Development Dynamics : Building Inclusive and Sustainable Development
Abstract
India stands at a crucial juncture in its quest for inclusive development that will bring prosperity across the spectrum. Large amounts of public funds are spent to address these issues, but their implementation and the quality of services delivered leave much to be desired. Effective use of its own resources, makes a state more developed, than the state which lacks in this. The objective of the state is to provide the best condition so that each individual enjoys the maximum benefit out of it. Citizens are most significant in the process of development. Economic reforms have led, especially over the last few years or so, not only to accelerated development but also sustained accelerated development. The present pattern of growth has the potential of widening the inequality. Such unequal opportunity structure weakens the positive role of development in reducing poverty and making growth inclusive.
To achieve inclusive, Sustainable development, it is crucial that the poor are integrated with the dynamic sectors of growth. These are not easy tasks but by no means impossible. The solutions are also well-known; however, problems lie in their implementation8 An effective administrative structure ensures citizens' needs are met by providing accessible and responsive public services, grievance redressal, and a framework for citizen participation.
Key words: Development , Dynamics, Inclusive, Sustainable, participatory
8.1 Understanding Development: A Traditional Perspective
“Development is about the expansion of citizen’s capabilities and fulfilling their entitlements as a citizen and individual. Further, it requires increasing citizen’s access and opportunities to the things they have reason to value” (Sen,1999)
The two broad objectives of development are to eliminate poverty and provide the citizen’s with right of human dignity and liberty. Various terms are used to define the socio, economic conditions of the citizens of a state like Underdeveloped, undeveloped or developed. However, there is no fixed line from which a state becomes developed from underdeveloped. The term developed keeps changing as per the needs of the people during that time. Effective use of its own resources makes a state more developed, than the state which lacks in this. Citizens are most significant in the process of development. The objective of the state is to provide the best condition so that each individual enjoys the maximum benefit out of it.
Development Administration, the term coined in 1950s, is to move the society towards modernity. Some of the variables are the socio-economic development, Institution building, formation of an integrated community and rebuilding of society. Majorly, Development in the past was measured by the economic growth and little or no attention was paid to the fair distribution of social benefits. Development administration is much wider now and universal in its approach. It emphasises on innovations, planning and building new organizations, and lays prominence on new methods, policies, programs and procedures, to expedite the developmental purposes.
8.2 Contemporary Challenges in India’s Development
Two major shifts have been observed in India during 21st Centuary, one is the “increased attention to the delivery of public services” and second towards the “greater decentralization of responsibilities for these services”.
According to the World Banks Spring 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief10 India has lifted 171 million people out of extreme poverty, one of the most impressive accomplishments of the last decade, the percentage of Indians living on less than $2. 15 USD per day the global standard for extreme poverty dropped dramatically from 16. 2% in 2011–12 to just 2. 3% in 2022–23 as per the report. The Government has been making concentrated efforts in both rural and urban areas towards ensuring inclusive development. India has achieved significant strides in lowering poverty rates through focused welfare programs, economic reforms and improved access to basic services. The World Banks Spring 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief also highlights how these programs have had a substantial impact on millions of people and have contributed to the reduction of the nation’s poverty rate. The report also presents a contrasting picture on the front of Inequality and wage, where it remarks that on the income inequality increased from a Gini of 52 in 2004 to 62 in 2023 according to the World Inequality Database. The median income of the top 10 percent in 2023–2024 was 13 times that of the bottom 10 percent indicating that the wage gap is still wide.
“Long before planning commission endorsed the HCR approach, Amartya Sen, after examining the theoretical and practical problems of conceptualization and measuring poverty, held that the head count measure is “quite unacceptable as an indicator of poverty”. Family getting less than two meals a day is probably the most important criterion of poverty.
Despite remarkable progress in human and economic development regional and interstate disparities are widening and natural disasters like droughts earthquakes and floods significantly halt the development process and exacerbate the plight of vulnerable and underprivileged populations.
The states with the largest tribal populations the North-Eastern and Central regions are falling behind. Agriculture has lagged behind the industrial and service sectors. The largely tribal populace in some of the poorest states is unable to benefit from the abundance of natural and forest resources. Religious minorities, large sections of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribal (ST) groups, and women still do not have access to many job opportunities and human development. The informal sector which is known for its low pay and unstable income while wage growth is concentrated at the top end, has become the largest employer
The present pattern of growth has the potential of widening the inequality. Such unequal opportunity structure weakens the positive role of growth in reducing poverty and making growth inclusive. If this inequality increases further, social displacement will result and it will be a major obstruction to higher growth
India stands at a crucial juncture in its quest for inclusive development that will bring prosperity across the spectrum. Large amounts of public funds are spent to address these issues but their implementation and the quality of services delivered leave much to be desired.
8.3 Development and Participatory Orientation: Participatory Governance, Planning and Service Delivery
Government policy is aiming to address imbalances in the growth pattern such as too few jobs too little growth in agriculture lagging states and regions and groups and individuals left out of progress in order to make growth more inclusive rather than just preserving rapid development. Empowerment is the cornerstone of these initiatives since it is essential to increasing opportunity equity. Although social protection is still a component of inclusive development an empowerment approach views public sector initiatives and policy as promoting market success rather than shielding individuals from it. This makes empowerment essential for increasing the advantages of economic growth as well as for improving accountability and service delivery.
An effective administrative structure ensures citizens' needs are met by providing accessible and responsive public services, grievance redressal, and a framework for citizen participation.
Local self-government, as elaborated in our Constitution, provides the essential means of reconciling ‘accelerated growth’ with ‘inclusive development’.
However, the constitutional provisions have not been an effective trigger for the Panchayats to function as institutions of local self-government. Panchayat Raj must be elevated to the forefront of governance reform in order to support economic reform in a way that ensures inclusive growth
That this should be so is an anomaly caused by:
i. Inadequate effective devolution of functions, finances and functions by State legislatures/governments to the Panchayati Raj Institutions; and
ii. Inadequate provisions for planning and implementation by PRIs in the guidelines issued by Central Ministries for Centrally Sponsored and Central Sector schemes that directly impinge on inclusive growth.14
According to Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012–2017) Faster, More Inclusive and Sustainable Growth “The first step in reforming public service delivery is to devise mechanisms for measuring the extent of public satisfaction with public services and publicising the results (para 1.71.) Panchayats can have a big role in this in view of their nearness to the people and in view of the assured representation available to all sections of the society in the Panchayati Raj Institutions”.
What is therefore required is that Panchayati Raj be brought centre-stage as the principal governance reform to reinforce economic reform and for delivery of essential social services at grassroots level.”, The following initiatives to be undertaken for making local governments effective in-service delivery,
• ensuring participatory local level planning by the Panchayati Raj Institutions to identify needs, levels of delivery and the enhancements desired by the people in each sector.
• assigning clearly demarcated roles to the PRIs through activity mapping;
• confining centrally sponsored and State schemes to a small number of important programmes to achieve declared national and State goals and also providing adequate space for the PRIs to participate in these schemes;
• undertaking a well-structured process of administrative and fiscal devolution that matches the resource availability at each level of the Panchayats with functions assigned to it;
• providing capacity to the Panchayati Raj Institutions in the widest sense of the term to perform their responsibilities efficiently; and
• putting in place systems of accountability by duly empowering the Gram Sabha, so that citizens, the ultimate recipients of services, are enabled to hold the PRIs accountable for any inadequacies in service delivery.15
It would be necessary to align the three Fs funds functions and functionaries in order to have technically sound services that combine accounting (the capability to provide reliable budget control and reporting) and accountability (the ability of citizens and communities from the bottom up to hold elected officials and providers responsible for outputs and outcomes) in order to move forward with a well-designed inclusive governance.
Nonetheless inclusive governance will provide a chance to unbundle responsibilities among levels of government to establish checks and balances in the tiers best interests so that one tier reports on the performance of another to help citizens obtain the data they require to establish performance accountability. Secondly the establishment of new lines of responsibilities will also provide chances to fortify the demand side which is the bottom-up mobilization of communities to demand improved performance better information and more scope for forwarding their views and exercising choice.
It seems that panchayats are gradually being accepted in the execution of line ministry plans. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme is undoubtedly the most significant of these with major implementation and planning duties delegated to Panchayats at the district intermediate and village levels. These have been identified as the main decision-makers for implementation and planning. The NREGA stipulates that the Village Panchayats must undertake at least 50% of the work in terms of value.
Some of the flagship programs addressing the concerns of rural areas are such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin, Pradhan Mantri Sadak Yojana, Deen daya Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, Deen Dayal Upadhyay – Gramin Kaushal Yojana, Ujjwala Scheme, National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) with primary focus on improving the socio-economic conditions, livelihood opportunities, skilling of youths, empowering rural women, infrastructure development, etc. targeted for people residing in rural areas.
The programmes, such as the National Food Security Mission, the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, and the Agricultural Development Programme are all based on the concept of grassroots level planning Panchayats which culminates in the bringing together the agricultural plan into the district plan prepared by the District Planning Committee.
One of the significant initiatives in overhauling and empowering the Gram Panchayats started with the preparation of Gram Panchayat Development Plan. This provided the GPs with the opportunity to plan and decide for themselves. These plans are context and need specific to the respective GPs allowing for effective utilization of the resources devolved to GPs. The process of GPDP has been formulated as such to involve the convergence of Schemes of the Central Ministries or Line Departments related to the Twenty-Nine subjects as enlisted in the Eleventh Schedule.
8.4 Gender Equality and Affirmative action: Strengthening the decision-making power of women for holistic development
Gender discrimination in India considers and encompasses the stereotyped view of women’s role with respect to men, in the context of patriarchal culture and politics. It is consequent upon the representation and participation of women in public life. Women are mostly confined to household domestic labour. Leading and political participation such as decision making is attributed to masculine affairs and thus offsetting women’s workforce and contribution is still lacking behind. Moreover, because of the cultural and embedded patriarchal value system in Indian society, there are cases of male preferences,17 and this entailed female foeticide and abortion, leading to an adverse sex ratio and burden on women. It also manifests in women’s health conditions, secondary educational preference for girls,18 child marriage and violence, illegitimate practice of dowry,20 and political disenfranchisement,21 among others. Some major causes of gender discrimination in India are educational backwardness, caste, religious beliefs, culture, customs, race, low income, unemployment, family situation and attitudes.
The positioning of women in leadership has seen great improvements in India, yet it is concurrent with a significant degree of gender disparity. It continues to perpetuate in its crude form predominantly in its rural experiences. In the traditional Indian society, barring few historical exceptions, influencing, decision-making and leading have been ascribed as masculine and an external endeavour distinct from the domestic fold, where women are thought destined in the traditional social imagination and practices. In modern societies, the prevalence of the rule of law that gives equal space to every individual, irrespective of gender orientation, has dawned a new era of political space. In India, the introduction of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in 1992 for decentralisation of governance and women empowerment has principally given a fillip to the positive change long desired in the country. Before this Act, women were practically invisible in the grassroots decision-making process. Still, in over two decades, there have been over a million elected women representatives in India’s PRIs (a local governance system).
8.5 Affirmative Action for social, economic and political empowerment
Women’s empowerment in the social, economic and political spheres is crucial steps to ameliorate and improve the conditions of women in India.23 Empowerment that entails representational justice should correspond with the implementation and execution or participation of women in public life.24 This practicality of women’s participation, both in quantity and quality, can be realised through the shift in role perception and role allocation for women. Tiwary notes since “Indian society is not very open for women”, facing challenges at various levels, it significantly restricts their freedom of participation in public life.25
Despite the empowerment in the letter, actual participation in the political process is still hindered due to stereotyping to a great extent, particularly in rural India.26 Gender stereotyping in society adversely affects the process of socio-economic and political participation and hampers the productivity of the household and the economy and political vibrancy. There is an impending need to empower women in their role performance, especially in decision-making for a holistic development in India.
8.6 Strengthening the decision-making power of women for holistic development
UN Women (2021) Working Paper: Women’s Representation in Local Government: A Global Analysis Shows that Only 20 nations have achieved a women's representation of over 40 percent in local decision-making entities, while an additional 28 countries have women's representation ranging between 30 and 40 percent. However, in most countries, there is a significant lack of female representation. Seventy countries have women's representation between 10 and 30 percent, and 15 countries have less than 10 percent women's representation. This distribution mirrors the observed pattern in parliamentary representation.
“The belief that women in decision making is an index of empowerment is reflected in the United Nations Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), which tracks the percentages of women in Parliament, legislative assemblies, and in senior professional and technical positions. Tracking women’s progress through numbers is not new and there is a growing demand that women be accorded a larger role in political decision-making. It is argued that women need to be “empowered” in this realm to facilitate their “real” empowerment”.
The Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) Act 1992, which reserved one-third of seats for women, is a clear move to enable decision-making more inclusive and participatory for women at the grassroots level in India. “The biggest success of panchayati raj in India is that it has politically and socially empowered women. Of the 26,00,000 panchayat representatives in the country, 9,75,000 are women, 8,50,000 of them from the scheduled castes and tribes (SC/STs)”.28 Here, “[r]eservation has played a significant role – four-fifths [with 43% first-timers] of all the EWRs [elected women representatives] were elected from reserved seats... Its absence dissuaded 39% of former EWRs from seeking re-election”. Legislation and specifically reservation plays a pivotal role in enabling women’s participation in public life.
While women may be elected as representatives in PRIs, they often face barriers when it comes to assuming leadership roles. Socio-cultural barriers, the deep-rooted socio-cultural norms and gender stereotypes, can pose significant challenges to women’s active participation in PRIs. Discrimination, biases, and societal expectations can discourage women from contesting elections or engaging in political processes, further perpetuating the gender gap. There is a lack of resources and capacity building. Women in PRIs may face resource constraints and limited access to training and capacity-building programs. Women in PRIs may face challenges in asserting their decision-making power and having their voices heard. Women representatives in PRIs often require support systems to navigate the complexities of local governance and address the specific challenges they face.
8.7 Need for Women Leadership in Different Sectors
Women were given the reservations to bring their presence in the Panchayats to contribute to good financial management and honest, corruption-free services. It had an instrumentalist approach as is usual justification, for example, for women’s education leading to better-educated children, better family welfare, etc. But, as women’s experience and performance have shown, these reservations for women had greater potential to affect not only the character of rural governance but also the role and place of women in public life with ultimate impact on the household.
Because they are entering a male-dominated field womens struggles do not end when they join political institutions. Eliminating discrimination, neglect and apathy that affect even the equitable use of resources is the primary challenge of mainstreaming gender in rural local governance. This is because patriarchal resistance persists in many forums limiting the potential contribution of women in Panchayats to enabling governance.
Even when women are elected to the Panchayats, their participation or presence in the decision-making process is represented by their husbands or near-male kin. The proxyism cautioned in the initial adoption period of the 73rd Amendment remains alive. Many women still face the burden of “politics of presence” in the PRIs. So women are not really represented even though the policy provides for reservation.
A society’s hierarchical gender relations and patriarchal structures limit women’s autonomy and decision-making in the home. Similar asymmetrical gender relations in public interactions are reproduced by political institutions which also function within these hierarchical gender structures. In fact, this resistance and gender rigidity are also evident in the discussion of elected women’s proxyism in Panchayats and the so-called de facto politics of someone else carrying out EWRs duties. It frequently gives the impression of proxyism but it also undermines elected women’s effectiveness.
There is a dire need to make the clarion call of government and the UN for inclusive development. It is especially desirous and significant for leaders from across the board to realise the government’s emphasis on the gender-equitable and inclusive development front.
8.8 Self-Help Groups in Women Empowerment
Amartya Sen identified ‘bargaining’ as an important non-material capability in determining outcomes, and the ability to collectively bargain, plan projects and organize group activities has been greatly improved through the Kudumbashree (SHG)movement. Hence social capital has been considerably enhanced. There is much more willingness to cooperate with others, leading to mutual trust, and the trust of the community in the members of SHGs has also increased. Cooperation with representatives of local government has also improved significantly. Kudumbashree thus combines credit support with social capital.
In spite of some issues and potential difficulties, the Kudumbashree movement has certainly helped in both gender mainstreaming and poverty alleviation. It has firstly made women more aware of the causes of poverty and the ways to resolve it. Financial security is the prerequisite for any empowerment and the Kudumbashree movement has helped women to stand on their own feet by giving them greater economic self- reliance through establishment of micro-enterprises and other income generating activities. Women share and discuss issues affecting their sources of income and livelihoods in the weekly meetings of NHGs.
The Kudumbashree network also ensures that women are actively involved in planning and development processes as they take part in preparing micro-plans at the NHGs level and higher-level plans through both ADSs and CDSs, which are then integrated into the poverty eradication plans of local governments. This combination of hard work, joint action, inventiveness, planning and active31 Approximately Rs 53,000 crore was spent on women's salaries between FY 2006–07 and FY 2011–12, and women accounted for 47% of all person-days produced32 This indicates the tremendous potential of this employment guarantee scheme in transforming gender relations and narrowing gender gap.
When women and men have equal rights and opportunities in all spheres of society, including economic involvement and decision-making, and when their distinct needs, desires, and behaviors are equally recognized and favored, gender equality has been attained.33 The region is changing as intended due to the active involvement of individuals in grassroots planning and execution which has brought about peace and started the process of prosperity. Therefore integrating the impoverished or poor with the dynamic development sectors is essential to achieving inclusive development. These tasks are not simple but they are also not impossible. The solutions are well known but their implementation presents challenges. Therefore shifting from a central provision model to one that decentralizes authority to local governments will change many current relationships including those between citizens, elected representatives and local bureaucracy and establish a new relationship between national and local policy makers.
“Such inclusive governance, besides ensuring political empowerment, through enabling people to control their own destiny, would also yield significant inclusive development. Active participation of people in the political processes and in grassroots planning will bring about the desired transformation of the region by establishing peace and setting in motion the wheels of progress towards prosperity”. |
The views and opinions expressed here are of author and does not reflect the views of the organization. The content of this paper is based on the author’s various articles published earlier,
Governance & Polity • 1 month ago
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