65 percent Hindus as per the Census (Census of India, 2011). In the late 1990s, 72 houses were rebuilt by the government in the colony. The rest of the families continued to live in shacks and impoverished houses until the slum transformation project. As the area was 60 cm below the road surface level, extensive sewage overflow during monsoons caused waterlogging in the slum leading to serious health hazards and property damage9. The residents were forced to live temporarily in a community hall in the colony or outside the colony until the water level returned to normal. Most of the residents were daily wage labourers lacking a permanent source of income. The slum was home to vulnerable sections such as widows, single women, and the disabled. The implementing agency of the slum transformation project, the Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development (COSTFORD), had planned a three-phase transformation process. The first phase, completed in 2009, constructed 80 dwelling units. 60 units were completed in the second phase, and 180 are planned in the third phase. The project will not be completed in three stages as initially planned, but will extend to the fourth stage, where the remaining 240 dwelling units will be constructed. COSTFORD is making use of affordable, sustainable, and environment-friendly housing technology, pioneered by renowned architect, the late Laurie Baker. The beneficiaries will be given housing rights, while the land will continue to be owned by its present owner, the Kerala Water Authority. Apart from this, individual water supply, sanitation, electricity, and smokeless chulhas for households, rejuvenation of the sewage pond, a biogas plant, drainage, bio fencing, a

The details of the colony are provided in the website of COSTFORD, the implementing agency of the slum transformation project (http://costford.com/Karimadom%20Colony.html). 9

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retaining wall, rainwater harvesting, tree planting and landscaping, study centre, an Anganwadi, and library are planned to be instituted as part of the slum transformation project. Methodology of Research Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 households of Karimadom colony for the data collection. An interview guide was prepared before commencing the fieldwork which contained the topics on which the questions were to be asked. During the interviews, information was gathered on the following: 1. Social demographic details of the household such as number of members, occupation, sex, age, religion, and caste of the members. 2. The process of slum transformation from the commencement of the idea of the housing project to the end where the slum dwellers acquired housing rights. 3. The kind of property rights acquired. 4. Major actors in the slum transformation process. 5. Problems after slum transformation. 6. Religions and caste equations in the colony affecting all the above. Apart from the beneficiary households, the following individuals were interviewed: 1. The Chairman of COSTFORD, the implementing agency of slum transformation project. 2. The Joint Director of COSTFORD. 3. Ex-Municipal Corporator who was in charge during the period the slum transformation project was initiated. 14

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! After the fieldwork, the responses by the households were carefully analysed to arrive at the factors and processes which played a major role in the success of the slum transformation project. Factors and Processes which Played a Major Role in the Success of the Project Politically Informed Polity and Responsive State The coexistence of politically aware people and a political apparatus that responds to the voice of the people was the prime factor in enabling the creation of housing rights for the people. Bringing the miserable living conditions in the colony to the attention of the then Municipal Councillor triggered the process of slum transformation. Proactive discussions took place between both these parties. The political machineries of the city and state were compelled to consider the issue, majorly because Karimadom was one of the oldest and biggest slums in the state city of the capital. The people possessed the political awareness regarding what to expect from the state and at the same time, the political apparatus had the will to respond to the aspirations of the people. A series of interactions finally paved way to the conception of the slum transformation programme. Taking a digression, it is imperative to present a picture of the development model of Kerala at this point. The state of Kerala has been an interesting case study for development scholars. It is mainly because of the fact that Kerala had demonstrated that it is possible to achieve high social development without going through rapid industrialisation or socialist revolution. This remarkable achievement attracted attention after the publication of a case study in 1975 by the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, on poverty, 15

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unemployment, and development policy in Kerala (Parayil & Sreekumar, 2007). “It brought into focus Kerala's developmental trajectory, which was marked by low per capita income and high unemployment characteristically shared by many poor regions in the Third World and surprisingly high levels of literacy and life expectancy and low levels of fertility, infant and adult mortality that are usually associated with highly industrialised regions of the North” (ibid.). This was later hailed as the famous “Kerala model of development”. The process of Karimadom slum transformation stands as evidence to the nonconclusive but provisional explanation for the evolution of the “Kerala model of development”. Briggs points out that after the Second World War, a sharpened sense of democracy resulted in more comprehensive and optimal, instead of minimal, services being provided to the people by the state in Europe, which marked a notable shift in the evolution of the welfare state. It must be noted that this shift is a result of the “demands” by the citizens, not the free will of the state” (Briggs, 1969). Dreze and Sen (as cited in Parayil & Sreekumar, 2007) point out that in Kerala, public action and popular demand for social provisions articulated by a literate and politically alert population reinforce each other. This could be positioned analogous to the development in Europe that Briggs points out. The notable feature in both the cases is that of citizens raising new demands and the state responding to them. Additionally, the state response becomes stimulus for further demands from the citizens, as Dreze and Sen note. This political culture, which is the coexistence of a politically aware population and a political apparatus which had to be socially responsive in Kerala, creates an environment in which people’s aspirations for social provisions are considered and delivered by the state.

! 16

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People’s Proactive Participation People’s participation in the process of slum transformation was no less an important factor in deciding the success of housing rights delivery under the Karimadom project. The UN Economic and Social Council, 1956, Twentieth Report to ECOSOC of the UN Administrative Committee on Coordination E/2931, mentions the participation of people themselves in efforts to improve their standard of living as one of the elements of Community Development (Cornwall, 2006). A World Bank-commissioned study in 1975 discovered that people’s participation was a prominent factor in the success of a project (as cited in Cornwall, 2006). Robinson and White note that (ibid.) the unprecedented rise in the number of NGOs in the 1980s and 1990s enlarged the significance of participation, as NGOs were perceived as more participatory. The experience of the Karimadom slum transformation and acquiring rights reinforce the role of people’s participation in the development process. The implementing agency, COSTFORD, had carried out detailed meetings and consolations regarding the Detailed Project Report (DPR) with the residents of the colony, which spanned across three consecutive days. A monitoring committee was constituted to oversee the whole process of slum transformation. The initial list of beneficiaries for the first stage was drafted with people’s participation. Even after the completion of two phases, the residents were consulted with regard to most of the matters concerning the colony, which means that the culture of participation has been taken forward. Though there was active participation of people in the process, there were conflicts as well. The list of the eligible beneficiaries was the most debated issue. The project was aimed at allocating houses to all the households of the colony. 17

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The City Development Plan of the Corporation of Thiruvananthapuram had identified that only 613 people lived in shacks in the colony before the transformation project, but the primary survey conducted by COSTFORD found that 632 households lived in the colony. Out of these, 72 households had already been provided habitable houses, and thus, the target of the project was to construct flats for 560 households (COSTFORD, 2007). Numerous complaints arose regarding allocation of flats to bachelors who could live with their parents, ex-residents who had already sold their houses, people with own houses outside the colony, and old people who could stay with their children. At the same time, there were complaints regarding not allocating multiple flats to large families with more than one married couple (for instance, a household with the head of the household, his wife, their two married sons and their children). Most of these issues were solved by discussions and deliberations while for some issues, judicial battles had to be fought. Committed Implementing Agency Sensitive to a Social Cause COSTFORD played a crucial role in the success of the slum transformation. The organisation had nearly 30 years of experience and the technical expertise to design the complete slum transformation project, including the design of the houses, and this made it suitable to carry out the mammoth task10. COSTFORD was at the forefront of the community participation and consultation in the slum transformation process. The Karimadom experience supports the claim rooted in the literature that NGOs can play a significant role in slum development. Keivani and Werner (as cited in Habib, 2009) highlight the opinion of urban experts that NGOs are instrumental in 10

The website of COSTFORD gives a brief overview of its work (http://www.costford.com/History.html). 18

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community organisations and mobilisations in slums. Evidence has been drawn from the slum improvement programmes in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It has also been pointed out that coordination between the implementing NGO and the government is vital for the success of a project. Rahman (as cited in Habib, 2009) indicates that NGOs should focus more on housing the urban poor and the job of government should be to enable the NGOs to prepare and implement projects by putting proper frameworks in place. In the Karimadom project, most of the responsibilities of project design, planning, and construction were entirely entrusted to COSTFORD while the role of the governments was limited to fund allocation and facilitation. Empowered Women Taking the Lead The empowerment of women is another crucial factor which contributed to the success of the project. Rowlands (as cited in Ndinda, 2009) defines women’s empowerment as “[a] process whereby women become able to organise themselves to increase their own self-reliance, to assist their independent rights to make choices and to control resources which will assist in challenging and eliminating their own subordination”. Ndinda further explains that empowerment is not to be limited at the individual level, it should transcend to the economic and political domains too. “[I]t includes gaining the confidence and ability to know and negotiate for rights, from the micro to the macro level – that is, from the private (household) to the public sphere of economics and politics (Ndinda, 2009). It is this particular kind of empowerment which assisted the women of Karimadom colony in playing a vital role in the slum transformation programme. The women of Karimadom colony came out of the domain of the individual to form collectives seeking economic and political changes in their lives. This can be 19

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seen as a part of the culture of political awareness in Kerala discussed above. They mobilised the residents against the dominant drug racket for which the colony was infamous. As a result, the racket almost disappeared. Vanita Suraksha Samiti (Women Safety Committee) and Kudumbashree

were proactive in the

colony. The latter joined hands with COSTFORD and the local urban government to assist in every step of the slum transformation, from creating the list of beneficiaries to solving post-rehabilitation problems such as waste disposal. In a paper written three decades ago, Andrew points out that womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role in a welfare state is limited to that of workers and clients (Andrew, 1984). However, in the present day, the welfare state has evolved to a position in which women have a significant role in decision making, as evident from the Karimadom experience. Efficient Coordination between Different Levels of Government The coordination between city and state governments has been instrumental in ensuring the smooth progress of the project. The Municipal Corporation and the State Government played their parts effectively in acquiring the approval of the project. During the process of consultation with the colony residents, the thenMember of Legislative Assembly (MLA), Mr V. Sivankutty played a major role, by participating in the consultation meetings along with COSTFORD and Municipal Corporation Officials. This implies collective ownership of the project by the city and state governments. The presence of a democratically elected peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s representative added credibility to the consultation meetings. While the institutional base of this coordination is not defined, in this case, it can be attributed to the fact that the same coalition, the Left Democratic Front, ruled the city and the state at the time of the project.

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In line with Panday and Panday’s (2008) view that “[C]oordination in policy implementation is essential, as it brings together separate agencies to make efforts more compatible in the interests of equity, effectiveness and efficiency”, the Karimadom experience suggests that the different levels of governments involved have to share a common vision and commitment to the project. The fact that the same political coalition was at power at the city and state levels might have made the process smoother. Still, this point does not diminish the significance of the collaboration between the two. Affordable Housing Techniques Lacking the financial resources to construct or buy a decent house is one of the most crucial reasons why most of the poor do not have proper housing. Affordability is a relative term; one has to take into account the class of people under consideration. What is affordable for the Medium Income Groups (MIG) may not be affordable for the Lower Income Groups (LIGs). While the combined housing shortage for MIG and Higher Income Groups (HIG) is 4.38 percent, the figure stands at 39.44 for LIGs and 56.18 for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS)11 (Report of the Technical Group on Urban Housing Shortage [2012-17]). Adopting affordable housing techniques can be one way to address the huge gap between demand and supply for housing for the Lower and Medium Income Groups. One of the central features of the Karimadom project is the use of affordable housing techniques. Each flat constructed cost COSTFORD only approximately Rs 3.5 lakhs, and this is one of the reasons why COSTFORD could take up and implement this project, while many other private players backed out. It must be KPMG defines EWS as households having an income less than Rs 1.5 lakhs per annum. Figures for LIG and MIS are 1.5-3 and 3-10 lakhs per annum, respectively. 11

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noted that here, the term â&#x20AC;&#x153;affordableâ&#x20AC;? has been used with regard to the project implementing agency, not the beneficiary. This is because the houses were provided to the beneficiaries for a nominal cost of Rs 18,000 and Rs 25,000 for Scheduled Castes (SC) and general category beneficiaries respectively. While the affordability of a house is often considered with regard to the customer, the Karimadom project showcases how important the affordability factor is for the implementing agency as well. In an environment in which the welfare state faces resentment from policy and market, adopting affordable techniques that can bring down the expenses without affecting the delivery may be one of its greatest strengths. Present and Future Problems in the Colony While the Karimadom project can be called a success on many fronts, it does not mean that it is free of problems. Solid waste disposal is one of them. Though it has been included in the design of the project by COSTFORD, it has not been implemented at the time of this fieldwork. Kitchen waste and other solid wastes from the houses are being dumped in an open space near the colony. If left unattended, this could become a major health and environmental issue in the near future. The pond that exists within the colony premises is a part of the sewage system of the city. Sewage from various parts of the city flows into the pond which is a serious threat to the health of the residents. Before the slum transformation, when the land lay 60 cm below the road level, the overflow of the pond during monsoon season used to cause skin irritations to the residents. The detailed project report proposes rejuvenation of the pond. Cleaning the pond and protecting its circumference using dry rubble have been recommended 22

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(COSTFORD, 2007). Though the land has now been raised and the threat of overflow of the pond has been eliminated, the health problems that the pond could cause still remain, including the possibility of mosquitoes breeding, which could cause and spread diseases. Further, the presence of the pond could bring down the commercial value of the houses if the residents want to sell them in the future.

! Conclusion

! Post-independence, India laid down the ambitious agenda of providing housing to its poor. Unfortunately, it lost track and it has currently reached a stage where it has left the matter to the market. The welfare state intervenes to correct market inequalities but what it is observed in the present day is the withdrawal of the welfare state in that sense. Alternatively, one can argue that the Indian welfare state is evolving, and its nature and priorities have changed with time. Even in this case, whether the evolution is justifiable before getting anywhere near the targets set is questionable. At the end of the day, a large number of people remain homeless or live in dilapidated housing conditions. This evolution of welfare state is not a phenomenon unique to India. Jensen and Pfau-Effinger (2005) recall that in the 1990s the European welfare states faced new challenges that stemmed from globalisation, increasing rates on unemployment, expansion of unstable forms of employment such as informal, and insecure income. Questions related to legitimacy of welfare state spending added to the pressure. These developments resulted in the welfare states â&#x20AC;&#x153;converging towards a neoliberal type of welfare regime in which the welfare state assumes a more marginal role in relation to the marketâ&#x20AC;? (Gilbert, as cited in Jensen, Pfau-Effinger, 23

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2005). Alan Walker (ibid.) puts forward the argument that this neoliberal influence resulted in the transformation of European welfare states in two ways. First, marketisation, deregulation, and privatisation gained strength; Second, social justice gave way to economic investment. Consequently, these increased the risk of social exclusion and poverty (ibid.). The developments in India also can be observed to be along similar lines. Another closely associated and significant development is with regard to the emergence of the regulatory state in India. Seidman’s (as cited in Levi-Faur, 2013) understanding of

the regulatory state is connected with privatisation and

outsourcing, which emerged strongly in India after the economic liberalisation. Adjoining this is Majone’s (ibid.) argument that the rise of the regulatory state results in the decline of the welfare state. Viewing India as a state which has both welfare and regulatory characteristics offers a better vantage point. This polymorphic approach put forward by Levi-Faur (2013) states that a welfare state is the “amalgamation of both fiscal and regulatory transfers”. It can be observed that the regulatory aspects of the Indian welfare state gained more prominence in the last decades of the twentieth century, especially post-liberalisation. Examining Kerala, one can find a history of effective public housing programmes, although it has not achieved the goal of housing for all. The Karimadom slum transformation project demonstrates that the coexistence of a certain set of factors can create an environment in which urban slum transformation can become a success. A politically educated citizenry in Kerala forces the state to become responsive to their needs, and this puts pressure on the state to deliver. Involving the beneficiaries in the design and implementation of the programme has created a sense of ownership and will to see the project become successful. It also helps in smooth and fast progress of the project, as disagreements are solved 24

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before they jeopardise the project. The presence of a socially committed nonprofit making organisation as the implementing agency instead of a private forprofit player, has ensured that the project does not face unreasonable financial constraints and has the leadership to meet its goals. Participation of educated and empowered women who themselves are the beneficiaries has resulted in reducing the influence of anti-social forces like drugs. The coordination between state and city governments has ensured that red-tapism is minimised. Finally, the adoption of affordable housing techniques has reduced the cost of the project and has provided environment-friendly and sustainable houses to the beneficiaries. While these may not be a conclusive set of factors and processes required for the success of any slum transformation project, they definitely hint at what can possibly help in the process.

In addition to these, the consideration of local

factors will definitely provide an environment in which a housing scheme can move smoothly towards its goals. The project offers policy learning of different dimensions. The most important of them is with regard to health of the residents. It can be observed that the transformation project has not taken the health of the colony residents seriously. The dirty pond is an example to substantiate this argument. It is crucial that any development project consider how environment can affect the health of the people. It raises a difficult question with regard to the trade off between economic and social advantages of in-situ rehabilitation and the negative health consequences of the same. The second learning is related to the green initiatives. Most of the environmentfriendly measures in the Detailed Project Report such as smokeless Chulhas and rainwater harvesting have not been implemented until now (Chatterjee, 2013). In 25

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an era when climate change is one of the most widely discussed topics and environment is a critical concern of many development projects, the health of the environment should not be a second priority.

! References

! Aalbers, Manuel B.; Christophers, Brett. (2014). Centering Housing in Political Economy. Housing, Theory and Society, (pp. 373-394). Andrew, Caroline. (1984). Women and the Welfare State. Canadian Journal of Political Science, (pp. 667-683). Batra, Lalit. (2009). A Review of Urbanisation and Urban Policy in PostIndependent India. New Delhi: Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Briggs, Asa. (1969). C. Scotland, ed., The Welfare State. New York, Harper and Row, (pp. 29-45). Chatterjee, Sudeshna. (2013). Analysing the Impact of JNNURM Funded Slum Development Project on Children Across India. Action for Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Environments. Conley, Dalton; Gifford, Brian. (2006, March). Home Ownership, Social Insurance and the Welfare State. Sociological Forum, 21(1), 55-82. Cornwall, Andrea. (2006). Historical perspectives on participation in development, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, 44:1, (pp. 62-83), 10.1080/14662040600624460. 26

DOI:

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COSTFORD. (2007). Detailed Project Report for Karimadom Colony. Thiruvananthapuram: COSTFORD. De Soto (2002). Listening to the barking dogs: property law against poverty in the non-West Focaal â&#x20AC;&#x201C; European Journal of Anthropology (no. 41, 2002). Esping-Andersen, Gosta. (1990). The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press. Government of India. (1952). First Five Year Plan. New Delhi. http:// planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/1st/welcome.html Government of India. (1956). Second Five Year Plan. New Delhi.

http://

planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/2nd/welcome.html Government of India. (1961). Third Five Year Plan. New Delhi. http:// planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/3rd/welcome.html Government of India. (1969). Fourth Five Year Plan. New Delhi. http:// planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/4th/welcome.html Government of India. (1974). Fifth Five Year Plan. New Delhi. http:// planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/5th/welcome.html Government of India. (1980). Sixth Five Year Plan. New Delhi. http:// planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/6th/welcome.html Government of India. (1985). Seventh Five Year Plan. New Delhi. http:// planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/7th/default.htm Government of India. (1992). Eightht Five Year Plan. New Delhi. http:// planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/8th/default.htm 27

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Government of India. (1997). Ninth Five Year Plan. New Delhi. http:// planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/9th/default.htm Government of India. (2001). Tenth Five Year Plan. New Delhi. http:// planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/10th/default.htm Government of India. (2008). Eleventh Five Year Plan. New Delhi. http:// planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/11th/11default.htm Government of India. (2013). Twelfth Five Year Plan. New Delhi.

http://

planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/12th/12default.htm Government of Kerala. (2011). Kerala State Housing Policy 2011. Thiruvananthapuram. http://www.hsgcomr.kerala.gov.in/pdf/final_policy_kshp.pdf Habib, Enamul. (2009) The role of government and NGOs in slum development: the case of

Dhaka City, Development in Practice, 19:2, (pp. 259-265), DOI:

10.1080/09614520802689576. Hardgrave Jr., Robert L.. (1968). Directive Principles in the Indian Constitution, by K. C. Markandan (Review). Journal of the American Oriental Society , (pp. 653-655). Jayal, Niraja Gopal. (1994). The Gentle Leviathan: Welfare and the Indian State. Social Scientist, (pp. 18-26). Jayal, Niraja Gopal. (2013). Citizenship and its Discontents: an Indian History. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

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Jensen, Pfau-Effinger. (2005). ‘Active’ citizenship: the new face of welfare, in The Changing Face of Welfare: Consequences and outcomes from a citizenship perspective. Bristol: The Policy Press. (pp. 1-14). Krishna, Das. (2012). Public Housing Policy in Kerala: History and Evaluation. (pp. 37-68). Levi-Faur, David. (2013, August). The Welfare State: A Regulatory Perspective. Jerusalem Papers in Regulation and Governance . Jerusalem, Israel: Jerusalem Forum on Regulation & Governance. Mahadevia, Darshini, Bhatia, Neha, & Bhonsale, Bharti. (2014). Slum Rehabilitation Schemes (SRS) across Ahmedabad: Role of External Agency. Ahmedabad: Centre for Urban Equity. Mahadevia, Darshini, Datey, Abhiit, & Mishra, Aseem. (2013). Foisting Mass Housing on

the Poor: Lessons from Social Audit of BSUP. Ahmedabad: Centre

for Urban Equity. Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. (2012). Report of the Technical Group on Urban Housing Shortage [2012-17]. New Delhi: Government of India. National Housing Bank. (2013). Report on Trend and Progress of Housing in India, 2013. New Delhi: National Housing Bank. Ndinda, Catherine. (2009) ‘But now I dream about my house’: women's empowerment and housing delivery in urban KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Development Southern Africa, 26:2, (pp. 317-333), DOI: 10.1080/03768350902899660.

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Offe, Claus. (1982). Some Contradictions of the Modern Welfare State. Critical Social Policy. (pp. 7-14). Panday, Pranab Kumar; Panday, Pradip Kumar. (2008) The Development of the Urban Government System in Bangladesh: Does Coordination Exist?, Local Government Studies, 34:5, (pp. 559-575), DOI: 10.1080/03003930802413731. Parayil, Govindan; Sreekumar, T.T.. (2003) Kerala's experience of development and change, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 33:4, (pp. 465-492),

DOI:

10.1080/00472330380000291. Rao, T. S.. (1949). Directive Principles of State Policy. The Indian Journal of Political Science, (pp. 16-18). Sivam, Alpana; Karuppannan, Sadasivam. (2002). Role of state and market in housing delivery for low-income groups in India . Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 17(1), 69-88. United Nations Human Settlements Programme. (2013). State of the World's Cities 2012/13. New York: Routledge.â&#x20AC;Š

Development Discourse and the Emergence of Microfinance: A Critique Bagisha Suman

! Abstract: This paper is an attempt to explore the dominant discourses that shape microfinance policy. It tries to present an answer from a Neo-Gramscian lens as to how certain policies fail to meet expectations and instead become cases of huge over-expectation and gross failure. This study draws its rationale from the need to look critically into the emergence of Microfinance in the developing world and its acknowledgment as one of the most effective financial inclusion tools in the international development discourse. Key words: Microfinance, Neo-Gramscian, neoliberalism, financial inclusion

! Introduction Microfinance as an interventionist measure in the developmental arena for problems like poverty and financial exclusion of the poor, especially in the thirdworld countries, received the treatment of a win-win solution. It was treated like a panacea and a revolution which could reap the dividends of both ends (marketled policies and social concerns of justice and poverty reduction through its scheme of targeted poverty reduction) which a neoliberal order would aspire to achieve in order to sustain itself. It heralded a growing and assuring acceptance of market-driven initiatives in place of state-driven policies. The initial euphoria associated with microfinance has started subsiding (but certainly has not died out) now, but it has only taken place after about three decades of its spectacular rise in the international development discourse, which

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saw changes in the policies, programmes and most importantly, the entire perception regarding poverty. Microfinance can be connected with the whole idea of knowledge production or what has been called as the hegemony of knowledge. It necessitates the study of microfinance to be done in a manner that all the institutions and processes involved in institutionalising it get untangled. The way microfinance has gained the status of an established institution provides an interesting opportunity to apply Neo-Gramscianism (a critical school of thought), its tools and methods in understanding the international development discourse and within it the ‘hegemony’ created by microfinance. The mandate of this paper titled “Development Discourse and the Emergence of Microfinance: A Critique” is to cover three major points which I consider hold immense importance when dealing with the issues of larger human development and the policy architecture governing these issues. Firstly, Microfinance needs to be seen in the context of its situatedness in, and parallel to, the larger international development discourse which has shaped it and has also been shaped by this phenomenon of microfinance. I’ll come to this point later. Secondly, the overwhelming rise of Microfinance on the horizon of the international development has been attempted to be dealt with the lens of NeoGramscian perspective, particularly through the Coxian lens of the interplay of ideas, institutions and material capabilities. Thirdly, by drawing on these two points, a critical take on the whole phenomenon of microfinance has been undertaken. The whole concern of the study is to seize the understanding of the very processes, institutions and forces which make and unmake ideas, and how they control the way a nascent idea is accepted, rejected or celebrated, the case of microfinance falling in the third category because of the manner in which it was 32

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given a thumping welcome in the arena of development discourse. Thus, it becomes a challenging task to unfold the intricacies of the processes and forces that shape visions and policies impacting the lives of millions. This whole venture required a theoretical framework apt enough to describe the complex processes involving the working of the various institutions and forces which worked in the favour of microfinance and established it as an ideational hegemon. The term hegemon has been used considering the scale of its outreach, popularity and the unquestioned acceptance it gained in the popular international development discourse. The initial euphoria associated with microfinance has started subsiding (but has certainly not died out) after three decades of its spectacular rise which saw the change in the policies, programmes and most importantly, the entire perception of poverty. Now coming to the first point (before moving on to the main part of the discussion on the ways in which microfinance achieved the status of a magic bullet, a panacea, a revolution of its sorts) regarding its situatedness in the context of the larger development discourse which will be examined briefly. Microfinance (defined as the provision of small-scale financial services to people who lack the access to traditional banking services to enable them to undertake or continue small or micro-enterprises in developing countries) was described as an innovation of its sorts following the much applauded Grameen Bank experiments in the 1980s and most importantly an innovation for the persisting poverty from the global south. It is this very portrayal of the phenomenon of microfinance which makes it an ideational hegemon in the arena of development discourse which this study would soon unfold how and why. Poverty forms a very important component of the contemporary development discourse but it was not so three-four decades back when development was equated with economic 33

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growth and wealth of a country. In the aftermath of the Second World War, talks surrounding poverty were state-centric and not people-centric discourse. So, the talks of the poor countries of the third world were there but it was the beginning of the decade of the 1970s that poverty became an important component of the development discourse. As Cox (2002: 82) suggests, the early 1970s marked by the onset of the crisis of accumulation advanced by the Fordist system of production. In the midst of these changes, it is not just the system of production but the global order also which affects the debates surrounding development. The post second world war statist and eco-growth centred discourse, the result of the embedded liberal order directed by the Keynesian ideas saw a shift with the failure of the trickle down theory which bypassed the poorest people and even worsened their condition. It was within this context that the World Bank saw its policy shift under Robert McNamaraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Presidency and international institutions and organisations played a very important role in bringing poverty alleviation to the forefront. The contrast in the 1970s was not between the growth oriented and welfare projects before and under McNamara but between projects entailing different routes to growth owing to saving the Neoliberal ideological position vis-Ă -vis the communists in this period. It saw the evolution of the basic needs approach in the development arena with the change of focus from investment in capital formation to the development of human development. However, this saw a change in the 1980s by the heralding of an era of Neoliberal orthodoxy or what has been termed by Williamson (1990) as the Washington Consensus propagating the rolling back of the state and marked by Structural Adjustment Programs. By the late 1990s, the policies implemented under the Washington Consensus were considered to be in need of reform in order to take explicit account of the persistence of poverty and rising inequality. This shift in focus from the macro-political regulation to micro34

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political aspects referred to as the post-Washington consensus and it is against the backdrop of these developments that the global poverty reduction agenda and the political significance of the microfinance can be located and analysed. Ananya Roy (2010) has thus very aptly described microfinance as existing in the sub-terrain of almost everything in the development and as a panacea of choice. It can be easily seen in the context of the gaining popularity of microfinance that how some processes and events were unfolding themselves contemporaneously. The most remarkable among them is the ideology of Neoliberalism and the implementation of the policies based on the principles of Washington-consensus in a large number of countries especially of the global south. These went hand in hand in making microfinance as an integral component of poverty alleviation in these regions. Thus the dominance of microfinance has been the result of the long and complex interlinkages involving the stakes of many national, subnational and international players (read institutions) in promoting it at a large and larger scale. Thus, microfinance appears as an expression of broadly based consent manifest in a world where ideas, material forces and institutions work in reciprocal relationship (to borrow from Robert Coxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seminal work on NeoGramscianism) to form the historic bloc which generates certain common sense through which issues and problems are perceived and even looked into for solutions of problems. The recent fiasco which microfinance witnessed in the last few years in many parts of the world points towards just the symptoms of a much deeper problem which got the media attention but the problems were suggested to be mostly associated with the implementation stages not with the idea itself. So this study aims at looking into the very processes and forces which acted in making this idea of micro-financing an established institutional practice. 35

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Ideas, Institutions, Material Capabilities and Microfinance Model of Development The microfinance model of development saw the ascendancy beginning in the 1980s and actually very well coinciding with the Neoliberal shift in the dominant power echelons of the world with the US and the UK promoting what has been termed as the Washington consensus policies. This model emerged in the corners of an underdeveloped nation in the experiments of lending by an ambitious and optimistic US-educated economist of Bangladesh with his highly applauded and often quoted claims of making poverty a keepsake of the museum for future generations. This idea in itself was, however not accepted in toto by the development community. Actually, it was all the play of ideas and their manoeuvrability that made the way through the institutions and material capabilities to promote what we see as the dominant model of microfinance or the sustainable/commercialised microfinance which is the most sought after developmental practice promoted by the international institutions today. It was taking place through a network of institutions which in the present day world order act as the arbiter of what ideas are to prevail according to the demands of the prevailing world order. The Neo-Gramscian term for the prevailing world order of the time is that of hyper-liberalism1 which legitimises certain disciplinary regimes in tune with market rationality that impound policy decisions at various levels (i.e. global, regional, local). And it is in this context that microfinance is situated and needs to be studied and analysed. Gramsciâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s writings talked about the state and the important role of civil society in bringing changes

The term hyper-liberalism was first used by Robert Cox (1987) to characterise the liberal order of the 1980s and 1990s as distinct from the Neoliberalism based on Keynesian consensus in the aftermath of the world war second and later used by many scholars in their analysis of the Neoliberal globalised order of the time. This hyper-liberalism marked a shift from redistribution and interventionist nature of state to the one with talks of withdrawal of state with the Reagan and Thatcher at the helm of affairs. 36

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largely in a nationalist framework. With the emphasis on culture and ideas, Gramsci’s analysis of ‘hegemony’, his key concept, led to the ‘Marxism of the superstructure’ which was a rejection of economic reductionism or determinism in the classical Marxism and thus provided an answer to many of the then existing problems and sought its relevance even to the contemporary times. Conceptual Tools: The contribution of Neo-Gramscian approach to the study of International Political Economy lies in the moulding of the key theoretical tools of Gramsci and applying it to the contemporary world. So, scholars from Cox (1981, 1983, and 1987) to Gill and Law (1989) and Kees van der Pijl (1984, 1998 ) and many others have contributed in their own way taking many key concepts of Gramsci and applying to the contemporary international political analysis. As Gill (1992: 4) himself says that internationalisation of state and civil society, the international aspects of social hegemony and supremacy, and the transnational class and block formations and economic forces, the role of organic intellectuals and of international organisations

help in defining the nature of global politics in the

contemporary times. Some of the fundamentals of the Neo-Gramscianism are its emphasis on historical analysis, mutual conditioning of the structure/agency and the combination of them for analysis, a general critique of methodological individualism in favour of collective understanding and analysis and its insistence on the ethical dimension to the analysis. Gill’s own explanation in this context makes the above statement and its concepts clear. Gill (1993: 24) says that the Gramscian approach to history and political economy are not understood as a sequence or series of discrete events or 37

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moments but rather as an ensemble of social relations configured by social structures (the situation) which is the basic unit of analysis, rather than individual agents. Any attempt at developing over Gramsci’s theory has to begin with the concept of hegemony given by him. Actually Gramsci’s notion of hegemony rests on the ability of a dominant class to form a consensual relationship with subaltern classes through a variety of social and cultural channels (Gramsci 1971: 55-60, 415-25). Cox has presented the concept of hegemony in the application of IR against the prevailing orthodox understandings of hegemony in the field which according to him were merely reporting facts through the ahistorical lens of a ‘problem-solver’, as opposed to adopting the ahistorical-critical approach that looks at how dominant states are configured and create institutional structures to complement them (Cox 1996: 97-101, 135-41). He also suggested that in the absence of an international state, hegemony is maintained through international organisations, and it is through this mechanism that the dominant state transports its form of hegemonic strategy to the international community (Cox 1996: 137–40). Thus, as Robert Cox puts it, Hegemony is a structure of values and understandings about the nature of order that permeates a whole system of states and nonstate entities. In a hegemonic order these values and understandings are relatively stable and unquestioned. They appear to most actors as the natural order. Such a structure of meanings is underpinned by a structure of power, in which most probably one state is dominant but that state’s dominance is not sufficient to create hegemony. Hegemony derives from the dominant social strata of the dominant states in so far as these ways of doing and thinking have acquired the 38

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acquiescence of the dominant social strata of other states. (Cox, 1990) Hegemony can thus be described as a form of dominance, but it denotes more to a consensual order so that ‘dominance by a powerful state may be a necessary but not a sufficient condition of hegemony’ (Cox 1981: 139). As Bieler and Morton (2004: 88) reflect that if hegemony is understood as an ‘opinion-moulding activity’, rather than brute force or dominance, then consideration has to turn to how a hegemonic social or world order is based on values and understandings that permeate the nature of that order (Cox 1992/1996:52). The Ideas: Neo-Gramscian analysis gives importance to ideas which are explained as the intersubjective meanings, around which there is a widespread agreement across a society, and the ‘images of social order’ (Cox 1981) which are often varied, overlapping and sometimes contradictory. The development of microfinance as an idea and its burgeoning to become an institution itself took place because of the ideas at work in making it so. They can be delineated working at different levels in multifarious ways to make microfinance model a natural/accepted solution for poverty reduction as follows. • The foundational idea behind microfinance is the notion that credit is a human right2 and that it can improve the lives of the poorest. This approach sees microfinance as explicitly distinct from commercial banking and claims to be a bottom-up approach.

2Originally

talked about by Muhammad Yunus, the concept of credit as human right may not be accepted by all the practitioners of microfinance but as an idea it definitely played a determinative role in making the way for microfinance as an established practice as this idea gained currency among the power circles of the developmental community. 39

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• The other dominant idea behind microfinance loans lies in the focus on entrepreneurialism as against redistribution, with the emphasis on providing opportunity instead of equality. The firm emphasis on selfreliance created a model of poverty alleviation that was very paradoxically, simultaneously both poor-centric and anti-welfare. • The idea behind the expanding industry of microfinance is that only a profit-making industry with high returns can transform the lives of the poor. Thus, it is actually the commercialised and non-subsidy driven or sustainable/profiteering model of microfinance which became the mantra of the development community and thus constituted a thoroughly ‘neoliberalized’ and for-profit model of microfinance as a privately-owned, profit-driven business model very much in consonance with the market driven neoliberal orthodoxy. • Microfinance is based on the idea of the targeted poverty alleviation as against the universalist/holistic notion of development. • The idea of self-help as opposed to interventionist, the state-led model of development forms the backbone of microfinance which has implications for the entire development paradigm as it sheds away the faith in the delivery and efficacy of public-goods and wage employment and makes space for self-employment. • Another idea that runs through this discourse is that MFIs (Microfinance Institutions)

help

the

poor

in avoiding

to seek

recourse to the traditional moneylenders or local ‘loan sharks’. • Microfinance is very extensively seen as important in helping to promote women ‘empowerment’. 40

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• Microfinance has been popularised as playing an important role in building important reserves of social solidarity or what has been called as ‘social capital’ in poor communities. • The idea of ‘best practices’3 in microfinance is being promoted by the various institutions and donors based on the above-mentioned central design of the microfinance model being made popular in the development discourse. • The most important idea being promoted through microfinance was that of the positive correlation between access to microfinance and poverty reduction which has of late been proved flawed but it dominated the discourse for almost two decades till the reports of failure and faulty reports came to the picture. These ideas are responsible for creating an entrenched view of poor as the one responsible for their own poverty/prosperity and thus the maker of their own destiny. So, as neoliberals say, poverty is caused by the laziness of the individual and in order to escape poverty the individual must actively participate in the economy. (Durfee and Rosenau 1996) The implication of the microfinance approach or this self-help paradigm is that one must be entrepreneurial to escape poverty and thus little attention is given to the people who may not be entrepreneurial. Also, the question of the survival of these micro-enterprises in the extremely competitive environments in which many micro-entrepreneurs must work is nowhere dealt in the discourse. Then the question of low earnings margins, influenced by larger macroeconomic, social and political factors that lie outside the control of micro-entrepreneurs is also not paid heed to. Therefore, the The term best practices implies the set of norms and rules laid down by the international financial institutions as a way to guide the microfinance institutions (MFIs) across the globe in terms of the standard ways in which microfinancing should be practised. CGAP under the aegis of the World Bank publishes such papers for best practices from time to time. 3

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prevailing notion that given an opportunity in the form of tiny loans and promoting them to avail other microfinance services in the form of micro-savings, micro-insurance etc., poor will definitely carve their way out of poverty was somewhere getting lopsidedly optimistic as poverty and empowerment were being equated with just self-employment and the resultant automatic empowerment claimed (by the promoters of this idea) without in any way letting the attention go to the problems of inequality and redistribution which is the hallmark of market-led, neoliberal societies in any of the developing countries. One of the main problems here is that even the impact evaluations of microfinance were making the key assumption beforehand that, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;microfinance worksâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. This led impact evaluators to attempt to design an impact assessment exercise restricted to narrow issues that best helped to corroborate their original assumption based on the ideas working behind the expansion of microfinance. In particular, the focus tended to be upon outreach i.e. on the number of individuals actually served by microfinance and sustainability which means the question of an individual MFI being able to keep itself going without the need for external support. These are both operational issues and they refer only to the availability of microfinance and not speak in any way about the sustainable economic and social development impact of the microfinance model on the poor livelihoods. Thus, the basic ideology driving microfinance is neoliberalism and because of the mutual conditioning between the two, both these phenomena have mutually prospered in a symbiotic manner. To explain these ideas better, the inter-work of ideas with institutions and material capabilities needs to be dealt with. So the next section will deal with the institutions at work in the making of microfinance as an ideational hegemon.

! 42

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The Institutions: Institutions can be defined as the amalgamation of ideas and material power in the form of entities that are a means of stabilising and perpetuating a particular social order. (Cox 1981:99) They reflect the power relations existing at their point of origin and are often formalised as organisations. In exerting its cultural hegemony over the working class, Gramsci viewed the ruling classâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; control of institutions as being the overriding factor in its capacity to retain its hegemonic influence. In the case of microfinance, a large number of institutions have played an important role in promoting and establishing this idea, ranging from the UN General Assembly and the specialised agencies of the UN to the World Bank and IMF to bilateral and multilateral development agencies like USAID4 and of course the NGOs. It was in the late 1980s that the World Bank began to take a critical turn by supporting the idea of microfinance and began providing technical advice and financial support for many new microfinance programmes. (Bateman and Chang 2010:3) It was even reflected in the World Development Report (WDR) 1990 on Poverty where micro-entrepreneurship through informal credits was talked about in the fourth chapter as a means to support income enhancement among the poor. It is evident even from the establishment of CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), a multi-donor institution housed at the World Bank to enhance the resources devoted to microfinance with the support from its constituent donor agencies and the World Bank. CGAP now has more than 30 members, comprising international financial institutions and multilateral development agencies, states as well as bilateral donor agencies effectively

!4 The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the agency of the State Department that dispenses and manages U.S. foreign aid funding. 43

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dedicated to the promotion of the ‘new wave’ MFI concept. The World Bank’s role in facilitating the ‘enabling environment’ for the financial services sector on the pretext of microfinance and poverty reduction agenda is evident from the creation of CGAP. The CGAP has coordinated operations with the World Bank to accomplish country level (and regional) commitments for financial liberalisation. These agencies have pledged resources to support sustainable microfinance in accordance with ‘best practice’ principles agreed by the group. A small grassroots citizens’ lobbying organisation, called RESULTS, has also been very influential in changing the direction of the political winds for over three decades now. Since 1985, this organisation has played a major role in each stage of development of the field. It’s lobbying brought over $2 billion in U.S. foreign aid into the field. It was RESULTS that held a Microcredit Summit that launched the microfinance movement which now includes over 1,000 organizations and over 100 million borrowers. (Sample 2006:1) The first Microcredit Summit was held in February 1997 and was attended by some 1500 organizations from 137 countries, including a number of heads of state.

(State of Microcredit Summit

Report 2001) Recently the Microcredit Summit has seen a shift as they have integrated their goal of reducing poverty to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through the intervention of microfinance. RESULTS and the Microcredit Summit Campaign have moved ahead after meeting the goal of reaching 100 million borrowers with loans by 2005 to the Millennium Development Goal of cutting absolute poverty in half by 2015. Similarly, another institutional formation in the field was of the MicroFinance Network. The MicroFinance Network since its

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inception in 19935 has been at the forefront of advancing the idea of transformation in microfinance in the name of promoting it to reach greater scale and ensure permanence in the industry. USAID has also been at the forefront. It was one of the first organisations into the microfinance field, promptly pushing ‘new wave’ microfinance as the ‘best practise’. The coordinated effort of the UN Development Program (UNDP) and the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) in 1997 to begin the Special Unit for Microfinance (SUM) and MicroStart Program, the Inter-American Development Bank's (IBD) implementation of Microenterprise Development Strategy in 1997, and USAID's Microenterprise Innovation Project (MIP) all reflect the efforts undertaken by various institutions to mainstream sustainable microfinance as an established development tool for the poor. Several US-based NGOs also quickly directed their poverty alleviation efforts into the ‘new wave’ microfinance arena, notably Boston-based ACCION. The UN joined in, providing funds through a number of its arms (e.g., UNDP, UNCDF) and then nominating 2005 as the ‘International Year of Microcredit’. Numerous prominent awards were declared for those involved in microfinance, notably including the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize jointly awarded to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank. All these initiatives contributed greatly in the expansion and increasing the outreach of microfinance and the list of ‘microfinance saturated’ countries (defined in terms of borrowers per capita) soon began to rise. Provided below is a chart presenting the proportional distribution of creation dates of 206 sample microfinance institutions studied by the World Bank between 1960-1992.

! 5

The Microfinance Network is a global association of institutions involved in microfinance services. The members of this network believe in the establishment of sustainable and profitable institutions that operate on commercial principles a so that they can serve larger numbers of clients who are not currently served by traditional financial institutions. The network aims at promoting microfinance institutions that embrace a commercial strategy as a means to achieve social goals in a sustainable way and to influence the microfinance community and financial system to incorporate these dual goals. .(See http://www.mfnetwork.org) 45

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21%

Suman: Microfinance - A Critique

7% 11%

13%

Before 1960 1960-1969 1970-1979 1980-1989 1990-1992

48%

Source: Paxton, Julia, A Worldwide Inventory of Microfinance Institutions (1996), Sustainable Banking with the Poor, Washington, DC: The World Bank. The Sample includes 206 institutions created between 1950-1992.

Clearly, the largest expansion of institutions is witnessed from 1980 to 1992 (69 per cent). Very interestingly the data available shows the increasing popularity and expansion of institutions involved in microfinance and corresponds to the analysis taken in this study. However, the major institutional expansion was to be witnessed in the 1990s on account of the establishment of CGAP and many other efforts which are mentioned above. Thus, the number of MFIs has continued to grow in the 90s, especially after 1995, when CGAP was established. Paxton (1996: 5) observes that most of the 206 institutions in this study were created recently. It was partially due to a profound interest in microfinance in the 1980s and 1990s combined with the fact that most of the programs created in the 1960s and 1970s for microlending disappeared due to dismal repayment rates, corruption, and heavy subsidisation leading to a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;grant mentalityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; among clients. As the 1980s progressed, more and more microfinance programs were created. This trend 46

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continues in the 1990s. The vast majority of new institutions are NGOs while the older ones are largely credit unions and savings banks. As Ananya Roy (2010: 30) views in this context that now microfinance should not be talked as a sector of development but as an industry where the commodity that is being produced, traded and valued is debt. CGAP associates subsidies with inefficiency, impermanence, and a limited scale of operations. In this way, the poor themselves are also expected to pay the full costs of attempting to secure their own escape from poverty. The compilation of the ‘best practices’ by CGAP eschews subsidy and embraces commercialisation. Those commercialised MFIs which function without subsidies are able to grow in scale to meet more of the nearly unlimited demand for access to credit. The key performance criteria for this kind of promotion is ‘sustainability’ and the practical quintessence of their position is that the best and perhaps only feasible, method of delivering microfinance services is through the quintessential market participant, the for-profit enterprise. To reveal the way institutions have worked in promoting microfinance as an allgood development intervention in a neoliberal garb in more clear terms, this study has relied on the various documents of the important institutions involved in this phenomenon collected from their respective websites especially since the 1990s till the early years of the new millennium. This time period is crucial for two reasons, firstly, because it is since the beginning of the 1990s that the new and commercialised version of microfinance came to be vociferously endorsed by the development community and secondly, because since the beginning of the new millennium, the reports of microfinance malpractice had started making news in some corners of the world which definitely made these institutions little cautious when advancing commercialisation of microfinance even though it definitely 47

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didn’t stop. The study finds the remarkable difference in the manner microfinance was being projected till this period and after that (however this time period of about one and a half decades was very important in establishing microfinance as an ideational hegemon), which will also be illustrated. In an interview of October 2004, as cited by Roy (2010), a senior CGAP advisor argued that there is little empirical evidence to indicate that microfinance is either sustainable or that it reduces poverty. Arguing that the microfinance machine has been driven by “heartwarming images of poor people,” he characterised microfinance as more successful in “pulling on heartstrings” than in actually delivering on poverty alleviation. (Ananya Roy 2010:27) Even a CGAP report makes this point, albeit in less forceful terms. Evaluating the microfinance portfolio of the World Bank and UNDP, it concludes that “in both agencies, less than a quarter of the projects that funded microlending were judged successful” (Rosenberg 2006: 1) What is evident from the illustration of the above mentioned sources is the manner in which the various institutions have promoted certain ideas surrounding microfinance to not just promote and spread its expansion and reach as an accepted solution in the general perception of the society at all levels but by creating narratives of success and goodness around a particular and commercialised version of it. The development community has lately been admitting the hollowness of their own claims through the change in the selection of the terms and their emphasis and criteria for judging microfinance and its effectiveness. So, the interaction of ideas and institutions is very much present here in the case of microfinance as the key institutions have been very instrumental in propagating certain ideas regarding the effectiveness of

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microfinance which led to its dominance in the developmental arena getting established as an ideational hegemon. Material capabilities: Material capabilities can be defined in their dynamic form as the technological and organizational capabilities and in their accumulated form as natural resources which technology can transform, stocks of equipment, and the wealth which can command these. (Cox 1981: 104) While analysing microfinance as a hegemonic idea, the role of material capabilities is equally important along with the ideas and institutions in forming the historical structure which makes it an ideational hegemon. So here material capabilities will include the role of material resources (which includes monetary, technological and organisational capabilities) endowed on the idea of microfinance which interacted with the ideational and institutional elements to make microfinance a dominant policy intervention in the international development discourse. Microfinance is a sector in which state bodies and private investors both play an important role as creditor to the poor people through the MFIs whom they donate to sustain their services. In a study of nine countries in Asia, McGuire, Conroy and Thapa found that a very small number of financial institutions (if any) reaching significant numbers of poor clients have been established without the support of funding agencies. (McGuire et al 1998) They argue that without this support, it is doubtful that there would be a microfinance sector at all. This clearly points towards the crucial role funding or donor agencies or, in other words, the material capabilities (monetary support) play in the microfinance industry. In 2010, 68.5 per cent of cross-border funding in the sector came from public bodies, while the rest came from private investments and donations (CGAP 2010). The remarkable change of orientation is evident from the fact that the decline of more traditional public sector development initiatives 49

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has come hand in hand with the rise of microfinance investments to a point where microfinance now rivals all other development efforts. It thus points towards the opportunity costs involved in the donations or funds granted towards the microfinance sector which would have otherwise been diverted towards other poverty-alleviation programs. So in a way, the increasing support of donors towards microfinance schemes is even an indicator of how priorities in the development arena (and even within the poverty alleviation sector) have been changing since the visibility of microfinance on the horizon. With at least 64.9 billion dollars, the global microfinance loan portfolio in 2009 exceeded the combined volumes of the US, UK, German and French foreign aid budgets.6 Philip Mader observes in this regard, In this regard it can be said that if the 1950s and 60s were the age of large-scale infrastructure development and industrial policy under the state-led growth model, the 1970s were the age of the basic needs approach (as a first step away from industrial policy), and the 1980s the “lost decade of development” (Emmerij 2010; Hoadley 1981), then the 1990s and 2000s may best be understood as the age of “entrepreneurial” models of development led by the ever-growing microfinance industry premised on self-help, self-sufficiency and an overarching distrust of the public sector and development aid.(Mader 2011:3) To illustrate the role of material capabilities in the making of microfinance as an established institutional practice, the following data represented through different pie-charts can be helpful. The four pie-charts show the percentage of the funding source for the four different kinds of MFIs (categorised for the purpose of the ! Mixmarket (2009) as cited in Philip Mader (2011) as the latest available data. 6 50

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study/survey conducted by the World Bank under its â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Sustainable Banking with the Poorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; programme). The survey was conducted in 1995 and accounts for the institutions created till 1992. It has categorised them into Banks, Savings Banks, Credit Unions and NGOs and tried to look into their respective funding sources.

Banks 17%

17%

20% 46%

Donor Funds Deposits Commercial Loans Others

Credit Unions 5%

16%

71%

Donor Funds Deposits Commercial Loans Others

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Savings Banks

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10% 2%

Donor Funds Deposits Commercial Loans Others

10%

78%

NGOs 9% 15% 7%

69%

Donor Funds Deposits Commercial Loans Others

Source: Paxton, Julia (1996), A Worldwide Inventory of Microfinance Institutions, in Sustainable Banking with the Poor, Washington, DC: The World Bank. The Sample includes 206 institutions created between 1950-1992.

What is evident here is that it is the NGO group which relies highest on international or local donors which supply 68 per cent of their resources while nearly 3/4 of the funding of both credit unions and the savings banks and 1/2 of bank funding are from deposit mobilisation. The compilation of this data by the World Bank tries to garner support for increasing the variety of services by the NGOs (which till that time (the 1990s) were not that diversified in micro financial 52

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services and their major concern was with providing credits) especially deposit mobilisation to achieve sustainability. The role of civil society thus remains crucial to institutionalise the ideas of microfinance. Indeed, the international donor community, as well as NGOs, have eagerly embraced the idea of microfinance as one of the most hopeful means to alleviate poverty and for its ultimate eradication. Elizabeth Littlefield (2007), CEO of CGAP and a director of the World Bank reports that the microfinance industry is seeing a “flood of new money from investors and big commercial banks” as well as from the “public commercialinvestment agencies, such as the International Finance Corporation.” ‘The Guiding Principles for Selecting and Supporting Intermediaries’ agreed by major donor agencies in October 1995 provide a number of suggestions as to how support by donors and government can best be directed to maximising outreach and sustainability. It says that governments and donor agencies should only support institutions which demonstrate a capacity to reach poor clients on a sustainable basis. Among bilateral donors, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has the largest microfinance portfolio. What is interesting to note here is that even the donor community is finding it appealing because sustainability frees them from the minimal liability they were exercising in the form of financial support to the MFIs in the name of poverty reduction. So the point is to support only the MFIs which come under the category of ‘good’ by the knowledge forming development community (involving the various institutions like the CGAP, the World Bank etc) as explained in the above. Again Roy (2010: 56) in this regard says, The financialization of development is a project, one that is actively constructed through the deployment of technology and the 53

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management of risk outlined here. But such a project also requires the production of knowledge such that the principles and norms of financial markets become central to the practice of development. Thus it can be seen how the ideas, institutions and material capabilities have worked in a reciprocally interactive and mutually conditioning manner to support, sustain and spread microfinance as a hegemonic idea within a neoliberal world order. The discourse surrounding development and microfinance also informs us about the subtleties of workings in the international political arena where ideas do not exist in objectivity rather they have historically, socially and politically motivated grounds in discourses which are themselves shaped by the prevailing world orders and nurture and shape historical structures which are in consonance with these ideas. Conclusions: The study has thus endeavoured to capture critical perspectives on microfinance using neo-Gramscian lens by critically questioning the status-quo surrounding an ideological hegemon like microfinance which limits the scope for better alternatives for the society by creating the high acceptability which becomes the order of the day. The phenomenon of microfinance is undergoing a phase of critical churning because of the various cases of malpractices being reported recently. This has resulted into case-specific analyses attempting to plug the loopholes in the practice of microfinance. This study has tried to present a general picture of the whole industry of microfinance in a way so as to critically examine the whole phenomenon. What the policy lags in development discourse is not new. In fact, there have been phases of the rise of a particular kind of policies and practices on the global horizon but the scope for counter-narratives is not very easy to subsume always as it requires the coordination of forces of various kinds 54

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and at various levels in the prevailing global order. It is precisely here that microfinance has struck the chord with its embeddedness in the neoliberal order. This order offered microfinance the right conditions to flourish where the ideas of a neoliberal order, its institutions and the material forces all were working in a reciprocally interacting manner to make microfinance an accepted policy intervention and a naturally sounding institutional intervention.

! References Bateman, M (2010): Why Doesn't Microfinance Work? : The Destructive Rise of Local Neoliberalism. London: Zed Books. Bateman, M and H Chang (2009): “The Microfinance Illusion”, http:// www.hajoonchang.net/downloads/Microfinance.pdf (accessed February 10, 2012). Bieler, Andrias and Morton, Adam D. (2004) ‘A Critical Theory Route to Hegemony, World order and Historical Change: Neo-Gramscian Perspectives in International Relations’, Capital and Class, 28: 85-113. CGAP (1995)

A Policy Framework for The Consultative Group to Assist the

poorest (CGAP): A Microfinance Program, http:// http://www.cgap.org/gm/ document-1.9.2638/FN1.pdf (Accessed 16 April 2012). CGAP (2007): Savings for Poor People: Good for Clients, Good for Business, http:// www.cgap.org/p/site/c/template.rc/1.26.2209 (Accessed 16 October 2011). CGAP (2008): Foreign Capital Investment in Microfinance: Balancing Social and Financial Returns, Focus Note 44, Washington DC: CGAP, The World Bank.

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CGAP (2010): CGAP’s Review of 2010, [Online: web] Accessed 16 October 2011, URL: http://www.cgap.org/gm/document-1.9.50514/Reflections_on_the_Year.pdf. Chang, Ha-Joon (2002) Kicking Away the Ladder-Development Strategy in Historical Perspective. London: Anthem Press. Committee of Donor Agencies (1995) Micro and Small Enterprise Finance: Guiding Principles for Selecting and Supporting Intermediaries. Washington D.C: The World Bank. Cox, Robert. W (1981) “Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory”, Millennium - Journal of International Studies, 10 (2): 126-155. Cox, Robert. W (1983) “Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations: An essay in Method.” Millennium - Journal of International Studies, 12 (2): 162-75. Cox, Robert. W (1987) Production, Power, and World Power: Social Forces in the Making of History. New York: Columbia University Press. Cox, Robert. W and T.J Sinclair (eds.) (1996) Approaches to World Order, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cox, Robert. W (1992/1996) “Towards a Posthegemonic Conceptualisation of World Order: Reflections on the Relevancy of Ibn Khaldun”, in R.W. Cox and T.J. Sinclair (eds.), Approaches to World Order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cox, Robert. W (1992) “Global perestroika”, in R. Miliband and L. Panitch (eds.) The Socialist Register: New World Order? .London: Merlin Press.

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Cox, Robert W (1993) “Structural Issues of Global Governance: Implications for Europe”, in S. Gill (ed), Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations, .Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cox, Robert W (1993/1996) ‘Production and Security’, in R.W. Cox and T.J. Sinclair (eds), Approaches to World Order .Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Durfee, M and James N Rosenau (1996) Playing Catch-Up: International Relations Theory and Poverty, Millennium - Journal of International Studies, 25: 521-545. Gill, Stephen R. (1995), ‘Globalisation, Market Civilisation, and Disciplinary Neoliberalism’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 24(3): 399-423. Gill, Stephen R and David Law (1989), ‘Global Hegemony and the Structural Power of Capital’, International Studies Quaterly, 33(4):475-99. Gill, Stephen R and J H Mittelman (1997), Innovation and Transformation in International Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Gramsci, Antonio (1971), Selections from the Prison Notebooks, edited and translated by Q. Hoare and G. N. Smith (London: ElecBook). Ledgerwood, Joanna (1999) Microfinance Handbook, an Institutional and Financial Perspective, Sustainable Banking with the Poor.Washington, D.C.: The World Bank. Ledgerwood, Joanna and Victoria White (2006) Transforming Microfinance Institutions: Providing Full Financial Services to the Poor. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.

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Littlefield, E. (2006) ‘The Future of Microfinance and the World Bank’s Role in it,’, http://www.microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m/template.rc/1.26.9106/ (accessed 16 May 2012). Littlefield, E. (2007) ‘The Changing Face of Microfinance Funding,’ http:// w w w. f o r b e s . c o m / 2 0 0 7 / 1 2 / 2 0 / e l i z a b e t h - l i t t l e f i e l d - m i c ro f i n a n c e - b i z cz_el_1220littlefield.html (accessed16 May 2012). Mader, P (2011) ‘Making the Poor Pay for Public Goods via Microfinance: Economic and Political Pitfalls in the Case of Water and Sanitation’, MPIfG Discussion Paper 11/14, Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, http:// www.mpifg.de/pu/mpifg_dp/dp11-14.pdf (accessed 20 May 2011). McGuire, Paul et al. (1998) Getting the Framework Right: Policy and Regulation for Microfinance in Asia. Brisbane: Foundation for Development Cooperation. Paxton, Julia (1996), ‘Sustainable Banking with the Poor: A Worldwide Inventory of Microfinance Institutions’, http:// http://www.microfinancegateway.org/sites/ default/files/mfg-en-paper-sustainable-banking-with-the-poor-a-worldwideinventory-of-microfinance-institutions-2001.pdf (accessed 20th January 2014). Rosenberg, R. (2006) Aid Effectiveness in Microfinance: Evaluating Microcredit Projects of the World Bank and UNDP, CGAP Focus Note 35. Washington DC: The World Bank. Roy, A. (2010) Poverty Capital: Microfinance and the Making of Development, (London: Routledge). USAID (1995) Assessing the Impacts of Microenterprise Interventions: A Framework for Analysis, Managing for Results, Working Paper No. 7. Washington D.C: USAID. 58

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USAID (2001) Microenterprise Development in a Changing World: U.S. Agency for International Development Microenterprise Results Reporting for 2000, http:// www.microcreditsummit.org/papers/empowerment.pdf (accessed February 20, 2012). United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) (2010) Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics, h t t p : / / w w w. u n r i s d . o rg / 8 0 2 5 6 B 3 C 0 0 5 B B 1 2 8 / ( h t t p P ro j e c t s ) 791B1580A0FFF8E5C12574670042C091?OpenDocument (accessed 16 April 2012). Weber, H (2002) ‘The Imposition of a Global Development Architecture: the Example of Microcredit’, Review of International Studies, 28 (3), 537-555. Weber, H (2004) ‘The ‘New Economy’ and Social Risk: Banking on the Poor?’, Review of International Political Economy, 11(2): 356-386. Weber, H. (2006) ‘The Global Political Economy of Microfinance and Poverty Reduction: Locating Local ‘livelihoods’ in Political Analysis,’ in J.L. Fernando (eds.) Microfinance: Perils and Prospects. London: Routledge. World Bank, World Development Report (1990): Poverty. New York: Oxford University Press). World Bank, World Development Report (2000/ 2001): Attacking Poverty. New York: Oxford University Press Yunus, M (1999) ‘Microlending: Toward a Poverty-Free World’, BYU studies, 38 (2): 149-155. Yunus, M and Alan J (1999) Banker to the Poor: The Autobiography of Muhammad Yunus, Founder of the Grameen Bank. New York: Public Affairs 59

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Yunus, M. (2008) A World without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. New York: Public Affairs. Yunus, M. and Weber, K. (2010) Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs. New York: Public Affairs.

Urban Planning, Development and Social Justice: The Case of Industrial Relocation in Delhi Priyanka Nupur1 Abstract: This paper looks into the environmental movement in Delhi in the 1980s and 1990s, which led to the relocation of a huge number of industrial units from the city to the peripheral areas. The paper explores this environmental debate in the context of larger urban planning; it also discusses critical questions concerning its master plan and its implementation, class-based perspectives on good environmental practices, the desirable city, and the threat to social justice that emerges from a partial understanding of problems and solutions applied in the urban space. The paper uses empirical findings from the Bawana Industrial Area, a new industrial area created in the aftermath of the Supreme Court relocation judgment of 1996, to uncover the experiences and ideas of relocated industry owners and workers who are currently functional in Bawana. The paper argues that the environmental debate leads to a larger process of cleansing the city of elements deemed unfit for an aesthetic and modernist landscape. At the same time, it questions the sustainability of a city which ignores the holistic development of the city and forces solutions which create a threat to social justice. Key words: Urban Planning, environment, social justice, industrial relocation

! ! ! The author is a research scholar (Ph. D.) in Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. This Paper is based on the research conducted during M. Phil. The author acknowledges the reviewer, Dr. Amit Upadhyay for his valuable comments on the paper. 1

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Introduction City spaces entail a plethora of activities like residence, production, trade and commerce, and simultaneously provide opportunities for consumption, sociocultural and economic exchange, leisure and services (Friedmann, 1962; Glaesar et al, 2001; Scott, 1997; Mega, 2005). The urban space is also marked by conflict and contestations which are manifested in various dimensions such as space, resources, opportunities, identities and many such domains (Harvey, 2003; Leitner et al, 2007; Philip & Mercer, 2002; Crawford 1995; Blomley, 2003; Malone, 2002; Roy, 2011). The prevailing competing notions of development of the city, its spatial planning and distributive aspects, aesthetics, understanding of the urban problems are such that certain groups are able to voice their demands and concerns more articulately than others. This articulation has various socio-political factors underlying it. What needs to be noted here is that this partial view of urban problems leads to an imperfect understanding of them and hence, biased views on solutions. This may lead to the implementation of urban solutions which, on one hand, do not solve the problems on the other hand, have an unjust impact on certain vulnerable groups who are not able to participate or represent themselves in the political processes of city planning. The paper explores this through the environmental issues that emerged in Delhi during the 1980s and 1990s. The environmental debate became embroiled in various other elements of planning, zoning, bureaucratic inefficiency, nonimplementation, spatial distribution and recognition of certain types of rights of certain sections of the population. It finally resulted in the Supreme Court judgment of 1996 which mandated the relocation of polluting units to the fringes of the city. After almost 20 years of the judgment, it is important to revisit the debate to understand if the solutions offered at that time were successful. It also !62

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becomes necessary to enquire if the urban plan based on the idea of zoning brought justice to the working population. This paper, through the empirical findings from the new industrial area of Bawana, argues that the partial understanding of the environmental problems in Delhi led to an inappropriate solution that has resulted in the exclusion of the workers from the larger fabric of the city while imposing several constraints on the industry owners in the new industrial area. While the environmental issue took up a class dimension, it created a social justice threat for the workers. The City and the Changing Landscape The desire for a modern, aesthetic, clean socio-cultural space, occupied by the civilised gentry is not new. At various instances, modernist ideals1 have played an important role in guiding the changes in the city. Modifications in the order, layout and planning of the city have been strategised around the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;constellation of issues that are bundled together as environmentalismâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Sharan, 2006: 4905).2 These ideas of good environment and city planning can be seen in the context of what

Modernisation theories were rooted in evolutionary logic which suggested that development required a shift from the traditional forms of life to a modern form. It viewed development as a liner progression from one stage to another. Various ideas became the characteristic features of this developmental regime. Economic growth became a central idea in this approach to development; within this line of thought, environment came to be viewed as a major repository of resources which was deemed necessary to fuel the engine of economic growth. With these ideas in vogue, economic degradation became a norm. Post war period witnessed huge development projects to create urban infrastructure for the industrial economy including the water and sanitation systems, electrical systems, roads, factories, warehouses, port facilities, and construction of government infrastructure, dams, highways (Short and Short, 2013: 42).

According to Sharan, the major constituents of this idea of environmentalism included infrastructure and public health, nuisance and noxious trade, pollution and zoning, standards and techno-science, and environmentalism through legal rights. It was in these domains that most of the changes in colonial Delhi post-mutiny were implemented. 2

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Margo Huxley calls generative spatial rationality (Huxley, 2006)3. Postindustrialisation, the desire of the city to get rid of the pollution led to a reorientation of the human relationship with their physical environment, which took a shape of reimagination of the city, the environment within it which involved the production of post-industrial landscapes and cleaning up of toxic sites. Short and Short (2013:77) explain this reimagination in the following words: Cities such as Manchester in the UK, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee in the United States, and Wollongong in Australia all have been (re)-presented in more attractive packages that emphasise the new rather than the old, the fashionable postmodern rather than the merely modern, the post industrial rather than the industrial, consumption rather than production, spectacle and fun rather than pollution and work. These transformations, however, did not take into account the notions of equity and justice. Rather, they were a representation of class-based ideas of what was desirable and what was undesirable to exist within the city.4 The gentrification that results from such a process of change has been referred to as ‘new urbanism’ by Neil Smith (2002: 430). Such an imagination and creation of the urban space results in the exclusion of a number of groups, work, and activities from the city 3

Huxley discussed three kinds of rationalities which can be found in the spatial planning of cities: dispositional rationality, generative spatial rationality, and vitalist spatial rationality. Dispositional spatial rationality is rooted in the desire for order and organisation of city elements into clean compartments that make them easy to be seen, understood, controlled and more legible. Generative spatial rationality draws from the notion of public health and supposes that disease and moral decay occurs due to bad environment. It problematises the accumulation of diseased and unproductive bodies and argues that light, air, sanitation, circulation and hygiene would repair the physical and moral damage by creating diligent working class. Vitalist spatial rationality believes in the uniqueness of a city in terms of history, natural environment, location and experiences of evolution. City transformation during the colonial times can be related to generative spatial rationality due to its obsession with hygienic space.

Such inequity is underlined in the example of Rajarhat in Kolkata (Dey et al, 2013: 25) which witnessed the development of a new township, mainly for habitation, a process which was accompanied by dispossessions of people within Rajarhat, forceful acquisition of land and violent conflicts. It led to a breakdown of the traditional subsistence economy, harmed the fragile environment while the development of the new township led to filling of state and corporate coffers. The new township did not facilitate the ‘reintegration of the displaced into the new economy of the new township area’. !64

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landscape resulting in conflicts. Commenting on the modernist project of planning, James Holston (1999: 165) comments, ...modernist planning does not admit or develop productively the paradoxes of its imagined futures. Instead it attempts to be a plan without contradictions or conflict. It assumes a rational domination of the future in which its total and totalising plan dissolves any conflict between the imagined and existing society in the enforced coherence of its order. This assumption is false and arrogant as it fails to include as its constituent element, the conflict, ambiguity and indeterminacy characteristic of actual social life.

! Similar contradictions can be seen in the case of city planning in Delhi since the British era. In the process of creating a clean and desirable city, Delhi witnessed criminalisation of many established occupations and activities (such as tanning, dyeing, tehbazaari, leather trade, lime kilns, and slaughter houses) which were either fined or relocated outside the city (Sharan, 2006). The changes that took place in Delhi led to dispossession on the part of the working class. It led to a defined distinction of city space in terms of space for residence and space for livelihood. It also gave rise to the conflict of interest between the upper class and the working class as the occupations which were threatened by the city transformation mainly involved the working class (ibid.). With the partition, Delhi faced the challenge of accommodation of migrants (Dupont 2004) which posed a huge burden on the infrastructure and resources of the city, demanding prudent management. With the development of first Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) in 1962 by Delhi Development Authority (DDA), with the assistance of Ford Foundation the state embarked upon its journey of planned !65

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city in the modern times. The planning and modification of Delhi with a renewed distribution of urban space (that was very visible in colonial Delhi) took a new vigour and form, backed by the intention of the state and the legitimacy provided by it. MPD 1962 echoed the idea of a city which would not grow haphazardly but would be planned and zoned; it hence developed the new plan that imagined a space with differentiated spaces for various land use purposes. This led to the zoning of the city into â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;a number of use zones such as residential, commercial, industrial, and recreationalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (MPD 1962). The plan faced much criticism as it was seen to be embedded in the modernist vision of planning which overlooked the organic growth pattern of the city. It was said that the modernist vision of the city enshrined in the plan was completely out of sync with the economy, society and polity of a post-colonial Third World country (Batra, 2004). Nevertheless, the Master Plan remained the basis of all further developments in the city. The case of Industrial relocation, which will be discussed in the paper, came to be centred on the violation of the prescription of the Master Plan regarding the areas in which industrial development could take place. Economic restructuring opened up opportunities for huge investments in the country especially in the capital city; this necessitated the development of a desirable business environment. The new developments and the requirements that came with them stood in contrast to the small industrial and manufacturing process and other informal economic activities in the city (Nigam, 2001). The transformation of Delhi into a cosmopolitan space has been accomplished by a series of changes in terms of infrastructure, socio-cultural spaces, transportation, and other arenas (Fernandes, 2004; Tiwari, 2003). Amidst the various changes that had been ushered in the city of Delhi, a particular type of environmental concern was taking shape which has been most popularly associated with the urban middle and upper classes and which Baviskar (2003) called bourgeoisie !66

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environmentalism5. With the growing consciousness of these classes regarding the clean environment, there began a problematisation of the urban environment laden with the notions of public health, urban aesthetics and spatial organisation of the city. In the backdrop of such a growing concern around the environment and with the new tool of public interest litigations, bourgeoisie environmental activism came to play through the courts. The imagination of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;clean and green Delhiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; came to be expressed through the demands of a city free of poor, slum-free city (Veron 2006). The case of industrial closure and relocation of Delhi in the 1990s within the environment debate can be located in a similar background of cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renewal, modernisation and beautification. The following section discusses the environmental debate in Delhi, background of the case and highlights of the judgment of 1996 which ordered for the relocation of polluting units. Environmental Concerns in Delhi and Highlights of the Judgement M. C. Mehta, a noted environmental lawyer, filed a petition6 in the Supreme Court of India in 1985, drawing attention to the problem of pollution that was gradually growing in Delhi.7 The judgment in this long pending case was given on July 8, 1996, by Justice Kuldeep Singh and Justice Faizan Uddin. Recognising the issue of pollution in Delhi, the court noted that 5

Baviskar describes bourgeoisie environmentalism as a strong force that has come to dominate the political dimension of environmentalism in cities, especially Delhi. She perceives the politics behind relocation of industries to be desire for a clean, green, uncongested city space which is free from the ugliness which the production process entails within it. While the results of production are desired and deemed important for the development of the city, the process itself and the labour involved in it do not fit into the urban landscape that bourgeoisie environmentalism. Industrial relocation is seen parallel to numerous demolition of poor settlements in the name of

M. C. Mehta vs. Union of India and ors, 1996 SCC (4) 750.

According to Batra (2004), the petition was originally concerned with the air pollution caused by stone crushers in South Delhi and Haryana and it was in 1994 that another petition was filed under the same case drawing attention to the presence of industrial units in non-conforming zones and demanded their closure. 7

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Delhi is one of the most polluted cities in the world. The quality of ambient air is so hazardous that lung and respiratory diseases are on the increase. The city has become a vast and unmanageable conglomeration of commercial, industrial, unauthorised colonies and unplanned housing. There is a total lack of open spaces and green areas. Once a beautiful city, Delhi now presents a chaotic picture (M. C. Mehta vs. Union of India and ors, 1996 SCC (4) 750).

! The judgement identified the solution in decongestion of the city. It argued that The only way to relieve the capital city from the huge additional burden and pressures is to deconcentrate the population, industries and economic activities in the city and relocate the same in various priority towns in the NCR (ibid.) The understanding of pollution and the solution proposed by the judgement rooted in the understanding of the Master Plan which extensively proposed zoning criterion in planning (Srinivas, 1998). The judgment saw non implementation of the Master Plan as the root cause of the problem. MPD 2001 (DDA, 1990) prohibited the existence of noxious/hazardous industries in Delhi. Such industries were supposed to be shifted to the NCR regions within three years of publication of the Master Plan. Delhi administration was responsible for identifying and preparing a list of the hazardous/ noxious units which were to be shifted out of Delhi within three years (ibid.). However, the court noted that no action had been taken in this regard even after three years. Delhi administrations, as well as the hazardous industries, were held responsible for the illegal functioning of industries. The court held this to be the violation of Master Plan and did not accept offers for modernisation of technology. !68

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The Master Plan had dedicated special zones for industrial development which were referred to as the conforming areas. In 1995, the court noted that 8,378 industries in Delhi were violating the Master Plan by functioning in the nonconforming areas and were also polluting the environment. Apart from the industries functioning in non-conforming zones, 256 industries functioning in conforming zones were also hazardous and noxious and were to be given notice for relocation. In September 1995, the court ordered Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to perform surveys and prepare a list of industries in ‘H’ category. DPCC prepared a list of 341 industries under categories H (a) and H (b), the compilation dated September 25, 1995. Along with this, two other compilations were available: one, dated August 23, 1995, consisted of 171 industries and the second, dated, Nov 3, 1995, consisted of 708 noxious and hazardous industries. This made a total number of 1,220 hazardous/noxious/heavy industries that were to be relocated. However, the categorisation of these industries was challenged in the court. The court ordered further enquiry after allowing the discontented industrialists to file objections and held that the decision of DPCC in this matter will be regarded as final. Eventually, 168 industrial units were identified as hazardous/noxious/ heavy/large industries and were directed to relocate outside Delhi. These units were directed by the court to stop functioning in Delhi from November 30, 1996, and were asked to relocate to other parts of the NCR region. The question of labour was integral to the issue of relocation of the industrial units. It was suggested in the judgment that, ’since the NCR towns are within the commuting range of Delhi and each other, the labour can either shift to the new sites or, at least, can keep commuting till they finally shift to the new place’. The judgement stated certain provisions for the labour like the continuity of work in the new place, wages during the period of closure along with the shifting bonus. !69

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Delhi government executives were given a deadline for relocation till 1999 which was not followed; they sought time till 2004 which was turned down. The second phase of closures began around 2000 and this time, all the units in the nonconforming zones, whether polluting or non-polluting were targeted (Kathuria, 2001) Also, this time, no compensation was awarded to the workers.

! Controversies and Contradictions: The Alternative Views Following the judgment, debates emerged from different quarters including academicians, environmental and labour activists, and lawyers. The logic of relocation was derived from the violation of the Master Plan by the industries. However, the debates that emerged in this context questioned the Master Plan itself. The anticipations in the Master plan regarding the residential and industrial growth proved to be wrong (Srinivas, 1998: 449). Also, whatever targets were set in the Master Plan, even those were not fulfilled by the state agencies (Ahmed & Choi, 2011). DDA was charged with violating its own mandate of equity when instead of developing facilities for the urban working class, it subsidized the facilities for the rich (Maitra, 1991). Since the actual demand for industrial infrastructure was more than that projected in the Master Plan (along with the failure of meeting the targets set in the Master Plan), industries came up in the non-conforming areas support of the local politicians (Kathuria, 2001). At this point, when the industries in the non-conforming areas were being charged with violation of the Master Plan, it is important to note that other cases of violations were treated differently (Kumar, 2006), depending on who was the violator and what logic for violation was put forth. Infrastructural development

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during Asiad Games, demolition of settlements in Yamuna Pushta, development of Malls in the Southern Ridge were some of the cases.8 Labour issues and how their concerns (employment, compensation and environment) were treated also became an important dimension of the debate. It was noted that throughout the case, industrial workers were not considered as an affected party (Navlakha 2000), despite the fact that workers were one of the first victims of industrial pollution both as an employee and also in their roles of family and consumers (Heine & Mautz, 1990; Kundu, 2003). While the judgement laid out terms and conditions regarding protection of workers during the process of relocation, it said nothing regarding protection of employment of the worker after the factory relocated (Srinivas, 1998: 447). Workers, at a jan sunwayi (public hearing), held by Dilli Janwadi Adhikar Manch in 1997 reported of being forced to leave their jobs before the closure date so that the units had lesser number of people to compensate (ibid.). On the other hand, some of the factory owners complained that they had to pay the workers despite the function of their units being suspended (ibid., 448). The most critical question that came up was if relocation of industries could solve the problem of pollution. It has been argued that relocation did not solve the problem of pollution; it merely transferred the pollution from Delhi to other 8

Examples of bias of state and judiciary can be drawn from the development of infrastructure during the Asiad Games held in 1982 which came up in violation of the Master Plan (Kumar, 2006). Another example is the demolition of settlements in Yamuna Pushta on charges of polluting river Yamuna (Baviskar, 2011). While the lower class settlements in Yamuna Pushta were charged with polluting the river Yamuna, Sajha Manch, a collective of NGOs in Delhi, in their studies revealed that owing to the low rate of resource consumption, the people in the settlements contributed hardly 0.4 % of the total pollution in the river. While industrial sewage was a major polluter, a massive amount of pollution was being caused by the sewage discharge from the colonies consisting of the upper and middle class populations. It was reported in a study in the years following the demolition of approximately 40,000 jhuggis which displaced nearly 2 lakh people, Central Pollution Control Board found no conclusive evidence of improvement in the quality of water in Yamuna. However, the same area witnessed the construction of Metro Rail Depot, Delhi Secretariat, and the Akshardham temple being built on the riverbed of Yamuna in complete violation of the plan (ibid). Construction of Malls in the Southern ridge of Delhi was upheld, despite being in contradiction with the MPD. Ghertner (2011) noted, “…the DDA suggested that the visual appearance of the future mall was in itself enough to confirm the project’s planned-ness. How could a project of such strategic importance in Delhi’s effort to become a world-class consumer destination not be planned, the DDA’s lawyer argued. Even after its own ‘Expert Committee’ found the complex in “flagrant violation” of planning law, the court concurred in early 2007, allowing construction to go forward based on the mall’s capital-intensiveness and associated world-class appearance.” !71

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neighbouring areas (Kathuria, 2001). On the contrary, while the polluting units were ordered to be moved to peripheral areas of Delhi, no mention was made regarding improvement and quality of life in the peripheral areas where new industrial areas were to be developed (Kundu, 2003). This was seen as a small cost to be paid by peripheral citizens for the health of people within the city of Delhi (ibid.). While pollution and health of the citizens were being debated, the court did not grant any compensation to the workers for health issues that originated from their occupation in the polluting units (ibid.). Relocation of industrial units can be perceived as one of the many facets of bourgeoisie environmentalism, defined by the upper-class concerns of aesthetics, hygiene, leisure which shape the notions of desired environment (Baviskar, 2003).9 There is also a discursive use of the concept of nuisance which allows private grievances to be expressed in terms of environmental welfare and public interest (Ghertner, 2012). Bourgeois environmentalism merges itself with the disciplinary designs of the modern city planning (Baviskar, 2003). Relocation, which was a result of the obsession with upper-class notions of environmentalism, did not provide a long-term solution to the issue of pollution; it merely shifted the problem to other areas and delayed the impact on the original locations (Gupta, 2003). In the consequent years, new industrial areas were developed. Almost two decades have passed since the judgement for relocation came. While revisiting the debate, it is important to study the concerns of the relocated industrial owners and workers who are functional in the new industrial areas located on the 9 Baviskar describes Bourgeoisie Environmentalism as a strong force that has come to dominate the political dimension of environmentalism in cities, especially Delhi. She perceives the politics behind relocation of industries to be desire for a clean, green, uncongested city space which is free from the ugliness which the production process entails within it. While the results of production are desired and deemed important for the development of the city, the process itself and the labour involved in it do not fit into the urban landscape that bourgeoisie environmentalism. Industrial relocation is seen parallel to numerous demolition of poor settlements in the name of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;public purposeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Bourgeoisie environmentalism, Baviskar argues, stands to threaten the interests of lower income groups and the labour class.

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periphery of Delhi. The following section discussed empirical findings from Bawana Industrial Area, one of the new industrial areas that were developed.

! Bawana Industrial Area: A Case Study Following the Judicial order for relocation of industrial units from Delhi, the two phases of relocation moved the factories to the neighbouring areas of Ghaziabad, Haryana, Alwar, Baddi and other places. In the vicinity of Delhi, Bawana was one of the sites where land was acquired for the development of a new industrial area.10 Development of this new industrial area was conceived as a part of the solution to reduce the pollution levels in Delhi. In the interim period, between the closure of industrial units and the allotment of plots including the development of required infrastructure and commencement of their functioning at the new site in the Bawana Industrial Area, all the units remained closed, and their labour unemployed. When the functions resumed after allotment of plots to relocated units and rebuilding of factories, merely 30% of the previous workers returned to work; the rest either took up other jobs or returned back to their villages (Srinivas, 1998). This section is based on the fieldwork conducted in Bawana Industrial Area in 2014.11 Based on the narratives from the field, the section highlights the experiences of the unit owners and workers (in terms of relocation and the current

Bawana Industrial Area is spread over an area of 755 hectares. It consists of 5 sectors, each of which is further divided into a number of blocks. The area face huge connectivity problem as there is negligible presence of public transport. There are other private service providers who run RTV and Gramin Sewa. between Rithala Metro Station and Bawana J.J. Colony. However, none of the services ply through the industrial area. The Gramin Sewa at times will drop the passenger in the desired block of industrial area on request, provided they find it convenient. Other than that there is no means of commutation within the area if one does not use a private vehicle. Due to the problems of commutation within the industrial area, the study for data collection was restricted to 1 and sector 3. These sectors were in proximity to the roads where vehicles plied hence, more accessible and safer. !73

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situation in Bawana), issues of environment, services and notions in the context of a changing city and the emergent contradictions.12

! Experiences of Relocation The order for relocation led to the loss of employment for the workers, the setback to the business for the unit owners, and a huge issue of physical relocation of the work to the peripheral area which had underdeveloped facilities. According to a respondent,13 the government was supposed to develop the new industrial area on a no profit no loss basis. However, he added, â&#x20AC;&#x153;the land which the government bought for Rs 300 per yard, it sold to us at the rate of Rs 3000 per yardâ&#x20AC;?. Respondents complained that by agreeing to relocation, they got into the trap while many others paid bribes and their factories continued to function in their original locations. The official process for the allotment of plots was through a draw, but the unit owners believed the draw to be a mere pretence and bribery played a major role in determining where the plot was allotted. Those who could afford to pay heavy bribe were able to get plots in the sites within the city of Delhi like Okhla or Jhilmil Industrial area. Out of these only 27,000 applications were approved and out of those 27,000 units whose application for allotment was approved, 5000 units are still waiting for allotments. Some units were allotted plots in Bhorgarh, but there was no infrastructure (water, electricity, sewerage, police) around which factories could be started again.

34 respondents were interviewed comprising of 10 unit owners, 19 workers (15 males and 4 females), and 5 supervisors. Among the workers, only 5 had experienced relocation and all were males. Loosely structured interview guides were used to generate information from the respondents.

The identities of the respondents have been kept confidential. !74

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The units owners reported that it was due to lack of legitimate industrial zones and infrastructure (that the government was required to develop) that they had to set up their work in non-conforming zones. The unit owner highlighted the paradox that while water and electricity connections were provided by the state agencies to their set ups, later the same state deemed them illegal. It was also brought to notice that time and again bribe had to be paid for running the factories. When the issue of pollution arose, the respondents came to know about it only after the initial orders were passed. The court could not take into account the concerns of the unit owners or the labour as the state had not taken enough care to present it. When the knowledge of the order reached the factory owners, they approached the court which softened its stand to some extent. However, the haphazard manner in which the events took place, there was no proper identification of polluting and non-polluting industries and all the units in nonconforming areas were attacked. Factory workers who had experienced relocation suggested that the whole pollution issue was a way of driving away the working population from the city. They felt that the gentry wanted greenery and cleanliness around them while work of poor people was considered polluting and hence was attacked. One of the supervisors added that the benefits which came from the factories to the economy were desirable for the government, but the people involved in this process had become undesirable. The workers who had continued to work in the industries after relocation argue that they have seen phases of complete unemployment or part-time employment with meagre wages. Since struggles and resistance had emerged from the unit owners, NGOs, and the workers, there was some hope but it soon became evident that the worker will not receive anything. Some of the workers who had developed skills by working in the industries had to take up unskilled work after the loss of employment. After relocation, they have !75

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been working in units different from previous ones and some had to learn new skills without any significant assistance. Issues of Environment Despite the fact that the whole issue of relocation was a consequence of environmental debate, the workers suggested that the issue had much more to it than merely an environmental agenda. This was mainly because the environment in the new industrial area was hardly monitored. Some unit owners suggested that even after relocation, they have brought no changes in the method of functioning. They suggested that if the relocation was really about pollution, then pollution committee would have been checking this area also, but no sincere pollution check was being maintained. Polluted work environment had become a norm for the workers. While the workers did complain of health problems emerging out of their working conditions, it was considered a necessary part of the work from which there was no escape. Some workers differentiated between the perception of the environment that was being debated in Delhi and their own work environment. They said that the discussion of environment was all about how a city should look beautiful and the debate at no point considered the working or living condition of the workers. One of the respondents also raised the question if Delhi was now clean after relocating industries. Another pertinent question raised by one of the respondents was about the environment of the areas surrounding the new industrial location. Why was the government not concerned about what will happen to the environment of neighbouring areas of Bawana Industrial Area. This reflected the most

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fundamental gap in the understanding of environmental problems and their solutions being practiced. Services in the New Industrial Area Proper services were found to be lacking in the new industrial area. Drinking water supply was insufficient despite the water pipelines that had been laid by the government. On the rare occasion when water was supplied through the pipeline, it was hardly for two hours in a day. Availability of informal services like rehris for food, dhabas, tea etc. on which the workers relied was no more existent in the new industrial area as the informal markets, running parallel to the industries in the earlier locations, were no more present. The absence of approach roads was another problem due to the transportation of raw materials to the area was very difficult. In the absence of markets nearby, purchase of even small inputs for their industry needs to be sourced from distant markets such as Nangloi, Wazirpur or Piragarhi. This again had an impact on the productivity of the factories. The unit owners faced another problem of availability of labour for loading, unloading and transportation of goods. Lack of health services was a critical issue faced by the workers in the new industrial area. In the factories, accidents or physical harm was very common. A government hospital (Valmiki Hospital) was located at a distance of 2 km from the Industrial Area. However, they refused to treat the accidents that happened in the factories. ESI hospitals are supposed to cater to the population in the industrial areas. However, the nearest ESI hospital was located at a distance of 10 km in Rohini. While there was a private nursing home to which the government hospital referred the industrial accidents, the cost of treatment remained high. Some first

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aid provisions were maintained within the factories but they were not enough, considering the threats that the labour faced in its work environment. Relocation to Bawana gave rise to the problem of accessibility for both the industrial unit owners and the workers and proved to be a huge setback in terms of availability of workers. Owing to the distance from the central part of the city, and lack of proper public transportation, commutation time and cost increased. This had an impact on the availability of labour for the industries. Some of the workers rented accommodation in neighbouring areas of Bawana and commuted daily by cycle. Owing to high rent and meager wages, the workers could no longer afford to stay with their families. Also, given that there were no proper educational facilities around the area that could be accessed and used by the worker, the children were sent back to villages. There were many workers who could not even afford to rent accommodation in the nearby areas and soon left jobs. To solve the problem, some of the unit owners had created space in their factories for the labour to stay but the families could not stay with them. When the industrial area was developed, there were plans of building 5000 flats for the workers. Each factory owner could apply for a maximum of three flats for his workers. Initially, around the year 2006-07, some 6000-7000 flats were constructed. However, no facilities of water or electricity were provided in these flats and hence they remained vacant. In the recent time, some work had again begun in these flats. While the labour houses are now being provided with facilities, a unit owner sceptically observed: â&#x20AC;&#x153;we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know if these will be given to the labour or will be sold under some housing schemeâ&#x20AC;?. Safety conditions were poor in the area and the factories were vulnerable to thefts at night. The workers suffered from instances of loot. Female workers especially felt vulnerable as there were very few women workers in the area. Also, the !78

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emptiness of the roads in the industrial area, insufficient transportation facilities and lack of activities around the factories added to the feeling of insecurity.14 The Context of Changing City, Social Life and Emerging Contradictions While the issue of the environment was the triggering factor in the whole debate of pollution and industrial relocation in Delhi, the workers and unit owners interviewed in Bawana Industrial area were of the opinion that it was an issue of who should be a part of the beautiful city and should be excluded from it. One of the unit owners suggested that after relocation, state officials were not worried about the environment of the areas to which industries relocated. It was reported that in the last four years no environmental monitoring had been conducted. An interesting question posed was that the city sprawl will continue; where will the factories be further pushed? The unit owners asserted that they contributed to the economic growth rate of Delhi but since their work was not sophisticated enough for the modern look of Delhi, they were removed on environmental pretexts. Unit owners reported that due to relocation and the associated problems, many units became uneconomical and closed down. In Bawana Industrial Area, large numbers of units were observed to be closed. People said that either they have closed down due to losses or they have returned back to the city and functioning illegally due to collaboration with the local authorities. Also, despite the huge amount of furore that was created over relocation, a huge number of factories continue to function in the old areas. It was realised by the actors in Bawana that the relocation has not really addressed the problem of pollution, despite the fact that whole controversy started with this issue.

The female workers suggested that activities, markets, etc. which kept the spaces busy reduced the feeling of insecurity. On the other hand, desolate spaces heightened the feeling of insecurity. 14

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The Question of Social Justice The relocation of industries as a solution to the issue of pollution had a dire impact on the workers in the area. While the workers who had been a victim of relocation suffered for a long time, even the new labour that enters the industrial area faces the problems which have continued to emerge as a result of relocation. The environmental justice perspective may support the removal of industries from the densely populated areas of Delhi, it cannot be ignored that the new location of industries happens to be an area which consists of a population less powerful in terms of representation than those who voiced their concerns 18 years ago. In fact, a closer analysis of the situation presents a picture of reversal of environmental justice in the case of Delhi. The group voicing demands of the clean environment, free from industrial hazards was not a minority population as has been the focus of environmental justice15 theories. Rather it was the voice of the privileged in Delhi that was heard that gave rise to injustice for labour. When the ideal of distributive justice is applied in the case of the environment in Delhi, certain problems emerge. Applying the ideal of distributive justice demands us to look at the environment in the form of a common good that needs to be distributed properly. In the case of Delhi, controversy arose due to the fact that certain groups realised that presence of industrial units in the vicinity of residential areas was leading to loss of the common good that is environment for them. In the process of meeting out justice to the people of Delhi, when the order for relocation of industries was passed, there was no mention of the environment of the labour. Labour as part of the city also has rights to enjoy a good

The environmental justice movement that took shape in the US during 1980s recognised that the people of colour were disproportionately influenced by the toxic environmental externalities. Developing with the background of environmental racism, environmental justice soon began to identify class, culture, gender to be important in understanding how the environmental damage were being distributed in the society among the vulnerable while the rich continued to be the major consumers and polluters. !80

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environment. However, the environment of labour did not form part of the common debate, let alone be defined and secured. Also, while the environment as a common good is being distributed, the right of labour over the city is being hampered in the process of securing environmental right. Lack of representation of workers in the case related to pollution can be seen first and foremost element of injustice. The case was initiated by an environmental lawyer and had the support of the upper and middle-class citizens, whose view of city and space was increasingly being framed by the dominant discourse of the world class city. As one of the respondents had shared that when the unit owners came to know about the order for closure of industries, they formed a group and approached the court when the court paid some attention to their grievances. Following this, the period of relocation kept on increasing and the unit owners had some respite from an immediate dislocation. But in the whole process, representation of the workers was not promoted. Although some civil society groups like Dilli Janwadi Adhikar Manch, did try to bring up the issues of labour, the state did not try to present the plight of the workers in front of the court. The only concern that was expressed in the context of the workers was that of compensation. Even the unions have been blamed for working with a single approach of getting compensation. The larger issues of work security and safety in the work space were not represented in the court (Srinivas, 1998). This lack of representation also gave rise to the question of procedural justice. Capek has emphasised the importance of involvement of the affected communities in the procedure of decision making (Capek, 1993). Workers in the present case have been denied any kind of participation, or voice in the decisionmaking process, despite the fact they were as much an affected party as the groups of other communities who complained of growing pollution. The process !81

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of the case did not involve the labour in trying to understand its concerns in relocating to the new area. It was in the absence of views of the workers that the decision resulted in massive unemployment and problems of relocation to the workers. Even after relocation, the old workers and the new workers in Bawana, as the fieldwork suggests, have not been able to achieve a sense of security be it in terms of work or in terms of physical or psychological security. Going back to the idea of distributive justice, when the good environment for people in Delhi was â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;supposedlyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; secured by removal of industries, their relocation in Bawana did give rise to the same threat to the people settled in and around Bawana. Considering this argument, distributive justice was actually not maintained. Also, the farmers in Bawana were not involved in the decision-making process when it was decided that their farmlands would be acquired for establishing the new Industrial Area. While the plans for Bawana Industrial area had already been finalised in 1999, the people dislocated from the Yamuna Pushta region and from subsequent demolitions in different phases from all over the city were sent to Bawana for relocation. The same logic of threat from pollution applied to these groups of people also that had been argued in the case of the people staying in the heart of Delhi. Also taking a futuristic view, the way cities are developing and expanding, what will happen when the urban sprawl once again brings this industrial area within the confines of the city? These questions need to be considered by those who see relocation as imparting of justice. Social equity, accessibility is commonly cited as a fundamental measure of social sustainability which in turn comprises most importantly of social justice (Barton, 2000). The situation of labour in Bawana depicts clearly that accessibility of the labour regarding anything has been hampered and restricted, creating a situation !82

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of exclusion. This situation of exclusion creates a unsustainability in the industrial area because the labour tends to move out whenever there are better opportunities due to the lack of facilities. While mobility of labour is true in all cases, this case presents a critical situation because of the physical and material conditions of work and life in this place. As has already been discussed, a number of factories have closed down in Bawana or have shifted to other areas of work due to the uneconomical conditions, the area continues to face threats in light of labour desperate to move out. The situation of labour is such that it is even deprived of opportunity. Located in Bawana, the labour has lost opportunities not just of creating a better life for himself and his family but also of creating social bonds. Due to the fact that workers cannot afford to stay in the neighbouring areas where the accommodation rents are high, they have no choice but to stay within the factories. This situation completely restricts their interaction and participation in a community. Due to security threats that this area faced, there is reduced possibility of moving out of factories after work for any kind of activity or recreation. This condition generates a restriction on development of capabilities which has been understood to be fundamental in the idea of social justice by Sen. The interpretation of the problem varies when one compares the views of the petitioner and the labour. For the petitioner, the environment became an isolated issue in the city; it needed protection at all cost and the location of the problem was done unilaterally and presented in the same manner before the court. However, from the workers point of view, everything was interconnected. The environment was a part of their work and they were the first victims; their work was primarily situated within the city. Hence, for them, the city was an intersection point which combined the different aspect of life like work, residence, and the !83

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environment. For them, a singular element of environment was neither the only problem nor the only solution; rather, the problem for them was to be located in the larger dynamics of changes in the city. The construction of industrial pollution issue was not interpreted in a similar way by the workers. Narratives of city renewal and driving out of the working population were frequently found during the study. The workers narratives help to locate the issue of injustice in the larger process of city planning and not just in the realm of the environment. All these situations mentioned above give rise to deprivation in certain senses. These deprivations are not a product of any natural process but are the inherent part of a process that intended to create justice for certain sections of people in Delhi. This process has created a situation of social injustice for the labour in multiple arenas as has been discussed above. Hence, the situation of the environmental problem needs a treatment that does not limit itself to an environmental understanding. Instead, it demands a much broader analysis due to the nature of its consequences and social justice understood in contextual frame offers a good amount of understanding. Conclusion The paper has attempted to show that a problem in a city cannot be seen in isolation. Emergence and construction of the issue can be located in the historical, socio-political as well as the economic realm. Different groups may look at the issue through varied lenses and at the same time, the impact is felt differently by different groups. The same has been presented through the case of environmental problem in Delhi which is seen to be entangled in urban plans, issues of implementation, bureaucratic processes, class politics and conflicting notions of a good environment.

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This study does not question the importance of environmental concerns. The environment is an integral part of a city life, which demands due planning and attention. Simultaneously, it does not argue that the industries have a right to pollute and that they should be allowed to pollute the environs of the city. Industries are essential for the economy; the environment is also crucial for the life in city. The question which is raised here is the way in which environmental problems are perceived and understood, biases in promoting the good environment of certain classes and how the requirement of a particular section of the city in the context of the environment are met while the same for other groups is compromised. The case of industrial relocation represents an upper and middle-class quest of attainment of a good environment according to their imaginations. In this process, the bureaucracy can be seen to be following the logic similar to the upper and middle-class citizens. It feeds this logic to the judiciary which affects the judgment. Demand for environmental cleansing, the judicial order for industrial relocation and the opposition by the unit owners, workers and the other concerned groups, represents a process which Harvey (1992) has termed as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;divergent politics of need and desireâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Delhi presents a complicated picture of the interplay of environmental rights and the labour rights in the context of planning and social justice. Another issue that has been highlighted is the debate over planning. The MPD formed the basis of the judgment for relocation. However, the Master Plan has itself been called into question by various authors. At this point, it is crucial to point out that the cities have an organic pattern of growth (Burgess, 2008). The growth will take place as per the needs; if the plans do not accommodate or

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provide for these developments, the growth is bound to spill the boundaries of the ‘legal’ plan. This is exactly what happened in Delhi. It is important to think about the impact that this new industrial area will have environmentally in the neighbouring areas. Concerns are already being raised regarding the pollution in satellite towns of Delhi; one of the reasons for the same is attributed to the relocation of polluting units to the peripheral areas (Nandi, 2014). It is worth noting that when relocation of polluting units was sought as a measure to salvage the environment, demand for cleaner technology was absent from the discussions over industrial pollution (Ghosh, 2000). The relocation of industries followed a typical ‘not in my backyard’ (Freudenberg & Steinsapir, 1991) approach when the upper and middle-class residents of the city wanted the polluting industries to be removed from their vicinity. However, this only led to the removal of the pollution source from one area to another. It did not actually address the problem of pollution itself. Removal of industries from the sight has resulted in new areas to be affected. Moreover, as reported by the respondents in Bawana, there is hardly any environmental monitoring taking place in the new industrial area. Removal of industries from the sight of the main city has another impact as well. The labour which is bound to stay in the factory units due to lack of economical housing alternatives in the neighbouring regions faces increased exploitation in the form of prolonged work hours. It can be deduced that shifting of the industrial units away from the city has also aggravated the condition of labour exploitation. The way in which the environmental solutions were sought has been identified by the labour as a process of cleansing the city of the elements that do not fit into the image of a global city. This identification by the workers represents a basic

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conflict over the spaces in the city. Harvey (1992) has reflected the urban dilemma of control over urban spaces and contesting notions of proper usage of the space. The approach to environment with which the government has proceeded in the last few years has failed to address the fundamental conflicts over resources, space, and consumption in the society. The bigger gap in addressing the problem of the environment in the city of Delhi is its incomplete conceptualisation and failure to address city as an entity which has several interdependent parts. Underlying the dynamics of the city are the processes of planning, execution and implementation of the plan and the ever-changing needs of the city along with time. Parallel to these processes exists the usage of the urban environment as well as its modification of the form of built environment to address the collective needs of the city. The question of environment as presented by the city of Delhi is remarkable as it projects a complex interplay of different notions of environment, multiplicity of environmental interests of the different stakeholders (upper and middle classes, factory owners, and the workers), backward linkage of environmental issue with lack of scientific planning and non-implementation of the plan targets, and the threat to social justice that has emerged from the manner in which environmental protection in Delhi has been administered. It shows that environment is not the sole criterion which is needed in planning or reformulation the city. Hence, any change in the city following solely the lines of environmental sustainability is bound to fail if it comes in conflict with the basic needs of the people of the city, such as livelihood. In such a situation, the definition of sustainability and promotion of sustainable practices need to be expanded from the environment to whole of the city.

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Studying the environmental movement in Delhi and its various elements, what becomes clear is that modernist planning of the city contains within it deepseated contentions. While the industrial development is deemed important for the economic growth of the city, the infrastructure of production and the labour involved in it do not form a desirable part of the social and geographical landscape. Also, there are political factors which play a crucial role in defining and projecting the problems associated with the city. Addressing the problems in the city need a holistic approach, understanding the city and its elements as an interconnected whole which affects each other. A social justice approach looking into these concerns is crucial to deal with the discontents that arise in such situations. At the same time, the case and the arguments presented in this work demand a relook at how the cities are planned and allowed to grow so that the demands and needs of different sections are met. For this, the city should be looked as an integral whole, which demand a holistic analysis and not fractured plans which cater either only to the environment or only for economic growth needs. References

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Urban Water Access: Formal and Informal Markets - A Case Study of Bengaluru, Karnataka, India Namrata Borthakur1 Abstract: Concentrating only on the nature of piped water provision has often diverted the attention from the heterogeneous forms of water architecture employed by the urban population to gain access to water. Parables from fieldwork reveal that water vendors form a crucial connection in the missing link of water supply for the urban poor. In addition, water accessed by exploiting social capital also forms an important part of how poor households obtain water daily. Similarly, for the middle-class and richer sections, water tankers help fill the slight discontinuity in the formal provisioning of water. Whether they like them or not, the aspiring urban population in the city is not in a position to ignore the role played by these â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;informalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sources in meeting their supply. Although these forms of water access are immanent in the habits and everyday routine of any urban dweller, they are overlooked by current insights on the water supply aspect. The households weave their daily access to water through a reticulate pattern of substitutes and alternative arrangements, which has often had been eclipsed in literature. This research, through primary fieldwork in Bengaluru, attempts to understand the diversity of water access options, the ways in which informality is engendered by the absence or insufficiency of formal network water.

Key words: formal-informal markets, water markets, access to drinking water

! ! ! ! ! ! 1Junior

Research Fellow, Andhra Pradesh State Development Planning Society, Planning Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh, India. This paper is a modified version of the authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s graduate thesis.

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Structure: The division of sections in this paper is as follows. The first part deals with highlighting the broad themes in the present literature to locate the research, which leads into the analytical themes the paper, is premised on. The next section will introduce the methodology followed by the objectives and research questions. The sections following it attempt to understand the nature of water access in low-income areas and slums respectively, outlining the diversity of water sources for the respondents and coping mechanisms. this is followed by sections which highlight the perspectives behind the choices and the presence of informal water markets in low-income areas. The same is also done for the middle and richer localities. After summarising the different modes of water access in the city in a nutshell, the paper concludes by trying to understand the consequences and reasons behind the choices which people employ.

! Review of Literature:

! The institution of informal water supply ingeniously seeks to fill the hiatus produced by the official supply of water. The presence of â&#x20AC;&#x153;institutional arrangementsâ&#x20AC;? of informal water provision in certain areas is symptomatic of the absence of formally provided water or, at least, insufficient the formal water. These tanker water suppliers and small vendors physically permeate the interstices left by the formal provision of water, something which even formal alternatives of municipal tankers have failed to achieve (Ahlers, 2014; Misra, 2014; Galli, 2013). Through the use of such alternatives the populations residing in these low-income, areas are also able to stave off the required documents and connection fees. McGranahan et al discuss how small-scale water entrepreneurs, by delivering water right at the doorsteps can increase the number of people who !95

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have access to water, and hence expedite the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (McGranahan et al, 2005).

! The research also unearths the everyday activities, negotiations and quotidian practices which comprise the daily trials for water by the people, which has been a gap in the existing literature. If the state attempts to regulate the vendors and tanker markets, it can help in bringing about the universal provision of water. However, few scholars have noted that encompassing informal water provision under formal laws must be met with its own share of reservations. Regulation of informal service providers take into consideration the facts like supervising the quality of water provided by these vendors and tankers, checking water lost during transportation by tanker lorries, and some form of price mechanism that accounts for social equity. Once legalised, these vendors might come under the control of vested and special interest which is dominant in the formal water provision. Therefore, converting the informal into formal does not mean that the very vested interests and status quo which these informal service providers sought to circumvent by providing alternate access to water should become a characteristic feature of the new kind of services as well. The initiative towards formalisation must consider the conditions under which the informal water economy manoeuvres in complex environments to provide water for all. If both these problems persist, the result would be the informal sector merely being attuned towards the same path of the formal provisioning, without filling the latterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lacunae. It is always expected that the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;informalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sector be harmonised and accommodated in a manner similar to the formal, and never the other way round (Ahlers et al, 2012: 1-13)

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Analytical Framework

! Institutional Arrangements: Production of Informality The existence of these informal water markets can be understood by embedding it in the available literature. We can tap scholarship from the field of New Institutional Economics to explain the existence of these actors. To understand this, we need to differentiate between ‘institutional environment’ and ‘institutional arrangements’. Using the concept as propounded by Douglas North, institutional environment refers to the ‘rules of the game’ and the framework that guide and shape human actions. Institutional arrangements, on the other hand, are the ‘specific guidelines’ which humans evolve during their interaction. In developed and richer nations, the level of formality in the water sector is very high. Hence, these countries are marked by the presence of institutional environment in the water sector. On the other hand, the water sector in the developing countries is marked by the presence of a high degree of informality, and the institutional environment is still in a nascent stage. Rather, these countries are distinguished by the presence of ‘institutional arrangements’ in the water sector (Shah, 2007: 66).

! In the Indian context, institutional environment refers to the entire framework of water policies, legal structure on water, the formal water utilities and their various departments, international organizations and the entire government machinery of water. Institutional Arrangements on the other hand refer to the informal agents present in the water sector such as groundwater markets and urban tanker markets, tube wells, co-operatives, water user associations, groundwater recharge movements and so on (Shah, 2007: 67).

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The kind of water institutions in a country at a particular point of time is characterised by the status of formalisation in the water sector of the economy. In the low income economies, the degree of informality is quite high in the economy, including the water sector. Therefore, in countries like India and many South American countries, the water sector is marked by the presence of several small scale informal actors. Simultaneously with economic advancement, higher levels of formalisation in a country are witnessed (Shah, 2007: 67).

! In developed nations, the economy as a whole is formalised, under the direct regulatory influence of the government. Therefore, the water sector in these countries is also formalised, and there is very less presence of institutional arrangements. It is rare to find informal water providers in the European and American countries. There is no own supply and management of water, and informal vendors are replaced by legalised service providers such as formal utilities and private multinational companies. These service providers form the link between customers and the larger institutional framework. States also exhibit variation among themselves, as high-income states may have a higher level of formalisation as compared in low-income states. The formal sector operates through the three pillars of water policy, water law and water administration, which donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hold as true for the informal water sector (Shah, 2007: 67).

! Only after grasping the nature of the water economy in a country, the nature and causes of informality, can suitable action be taken which is also sustainable and has enduring results. Formulating water policy solutions without realising the actuality of the working of the economy can lead to no results. If strong water policy designs have to be enacted, understanding the connections between

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institutional structure, economic growth and informality is crucial (Shah, 2007: 67-68).

! Political Society: Gaining Access The analytical concept of Partha Chatterjee’s “political society” can be employed to understand how despite an absence of formal water supply the residents of slums continue their access to water. They do so by multiple ways of accessing illegality and informality and subrogate their deficiency with a meshwork of informal arrangements. Thus, the residents develop a whole new form of “paralegal adjustments” that can evolve and administer them basic civic services and welfare benefits to population groups whose very survival lies on the obverse of legality. Getting caught in a bureaucratic labyrinth of producing tenure proofs and documents, the slum dwellers often mobilise their collective energy to demand services directly from the state. They approach the state in a collective form and not individual citizens since they believed in isolation their voice did not carry much weight. During interviews, all the respondents in the slums agreed about going to the formal utility of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) in groups always to register complaints, much in consonance with the concept of political society.

The features of political society can be seen as

roughly being fulfilled in that often these groups demand services from the state by transgressing the law. By illegally tapping water from network supply or even reselling network water, they routinely attempt to avoid all regulations. Their demand for these services is premised on the idea of a “right” to public services and equitable distribution for all. Again, they want this right to be bestowed on them collectively, for the whole community, and not only on some individuals. The state views these groups through the lens of welfare, as groups who require the welfare hand of the government. This is evident from the provision of public stand !99

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posts, free municipal tankers, and highly subsidised water tariffs which are charged from these groups.

! Apart from this, representatives of formal power such as councillors and local leaders of parties try to fortify their patron-client relationship by providing water infrastructures such as bore wells and tanks to the poor. These groups, as a collective, when unable to access the water provided by the formal utility, often resort to seeking the help of their representatives through informal relations in accessing water. To retain their vote bank and support, the representatives install the infrastructures before or just after an election, indebting the clientele forever (Chatterjee, 2004: 132-134).

! From Political Society to Ordinary Encroachment: The stories emerging from the fieldwork generate copious proof to corroborate the argument that the groups who are not satisfied by the government, and cannot access the large private players in the market, never stop their struggle for water through everyday negotiations with the state and market, and devise their own ways. Asef Bayat calls this the “the quiet encroachment of the ordinary”, which refers to the day to day activities individuals indulge to access basic necessities of life, even if it means to do so illegally (Bayat, 2010: 45). This conceptual framework can also be applied to understand the politics of informality. The motive of most of the people resorting to informal and illegal activities is to bring about a “redistribution of social goods and services” for the achievement of all forms of urban utilities and services which are not only fundamental to life, but also for a decent standard of living. Even after receiving the services from the state the groups sometimes refuse to pay (Bayat, 2010: 59). !100

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! This strand off scholarship tries to focus on the role of the state come in conflict in the process. When people try to bring about more equitable redistribution of public goods such as water, it inflicts a burden on the limited resources controlled by the state. It amounts to trespassing upon the limits of state provided resources. For instance, Unaccounted Flow of Water (UFW) is a result of some activities; one of them being the illegal connections employed the people. However, this is not to assume that only the poor resort to illegal connections, it is as prevalent in the richer localities as anywhere else. UFW is a huge burden for formal water utilities, which means a huge burden on the exchequer and wastage of water. Large quantities of water are wasted everyday, and never reach the target due to the presence of UFW. Therefore, the state heavily penalizes those found to be engaged in illegal connections by terming it ‘theft of water’. The penalty includes a fine of as high as Rs. 10,000 for the offenders, with the discontinuance of connections. The state attempts to discipline the populations to manage its resources better in this way. An attempt by people to exert autonomy by exercising informality is also problematic as it becomes difficult for the state to exert vigilance and control over them. However, it is not that these acts are done individually with sporadic collective activity as the author assumes. All these activities are done as collectively as any other, for larger gains of the collective. Lastly, the attempts by the deprived to gain access to these services signal an attempt by them to achieve a form of “social justice” (Bayat, 2010: 60-65).

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Methodology

! 1.

Research Design

The research is primarily a qualitative research. Wherever required, to substantiate claims and findings, appropriate data has been used, all collected from the water board. The main objective of this research is to understand the prevailing perspectives of the people regarding the nature of water provisioning in the city, subjective experiences on the different sources of water access of the people, their expectations, and the reasons behind their choices. Therefore, a narrative mode of explaining the research has been employed.

! 2.

Location of Research

The research is conducted in the city of Bengaluru, Karnataka. The choice of the city was intentional, and based on some familiarity and initial knowledge about the water system in the city. It complemented my interest to study urban water markets in a fast growing urban centre.

! Bangalore Urban District is one of the rapidly growing districts, with high urbanization rates. The decadal growth in the district has been 46.6% in total and 51.39% in urban areas. This is much above the growth rate of India as a whole, the country has witnessed a decadal growth of 12.18% in rural areas, and 31.80% in urban areas2.

The intention of this research is also to understand the perspectives of both the suppliers and the consumers regarding the water provision, both public and private.

It also intended to cover a fairly representative population across

! Census, 2011 2 !102

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different income categories and genders, keeping in mind the large diversities present in our cities. For this purpose, the primary categories where research was conducted were slums, apartments/gated communities/individual houses, government officers and tanker suppliers.

! The research was conducted in the month of November 2014. The first one week of the field work was based on an initial inquiry of the overall water situation in the city, to identify the differential access of water by area, income, gender or any other possible reason. The research was conducted in several areas to grasp a holistic picture of the variation in water access in the city. To understand the diversity, I carried out fieldwork in the following categories of areas: slums of Ambedkar Nagar, Rajendranagar and Sonennahalli to understand water situation in low-income areas, middle and higher-income localities of BTM, HSR, Marathalli and the area of Sarjapura which is located at the far end of the city.

! The narrowing down of the areas was done in this manner. The slums of Ambedkar Nagar, Rajendranagar and Sonnenahalli were chosen because they were the slums where people faced a lot of water problems as understood from a few newspaper reports.

! The apartment in BTM Layout was selected primarily for the fact of logistics since I was put up in the area and had firsthand experience of the water status in the area. Another reason was that it forms a part of the government planned core areas of the city. The apartments in HSR and Marathalli were chosen because they are higher end posh localities, and being close to the IT clusters these areas have seen large scale residential activities and growth in population in the past few !103

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years. Sarjapura was chosen because it presents a unique case of understanding how people in an area managed their water needs, in an area which was not a part of municipal jurisdiction and therefore not a part of formal water provisioning at all, yet has tremendous residential activity going on.

! The government officers were interviewed to understand the official perspective of formal water provision in the city, and to collect relevant data. The officers were interviewed on availability.

! Initially, four tanker suppliers were contacted, but two of them refused to take part in interviews, so I conducted interviews with the other two. The names of the respondents, due to requests for anonymity, have not been disclosed.

! 3.

Sampling

The sampling was purely purposive, based on close observation to understand the everyday practices and narratives of water access of the people. The total sample consists of 57 respondents. The composition of the sample is disaggregated as below:

! Categories

Respondents

Slums

Apartments/Individual Houses

Government officers

Tanker Suppliers

Total

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Data Collection and Analysis

Being qualitative in nature, the research was self-conducted through in-depth interviews.

For the household interviews, a questionnaire was prepared with

some structured and some semi-structured open-ended questions. The composition of the sample is as follows:

! Category Slums

No. of Male

No. of Female

Respondents

Profile of Age Mostly in the age group of 25-35 years. Four respondents were above 50 years

Other Localities

All in the age group of 25-30 years

Government Office

Between 45-50 years

Tanker Suppliers

Between 40-45 years

Total

! For the government officers, a semi-structured questionnaire was used to conduct interviews, to grasp the official perspective of the water supply picture. Wherever possible, data was collected with their help. For the tanker suppliers also, a semistructured questionnaire was used to grasp the perspectives of the private players.

! For data collection, to access some data which were not available with the officers at the particular time or they were not ready to provide, the Right to Information !105

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tool was used were file applications which have provided the answers to some important questions with data.

! Secondary literature used was existing scholarship on the topic, policy documents and newspaper reports and Census data, which permitted a triangulation of findings to arrive at strong conclusions. For analysis, all field notes were studied and a thematic analysis of the notes was done. The organization of the documented material into a hierarchy of concepts was done. The analysis was connected with relevant quantitative data, and the data received first hand was also analysed through the literature.

! Research Questions and Objectives

! Aim: To map the institutional arrangement that has emerged in the scenario of the incapacity of the state in water service delivery in city of Bangalore.

! Objectives: To examine the potential inequity in access to formal provision of water To understand the coping mechanisms people evolve as a response To understand the subjective factors behind the choice of a particular coping mechanism

! Research Questions: â&#x2014;&#x2039;

How is the access of formal water provisioning? Is there any differential access in the formal network provision and across which indicators?

â&#x2014;&#x2039;

How do people in poor, middle and richer localities meet their access when the formal provision of water utility is insufficient? !106

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â&#x2014;&#x2039;

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What are the factors which mould the respondentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perspectives of addressing the issue of water access?

! Access To Water In Low-Income Areas

! To understand how the access of water varies across the city, we need to look at how the population of slums manage and access their everyday water. The variables of the insufficiency of formal water producing inequity, which leads to coping mechanisms developed by the population, and ultimately the birth of institutional arrangements is discussed for every slum. As we will see, the situation is different for different slums, and in the process informality is operationalised.

! Inefficiency: For the slums which are connected to the municipal supply, even if people have an individual house connection their problem is not solved. Due to low pressure, a lot of time is consumed in storing water. This inefficiency leads to inequity within the slum since for the households living towards the end of the slum, there is no water flow from the taps. This is because of low pressure, the first few households use motors to draw the water from taps, leave no water for the houses in the interiors. Thus, the households from the latter either have to travel to the beginning of the slum or to the next lane to fetch water from the common borewell. There are no regulations in place to check the amount of water extraction which a household can engage in.

! Coping Mechanism: To cope with the inefficiency of formal water, the respondents have invested in the use of suction motors to draw water from the pipes, due to the low pressure. !107

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Since the drawing of this water is unregulated, to cope with this inequity created, the people have as a community presented themselves before the local councillor and got a bore-well dug and a tank constructed. They also invest in extra storage equipment such as drums, pots, buckets to store the water since there is no guarantee that they would receive water on time.

In addition, water given by

neighbours and friends for free also form an important part of how the poor household obtains water daily.

! Arrangements Devised: To deal with the drinking water problems generated from the inefficiency and inequity in the slum, the people have devised their own arrangements such as selling canned water in the small grocery shops in the slums. The people who sell the canned water come from nearby slums apparently receive Cauvery water, purify it and then sell it, at a cheaper cost than normal canned water. They often depend on sambandh or informal networks to access water.

! One respondent said she can go to the slum of Rajendranagar for accessing water, but not Sonenahalli. This is because in the latter slum, people have to access water by drawing from a motor and they have to pay an electricity bill for that, therefore they refuse to give water for free. But since people in Rajendranagar do not pay for water, they allow them to fill the water.

! Operationalisation of Informality: The absence of piped water leads to a long wait for water everyday, bring discomfort to the women who have to collect the water, often by travelling long distances.

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There is a gap in government provision of water. This gap is filled by private players. The residents in the slum purchase water from bicycle water sellers. They carry Cauvery water in their pots, and sell them for Rs. 1 for 1 bindige (pot) and solve the water problem for the slum. These sellers are a blessing in disguise for the woman especially since they are saved of walking long distances. The system is convenient during functions and festivals when larger quantities of water are required, and people in the house staying very busy are unable to travel and fetch water. They purchase cheap Cauvery water around 10 pots for the whole day.

! Occasionally, due to acute scarcity of water, households have to purchase a tanker. A tanker costs up to Rs. 600, which is shared by three households. Earning around Rs. 3000 per month, Rs. 200 in a month is very expensive water for the people. Understanding Water Access Options In Slums

The Many â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Watersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; As we can see, it is difficult to highlight one single source of water used for drinking by the respondents. The population in slums mostly depend on a combination of water sources, which vary from piped water and bore for some, to bore and water given from neighbours to a combination on water purchasescans, water vendors and tankers, and a combination of all the water sources. None of the households seems to be consuming water from an isolated source.

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Figure 1: Diversity of Drinking Water Sources 12 9 No. Of Respondents

6 3 0 Water Given + Borewater + Vendor + Tanker

Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary research

Pressure: Pressure of the network remains an important determinant while deciding the extent to which people can access network water. Often, a low or negligible pressure is equated with no piped water, and households have to devise their own alternatives in the process.

Figure 2: Pressure of Piped Water, Slums 15 11 8 4 0 Extremely Low/No Pressure

Low No. of Respondents

Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary research !110

Satisfactory

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Understanding Perspectives Behind Choice Of Water Sources

! Quality and Taste

On being asked about the quality of water sources used for drinking, piped water generally elicited a positive response, with the occasional response of black and dirty water smelling of sewerage. All the respondents would prefer piped water to groundwater due to the latterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s taste and smell.

They reported the taste of

Cauvery water being sweeter and purer, and all of them thought that this water was also safer than bore-well water. Thus, this proves that all the respondents already had a notion of the Cauvery water being purer, cleaner and fresher, as compared to bore-well water.

Figure 3: Quality of Piped Water in Slums 20

0 Always Good

Tastes of Chlorine Bad Smell and Colour No. of Respondents

Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary research

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Figure 4: Quality of Groundwater 40 30 20 10 0 Good

Bad Colour No. of Respondents

Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary research

(Note: Respondents could mark more than one category)

Notions of Safety and Purity

! Related to the quality of water, another issue dealt with was to understand how people treated their water prior to consumption. The entire slum population admitted to consuming the water directly without any form of treatment like boiling, due to lack of facilities like gas connections. On the other hand, all the residents of the apartments filter their water before drinking.

! Ease of Availability

! Availability of water is scarce for the slum dwellers and depends on the season. While walking long distances to fetch water is common for them, the situation becomes worse during peak summer months. While two of them travel 3 km once a week to collect water, the others travel only during conditions of water scarcity, !112

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when there is no alternative available. Such time is usually during the peak summer months. All these women belong to Ambedkar Nagar.

! Gender Angle

! The gendered nature of water access in slums was apparent that women were the prime collectors of water. The burden of walking the distance, filling water in pots, and travelling back again fell on the women. They usually had to complete this chore as a part of their housework, setting off early in the morning to be able to come back in time for the spouses and children to get ready and leave for work and school. Most of them also admitted to being accompanied by their daughters to collect water to the taps and said sometimes that their daughters also went alone. The presence of women and girls near the water taps, filling pots and drums, or carrying them was ubiquitous. On the other hand, men never always went to collect water but did so on special occasions such as the distance being too far to travel due to unavailability of water nearby.

Figure 5: Understanding gender roles in collection of water in slums 18 14 9 5 0 Always Women

Always Men

Sometimes Men

No. of Respondents Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary research !113

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The formal utility of BWSSB has very less representation of women in the office. I personally did not encounter any woman engineer for interviews. Even the tanker suppliers were all inevitably men, and a woman owner of tankers was unheard of in the entire city. During my travels in the slums and apartments, however, it was mostly women who would talk when informed that the questions were on water, and the women would be very articulate. They also had a more nuanced understanding of the water problems faced by the family, which proved they mostly managed the water in the house.

Thus, while the management and supply of water at the city level is seen as a technocratic exercise, which was mostly performed by men, the field reality proves that water management at the household level is mostly performed, and performed

The problems of women

The problems of men

Travelling everyday is a problem. Have to Loss of Income. The days the men travel to try many areas before collecting water

collect water, they canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go for work.

It is difficult to walk everyday, but since The pressure of piped water. In two storey they cannot manage without water there is houses, the upper storeys have nearly nil no other option

pressure

Have to leave early in the morning, Quality, smell, duration otherwise it gets late for husband and children to get ready Waiting for water leaving aside all Skewed Extraction- Some households household chores is a big problem

drawing more water through motors with higher hp, leaving none or less for others

! In trying to understand the problems faced by men and women in the slums, psychological distress faced in the process of travelling came out as a major problem for women. Since the nearest neighbourhood may not have any water, they have to travel to several areas to fetch water. Sometimes, a few respondents spoke of travelling up to half an hour in tempos to collect water. For the men, the !114

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loss of income incurred from having to travel to collect water, the quality of Cauvery water, its duration and pressure, and skewed extraction were bigger problems.

! Dwellers also access water through illegal means and also resort to bribing the ‘valve-man’ a little extra to get a few hours of extra water, although rarely so. When inquired whether they ever accessed water through illegal means, at least, 2 respondents clearly agreed. For them, illegal access to water would take place during the night when they would connect their motors to the connection line of nearby areas where the pressure of piped water is strong. For 3 of the respondents did not clearly answer when the topic was broached, but admitted to having ‘stolen’ water ‘only for drinking’ once in a while at the night. Three respondents answered that they have paid bribes to the valve-man so that he closes the valve a little late and they could tap in a little more water. They also said that sometimes the apartment in the next street would bribe the valve-man to access water for half an hour more, and since the connection was the same, the people in the slums would also enjoy the water for some extra time.

! Summing up, every slum has its own story to share about accessing water daily. In spite of this, some broad generalisations can be done. There is inequity in access to water between wards, but there is also inequity present within a ward, within neighbourhoods, and worse within the same slum in different lanes or parts of the same slum. If the perspectives of the people are considered, the only possible factor behind this is wealth-the richer or better off can gain access to piped water. The absence of the latter also induces people to resort to excessive extraction of water than required, which again creates the cycle of inequity in access. Water is a top matter of concern for the population, their worry since the time they wake up. !115

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The absence of water acts like a push factor which forces residents to move out to water-rich areas.

! Findings And Inferences

! This section delineates the major findings and inferences from the fieldwork. The findings have been supported by literature throughout, to make the claims strong and support the arguments. It begins with the first inference which points out to the heterogeneous sources of water which people in slums use highlighting the insufficient provision of network water. This is when there is the birth of informal water markets in the slums to satisfy the thirst of the poor. Although informal markets are present in the more well-off areas as well, the latter is more large scale than the tiny private players present in the slums.

! Presence Of Small Scale Informal Water Markets In Low-Income Areas

! Presence of Small Scale Informal Water Markets In Slums

Figure 5: Presence of Informal Water Markets in Slums

! ! ! ! ! !

5 4 3 1 0 Water Vendor

Water Cans

No. of Respondents Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary research !116

Tankers

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We can try and make sense of the field level reality and perspectives of the urban population by placing it in existing literature. In a Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO) Report, in 2005, the physical status of urban water supply in Bangalore has been disaggregated to reveal the percentage of population covered by piped water supply. According to that data, 75% of the population is covered by House Service Connection (HSC), while 25% of households are covered by Public Stand Posts (PSP). While ample studies have surveyed the 75% of the population, the nature of their coverage and access, and any possible effects on health, but the remaining 25% of the population have been ignored in terms of access. What is absent is the disaggregation of these data, which when done reveals that for those who are believed to depend solely on piped water are not really so, as also for the remaining 25% who are believed to be depending solely on public taps. People in their daily lives depend on a variety of water sources, but the nature and level of diversity differ according to the income bracket. The lower we go down the income levels, the more complicated this meshwork of access to water becomes. This means, that majority of the population in the middle and higher income populations access water through informal tanker markets and groundwater. The majority of the low-income households access water from furthermore diverse sources. For them, daily access to water depends on an assortment of groundwater, informal water markets such as tanker markets, but what distinguishes them most crucially are informal water vendors.

! The institution of informal water supply attempts to fill the gap, which is produced by the inconsistent official supply of water. The areas, which are marked by the presence of informal water provision, can be understood as the areas where the government is unable to provide water sufficiently for the needs of the people. !117

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For the population slums, access to water is marked by the presence of private and fragmented water market water, which plays a very crucial role in securing water for the low-income communities.

! As the experiences of people encountered during my fieldwork prove, even if in theory public taps, standpoints and even house connections are provided to the poor, it does not solve the problem of water scarcity faced by families since most of the people are also are unable to access the water. This is because of extremely low pressure, poor quality of the water, long distances to be travelled to access water or excessive withdrawal of the scarce resource by some households. This then leads to the growth of disparate sources of water for these groups.

! Understanding Private Water Vending

! In the slums, there is the presence of small-scale water vendors. Different areas may have different niches of vendors depending on the use: some who might have an own bore-well and sell the water from the bore. This is a form of informal market for groundwater on a rudimentary stage. Informal tanker markets also operate on the same principles, but on a large-scale level with higher capital invested. However, the more common one is the model of reselling of municipal water received from pipes. While tiny water vendors are invisible but ubiquitous components of the water picture in urban slums, similarly water tankers are the highly visible more advanced ubiquitous components in other parts of the city. Access to water from all these systems tends to be more expensive than through centralised systems, yet their role is important.

! !118

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The idea behind resale of Cauvery water is that when a household receives piped water and pays a bill, the water becomes the private property of the household, and can be dispensed for whatever purpose they want it to. Such arrangements are essential since they partake in the goal of satisfying the deprived sections of the population.

! The prices charged by the water vendors have to be accepted by the consumers and cannot exceed a certain limit. During the interviews, the women explained that they would not purchase the water if it would exceed Rs. 1 and instead shift to canned water. Thus, the consumers exert more social control over small-scale water vendors, than over tanker suppliers and mineral water suppliers since they do not directly interact with these suppliers during day-to-day life. However, this does not mean vendors have emerged to perform services to the poor; rather they have used the opportunity to become entrepreneurs and earn a little extra money, sensing a potential market.

Literature upholding vending argues that the role of water vendors in providing water to the needy is not as well researched and has not received the commensurate attention which privatisation of water supply has received. This is ironic because these vendors are performing perhaps an even bigger task of providing water to the poorest sections, but are still dissuaded officially from carrying this task. On the other hand, the privatisation of water does not guarantee that the poorest sections will be benefitted who are also largely kept out of government provided infrastructure. Therefore, in order to bring a positive change in the lives of the urban poor, the role of these informal vendors cannot be ignored (KjellĂŠn and McGranahan, 2006: 1).

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In the existing literature, the acknowledgement of water vending has brought new insights in the research on willingness to pay for water. The fact that people consume water from vendors by paying reveals their willingness to pay for water, which means they accept water as an economic good with commodity status. This, therefore, counters the popular opinion that the poor perceive water primarily as a public good, which they believe should be provided free of cost. However, they often pay out of compulsion because of lack of any other options, and would ideally like not to pay. The role of water vendors for their quick entrepreneurial skills in realising the potential in the market and their crucial role in providing the deprived with water has been appreciated. It is also true that their role is often criticised for taking advantage of peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s critical need for water by charging them (KjellĂŠn and McGranahan, 2006: 1 - 2).

! Any attempts to bring the informal players under the purview of formal laws should take steps to control the high prices charged and bring ameliorate the quality of services provided, instead of eliminating them. The state should not attempt to constrain water vending because by curtailing it the plight of the water-deprived sections in accessing water worsens. Considering water vending as incompetent compared to piped water supply means denying a crucial opportunity to water for the poor. That, notwithstanding, broad claims that water vending is innately good and useful should also not be made. The debate should not whether to support or restrict water vending but to bring an improvement in the services. Rather, steps need to be taken to make this form of service delivery more effective and ensuring that vendors provide accepted quality of water in meeting the demands of the poor. In this manner, the vendors can contribute positively towards the achievement of international water goals (KjellĂŠn and McGranahan, 2006: 1 - 2). !120

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! Summing up, the diverse form of water access is a topic which should be addressed by all policy-makers. It should be viewed as a derivative of the mercurial growth of cities, and the fast pace where new towns are emerging as urban centres. When the population of the cities multiply at such an accelerated rate and the extant institutions of the state are unable to meet the infrastructural needs of the bourgeoning population, the emergence and growth of the informal sector should be seen an offshoot of this situation. This is especially the case with water supply. Being a scarce natural resource, water provision through a formal utility is limited to those sections of the population who are considered legal citizens possessing land rights, and who are capable of producing the proof of their citizenship. The population residing in slums are seen as the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;beneficiary populationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, the state often views them with a lens of a group demanding welfare, the reason why public standpoints are provided in slum areas so that they can access their basic needs. Being essential to carry out daily life activities, it is when these public standpoints fail to deliver the requisite water that the slum population have to depend on the informal service providers as their last resort. A further continued inability to utilise the water from these stand-posts means that the population then internalise informality in their daily lives. However, we should not mistake of considering informality to be an exclusive characteristic of water access for only the poor households. It equally exists as a source of water access among the middle and richer income households; however their nature has subtle differences.

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Opportunity Cost of Not Receiving Network Water is High

! The consequences of inadequate piped water have different effects on different sections of the population. For instance, women complain of more mental pressure and tension than men.

! TIME: Fetching water every day is a big task, and it consumes a lot of time of the poor. Families, who spend considerable time in collecting and transporting water back home, find a loss of time for work. There is an opportunity cost involved in fetching water. If we consider time as money, the poorer sections pay a heavy price.

! Approximately, on an average, a household in the sample slum spends more than half an hour i.e. between 35-40 minutes in fetching water everyday, which only increased during summers. For the men, travelling to fetch water also meant a loss of crucial earnings. Lack of water also means investing extra in storage equipment like drums and pots, motor pumps to draw out the water incurring additional electricity costs, which also means incurring extra electricity expenses, apart from transportation costs. Although minor, these costs are persistent for the poor and are very rarely studied in policies on water expenditure of poor (Choe et al, 1996: 8-9).

! Informal Water Markets in Middle and Richer Areas

! We have to see the presence of informal markets in the field of water provisioning as the ripple effect of the deficiency of formal water in urban areas. The insufficient supply of piped water and the rapid urbanisation has encouraged the !122

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growth of another form of private informal water providers- the tanker water industry.

! Therefore, the informal water sector is not marked by the presence of a single class of providers, but consists of an amalgamation of different actors: ranging from small - scale water vendors to large - scale tanker water suppliers. These informal suppliers are always private, but the private water sector is also a conglomerate of diverse actors, from small - scale vendors, to tanker suppliers and the large multinational corporations. The labelling of the entire informal water sector as undesirable, corrupt and exploitative is wrong since within this categorisation is also included the additional group of water vendors. It can be ascertained that the vendors are different from the informal tanker water markets, which is a bigger business with more capital investment. The tanker industry is famously or infamously considered synonymous with the word ‘water mafia’. The word ‘water mafia’ evokes a similar feeling of anger in few, acceptance in few, helplessness in few and frustration among few others. Scholars having conducted research on Bangalore agree that the water mafia should not be seen as a separate entity from the land mafia. Their existence needs to be placed holistically within the neoliberal political economy, which has facilitated unscrupulous appropriation of land in the hands of few. This powerful land mafia also increases the strength and power of the water mafia. Only by understanding how informal land politics intersects with informal water politics can we grasp a holistic view of the picture (Ranganathan, 2014: 91).

! The tankers source their water from bore-wells, whether own sunken private ones or leased out. The legal framework influencing the extraction of groundwater is the Karnataka Groundwater (Regulation and Control of Development and !123

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Management) Act, 2011 which basically lays down the application the procedure for new bore-wells, process of registering and costs involved. The Act and the attitude of the BWSSB officers have generally been to encourage an atmosphere where the people themselves would come forward and register their bore-wells, whether existing or new, instead of dedicated monitoring by the department. Only recently, keeping the indiscriminate exploitation of groundwater in the city under consideration has the department issues new guidelines to proactively monitor all bore-wells across the city. The lax regulations have meant that households across the city are indiscriminately using groundwater. According to BWSSB official, there are some 1.5 - 2 lakh private bore-wells across the city.

! Suppliersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Perspectives

! The fieldwork tries to grasp the nature of supply side of informal water provision. The profits earned per day and the number of customers served by a single tanker supplier per day are all based on hearsay information, and tanker suppliers were reluctant to divulge information on their profits earned per day. They even provided unreliable information on the number of bore-wells they owned. One supplier on being questioned answered he had three bore-wells in different parts of the city, but his driver spoke of him owning four own bore-wells and one rented as a reply to the same question.

! From my interviews, I could understand that the biggest advantage of the tanker water was the time and flexibility. The tankers would operate 24 X 7, which means even if a family needs water at 11:00 p.m. at night or early in the morning, the water is a phone call away. The low pressure from the piped connections early in the morning before leaving for office is annoying, which is why the families often !124

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resort to tankers. Many tanker suppliers provide water late till night and start operations very early in the morning.

! The two suppliers interviewed have been in the water business from more than 5 years, with one for 8 years. The numbers of houses they deliver differ from 8 to 20 houses everyday or 2 apartments, depending on situations. There has never been a day when they have not supplied water to even one place. Their regular customers are the residential complexes and gated communities. However, it is hospitals, software companies and medicine manufacturing companies which form a part of their unfailing customer base. The main reason given to the suppliers when they get a call is regarding the insufficiency of piped water, low pressure or completely lack of water for a few days. The tankers have their territories divided, and ply only in those areas. One primarily serves in BTM and the other in HSR colony. The charge for a normal tanker of 6000 litres is from Rs. 350-400 for residential areas and colonies. Rs. 275-300 per load is charged for commercial establishments factories since the number of loads is more for them, up to 100-120 loads a day. Only one supplier admits to serving in slum areas as well if needed.

! Supplier A has his own piece of land and owns three bore-wells. He receives a call every 15 to 20 minutes for a tank capacity of 6000 litres and owns 4 trucks. Every hour three tankers ply, which means in a day 24*3= 72 trips are made by the tankers. If one trip earns them Rs. 400 then they earn up to Rs. 28,800 in a day. Their business, however, varies since they may have lesser trips some days or more trips on others. Also, according to the seasons, their sales vary. During monsoon, their number of trips is less or completely no trips in a day, but they are nearly double during summers. They did not face any problems while digging !125

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new bore-wells, and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think the regulations for groundwater in Bangalore are very strict. It takes 3 lakhs per bore, power sanction, motor, salaries, rent and registration fees are the total investment required. They also earn profits by leasing out their bore-wells to other tanker suppliers. They decided to join the water business as their family was in the transport business since 1996, and decided to shift to water as a suitable field for entrepreneurship. The government regulations, which they have to go through, are licensing, annual renewal of the bore registration. An additional sum is paid to the government once a year of Rs. 500 for commercial bore-wells and Rs. 150 for residential bore-wells areas. This is paid because the groundwater is considered the property of the government.

! To make an entry into the business of tanker water, one has to own land so that they can sell the groundwater beneath it. All the suppliers first buy a piece of land, and then gain access to the groundwater. Real estate brokers who own huge pieces of land are also involved in the water business.

! Presence of Large Scale Informal Water Markets in the Richer Areas

! An analysis of the different sources of water employed by people in the middle and higher income bracket reveals the presence of large-scale informal tanker markets.

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Figure 7: Sources of Drinking Water in Other Localities 5

0 Tankers

Tanker+ Water Cans

Piped Water

No. of Respondents

Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary research

The penetration of the large-scale tanker markets is high among the respondents belonging to the middle and higher income bracket. The people living in apartments and gated communities source their daily water primarily from piped house connections, own sunk private bore-wells or tankers. A minority of the sample also uses water cans. However, since all of them have water purification systems such as filters and R.O. at homes, they prefer to filter whatever water they drink. However, there is no presence of small-scale water vendors as a source of providing water in this sample group. Rather, it is large-scale tanker business which requires more capital investment and human resources and has higher profits that mark the waterscapes of the richer population. Most of the households use along with the tanker water another source of water to supplement it.

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Tankers form an important part of daily water needs of the people. Apart from tankers, a combination of piped water and tankers and tankers with canned water forms the second major source of drinking water. Private own sunk bore-wells are also very prevalent in these areas, highlighting the exploitation of groundwater in the city.

! 1.

Main Source of Drinking Water: Disaggregation by Area Figure 8: Main Source of Drinking Water: Disaggregation by Area

Marathalli

29% Piped Water + Tankers 71%

BTM

Piped Water 100%

Piped Water Tankers Borewells

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Mostly Tankers

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Sarjapur

20%

60%

Piped Water Tankers + Borewells

Tankers Tankers + Water Cans

HSR

33% Only Piped Water Sometimes Piped Water

Mostly Tankers

67%

Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary research

We can find considerable variations concerning the source of drinking water in the different areas of the city. In the planned areas of the city, along the core areas, such as BTM for instance, there is good coverage of piped water. On the other hand, in areas such as HSR Layout, there is piped water, but the pressure is nearly negligible. Due to drying up of their bore-wells, each apartment arranges its own !129

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tanker facility and the costs are shared by all the residents. For them, drinking water comprises of filtered tanker water. They incur high costs of water, with a bill of Rs. 70,000 per month for the apartment complex, only on water. Since their water bill burns a hole in their pocket; water is a primary concern for the people. The respondents said they were plagued daily by the tension of how to manage the water needs in case of electricity cuts or if the tanker does not turn up. Having witnessed red-tapism, and bureaucratic corruption, they often had to grease the palms of some water inspectors in the hope of better provisioning of piped water, they have a bitter attitude towards government provision of water.

! The case of Sarjapur is a unique and special category of its own. Since the area is outside of the jurisdiction of municipal areas of the BDA and BBMP, it presents an interesting example to understand how areas outside formal municipal scope meet their demands for basic utilities such as water.

! As soon as we enter the area of Sarjapur, two common sights meet our eyes â&#x20AC;&#x201D; firstly, the never ending rows of large multi-storeyed apartments and gated communities with ongoing construction activity nearly everywhere, and secondly the innumerable tankers plying the area.

! In Sarjapur, the number of bore-wells being dug is alarming. It has perhaps the largest presence of informal tanker water markets like its urban outgrowth counterparts. People prefer own sunken private bore-wells to tanker water since they do not have to depend on an external source to meet their tanker needs. A combination of tankers and bore-wells forms the next major share of drinking water sources in the area. Since tanker water has the smell of iron, it is not considered fit for drinking by many. Therefore, the area also has a significant !130

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entrance of the canned water industry as a source of drinking water. The respondents also said that they have to additionally invest in water purifiers such as R.O. to render the tanker water fit for drinking.

! The areas of east Bangalore, which includes the suburb of Marathalli, have an indelible mark of the existence of very poor infrastructure. The residents of these areas are almost entirely dependent on private tankers. Purchasing water from tankers has become embedded in the habits of the residentsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a part of everyday stories of the people. The suburb of Marathalli area is witnessing a rapid growth vertically while Sarjapur is growing vertically and horizontally due to the adjacency of these areas to the airports and IT clusters. The areas may be conspicuous by the absence of basic services, yet this has not proved to be an impediment to the real estate boom in the area. The areas are completely in the hands of private property dealers and real estate agents, who are very quickly selling off plots to new migrants in the city, and start sinking new bore-wells in the name of providing the huge complexes with water. Property owners do not hesitate to invest in multiplying the storeys and digging bore-wells, even if the water cannot be used for drinking purposes. Cauvery water is a dream for them, and many residents in Sarjapur are hopeful by that within two or three years they too would be connected to the municipal supply, like their luckier counterparts in the core areas of the city. If the water from the borewells or tankers is found unfit for consumption due to the hardness, then residents resort to buying canned water. Informal tanker markets and bottled water have penetrated the gap left by the municipal supply of water. However, those living in Marathalli are more practical. They believe they have never been provided Cauvery water and they never would. In fact, some households are known to have sanctioned water connections, and water pipes are !131

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laid in the area, but they do not get even a drop of water from the connections. This according to a respondent is the result of the machinations of the local water mafia. Thus, for these residents, the absence of water in these areas is not natural or scientific, but a result of artificial scarcity. The local tanker suppliers in concert with the government officials, land brokers and politicians strive to create a situation of artificial water scarcity in the areas so that the residents are forced to buy water from tankers and packaged water. The profits are then shared amongst themselves. Water then, is no longer only an economic or public good but has political dimensions in its provision and access. The official perspective cites the reason behind this being purely administrative, technical or even blames it on the topography for the unavailability of Cauvery water in these areas. They vociferously negate the presence of deliberate politics in the matter. Deferred payment, pending arrears and resistance to meters by the people, is also used to justify the sorry state of water supply in the areas.

! Why Do People Depend on the Informal Market? â&#x20AC;¨ The main reason why people call tankers is principally because of the extremely low pressure of the piped water is another reason for calling tankers. For the respondents in the areas of Sarjapur and Marathalli, a pressure is not an excuse since they do not receive a drop of piped water. The flexibility in time offered by the tankers means that whenever they have a need for water most, i.e. early in the morning before leaving for office, they can call a tanker. Drying up of private bore-wells, coupled with insufficient pressure, is another reason behind calling tankers, as the following figure illustrates.

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Figure 9: Main Reasons for Calling Tankers

14%

10%

Insufficient Pressure Flexible Timing No Alternative/Piped Water Own Borewell Dried Motor Failure in Apartment

48%

24%

Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary research

Informal Markets: Understanding Perspectives on Nature of Service Provision

! If we examine the nature of service provisions the tanker market provides, we understand that several of the respondents complain of hardness in the water since the water is sourced from bore-wells. Usual complaints range from a whitish layer depositing at the bottom of the bucket to rotten smell emanating from the water due to water being filled from a lake which was a dumpsite. The advantage of the tankers is that they provide flexibility in time, and if highly dissatisfied, they have the option of changing the supplier. However, all suppliers in the area provide the same quality of water, hence, this option is not well accounted for. Most of the respondents feel the quality of water supplied is average. A few of !133

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them who are lucky enough to have good suppliers feel the quality is good. Another small part of the sample, having being cheated by the tankers feel the quality of water provided is very bad.

! Respondents speak of psychological tension experienced by them when they call for tankers. Two of the respondents were the Presidents of their apartments, and thus had the responsibility of ensuring all the needs of the people, including water were provided for. One of them said that initially to see the tank of the apartment empty early in the morning when everyone had to leave for schools and colleges was a big tension. For one family in Marathalli, it was so fed up that it decided to relocate to an area with the good supply of piped water primarily to save the pain caused by tankers everyday.

Aggravating it was the wait for the tankers, with no guarantee that they would turn up in time. However, once the people developed close ties with the suppliers by sticking to the same one, it is a guarantee that they would turn up or send some other driver instead. Almost all the residents agree that the quality of water supplied also depends on the bond and closeness customers develop with the suppliers.

! One common problem is the high prices charged by the tankers. The prices are exorbitant during summers, which only increases the burden on the monthly budget of the people.

! !

! ! !134

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Figure 10: Nature of Service Provision by Tanker Markets

Problems with the Water

Quality of Water

20%

22%

13%

11%

67%

Hardness White Deposit Rotten Smell Sometimes

Average Good Very Bad

Harrassment by Tanker Owners

Level of Satisfaction

6% 20%

16%

31%

16% 80%

31%

Satisfied Not Satisfied but no alternative

Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary research !135

High Prices Charged Psychological Never arrives on time Poor Quality of Water Have to Bribe

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Costs Charged

Figure 11: Costs Charged per Load by Tankers 16 12 8 4 0 Rs. 250-300 Rs. 300-350 Rs. 350-400 No. of Respondents

Increases during Summer

Regular Customers charged Less

Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary research

The tankers also have a system of differential prices being charged, with regular customers being charged at a lesser fixed rate, and posh localities being charged more. The tankers behave like a cartel, which means all the tankers operating in an area charge the same price. If one tanker supplier reduces its price, all others would follow suit. The chance of this happening is a very rare phenomena, but all the suppliers have an implicit unspoken agreement about the prices amongst themselves.

! The timing of the tankers is also a problem several respondents agree that mostly the tankers fail to arrive on time, their duration of delay varies from one hour to 48 hours. This is usually because there is a huge monopoly and demand for tanker !136

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waters in the area, and they used to function at their own whims and fancies. Wherever tanker water is the only compulsory source of water, their tankers take advantage of the situation and trouble the customers. When the tankers would not turn up, the residents use to manage water with a lot of difficulties and adjust somehow. They used to go to offices without bathing, and somehow manage cleaning and cooking. Sometimes, they would go to a friend’s place to use water. Often, the tanker driver would tell them to call some other driver, as they were busy with some other area. The drivers also would sometimes be on the take, and a few residents admitted to having bribed them after they would demand a little extra money for “chai-pani” (tea/coffee).

! Water flowing out from the tankers during transportation is a common sight and they take no steps to reduce it. On being asked, the suppliers and drivers admitted that it was a part of ‘collateral’ transportation loss of water and nothing could be done about it. Private tankers fail to accommodate for income difference and social equity. According to the tanker suppliers, they charged up to Rs. 100 lesser for slum areas. When asked, the respondents from the slums denied the fact and told that they were charged Rs. 600 for more than 1000 litres, although they could not specify the exact quantity.

! We can understand the perspective of people about tanker water by considering an answer to the question of which source of water do they prefer the most. When asked about their preference of water source given a choice, all the respondents overwhelmingly would prefer piped Cauvery water to tanker water, and even to own sunken bore-wells. This is because they think Cauvery water is purer, safer, and better tasting. It is easier to access if the pressure would have

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been better, and most importantly, it is much cheaper than all other forms of water.

Preference of Water Source

Cauvery 100%

Cauvery Tankers Own Borewell

Source: Author’s primary research

While supplying groundwater to several households across the city, it is interesting to note that the tanker suppliers themselves use Cauvery or piped water for consumption at their homes. While one supplier evaded the question, making it obvious that he does use only Cauvery water, the other supplier clearly said that at home ‘he and everyone else’ uses Cauvery water only’. On asked why he uses piped water, his reply was that if he gets the supply and pays a monthly bill, why should he not use it. Everybody would want to use formal piped water if given a choice, even the informal water providers themselves.

! The costs incurred by the people is a primary reason for the bitterness of the people towards tankers. The respondents accept that apart from the costs paid per load of water, there are also some ignored hidden costs which households !138

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have to bear because of being unconnected with the network supply. These include the cost of buying purifying systems such as R.O. to render the hard tanker water fit for drinking. Therefore, it is obvious that there is a strong willingness to pay among the sections of society for piped water.

! Access To Piped Water Depends On Possession Of Land Titles And Level Of Planning In Area

! The fieldwork generates enough evidence to suggest that the primary source, price and quality of water accessed depend largely on the possession of land titles. In other words, there is a direct correlation between the level of planning, possession of land rights and access to a stable source of water. Access to water as a property right is contingent on existing property rights such as land. In the sample population, the slums where the respondents do not own the land have no access to piped water and have to depend on mixed sources, while the slums where residents possess land rights have a formal individual house connection. The people having their own houses on own pieces of land have a higher probability of obtaining a piped connection.

! In the apartments, the level of planning of the area determines access to piped water. In the planned areas of the city, which fall under the direct jurisdiction of the municipal corporation, such as BTM there is good access of piped water. The more unplanned the settlements get, the more peri-urban the area is, the lesser is the spread of formal water provision. Such areas have larger presence of informal water markets. The most peri-urban areas have completely no presence of formal water service provisioning (Ranganathan, 2010). The middle and richer localities have obviously a better access to water than the slums. The monthly per capita !139

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consumption for BTM, HSR, and Marathalli varied from 4931.29, 55523.29 and 1565.58 respectively; while for the slums like Ambedkar Nagar, the monthly per capita consumption was 867.84 litres, i.e. only 28.92 litres everyday for a person, in the month of December3. This, but, is a biased figure since most of the water us consumed outside pipes, for slums and well off areas as we saw above. In a nutshell, the different modes of water access in a city vary from the place of residence to social factors, which are highlighted in Table 1.1.

! TABLE 1.1: DIFFERENT MODES OF WATER ACCESS IN BANGALORE

Mode of

Who Accesses

Provider

Price/Cost

Public Stand

Poor in slum areas with no formal

Formal Water Utility

Free

Posts

piped connections

(BWSSB)

Government

Poor in slum areas with no or

Local Councillor

Free

Borewells

insufficient piped water

Access

with public taps Water

Poor in slums with no alternative of

Small-Scale bicycle

50 paise to Rs. 1

Vendors

either piped water or even

water sellers from

per bindige

borewell water

surrounding waterrich localities

Water from

Poor in slums who do not have

Accessed by

Neighbours

option of either piped water or

exploiting social

borewell water, and have to travel

capital, Neighbours,

large distances to access piped

nearby localities,

water. Also households in

benevolent

unplanned settlements who cannot

employers

access tanker water

! Based on data collected from BWSSB, 2014 3 !140

Free

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Private

Population in the middle to higher

Private landowners

Varies according to

Tankers

income bracket. Sometimes

who sell

season, locality and

population in slums in extreme

groundwater from

regularity of

emergency.

own sunken

customers. Ranges

borewells or leased

from Rs. 400 for

out bores

4000 litres, Rs. 300 for 1500 litres, exorbitant prices during summers

Private

Households in the middle to

Self â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Provision

Accessing water is

Borewells

higher income bracket living in

free of cost. Cost of

own house and possessing own

sinking borewell

land.

depends on depth, usually 3 lakhs and monthly electricity costs

Packaged

Used as a supplement to tanker

Large multinational

Varies. Rs. 40 per

Drinking

water and bore water, by higher

mineral water

20 litre can in slum

Water

income bracket. Population in

companies to small

by local suppliers,

slums use sometimes the local

local can water

Rs. 60-80 for20

cheaper variety of less quality

providers

litres can

All planned areas, core

Formal Water Utility

Highly Subsidised,

municipality areas, and a few areas

(BWSSB)

Slab wise rate. Free

standards. Piped Water

along the periphery. Requires

for slums, low for lower income groups

Source: Adapted from Ranganathan, 2010

Conclusion This research attempts to unravel the institutional arrangements of informality and coping mechanisms which urban dwellers improvise when there is an insufficiency in the provision of utilities by the government. In the due course, it is also

!141

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attempted to grasp the perspectives of the people on the diversity of water access options, both formal and informal. It follows from the findings that the institutional arrangements of informality are inaugurated when formal provisions of utilities are inadequate. People determine their everyday travails of drinking water through various routine procedures. The negotiated access to water consist of conflicts and clashes, people cavil about fights happening in the queue, skewed extraction from pipes by some, and so on. Apart from the water sources gained through local representation, a transfer of water through the market ensures that the service less sections meet their water needs. This can take the form of being charged for exchange such as by water vendors, or water given freely by some benevolent neighbours. This implies that there is an unequal access to water sources in close proximity, where water poor areas are surrounded by water rich localities in the precincts.

! The existence of substitutes for water access challenges the public utilityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s position as the monolithic provider of water. The community and the people, public utilities serve, concoct and produce certain ingenious forms of water access themselves.

! The motive of most of the people resorting to informal and illegal activities is to redress the inequitable access and acquisition of social goods and service for the achievement of services which are important to attain a decent standard of living. Another aim, according to Bayat, is to gain autonomy from the excessive regulations of the bureaucracy. The primary reason which drives people to engage in illegality is to survive, since this justifies all actions, to bring an improvement in the general lives of the people. Ultimately, what they strive for is !142

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a form of social justice in terms of access to basic goods, and attempt to achieve it on their own when the state fails to do so (Bayat, 2010: 60-65).

! References

! Ahlers, R., Güida, V. P., Rusca, M. & Schwartz, K. (2012). Unleashing Entrepreneurs or Controlling Unruly Providers? The Formalisation of Small-scale Water Providers in Greater Maputo, Mozambique. The Journal of Development Studies, 1-13.

! Ahlers, R.; Cleaver, F.; Rusca, M. and Schwartz, K. (2014) Informal space in the urban waterscape: Disaggregation and co-production of water services. Water Alternatives 7(1): 1-14.

! Anand, N (2011). The PoliTechnics of Water Supply in Mumbai. Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 26( 4): 542–564.

! Bayat, A. (2010). Life as Politics. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

! Chatterjee, Partha (2004). The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World. New York: Columbia University Press.

! Cheng, D. (2014). The persistence of informality: Small-scale water providers in Manila’s post-privatisation era. Water Alternatives 7(1): 54-71.

! Choe, K. e. (1996). Coping with Intermittent Water Supply: Problems and Prospects, Environmental Health Project. USAID.

! !143

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Collignon, B. & Vézina, M. (2000). Independent water and sanitation providers in African cities: full report of a ten-country study. Washington, DC: Water and Sanitation Program.

! Galli, G. (2013) Wageningen University. Invisible cities don’t get water: urban segregation, water and sanitation provision and slum ‘persistence’.

! Gandy, M. (2008). Landscapes of disaster: water, modernity, and urban fragmentation in Mumbai. Environment and Planning A, 40, 108-130.

! Kjellén, M. &. (2006). Informal Water Vendors and the Urban Poor. Human Settlements Discussion Paper Series , 1-26.

! Kooy, M. (2014). Developing informality:

The production of Jakarta's urban

waterscape. Water Alternatives 7(1): 35-53

! Kudva, N. (2009). The everyday and the episodic: The spatial and political impacts of urban informality.

! McGranahan, G., Njiru, C., Albu, M., Smith, M.D.S, and Mitlin, D. (2005): How small water enterprises (SWEs) can contribute to the Millennium Development Goals: Evidence from Accra, Dar es Salaam, Khartoum and Nairobi. Published by the Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC), Loughborough University, 2005).

! Misra, K. (2014) From formal-informal to emergent formalisation: Fluidities in the production of urban waterscapes. Water Alternatives 7(1): 15-34. !144

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Nganyanyuka, K. (2013). Accessing Water Services in Dar Es Salaam: Stories from Formal and Informal Actors. N-AERUS XIV Enschede , 1 - 26.

! Peloso, M. and Morinville, C. (2014). 'Chasing for water': Everyday practices of water access in peri-urban Ashaiman, Ghana. Water Alternatives 7(1): 121-139

! Ranganathan, M. (2010). ‘Fluid Hegemony: A Political Ecology of Water, Market Rule, and Insurgence at Bangalore’s Frontier’, Ph.D Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.

! Ranganathan, M. (2014). 'Mafias' in the waterscape: Urban Informality and Everyday Public Authority in Bangalore. Water Alternatives , pp. 7 (1): 89-105.

! Shah, Tusshar (2007). Issues in Reforming Informal Water Economies of Low Income Countries: Examples from India and Elswhere. International Institute of Water Mangaement: 66- 95.

! Solo, T. M. (1998). Competition in Water and Sanitation: The Role of Small-Scale Entrepreneurs (Note No. 165). Washington, DC: The World Bank.

! Solo, T. M. (1999). Small-scale entrepreneurs in the urban water and sanitation market. Environment and Urbanization, 11(1), 117-132.

! Solo, T. M. (2003). Independent water entrepreneurs in Latin America: the other private sector in water services. Washington, DC: World Bank.

! !145

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Swyngedouw, E. (2004). Social Power and the Urbanization of Water: Flows of Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

! United Nations Development Programme. (2011). Small-Scale Water Providers in Kenya: Pioneers or Predators? New York: United Nations Development Programme.

! Zug, S. and Graefe, O. (2014) The gift of water: Social redistribution of water among neighbours in Khartoum. Special Issue on Informal Space in the Urban Waterscape. Water Alternatives.

! ! !

!146

An Elusive Culture: A Socio-Legal Inquiry into Corruption in the Contemporary Indian Public Administration Amrita Pillai1

Abstract: In most developing countries including India, allegations of lax, corrupt and inefficient bureaucratic functioning are far too overwhelming. While petty corruption abounds in government agencies and in the delivery of public services, the quantum of money laundered at the highest orders of the bureaucracy has exceeded thousands and lakhs of crores. This issue has outlived its predictions of demise. It continues to thrive and has now moved on to acquire more meanings than decades before; the actual application of the concept adjusts itself to the evolution of the moral sense of public opinion. Public notions of what constitutes as ‘corrupt’ has evidently changed over the years. The question remains whether anti-corruption legal codes have moulded themselves adequately enough to accommodate the changes in perceptions, attitudes and actions. The Kerala public administration is a case in point. Citizens in Kerala have comparatively limited experience with instances of corruption and a low perception of the issue in their state making it crucial to understand the factors that aided the same. Key Words: Corruption, bureaucracy, public administration

! ! ! ! Junior Research Fellow, Andhra Pradesh State Development Planning Society, Planning Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh, India. Junior Research Fellow, Andhra Pradesh State Development Planning Society, Planning Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh, India. This paper is a modified version of the author’s graduate thesis. 1

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Introduction  1.1 Relevance The Indian bureaucracy, the legendary steel frame of the British Raj, has come to be perceived and labeled as lax, inefficient and corrupt. While petty corruption abounds in government agencies and in the delivery of public services, the quantum of money laundered at the highest orders of the bureaucracy has exceeded thousands and lakhs of crores. The Indian society seems to have decided to resign to the spread of corruption; that it is inevitable is accepted. The Anna Hazare movement against corruption however was a wake-up call. That the polity still had a voice which they would use to protest when pushed against the wall was made obvious. The twelve days of Anna’s fast saw multitudes of people turning up to support him; the middle class of the country had found its calling, after all. There was an urgency felt for Indian’s apolitical economic class beneficiary – the middle class, to engage with politics and do their bit in cleaning it. The Transparency International places India in the 88th position out of 175 countries, in its CPI for the year 2014. While some of India’s neighbours such as Pakistan and Bangladesh fare worse on this Index, China performs better.Corruption has permeated all forms of human endeavour today; it has seeped into sports, religious institutions and education, not to mention every level of government functioning, adds a ten per cent surcharge on conducting business and has also fuelled terrorism It is so inclusive that it encompasses bribery, nepotism, extortion, vote-fixing, price-fixing, fraud, money laundering, owning assets disproportionate to legal sources of income etc. The general public feels compelled to pay a bribe (whether petty or not) to receive their public provision, it is also a rational choice they make, given that !148

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non-payment of such ‘token’ monies or ‘facilitation’ payments would result in excessive red-tape and harassment at the hands of government officials.  Why aren’t anti-corruption measures able to catch the delinquent by its throat and choke the aberrant behaviour until it wanes away? Or is it then the matter that the administration of these measures themselves is wrought with a corrupt intention? Studies on corruption have largely been around perceptions of the people regarding the issue, as it is felt in the functioning of the bureaucracy, politics, judiciary, public service provisioning, the police etc. The underpinning with using perceptions is that they are not tangible. While corruption indices worldwide use perceptions on corruption to formulate their country rankings, it does seem as if there is a need to quantify such perceptions into real experiences that can be recorded. One such endeavour in India has been the Ipaidabribe campaign, a hugely successful model especially with the younger populace. It provides a platform to put down reallife experiences of corruption with any government agency across the country, conducts real-time polls on questions of concern. With a vast number of central anti-corruption legislations and state anticorruption legislations, why is it that the nexus involving politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats still seems to thrive across the country? Are these legislations not addressing ground realities and gaps already prevalent in the administrative structure? Corruption is like a litmus paper and takes on the colour of specific experience. There is a huge variation in corruption levels within the country as well, the history of a region, socio-economic realities, the strength of the institutions play crucial roles in affecting corruption levels in the same country. It is imperative to lasso these factors that exist differently in different places, and work anti-corruption laws around them. !149

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It is not enough to merely analyse legal codes to check for loopholes that enable wrong-doers to get away. While it is beneficial to study legislations, it also remains pivotal that a changing society and the ramifications of their changing desires and wants be adequately acknowledged by these legislations. 1.2 Outlining the thesis and sub-questions After drawing and explaining the skeleton framework of the Indian bureaucracy and the factors that make civil servants stand apart from other government servants, a socio-legal inquiry is attempted to understand the prevalence of corruption in the Indian bureaucracy. While societal attitudes towards the issue are traced through developments and changes in their socio-economic structures, their engagement with civil society anti-corruption initiatives etc., the legal analysis involves outlining the different provisions that exist in the most crucial anti-corruption laws of the country. While public perception remains that laws are weak and leave purposeful loopholes, it would be worthwhile to understand whether that is really the case or whether the anomaly lies elsewhere. The Kerala public administration has been looked at carefully through a qualitative lens. The purpose is to discern why and how Kerala has been one of the least corrupt large states in the country. Legal and societal approaches towards answering these questions have been undertaken. The sub-questions for this dissertation are as follows: 1. Do existing anti-corruption laws engage with the all-inclusive and everexpanding perceived definitions of corruption in public office?

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2. What are the socio-legal factors pivotal to the accomplishment of the Kerala anti-corruption success story? 1.3 Research Methodology While review of literature has been followed throughout the dissertation, the legal analysis has involved a clause by clause detailing of provisions in various central legislations and analysing the obiter dicta in some of the most transforming apex court judgements. An understanding of the verdicts of the judiciary plays an important role in gauging the growing needs of society as well. While taking up a matter and pursuing it in a court of law is often the last resort for many, given peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perceptions and stark realities of late justice or no justice at all, certain matters moved in a court of law have radically altered the meaning of seemingly narrow legal provisions. The study of Keralaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public administration has involved semi-structured interviews with fourteen (14) bureaucrats, some of whom have served at the Centre and states both, cutting across cadres, ranks, sex and age. One (1) bureaucrat from the state of Telangana has been interviewed in a bid to discern whether the factors that check corruption in the state of Kerala are in fact known to exist here in any capacity. The answers from the interviews have been collated and disaggregated by the recurrent themes emerging in them, to understand which factors in most bureaucratsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; opinions, have played the most crucial roles. Informal interviews have been conducted with fifteen (15) respondents in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur, chosen randomly. These respondents were found standing near government offices and interviews were held with them during their exit from these offices. The purpose was to !151

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gauge their levels of awareness about public service provisioning and their legal rights in abstaining from and unrelenting to corruption by government servants. Since these are not semi-structured interviews, the questions asked were to be answered in a yes/no fashion. The answers were collated and disaggregated by the most affirmations to a particular factor. Informal interviews have been conducted with ten (10) civil service aspirants between the ages of 24-30 years, to understand their reasons for wanting to join the civil services and their perceptions about corruption in the bureaucracy including what they think could be changed to curb it.

! 2. The Anti-Corruption Legal Framework There is an enduring perception in the Indian polity, economy and society in general that legal safeguards meant to ensure equality and equity in the application of law have been used aplenty to shield and vindicate those who have used public office for private gain. The very tenets of the aforementioned rule of law are thus reduced to non-applicable scruples. The vast body of Indian jurisprudence wherein judicial precedents have given diverse meanings to a concern at different points in time make it difficult to rationalise and simplify procedures that are seen as roadblocks. Corruption has been a long-standing concern, one whose elimination is not only a moral imperative but also a necessity of economic nature for an emerging economy. However, the legal framework to check

corruption is

often seen as one that is lax and falls short of establishing transparency and fairness. Anti-corruption legal codes are considered incompetent in setting strict standards of probity in public life, which then is the commonly !152

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acknowledged justification for scams involving a nexus of political leaders, industry and high ranked bureaucrats not to mention the corruption that abounds in public agencies and in the delivery of public services. For the absence of graft to be realised, it is apparent that legal procedures

must

contain

and

prevent

the

trespass

rules of

and

democratic

mechanisms. The widespread cynicism around anti-corruption legal interventions will only end if they are found to be effectual and are not obvious bigoted political weapons of the party in power to harass their adversaries. The execution of the rule of law and firm punitive action in order to deter public servants from indulging in graft are crucial to building accountability and bringing back the citizenry’s faith in their government. It is imperative that the vast legal verbiage jungle on anti-corruption strategies be simplified and examined in detail to understand how and where the lacunae lie. 2.1 India’s Anti-Corruption Policy 2.1.1. Draft National Anti-Corruption Strategy The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)2 drafted the first ever national ‑

strategy on combating corruption in India in an all-inclusive, synchronised and sustainable manner, in the year 2010. The strategy was developed after rounds of discussions with legal practitioners, civil servants, politicians, civil society organisations and representatives of the private sector, seeking to acknowledge that endemic corruption is a reflection of social and political values and fragile institutions (CVC, 2010). To tackle such corruption, it primarily suggested that a more participatory approach ought to be A statutory body constituted by the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003 (45 of 2003) as the apex body for the prevention of corruption and exercise superintendence over the administration of vigilance activities. 2

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undertaken wherein the citizen must be specifically made aware of anticorruption laws and his own rights and obligations in his fight against being abused by corrupt public officials. Although the CVC sought public opinion on the matter and was keen that the strategy would not remain a mere document but that annual monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of its proactively promulgated strategies would be rigorously followed, this policy document still remains a draft. It has not seen the light of day as an officially ratified National Anti-Corruption Strategy as envisaged by the CVC.

! 2.1.2 The Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), 1988, the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2008 and the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013 The

PCA,

1988

remains

the

most

crucial

codified

legislation

criminalising corrupt activities in the country. It repealed the aforementioned PCA, 1947. An amendment to the Act, 1988 was envisaged in the year 2008 although it lapsed with the dissolution of the Fourteenth Lok Sabha. Another amendment was envisaged in the year 2013, touted to bring Indian

anti-

corruption efforts in line with international decrees on the issue. This amendment currently sites tabled at the Rajya Sabha. It is vital to this legal analysis that the four Prevention of Corruption Acts and Amendments be studied in detail to outline the differences in their approach towards containing graft activities by public servants. The table that follows elucidates on these legal codes further (Table 1).â&#x20AC;Š

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TABLE 1: COMPARISON OF VARIOUS PCAS AND THEIR AMENDMENTS Issues

Public servant

PCA, 1947 As is defined in Section 21 of the IPC, 1860; (i) Officers of the Armed Forces; (ii) Judges, Officers of the Government responsible for citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; health, safety and convenience; (iii) Officers in charge of the pecuniary interests of the Government; (iv) Officers whose powers cover taking, receiving or expending property for the Government.

PCA 1988 Persons in the service of and remunerated by the Government for the performance of public duties, (ii) working in entities established under Central or State Acts; (ii) Judges, Arbitrators appointed by Courts; (iii)Members of institutions that have received financial assistance from Central or State Governments.

Taking of a bribe

The acceptance or agreement to accept or an attempt to accept any valuable thing or gratification other than legal remuneration.

The acceptance or agreement to accept or an attempt to accept (i) gratification other than legal remuneration as a (ii) motive or reward for the performance or the non- performance of an official act that could (iii) Favour or disfavour other persons, by a public servant. Punishment: Imprisonment from 6 months up to 5 years and liable to fine.

Giving of a bribe

Bribe giving not given the status of an offence, thus the bribe giver would not be prosecuted.

The acceptance of bribe giving would not subject the person to prosecution under the Act.

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PC (Amendment) Bill, 2008

PC (Amendment) Bill, 2013

As is defined in the PCA, 1988

The acceptance or agreement to acceptor attempt to obtain (i) financial or other advantages intended to improperly perform a public function or activity or (ii) mere inducement of another public servant, by a public servant. Punishment: Imprisonment from 3 years up to 7 years and liable to fine.

Stays as is defined in the PCA, 1988

Bribe giving made a punishable offence. Punishment: Imprisonment from 3 years up to 7 years and liable to fine.

Defines public servant as the PCA, 1988 does.

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Commercial organizations

Criminal misconduct

PCA, 1947

Did not take into account the bribing of public servants by firms, business associations.

Habitual acceptance, attempt to obtain or an agreement to obtain (i) gratification other than legal remuneration, any valuable thing in connection with official functions, (ii)misa tion of property entrusted to a public servant (ii)using corrupt means to obtain pecuniary advantage or (iv)being in possession of property disproportionat e to

PCA 1988

No mention regarding the same

Stays as was defined in the PCA, 1947 except that known sources of income have been explained to be income from legal sources whose receipt is in accordance with rules, orders applicable to the public servant.

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Pillai: Corruption and Public Administration PC (Amendment) Bill, 2008

No mention regarding the same

Does not include (i) obtaining any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage without public interest; (ii) explanation regarding known sources of income was omitted.

PC (Amendment) Bill, 2013 Included a provision for bribes given by (i) commercial organizations (firms, partnerships undertaking business activities); (ii) to gain advantage for the conduct of their business. The head of the organization is guilty of the offence, also. Punishment: Imprisonment from 3 years up to 7 years and liable

Entails (i) dishonest and fraudulent misappropriation of property entrusted to a public servant, (ii) being in possession of pecuniary resources that cannot be accounted for or(iii) property disproportionate to the personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s known (legal) sources of income.

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Abetment of offences

Powers of inquiry and investigation

PCA, 1947

No mention of abetment of offences.

Investigation of the offence of criminal misconduct must be done by a police officer not below the rank of (i) Deputy Superintendent of the Police, with the orders of a (ii) First Class Magis (iii) no arrest to be made without a warrant.

PCA 1988

Pillai: Corruption and Public Administration PC (Amendment) Bill, 2008

PC (Amendment) Bill, 2013

Abetting the taking of a bribe or obtaining a valuable thing for no consideration in a proceeding or b the public servant is part of. Punishment: 6 months up to 5 years and liable to fine.

Stays as is defined in the PCA, 1988

Abetment of all offences mentioned in the Amended Bill 2013 would be made punishable. Punishment: 3 years up to 7 years and is liable to fine.

Investigation of the offences in the case of; (i) The DSPEA, 1946: not be performed by an officer below the rank of the Inspector of Police. (ii) Metropolitan areas as prescribed by the Cr. PC, 1973: not below the rank of an Assistant Commissioner of Police. (iii) Elsewhere: the DSP or an equivalent officer may investigate with the orders of a Metropolitan or a First Class Magistrate; arre made only with a warrant.

Stays as is in the PCA, 1988

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Issues

Attachment and forfeiture of property

PCA, 1947

Attachment and forfeiture of the property acquired through corrupt means not provided for.

PCA 1988

Stays as was defined in PCA, 1947

Pillai: Corruption and Public Administration PC (Amendment) Bill, 2008 Provides for the confiscation of illegally acquired property by public servants, provides (i) procedure for application, (ii) orders, (iii) inquiry of objections, (iv) duration, administration as well as evaluation and

PC (Amendment) Bill, 2013

Stays as is provided in the Amended Bill, 2008

the property attached (upon termination of proceedings).

Prior sanction for prosecution

Habitual offenders

Sanction provided by the Central or Provincial Government, as the case may be.

Habitual acceptance of (i) gratifications other than legal remuneration as motive or reward; (ii)valuable things for inadequate or no consideration. Punishment: Imprisonment upto7 years or fine or both

Required for offences of (i) t gratifications, (ii) influencing public servants, (iii) abetting these acts or (iv) misconduct, from the Union or State Governments; as the case of employment may be.

Includes the taking of gratification to influence public servants, as well. Punishment: Imprisonment from 2 years up to 7 years and liable to fine.

!158

Protection of prior sanction extended to retired public servants as a safeguard from vexatious prosecutions.

Stays as is defined in the PC Amended Bill, 2008.

! Stays as is defined in the PCA, 1988.

The term for habitual offenders increased. Punishment: Imprisonment from3 years up to 10 ye to fine.

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Issues of concern:

! a. Making the bribe-giver liable for prosecution

! The PCA Amendment 2013 which now lies tabled at the Rajya Sabha with promises from the Modi-led government of passing it soon, has certain provisions which have sparked unending debate in socio-legal circles all over the country. ‘Prosecution of the bribe-giver’ has been widely contended by the likes of economists such as Kaushik Basu1 who argues that it would be impossible to

control ‘harassment bribery’, possibly the most prevalent form of everyday

bribery in India, if no immunity was provided to a bribe giver. While under the Act, 1988, the bribe-giver (treated only as an abettor) could pay the bribe and then scream thief at the bribe-taker, if the amendment were to be duly passed, the bribe-taker would be prosecuted and liable for punishment for the same number of years. It is however crucial that such a provision be re-considered given that there has to remain some impetus for whistle-blowers and bribe-givers to report harassment that they experience.

! b. Status of MPs, MLAs and MLCs

! The CBI and the judiciary have time and again sought to interpret whether MPs, MLAs and MLCs fall within the purview of the definition of a ‘public servant’ under the PCA, 1988. The famous A.K. Antulay case2 ruled that an MP is not a public servant and sanction for prosecution must come from the judiciary and not the 1

Kaushik Basu on “Why, for a Class of Bribes, the Act of Giving a Bribe should be Treated as Legal”, http://finmin.nic.in/ workingpaper/act_giving_bribe_legal.pdf.

1984 AIR 684 !159

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Centre, as is proposed under the PCA, 1988. The CBI has recommended that there must be a specific provision underpinning the exact status of such office bearers and that this interpretation must not be left to the varied interpretations of the Courts.

! c. Requirement of proving ‘intention’ for the possession of disproportionate assets

! While the principal Act only required that proof of disproportionate monetary resources or property with a public servant be established, the 2013 Bill seeks to modify this quite dramatically. It mandates that two things must be proven to establish this offence hence forth, one that the existence of money or property disproportionate to his ‘legal’ sources of income be proven and two, that the ‘intention’ of the public servant to enrich himself illegally also be proven. By adding the second provision to this clause, it almost seems as if the threshold to prove corruption is being raised unreasonably. It is imperative that this element of ‘intention’ be removed from the Amendment, 2013.

! d. Definition of corruption

! It is about time that a definition be provided to include within itself more cultural specific elements of corrupt practices such as nepotism or patronage and differentiating between collusive and coercive bribery. Retired public officials, who are now only covered under the sanction for prosecution provision must be covered under the definition of ‘public servant’ expressly so.

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e. Others

! It seems almost necessary now to cover private sector enterprises which provide public utility services, given that a larger share of health and education services across rural and urban areas in the country are being provided by private players. NGOs being funded over a pre-determined threshold, by the state governments must also be covered soon enough.

! 2.1.3. The Central Vigilance Act, 2003, the Right to Information Act, 2005, the Whistle Blowers Act, 2011 and the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013

! The Right to Information (RTI) has been lauded as the most revolutionary tool in the fight against corruption in the present decade. It essentially reversed the Official Secrets Act and made mandatory that public offices and officials provide information of their activities in a time bound manner (within 30 days) at the behest of the general polity. Access to information assumed new standards after the RTI was introduced. Government decisions and procedural actions which were earlier kept away from the public eye are now open for perusing, assessing and reviewing.

! The other three aforementioned Acts need a critical understanding of the different objectives they seek to achieve and the ways in which they seek to achieve them. The appendix at the end of the paper elucidates on their provisions further while comparing them with general penal laws and the PCA Amendment Bill, 2013.

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Issues of concern

! a. The Whistle Blowerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Protection Act, 2011 does not entertain anonymous complaints, thus leaving the complainant with no choice but to reveal his complete identity. Moreover, there are no specific conditions provided under which the Vigilance Departments may report the identity of the complainant to the Heads of Departments. It is thus left to these departments to use their own discretion in these matters. It is would also be extremely beneficial if complaints against Ministers of states also be included under this Act, but this would then mandate that they be included in the definition of a public servant under the PCA, 1988 as well. Vigilance Departments in certain states are infamous for being under the direct control of local political parties and it is injustice in such cases to those who wish to file complaints against high ranking officials. It is to be noted that countries such as the United State of America, United Kingdom and Australia do have provisions in place to investigate even anonymous complaints. It is unclear why India cannot attempt to do so.

! b. That the victimisation of complainants shall be met with punitive action is mentioned in the Act, 2011 but what constitutes this â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;victimisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is left to courts of law to interpret. Guidelines for witness protection programmes, as is undertaken in the aforementioned foreign countries must be administered in India as well.

! c. The Act is seen to be in contravention with provisions of state Lokayukta Acts which prescribe a time bar on investigation and differences in

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procedures of trials of public servants. The Karnataka Lokayukta3 legislation states that prosecution may be undertaken without prior sanction from higher authority, if commission of a criminal offence by a public servant is in question whereas the Delhi Lokayukta4 code contains a provision where if the Lokayukta is not satisfied with the action taken by the directed competent authority upon the complaint received, a special report may be made to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. With â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;competentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; authority taking on different meanings in different states, the purpose of the central legislation to protect whistle blowers is clearly diluted.

! d. The body of the Lokpal has still not seen the light of the day. While the present political executive re-iterates that it shall be set up soon, it remains to be seen how soon. Considering that the highest political offices of the country shall be under the direct scrutiny of the Lokpal, it is a challenge for the politico-bureaucratic nexus to give in to creating this body. Given the large scale clamour over the Anna propagated Jan Lokpal, the media has made certain that masses know of the Act and what it seeks to check. Any new amendments or emergency decrees to the already passed Act could possibly lead to another ambush by the masses. The lack of independence of the CBI and including the Prime Minister under its scrutiny has been a point of contention ever since the Jan Lokpal was introduced. The Act passed by both Houses has incorporated the Prime Minister and his ministers within its ambit while not providing a specific provision laying down the autonomy of the CBI in specific matters concerning public servants above a 3

Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 2002

Delhi Lokayukta and Uplokayukta Act, 1995 !163

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certain rank. However, a recent Supreme Court Judgement, on a plea by Subramanian Swamy5, has laid down that in matters of investigation concerning civil servants of the rank of Joint Secretary and above, prior sanction need not be taken from the Centre since it is seen as a delaying tactic time and again; the CBI can proceed with investigation if it has reasonable proof enough to believe that the allegations of corruption against these high ranking officers are true.

Landmark anti-corruption judgements

! While the legal analysis has involved a clause by clause detailing of provisions in various central legislations, it shall not be complete without an analysis of the obiter dicta in some of the most transforming apex court judgements. An understanding of the verdicts of the judiciary plays an important role in gauging the growing needs of society as well. While taking up a matter and pursuing it in a court of law is often the last resort for many, given people’s perceptions and stark realities of late justice or no justice at all, certain matters moved in a court of law have radically altered the meaning of seemingly narrow legal provisions. Single directives issued by the Supreme Court of India have aided the country’s fight against corruption at high ranking levels of the administrative structure.

! a. The ‘Jain Hawala’ case6

! 5

(1998) 1 SCC 226

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Popularly known as the Jain Hawala case, the petition filed by Mr. Vineet Narain in the year 1997, led to the uncovering of a vicious politicianbureaucrat-criminal nexus in the capital city. When it was filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, it was not known that this writ petition had the propensity to uncover the ugly truth of highly respected politicians and celebrated bureaucrats. It was following certain statements made by an arrested member of a terrorist organisation that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the foremost criminal investigation agency in the country, conducted raids in the premises of businessmen and recovered diaries and notebooks with detailed accounts of enormous amount of money paid to persons identified only with initials. These initials later corresponded with those of senior politicians, both in power and retired and high ranking bureaucrats. The CBI was severely criticised for its inertia in investigating and placing on record its findings in this matter. Justice Bharucha and Justice Sen formed the division bench of the Supreme Court of India, for this matter. They left no stone unturned in expressing their discontent and anger at the way CBI and other governmental agencies had abrogated their public duties.

! That the CBI was controlled by the political executive became clear, the lack of autonomy for the investigation agency caused serious harm to its status in the country. The judges pointed out, â&#x20AC;&#x153;even after this matter was brought to this court complaining of the inertia of the CBI and other agencies to investigate this matter because of the alleged involvement of persons in high positions in the political executive, the disinclination of the agencies to proceed with investigation has been apparent for quite some time. The accusation if true revealed a nexus between high ranking politicians and !165

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bureaucrats who are alleged to have been funded by a source closely linked to the sourced funding terrorists; some undesirable foreign elements also appear to be involved. This serious threat posed to the Indian polity cannot be ignored. The continuing inertia of an investigation agency to even commence its investigation cannot be tolerated any longer. We find it necessary to direct the CBI not to report the progress of its investigations to persons occupying high offices in the executive; this is being done to eliminate any impression of bias or lack of fairness or objectivity and to maintain the credibility of investigations.â&#x20AC;?

! The Central Vigilance Commission was proposed to be given statutory status by a single directive. It was to review all the cases handled by the CBI and maintain a record of its progress which would have to be published in its Annual Report. The primary question, however was whether the judiciary had the power to review the working of an investigation agency that was under the control of the executive. With the answer being in the affirmative, this landmark judgement has played a pivotal role in future decision-making and functioning of public authorities.

! It must be pointed out however, that convictions in this case were few, major acquittals were allowed because according to procedure established by law, the Court had to hold the diaries as inadequate evidence for prosecution of members of the political executive and the bureaucracy.

! b. The 2G spectrum allocation case7

! ! Writ Petition (Civil) No. 423 of 2010 with No. 10 of 2011 7 !166

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The Supreme Court’s verdict on the second generation spectrum allocation case led to the conviction of the former telecom minister, A. Raja, his DMK party colleagues including the DMK chief’s daughter Kanimozhi, bureaucrats who aided and colluded with 12 others. In the year 2008, nine telecom companies were issued scarce airwaves, a national resource, and licences for 2G mobile services at around 1,650 crores, 122 circle wise licenses were issued. Interestingly, the licenses were issued at prices for the year 2001 which was probably one-fourth of the price they were in fact. The Opposition Party stepped up attacks against the issuing of licenses to two companies, Swan Telecom and Uninor, both of which sold more than half of their stakes to foreign players thereby increasing their valuation by billions, without a single subscriber in hand.

! A money trail was later revealed, illegal of course, all part of the DB group which promoted Swan Telecom ending at Kalaignar TV, where the DMK party had major holding. The presence of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) was crucial to this case; it estimated losses to the Exchequer to the tune of somewhere close to 38 billion dollars. The official auditor claimed that the allocation was arbitrary, did not follow the rule of law and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was kept out of the loop in all major decisions made. The country was stunned by the quantum of money involved and Raja was forced to resign from the Cabinet soon after. Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy filed a petition in the Supreme Court for a directive on the proceedings against Raja. The Supreme Court questioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s late sanction for prosecution against Raja. The Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr. T.K.A. Nair has also been summoned and questioned by the CBI in this case. It is to be !167

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noted that Mr. Nair has been one of the respondents for this dissertation but no direct question was asked to him regarding this matter since it is a matter of grave concern and high secrecy. The Vineet Narain judgement was used extensively in this case, especially to invoke the time-barred investigation directive that was issued by the Supreme Court back then. The 2G scam could possibly be the most expensive scam till date. The losses to the exchequer appear unparalleled before.

! c. The A.R. Antulay case8

! The petition for this case was filed by a certain R.S. Nayak, accusing A.R. Antulay, then Chief Minister Of the state of Maharashtra, of abuse of the office of the Chief Minister. The problem was that by the time the Governor approved prosecution sanction for the CM; he had already resigned from the post himself but continued to remain a Member of Legislative Assembly. Thus, his claim was that he could not be tried for such allegations since he was not serving in the public office. Another question that arose was whether a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) could fall within the purview of the term â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;public servantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to be charged under provisions of the PCA, 1947. While the trial judge was of the opinion that since an MLA fulfils public duties, he is a public servant, the Supreme Court refused to support the claim. The seven judges Bench of the Supreme Court was of the view that an MLA is not a public servant and prosecution for sanction must come from the judiciary for specific cases such as this. Antulay was stigmatised throughout the conduct of the proceedings and the Supreme Court held

1984 AIR 684 !168

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that such stigma thrown upon a person who has been highly respected as the Chief Minister of an Indian state would not be tolerated.

! d. The Satyendra Dubey case

! It was only six years after the cold blooded murder of IES officer Satyendra Dubey in November, 2003 that a special CBI Court convicted three accused to life imprisonment, in March 2010. He was shot dead for blowing the lid off various instances of gross violation of rules in a project of the NHAI. His murder marked the beginning of the country’s calls for a legislation which would shield ‘whistle blowers’ who expose corruption. A Central Government Resolution in 2004 bestowed the Central Vigilance Commission with powers to act on complaints by whistle blowers. It is imperative to note that this resolution was passed after the aforementioned Dubey murder gained widespread media coverage and the polity stirred with the brutality of it. Statutory protection was however not provided by this resolution and there was thus a need for the same. The Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2011 received Presidential assent only on the 9th of May, 2014. The legislation seeks to institute a mechanism to receive complaints relating to disclosures made in public interest, on allegations of corruption or the wilful misuse of power by a public servant; to make inquiries into such disclosures and very importantly, to safeguard victimisation of persons making such complaints, namely the whistleblowers.

! ! e. The Right to Know

! !169

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The Supreme Court recently coined the term ‘right to know’ and traced it back to the right to freedom of speech and expression, in the case of State of U.P. v. Raj Narain9, wherein Justice Mathew observed that “the people of the country have the right to know public acts, everything that is done in a public way by public functionaries. The right to know, which is derived from the right to freedom of speech and expression, though not absolute, is a factor which should make one wary, when secrecy is claimed for transactions which can at any rate have repercussions on public security. To cover with the veil of secrecy, the common routine business is not in public interest. Such secrecy may seldom be legitimately desired. It is generally desired for the purpose of parties and politics or personal self-interest or bureaucratic routine. These cases do trace a change in the perception of rights of persons. That the judiciary wilfully acknowledges the concerns and needs in a changing society is encouraging in itself.

! 3. The Kerala Model

! The southern Indian state of Kerala is considered to have forged its development trajectory rather distinctively as a state with high social development and low per capita income. However, it is a state that ‚has demonstrated that poverty alleviation can be achieved with a reduction in spatial and gender gaps, the two important gaps that are prominent in the development experiences‛

(Kanan, 2000). The state achieved prominent

success in reducing poverty and social inequalities through resolute mobilisations of people, public action was fortified. Class and caste based mobilisations through the nineteenth century led post- colonial Kerala to 9(1975)

4 SCC 428 !170

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inherit a social structure based on the same lines. With highly favourable social indicators, the state was portrayed as a ‘model’ for the Third World regions where the conspicuous impression was that a better quality of physical life could not be achieved without rapid capitalist development or a socialist revolution (Parayil & Sreekumar, 2007). Kerala had been through neither of the two aforementioned development trails. John Dreze and Amartya Sen in the year 1997 contrasted the state of Kerala with both China and India and

provided

set

explanations

for

Kerala’s

development experience. The role of support-led security and public action in the state

supplemented by demand for social provisions

articulated by a literate and politically alert population remained the most prominent in their set of explanations (Ramachandran, 1997).

! Corruption – a matter of grave concern for the country is seemingly less in Kerala. Citizens in Kerala have comparatively limited experience with instances of corruption and a low perception of the issue in their state (Charron, 2009). An ‘Indian Corruption Study’ was undertaken by Transparency International (TI) and the Centre for Media Studies in the year 2005. Touted as the largest survey on corruption perceptions, there were a total of 14,405 respondents spread over 151 cities, 306 villages within 20 Indian states. The focus of this massive survey remained corruption in the public sector spanning 11 government departments. The figures below denote that the state of Kerala on all three counts including others, is among the lesser corrupt states in the country. It is worthwhile to point out here that although Kerala has low per capita income, remittances to the state from countries abroad account for a huge sum and are cumulated to

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make up the Gross State Domestic Product used for the purpose of the discussed econometric study.

! Figure 110 relates how rich the state is, measured in terms of GSDP and its degree of variance with levels of perceived corruption. Figure 211 correlates education with levels of corruption; education is measured in terms of literacy levels. Figure 312 measures the decentralisation variable to measure how it affects corruption.

Source: (Charron, 2009)

ibid

ibid !172

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â&#x20AC;Š

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Decentralisation is measured by calculating how much of its own revenue the state uses from the total revenue it receives from the Centre as well. It is almost a decade since this survey and

these

results

were

concluded, Kerala was

evidently joined in the less corrupt states brigade by states such as Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. In the present times however, the extent of the perception of corruption and the prevalence of the issue itself seem to have increased13.

! Data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) spanning the calendar years 2000-2009 shows that cases registered and the conviction rate in the year 2005 stood at 143 and 49% respectively, however, the figures for the same in the year 2009 stood at 198 and 77% respectively14. It is heartening to see that a rise in registered cases has resulted in a commensurate rise in conviction as well. Although the flip side to that is that instances of corruption are evidently rose. It is to be noted that the Right to Information was introduced in the year 2005 and it common knowledge that the RTI has proven to be the single most effective tool in spurring transparency and accountability in public agencies. While this is not to say that the rise in registered cases in Kerala is to be attributed to the RTI alone, it would be worthwhile to concede that the 2005 has evidentially shown

period onwards of

an increase in corruption complaints against

public officials.

! The most recent data on persons in public office convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and related sections of the Indian Penal Code,

http://www.cmsindia.org/mediacoverage/expressbuzz_corruption5.pdf

Source: National Crime Records Bureau Report, 2000-2009 !174

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1860 is to be found in the NCRB statistics Report for the year 2013. Chapter 9 of this Report termed ‘Economic Offences’ provides a detailed state wise disaggregation of persons charged for corruption and related offences in various stages of corruption proceedings, from the number of cases reported to persons punished departmentally. For the year 2013, the percentage of cases chargesheeted to the total cases investigated remained very low at 9.3% where the highest percentage was attributed to the state of Gujarat which had a high number of cases charge-sheeted as well. The conviction rate for the state is high at 62.7% wherein 32 public officials were convicted in the year 2013. This is low figure considering that the most number of officials convicted were from the states of Maharashtra and Punjab with 85 public officials each. Barring the Union Territories, Kerala still retains its spot as a less corrupt state, though it doesn’t remain the ‘least’ corrupt anymore15.

! 4.1 The Kerala Public Administration: The Findings

! While most corruption perception interviews and surveys focus on the general public in order to gauge their experiences and notions on bureaucratic corruption, this dissertation has earnestly sought to focus on what the bureaucratic apparatus ascertains as determinants of corruption and what could be done to reform ground realities. Since Kerala, as has been elucidated upon before, falls into the lesser corrupt category of states, all questions from the Interview Guide have been asked with a specific focus on Kerala and how and why instances of corruption are lesser in the state.

! 15

Source: National Crime Records Bureau Report, 2013 !175

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Semi-structured interviews were used to gain insight on civil servants’ perspectives on customary corruption and its repercussions for their fraternity and the administration and implementation of the government’s policies and programmes writ large. Fifteen (15) bureaucrats, serving and retired, male and female, from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Police Service (IPS), the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), the Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS), and the Indian Postal Service (IPoS). Fifteen (15) respondents from the general public chosen at random during their exit from government have

been

interviewed

gain

their

perspectives

their

offices political

representation, to know how aware they were of their legal rights on service delivery mechanisms, etc.

! The table that follows outlines the details of the bureaucrats interviewed . TABLE 2: DETAILS OF BUREAUCRATS INTERVIEWED-1 Name

Sta Service

Mr. T.K.A. Nair

Retired

Mr. E.K. Bharat Bhushan

Serving when interview was taken; retired on 3 January,2014

Cadre

Post

IAS, Punjab Cadre, 1963

Retired as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

IAS, Kerala Cadre, 1979

Retired as Chief Secretary to the State of Kerala

Dr. Babu Paul

Retired

IAS, Kerala Cadre

Retired as Additional Chief Secretary to the State of Kerala

Mrs. M.S. Jaya

Serving

IAS conferred, 2004

District Collector Thrissur

Mr. V. Hariprasad

Serving

IA&AS, 2000

! !176

Deputy Accountant General – Thrissur

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Name

Sta Service

Pillai: Corruption and Public Administration

Cadre

Mr. A. Ramachandran

Serving

IPS, Kerala Cadre, 1996

Mr. T. Chandran

Retired

IPS conferred, 1998

Dr. K. Vasuki

Serving

IAS, Kerala Cadre, 2008

Mrs. E.V. Susheela

Serving

Mr. Mir Mohammed Ali

Serving

IAS, Kerala Cadre, 2011

Mr. N. Vijaykumar

Serving

IPS conferred, 2011

Dr. Navjot Khosa

Serving

IAS, Kerala Cadre, 2012

IRS, 1990

Post Deputy Superintendent, Vigilance and AntiCor Thr Retired as Superintendent of Police, Thrissur Executive Director of the State Mission

Deputy Collector, Elections – Thrissur

Sub-Collector – Thrissur

District Police Chief (Rural) – Thrissur

Sub-Collector, Thalassery Superintendent of Police,

Mr. K.V. Joseph

Serving

IPS conferred, 2013

Mr. A.V.B. Menon

Retired

IPoS, 1965

Principal Chief Post Master General, Chennai

IPS, 1994

Director, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bur

Mr. Kumar Vishwajeet

Serving

(Source: Author’s primary research)

!177

Vigilance and AntiCorruption Bureau, Eastern Range - Kottayam

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It is pointed out here that Mr. Kumar Vishwajeet has not served in the state of Kerala and hence his views on corruption have no specific reference to the state. For this reason, the histograms that follow will measure the views of only 14 respondents. For the dissertation however, his views are critical and provide a picture of corruption very different from what all the other 14 bureaucrats mentioned as being factors highly correlated with corrupt activities. The following were determined, by bureaucrats, to be the most important determinants of corruption, specifically the most important factors whose effective functioning shall ensure lesser corruption, presented the way they have gathered from their experiences in Kerala.

! i. History of the formation of the state: After India and Pakistan were partitioned, the royal states of Travancore and Cochin were united on the 1st of July, 1949. Through a re-organisation in the year 1956, the state of Kerala as it is known today was formed. It must be pointed out here that both Travancore and Cochin have witnessed major revolts and uprisings in the early 1920s. The most prominent of these uprisings remain the Malabar Rebellion

and

the

social

revolts

Travancore,

where

the Muslims

agitated against the Hindu Zamindars colluding and feeding off the British Raj.

! ii. Literacy levels: In the year 1991, Kerala became the first state to be recognised as a completely literate state even though effective literacy stood only at 90%. It was in the

year

2007

that net enrolment

elementary education shot up to 100% and interestingly was balanced across sex and castes, a phenomenon not observed in any other state in India. !178

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The Census 2011 records the highest literacy levels of 93.91% amongst the state, with the national average standing at 74.04%.

! iii. Female literacy levels: According to Census 2011, Kerala again tops the list of highest female literacy rates, with 92% of its females being literate. Females are generally encouraged to study and take up an occupation, preferably in government service. Also, the upper caste Hindus of Kerala, who form a slightly higher chunk of society, have traditionally had a matriarchal society, wherein the women of the house take all the important socioeconomic decisions. Education thus is seen as a medium to further enhance empowerment of women, to enable them to take better decisions in the household and at work.

! iv. General Awareness Levels: The society remains well-aware of the happenings in the state. Levels of media exposure, whether print, radio or television is very high. The society itself is highly opinionated, mostly for the better and sometimes for the worse. These opinions are formed from knowledge known and shared. It is commonplace to hear heated discussions on public spending or party politics, at a local tea-shop or a bus stop.

! v.

Legal Awareness Levels: By legal awareness, the implication is that

persons of the general public know their legal rights, for instance their most basic Fundamental Rights or their rights when detained by the police etc. Since there is a lot of debate and discussion around current issues and there has always been a culture of social movementsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; more than political movements, the public is generally aware of their basic rights as a citizen of the country. !179

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vi. Income levels: The state witnesses and propagates a lot of outmigration, mostly to richer countries such as the Gulf countries and the United States of America. While the state gross domestic product is not very high at all, the remittances from these foreign regions give people living in the state much more purchasing power. Thus while they may be earning reasonably fair money in government service or in a private enterprise, much more additional money comes in by way of relatives abroad.

! vii. Religious fragmentation: The state is evidently less sectarian than other states in the country. While Hindus are more in number, the Muslim and Christian population is not extremely low in number. Post formation of the state, there has been next to no violence meted onto any group on the grounds of religion.

! viii. Political representation: Political representatives in the state have never been brought to book on charges of inciting the public along the lines of caste, sex or religion. The representation has been well distributed across religions. This has been pointed out by civil servants as being an important factor in lesser corruption perceived. As is already clear, politics and bureaucracy are intertwined in a way that it is impossible for one to not affect the other, in a good way or bad. For Kerala, this symbiotic relationship is seen to work for the better.

! ix. Digitalisation of service delivery: While only the younger officers have suggested this factor, it is one that does deserve mention. An interesting point made in this regard has been that the already high literacy levels have helped in effective and faster digitalisation. Irrespective of how many !180

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machines are introduced, people have to man these machines and it is important that they know, understand and assimilate the basics of using a computer.

! x. Newspaper Readership: Print media remains exceptionally free and strong in the state of Kerala. Each Malayali is estimated to read about 2 newspapers every day, based on figures of readership and circulation by the prominent newspapers such as Malayala There

are

nine

official

Manorama

and

Matrubhumi.

newspapers distributed in the state. The more

space there is for publication, the more is the news that will be published, even more so, the more news that is published, the more it is being read. Even the slightest activity makes it news columns the next day! Some of the retired and high ranking bureaucrats have called the print media hyperactive in printing ‘news’.

! xi. Media: Television viewership is also always in a boom, it is as followed as much and as passionately as the print media.

! xii. Presence of unions: Labour and trade unions are exceptionally strong in the state; they follow from the Communist regime culture. These unions are most often the ones to declare strikes and crackdowns if they feel their rights are being neglected or denied to them.

! xiii. Political Opposition: This is yet another area of hyperactivity! An Opposition ever ready to rake up issues against the Ruling part, is one that sits in Kerala. The strikes are more often than not imposed by the Opposition’s labour or trade unions. !181

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xiv. Stability of the Kerala Cadre: This is a factor that has been mentioned by the senior officers during their interviews. Also, it was specified that Kerala has a unique swing program between the field and Secretariat so that young officers experience both up till they reach a certain rank.

! These variables have been disaggregated by the i. sex, ii. cadre and iii. status of service of the bureaucrat to ascertain the most important variable most seen to affect the incidence of corruption, specifically in the state.

! !

i. Disaggregated by Sex

(Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary research)

! !

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Clearly, the most important factors perceived to have resulted in lesser corruption are literacy levels, religious fragmentation, political representation, newspaper readership, political opposition and the media. The lowest perceived factor is the digitalisation of services; it has been mentioned only by two young subcollectors.

! ii. Disaggregated by Cadre

! !!

(Source: Author’s primary research)

The results divided across cadres portray similar results except with an addition of the factors of general awareness levels and legal awareness levels which all the cadres agree as important factors in checking corruption in Kerala.

! !183

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! iii. Disaggregated by Status of Service

The results don’t show a very varied picture from those produced on the two parameters above. They show a similar pattern, as evidenced below.

(Source: Author’s primary research)

! Fifteen (15) respondents from the general public were interviewed during their exit from public offices (in Thrissur district) and their answers were collated in a similar fashion to ascertain their levels of awareness regarding their rights in service delivery, awareness of their fundamental rights, their perceptions about their political representation and the state’s welfare activities and lastly they were asked to mention at least three acts by public officials that would tantamount to be termed ‘corrupt’. Their answers have been disaggregated by their i. sex, ii. their occupations and iii. their status of passing the Higher Secondary School Certificate.

! !

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i. Disaggregated by Sex

It must be noted here that questions pertaining to ‘perceptions’ were to be answered with a good or bad whereas questions pertaining to awareness were to be answered with a yes or no.

! Both males and females seem to best know their state’s welfare activities, additionally, they seemed to want no change in the existing system of administration which is quite laudable in itself! They were also very happy with their political representatives; almost all of them knew the names of their MLAs and specifically mentioned that the current Chief Minister, Mr. Oommen Chandy is exactly what they needed.

(Source: Author’s primary research)

!185

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The KRSA is an acronym used for the Kerala state’s Right to Services Act, passed in the year 2012 which provides for time-barred delivery of certificates such as marriage, caste, birth etc. It also provides for some other delivery services which the public interviewed were aware of. Interestingly enough, the male particularly even remembered the punitive action involved in case a government official denied them a service.

ii. Disaggregated by Occupation

(Source: Author’s primary research)

The ‘Housewife’ and ‘Municipal Sweeper’ category clearly perceive the state administration to be doing a good job and are also aware of at least 3 illegal acts amounting to corruption. Bribery was an answer every respondent gave to this question, while some other couldn’t think of another act, the ones who did answer

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this question successfully mentioned owning assets disproportionate to legal sources of income, nepotism and stashing black money as other answers.

! iii. Disaggregated by status of passing the Higher Secondary School Certificate !

Having a good notion about state welfare activities is a factor common to both those have cleared HSC and the ones who have not. Awareness of services under the KRSA, 2012 is evidently more in those have cleared their Higher Secondary Certificate.

(Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary research)

! 4. Conclusion

That efficient and effective governance is a compelling factor in promoting development and eradicating poverty in general, is well-acknowledged. It is also well-established that the civil services in India have made critical contributions to the nation, through its services and the advice it has rendered to the political executive. But the fact remains that the services are !187

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wrought with systemic corruption and are ill-equipped to function efficiently in an ever dynamic economy. Wide ranging reforms across the services are necessary to transform them into one which exemplifies best practices and incorporates contemporary management techniques. It is from the extensive interviews with civil servants from the Kerala public administration, engaging with the general public to learn their attitudes towards corruption and from studying the central anti-corruption laws that the following inferences and suggestions are being laid.

a. Civil Services Law

The clamour for a unified civil services law has been around for a long time. With the Second Administrative Reforms Commission specifically suggesting the ratification of such a legal code at the earliest, it is disheartening that the recommendation has not been put into practice yet. Of the fifteen civil servants interviewed for the purpose of this dissertation, ten (out of which nine were bureaucrats having served for more than 15 years) were of the opinion that an Indian civil services law was much needed and that it must be specifically drafted to combat newer modes of economic corruption. The fundamental principles of the civil service â&#x20AC;&#x201C; professionalism, anonymity, integrity and neutrality, seen to be pronouncedly withering away must be brought back to force with enforceable provisions in this law. There must also be provisions that counter acts of proven favouritism, patronage or inappropriate ministerial interference; this necessitates that modes of proving them in a court of law be detailed in the legal code itself and must take into account the technological advances made in the past decades. !188

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! b. Judicial Activism

! This is a new dimension to keeping a tighter check on corruption indulged in by the politician-bureaucrat nexus. It is one that is strongly advocated by the general public respondents and civil service aspirants from Kerala. The 2G scam is probably the most famous instance of judicial activism checking and bringing corruption to book. It asserts the supervisory role played by the court in asking the CBI to perform its duty in acting against â&#x20AC;&#x161;persons who consider themselves to be the lawâ&#x20AC;&#x203A; and also demanded to review the charge-sheets before they were filed. The FIR in the 2G scam was filed in the year 2009 but it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t until PILs were filed as a follow up to the status of the case and the Supreme Court severely criticised the CBI for dragging its feet purposely that the investigation gained speed. The Supreme Court has taken an extraordinary step in barring the PMO from having superintendence over investigation matters of the CBI. It issued a single directive stating that the powers of superintendence over the CBI rests with the statutorily established CVC.

! While the judiciary ideally must stick to its Constitutional mandate of interpreting the law and must not tread into the arena of the executive or the legislature, in a country where the notion of justice is constantly subverted for those in positions of power and influence, the judiciary must go beyond their traditional domain and remind the executive its constitutional duties towards its polity. With judicial activism and the expansion of locus standi, the apex !189

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court has been more impartial and serious about issues of corruption and black money, in the recent years.

! c. Lowering of the age of entry into the services

Civil service aspirants all over the country including those interviewed for this dissertation have expressed their disappointment with the central governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s idea of lowering the age limit for entry into the civil service. Serving and retired civil servants however, have vehemently argued in favour of this proposal. They insist from their own experiences that the lower the age of an entrant, the higher the chances are of instilling the fundamental principles of the bureaucracy, in the person. Also, an early entrant must be that dedicated and wilful of working with the government to have cleared all the rounds of exams at the young age. He shall also not view the services as being a comfort zone given the public perception of a lazy and inefficient government administration system after being over-worked in a corporate or private enterprise. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission has also strongly advocated for the lowering of ages of aspirants, it was due to the urgency shown by this report that the Centre had taken up this proposal seriously.

! d. Reforms in senior position placements

! Fair competition and transparency in the placements and postings of senior officers is crucial. Since these officers are immediate high level policy advisors to the political executive, it is imperative their postings be made public and their previous records and accomplishments also be made !190

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available to the general public. An unbeatable combination of performance and seniority is necessary to ensure that upright and responsible officers man the highest positions in the bureaucracy. A system based primarily on seniority would render the higher levels weak. For this purpose, there should be different assessments by a UPSC adjudged panel on the completion of 20 years of service across board. These assessments must play a part in deciding placements for officers as they move up the ladder. Intellectual and fiscal compromises made by officers must be taken up very seriously and must result in ‘retirement’ or suspension of these officers, if proven guilty. To ensure that investigations do not continue for years together, it is imperative that a time bar be kept on investigations of officers above a certain determined rank.

e. Legal awareness

While higher levels of literacy evidently do affect public reactions to instances of corruption, as is seen with the state of Kerala, it is legal awareness that is most important. If the general public were to know their rights in public service provisioning and were empowered enough to make lawful claims on denial of these services, it would in turn lead to public servants having no choice but to perform their duties. It is beneficial to point out here that the serving civil servants were interviewed in their offices, during office hours, but it was observed that there were no sign boards saying ‘paying a bribe is a criminal offence’ or that ‘there are CCTVs in this office’. While legal awareness in Kerala is generally high due to massive exposure to media, this is an aspect that may be cultivated in other states as

!191

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well. Punitive action that an accused public servant is liable for must also be made available in the public forum.

! f. Media

! It is imperative that the media, print and visual, be free and accountable to the people of the country. The media has become an all pervasive medium in the past few years; with the onslaught of social media, the reactions to particular reporting are stronger than ever before. While senior journalists of media houses have also been recently attacked for being part of the politician-businessman-bureaucrat nexus, it is crucial that the traditional media remain free from such vicious allures. An upright media must have the audacity to publish the truth, for the people of the country to build their perceptions right. The onus of spurring access to information rests with this important leg and it is their moral imperative to lay bare the truth. While a hyperactive media is also not the need; one that reports and keeps a tab on issues of corruption in public service, the kind that hampers everyday life and the kind that involve the bigger, most powerful fish in the sea of public administration, must be encouraged. Public perception to a large extent is guided by what they see and read. While political parties are known to hire marketing houses to fulfil their political propagandas, the media must not give in to such shenanigans and become yet another marketing agent for the political executive.

! ! ! ! !192

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Referencesâ&#x20AC;Š

! Anjaria, J. (2011). Everyday Corruption and the Politics of Space. American Ethnologist, 58-72.

! ARC. (2005). Ethics in Governance. Second Administrative Reforms Commission. Azfar, O.Lee, Y., & Swamy, A. (2001). The Causes and Consequences of Corruption. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 42-56.

! Bendern, P. D. (2011, August). Reuters. Retrieved March 2015, from Insight: Anti- Corruption Awakens India's Middle Class: http://in.reuters.com/article/ 2011/08/24/us-india-corruption-middleclass- idUSTRE77N4JO20110824

! Caiden, G., & Caiden, N. (1977). Administrative Corruption. Public Administration Review, 301-309.

! Charron, N. (2009). Correlates of Corruption in India: Analysis and Evidence from the States. QoG Working Paper Series 2009:2011. Gothenburg: Quality of Government Institute.

! Chatterjee, P. (2001). The Politics of the Governed. Leonard Hastings Schoff Lecture Series. Columbia University Press.

! CVC. (2010). Draft National Anti-Corruption Strategy. Central Vigilance Commission. Dixit, A. (2013, January). Corruption: Supply-Side and DemandSide Solutions. Retrieved March 2015 !193

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! Firstpost. (2011, November). Retrieved March 2015, from The Indian Gene: Are Indians culturally wired to be corrupt?: http://www.firstpost.com/blogs/ the- corruption-gene-are-indians-culturally-wired-to-be-corrupt-125925.html

! Haque, M. (1997). Incongruity between bureaucracy and society in developing nations : A Critique. Peace and Change, Vol. 22 No. 4, 432-462.

! Harrison, E. (2006). Unpacking the Anti-Corruption Agenda: Dilemmas for Anthropologists. Oxford Development Studies, 15-29.

! Jain, A. K. (2001). Corruption: A Review. Journal of Economic Surveys, 71-121.

! Jim, Y. (2011, October). The New York Times. Retrieved March 2015, from Protests Awaken a Goliath in India:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/ world/asia/indias-middle-class-appears- to-shed-political-apathy.html? pagewanted=all&_r=1&â&#x20AC;Š

! Kanan, K. (2000). People's Planning: Kerala's Dilemma., (p. 41).

! Keefe, P. (2015, January 19). The New Yorker. Retrieved March 2015, from Corruption and Revolt: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/19/ corruption- revolt

! Kurczewski. (2004). Is a Sociology of corruption possible? Polish Sociological Review, 161-181. !194

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! Lambsdorff, G. J. (2001, July). Corruption and Rent-Seeking. Department of Economics, Germany. Springer.

! Parayil, G., & Sreekumar, T. (2007). Kerala's experience of development and change.Journal of Contemporary Asia, 465-492.

! Persson, A., Rothstein, B., & Teorell, J. (2013). Why Anti-Corruption Reforms Fail- Systemic Corruption as a Collective Action Problem. International Journal of Policy, Administration and Institutions, 449-471.

! Raghavan, R. (n.d.). UNAFEI. Retrieved March 2015, from Recent Innovations in Tackling Corruption in Civil Services in India: http://www.unafei.or.jp/ english/pdf/RS_No56/No56_31VE_Raghavan.pdf

! Rai, V. (2014). Not just an Accountant: The Diary of the Nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Conscience Keeper.

! Ramachandran, V. (1997). Kerala's Development Achievements. In J. Dreze, & A. Sen, Indian Development: Selected Regional Perspectives. Oxford University Press.

! Secretary-General, U. N. (2004). The Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies. United Nations Security Council.

! Thompson, D. (1993). Mediate Corruption: The facse of the Keating five. American Political Science Review, 369-381. !195

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! Tullock, G. (1989). Review of Controlling Corruption By Robert Klitgaard. Journal of Economic Literature, 658-659.

! Tummala, K. (2008). Corruption in India: Control Measures and Consequences. Asian Journal of Political Science, 43-69.

! Legislationsâ&#x20AC;Š

! Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003 ! Criminal Law (Amendment) 1952 and 1964 ! Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 ! Delhi Lokayukta and Uplokayukta Act, 1995 ! Indian Penal Code, 1860 ! Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984 ! Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2011 ! Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2008 ! Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013 ! Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 ! Prevention of Corruption, 1988 ! Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2013 ! ! ! !196

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Appendix

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!200

Notes for Contributors

! The Journal of Public Policy Research is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles, review articles, perspectives, research notes/commentaries and book reviews. It encourages original contributions in order to promote debate and discussion on social, economic, political and legal concerns from the public policy perspective. Expression of all shades and opinions is welcome. Articles should range between 7000-8000 words, perspectives between 4000-6000 words, and notes/commentaries between 2000-3000 words. Manuscripts should be sent in electronic format (word document) and addressed to editors.jppr@gmail.com

! Each contribution should be accompanied by an abstract/summary of around 150 words and short biographical note/s on the author/s.

! Notes in the text should be numbered and expanded at the end of the text in the form of Endnotes. Use of any reference in the endnotes should be in a consistent style similar to that of the text (for example: (Sen: 2015) and should be expanded separately in the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Referenceâ&#x20AC;? section with all relevant information according to the Reference format.

! All figures and tables should appear at the relevant places in the text and not at the end of the article. All figures and tables should be referred to by their numbers in the text (for instance, 'See Table 1', 'See Figure 3'). The titles of the tables and figures should be brief and to the point. Tables and Figures should mention the Source which should be placed at the bottom of respective tables and figures. !201

! References should be embedded in the text in a consistent style, for instance, (Sen, 2015). The full details of this Reference should then be provided in the Reference list in alphabetical order starting with the author(s)' surname(s) in the following format.

! Book titles: Deshpande, Ashwini (2011). The Grammar of Caste: Economic Discrimination in Contemporary India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi (page number(s) if required)

! Chapters within books: Uruena, Rene (2013). “ Global Water Governance and the Rise of Constitutional State in Columbia” in Navroz K. Dubash and Bronwen Morgan, The Rise of the Regulatory State of the South: Infrastructure and Development in Emerging Economies, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, pp. 27-52

! Articles: Moe, Terry (2005), “Power and Political Institutions” Perspectives on Politics, June 2005, Vol. 3, Number 2, pp. 215-233.

! Reports: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank (2008), “The Growth Report Strategies for Sustained Growth and Inclusive Development”, Commission for growth and Development, Washington.

! Working paper: Rodrik, Dani, Arvind Subramanian and Francesco Trebbi (2003). “Institutions Rule: The Primacy of Institutions over Geography and Integration in Economic Development”, Working Paper 9305, National Bureau of Economic Research, Washington. !202

. Ph.D thesis: Mandal, Dipankar (2010). Social mobility among Dalit in West Bengal: A Study of the District in West Bengal (Ph. D thesis), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

! Mimeo: Virmani, Arvind (2004), “Economic Reforms: Policy and Institutions Some Lessons from Indian Reforms”, Mimeo, Indian Council for Research on Economic Relationship, New Delhi

! Newspaper report: Dasgupta, Ashok (2006). “India's Reform Path a Role Model for Morocco” in The Hindu, 11 December.

! For all internet resources which do not have organised details like volume number or issue number, please mention the website (it is recommended that you use Google URL shortener) and date of access. Please use British spellings throughout. However, use “z’’ spellings for words like“civilization”.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !203

About the School of Public Policy & Governance at TISS Hyderabad

! The SPPG is a novel research based teaching and training space designed to equip young professionals to contribute to the policy arena. The SPPG provides opportunities to its students to think beyond conventional models of growth and development and encourages them to generate ideas for developing institutional frameworks for accountable governance, richer human opportunities and the establishment of a socially equitable society. Our multi-disciplinary curriculum and innovative pedagogy, combining theory with experiential learning, will transform the learning experience and facilitate the students to become thought leaders and able field personnel. Students are also encouraged to specialise in particular policy concentrations thereby enabling them to join policy and research groups catering to specific sectors. The School aims to participate in broader policy debates and strengthen policy making through systematic research, evidence gathering and engagement with civil society and institutions.

Teaching Programmes M.A. in Public Policy and Governance (MA-PPG): Building the capacities of students from India and other countries to contribute towards the positive transformation of their nations.

Executive Education Open Programmes: Focused on topical policies for senior and mid-level government functionaries Customised Programmes: To meet the specific needs of client organisations; International Programmes: Exposing international bureaucrats and development practitioners from the global south to development experiences from across the world.

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