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Studies in Comparative International Development

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01-03-2011

Gaining Access to Public Services and the Democratic State in India: Institutions in the Middle

Author: Anirudh Krishna

Published in: Studies in Comparative International Development | Issue 1/2011

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Abstract

How and to what extent do different citizens experience democratic governance on a day-to-day basis? What agencies do they utilize in order to have their voices heard and grievances addressed? How do they gain access to government agencies responsible for delivering social welfare services, such as education, security, health care, and poverty relief? Investigations conducted in two states of India inquired about the manner in which different social groups living in rural areas gain access to the welfare services of the Indian state. These results show that an intermediary is required for gaining access. Different types of intermediaries are consulted by separate segments of society. For a large majority of poorer individuals, a newly arisen type of mediator, the naya neta (literally, new leader), is the intermediary of choice. Neither usually low status nor high status, but younger and better educated than other types of village leaders, naya netas play important roles in shaping welfare consequences in these villages of Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, most importantly, by affecting equity of access.

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See, for example, Dreze and Sen (2002), Fung and Wright (2001), Goetz and Jenkins (2004), Heller (2001), Krishna (2002), Krishna and Booth (2008), and Tendler (1997).

The general case is presented by, for example, Etzioni (1998), Fung and Wright (2001), and Putnam (1993). For the Indian context see, for example, Satterthwaite (2006) and Varshney (2001).

These and other arguments for (and against) decentralization have been presented by, among others, Bird and Vaillancourt (1998), Blair (2000), Cheema and Rondinelli (1983), Cohen and Peterson (1999), Crook and Manor (1998), Manor (1999), and Tendler (1997).

See, for example, Dahl (1971), Lipsky (1980), Rakove (1975), and Tarrow (1977).

For instance, Ake (1996), Booth and Seligson (1979), Collier (1999), Diamond et al. (1995), Frankel and Rao (1989), Kohli (1987), Rudolph and Rudolph (1987), and Seligson and Booth (1979).

For India, some noteworthy studies of this genre include Bailey (1963), Beteille (1996), Chakravarty (1975), Corbridge et al. (2005), and Fuller and Benei (2000).

As discussed for particular contexts by Bratton and Mattes (2001), Finkel (2002), Krishna (2006a), Nie et al. (1996), Przeworski et al. (2000), and Verba et al. (1995).

See, among others, Almond and Verba (1965), Apter (1965), Inglehart and Baker (2000), Lerner (1958), and Lipset (1981).

Except for a short hiatus between 1975 and 1977, when the Constitution of India was temporarily suspended.

Andhra Pradesh, a state in the southeastern part of India, has traditionally ranked higher on several socioeconomic indicators than Rajasthan, a state located in India’s northwest. A higher rate of economic growth in Andhra Pradesh compared to Rajasthan—respectively 4.8% per year and 3.2% per year over the period 1993–2005—has exacerbated some of these initial differences (Krishna and Shariff 2011). According to the latest population census, conducted in 2001, the population of Rajasthan was 56 million, of whom 77% live in rural areas, and the population of Andhra Pradesh was 76 million, of whom 72% live in rural areas (http://www.censusindia.gov.in/).

Districts in Rajasthan include Ajmer, Bhilwara, Rajsamand, and Udaipur. Districts in Andhra Pradesh include East Godavari, Khammam, and Nalgonda.

Villages within each district were selected purposively in order to have a mix of remotely situated and more central locations. Mixed-caste villages were selected in addition to others where a single caste group is more dominant. Within villages, individuals to interview were selected on the basis of random sampling from the most recent voters’ lists. In general, these lists are comprehensive and complete. We did not come across any adult village resident whose name was not included in the voters’ lists. Some selected individuals, <5% in all, were not physically present in their village at the time of the interviewer’s visit (and one revisit). These names were replaced by others from a reserve list, also constructed as part of the initial random sample.

Some among these mediating agencies, such as bureaucrats and official panchayats, are located closer to the state (in the case of bureaucrats, in fact, being part of the state). Other mediating agencies, such as Village Councils and caste- or religion-based groups, are located closer to society. There are other differences as well among these types of agents. They are represented as equivalent only to the extent they present alternative options to the ordinary villager for dealing with situations in which they experience difficulties in gaining access to government officials.

Interview with Chunnilal Garasiya, Congress Party leader and state minister on numerous occasions; Udaipur, March 13, 1999. Other analyses attesting to the growth of similar grassroots-level leaders in different parts of India include Manor (2000) and Mitra (1991).

While the emergence of such new political entrepreneurs has been recognized by scholars examining local politics in different parts of India, a lively debate is ongoing concerning the social backgrounds and motivations of these actors and about the impacts of their activities upon democracy and development. See Jeffrey et al. (2008), Krishna (2002, 2003), Manor (2000), Mitra (1991), and Reddy and Haragopal (1985).

In Rajasthan, for instance, while only 15% of villagers aged 65 years and older have five or more years of school education, fully 70% of villagers aged 18–25 years have acquired at least this level of functional education, and many among them are more highly educated. More than 90% of all school-age children are currently attending primary schools in these villages, and it is only the children of the very poorest households who do not regularly attend primary schools.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) guarantees “hundred days of wage-employment in a financial year to [every] rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.” See the web site http://www.nrega.nic.in/netnrega/home.aspx.

Across different types of services, the same type of mediator prevails, suggesting that the provision of access or welfare tends to have certain economies of scope that remain both empirically and theoretically underexplored. I thank an anonymous reviewer for suggesting this formulation. An explanation for why this should be the case is presented below.

Fourteen percent of 211 new leaders in these Rajasthan villages belong to the upper and middle castes, but as many as 49% belong to backward castes and 26% are from the formerly untouchable castes.

This report (cited in the Indian Express, Bombay, April 15, 1999) goes on to add that “A total of 1,249 cases of misappropriation of funds, registered since 1963, are still awaiting action. The total amount involved in these cases is a whopping Rupees 4,08,99,524 crores [or approximately $9,100 billion] which is very serious at village level bodies.”

Levels of well-being were calculated using the Stages-of-Progress methodology (Krishna 2004, 2006b), which relies upon an asset-based index to compute each households’ current material situation. In addition, a community-generated poverty cutoff is also ascertained. Households located above this cutoff were considered as relatively rich, while those located below this cutoff were regarded as relatively poor.

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Title: Gaining Access to Public Services and the Democratic State in India: Institutions in the Middle
Author: Anirudh Krishna
Publication date: 01-03-2011
Publisher: Springer-Verlag
Published in: Studies in Comparative International Development / Issue 1/2011
Print ISSN: 0039-3606
Electronic ISSN: 1936-6167
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-010-9080-x

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