Communication will be considered as a means to build flows of information between social actors for change, grassroots movements and institutional organizations. Rather than bottom-down communication strategies, local communities are calling for a multi-level strategy to achieve self empowerment regarding their own rights and resources. While the participatory approach has been shown to be the contemporary way to deal with conflicts related to natural resources management, there is a need for empowering democracy through an integration of local and central perspectives.
Communication for development has became the main point that has to be stressed if we want to highlight the existing gap between the legal status of women in water management and the effectiveness of their representation.
We are going to discuss three main topics to draw a frame for social communication in the Indian scenario in order to discuss the implementation of a reform on local communities policies on water and natural resources management. The same reform includes the introduction of women participation in the decision making process at local level.
1. New policies in natural resources management
2. Lack in communication. Missing information or misinformation? A communication gap between Indian Parliament and Local Stakeholders
3. How do local actors deal with communication of development? Two different perspectives.
We will present these main issues to give a sample of an information bias in government policies towards development. It links between social actors at the grassroots level and international public sphere. As we discussed, it also aims to point out the need of a new theoretical approaches in communication of development, to shift from a top-down perspective to an orchestral view.
It has emerged from research a lack in communication on new policies on natural resources management (water, water bodies, social forest) in the process to rely the power from the central government to local communities. The new policy on natural resources management has been introduced to promote and involve local communities in the decision making processes and women’s participation in the decision making process about natural resources management is one of the statements of the reform. However, the central authority made no plans for an information campaign to communicate to the citizens the reform of the Indian Parliament.
The 73rd Amendment Act was held in 1992 and it was supposed to empower to local institutional bodies and to ensure women’s participation in it. However, despite their new legal status, the target of the reform had no information about their new tasks. As we are concerning community empowerment in natural resources management, it is clear that there can be no empowerment without awareness.
Misinformation on natural resources policies can lead to a mismanagement of those resources rural communities are relying. Moreover, local communities knowledge would give important samples of sustainable resources management.
Because of that, communication can represent an important tool in the development process, not only to spread information from policy makers to users, it can help gathering knowledge from the local communities and wave it into more sustainable projects and policies for development. As it can be observed by Indian local realities all over the country, this approach may lead to some goals in communities empowerment.
1. New policies in natural resources management
The process of decentralization became effective in 1992, with the 73rd Amendment Act, the core of this act, held by the Parliament, was the attribution of legal status to the Panchayati Raj (local governance committees). New powers have been given to the local institutions, at state level, block level, district level and village level.
73rd and 74th Amendments Act . Amendment namely local bodies of governance at the village and city level: The village panchayats (local governments) and the city nagarpalikas (municipalities). The 11th and 12th schedules to the constitution lay down lists of subjects to be devolved to the panchayats and nagarpalikas. The list includes, inter alias, drinking water, water management, watershed development and sanitation. This may play an important role in water development, however, the process of decentralization is still evolving.
At the actual situation in India related with the Panchayats law process:
In 1992, the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, passed by the Indian Parliament, puts natural resources management under the Panchayati Raj control. Periodical elections once in five years at village level, intermediate level and district level, reservations for scheduled castes and tribes and reservations for women (1/3rd of the total seats at each level) are some significant features of the new system. After it has been conferred constitutional and legal status, the Panchayati Raj would be widely accepted as Institutions to enact people participation in self - governance. The Panchayats have now full authority to prepare plans for economic development and social justice and to implement those schemes. This includes ten fundamental items related to natural resources management that are listed in the well known Eleventh Schedule. As the law stands, each Gram Sabha (a local body which gathers all the eligible voters) will have the competence to preserve traditions, cultural identity, natural resources, and the usual way of resolving conflicts.
2. Missing information or misinformation? A communication gap between Indian Parliament and Local Stakeholders
New powers had been formally addressed to local Panchayats, though no implementation of the legal status has followed. In other words, the legal status of Panchayats has changed, but it has no effectiveness. We are overstressing this point to highlight that there has been no communication from the government about the new status of Panchayats, nor there has been taken initiatives to facilitate people’s awareness about the reform. Moreover, if the goal to achieve was supposed to be community empowerment and de-centred governance, it is an assumption that the first step for empowerment is the access to the tools to negotiate power.
First of all, there is no information throw the people of the rural areas about their political rights on natural resources. Second, the Panchayat empowerment to facilitate communities in critical resources management is quite far to be truth.
No information has been spread towards the local bodies to enhance the self-government process and rural women are still marginalized. This attitude of the central government can be described also as a risky behaviour because of the probability of loosing local knowledge on water management, which can mean a loss in terms of knowledge on more sustainable techniques.
Women marginalization is just one flap of the communication problem: because of the lacking information process from the centre (government) some local communities are creating parallel informal bodies for water management to ensure equality among the users. Particularly, local informal committees for water management are coming to light. As some researchers (Ragupathy 2004) had shown, people may not trust elected Panchayats which members may not have a stake or interest in the common property because they can look at these resources as income generators.
As evidence of that, there have been cases of corruption in Panchayats, especially in those areas with no monitoring of the electoral process. As it has been stressed by some scholars (Cleaver 1991) encouraging women to play important roles in water management. can lead to more sustainable uses, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness and a more responsible management of the projects implementation plan.
As well known, water users are a female community, on the other side, decision makers are mainly male dominated community. It has also been stated that women participation in decision making can lead the community to feel local institutions more accountable.
As we have discussed above, miscommunication is the major problem. If citizens, which are the target of the reform, are not aware about their rights on the environment they are living with, they do not have any chance to take part in the development process. As it could be observed by the field research, the communities of this area feel they do not have rights to put their voice in the negotiation on the natural resources they depend on. Infect, they are not aware they have the power to preserve the water, the forest, the land.
In rural areas of very few know about Panchayati Raj updates. People look at roles and duties of these institutions in different ways and it mostly depends on their own local experience with the authority. This issue need to be specified: we are talking about overlapping between formal and informal institutions in development projects and their interlinking with traditional and modern once. It can be useful to introduce a conceptual frame on local institutions. About this, Mosse suggests as a result of his work in South India (1997), that finding the right space in which the project should work was a matter of balancing the need for authority with independence from patronage (Cleaver 2003).
In our perspective, the Gram Sabha, the collective body of all the eligible voters, is supposed to be the soul of the panchayat institutions in order to further people’s participation in a democratic way. But, we can observed from the field, that unless the intervention of a non institutional subject (NGO) as a third actor between the central government and the local communities, neither the Gram Panchayat nor the Gram Sabha are viewed as instruments of empowerment for/from the communities. Not to mention the political representation for women that is still far to be assumed.
3.How do local actors deal with Communication of Development? Two different perspectives
No real empowerment followed the Amendment Act and no information has been spread by the Government. The only empowerment plan made by the Government is the “Community Empowerment for Sustainable Development” run by the United Nations Development Program. Among the communities of rural areas this program is run by local NGOs.
As community rights on water resources are becoming an increasingly controversial issue in Indian society, thus it has become imperative for some local social actors to enhance women’s roles in local self governance.
The main purpose of communication in self government empowerment is to shift from a formal representation to a concrete role in decision making process.
As it was testified by local communities in rural areas, centralization of power on natural resources is increasing and the Panchayats are just administrative bodies. Moreover, when the elected committees do not depend on the resources they responsible for, there can be cases of corruption, as it was for the Panchayats in rural areas. We can assume by some literatures (Mosse 1997; Cleaver 2003) that people who is not directly involved in the resources management and outcome can defeat or not contribute to the management, behaving as free-rider, it has also been stated that formal structures may not be able to represent new roles and duties in community relationships development (as changes in gender relationships).
From the 73rd Act of the Indian Parliament, communities, and women within the communities do have power to preserve water and natural resources they depend on. Members of local communities now have a role in making and modifying rules on natural resources management.
Leaving behind a functional approach and considering the cultural aspects of this reform, we can clearly identify a high potential and a communication bias. Women’s role in water management is identified as crucial. It is well known that female members of rural communities are described from some literature on NRM as the gatekeepers of local knowledge and techniques. Because of that, and because of the impact on traditional roles and hierarchies, women participation in decision making process is seen as a mean to ensure a more equitable and accountable management of natural resources.
Participation and discussion are basis of every day decision making so it can be misleading to focus only to formal institutions. The social locus of negotiation present traditional rules that are somehow changing and reproducing hierarchy and those rules and roles have to be taken into account in the process of communicating for development projects.
Because of their knowledge on the resources and their knowledge on the resources use, Indian women can be a dramatic catalyst of change in the development process. Self-determination about natural resources, community ownership on water and land and political representation for women in the Panchayat are some interlinked issued that have to be discussed in the awakening process.
Indian scenario’s approaches for Communication of Development
In the disappointing progress of Panchayat Raj institutions reforms, we met some reactions among local actors which are trying to avoid the failure of the Indian Parliament approaches in communicating new policies. More specifically, we will mention two approaches seen in the Indian scenario, among those local social actors who are advocating for local communities rights on water resources management and towards women empowerment within the communities.
Our purpose is to draw specific tools, the uses of the media, presence at grassroots level and communication paths they are using, in order to highlight their strategies and goals, emphasising their complementarity.
The first social subject is working to spread information at grassroots level throw local communities empowerment. Following its view, the main task to address is capacity building strategies for women in Panchayat, thus pre- during and post-election workshops are held in rural villages to let male and female villagers be more comfortable with elected women covering critical roles. Interface meetings for women of rural areas are taking place once a year to gather all the eligible female voters and give them an interface with decision makers. The purpose of the meeting is to train women to raise their voice and to achieve a self-confident approach throw information and acknowledgement about their rights. The political arenas are seen as a stage where rationality is the first step to negotiate.
In this way of thinking, development is empowerment at grassroots level which means clustering awareness on citizens rights and duties towards the ecosystem and natural resources they are living with. Public sphere is a dialogical stage in which negotiation throw the actors is a meaning of languages (Habermas 1992; Privitera 2001). The language of norms give the power to negotiate also to the people who is coming from the social space, throw knowledge on norms laws they have the power to raise their voice towards the authority.
A different approach comes from the assumption that advocating on the national stage needs the support of the international social network. The social subject ( or social actor) we are now describing is struggling at national level throw a media campaign at the international level. It is advocating for local communities rights on natural resources by using many languages at different levels (into different arenas). This actor is using a conceptual frame which evokes myths and symbols of the Indian traditional culture to create a conceptual framework (net of meaning) that has the power to capture the most scarce resource of the public sphere: attention (Hilgartner and Bosk 1988). Thanks to social networking and to the rhetoric of myths and symbols (see rituals) they are creating new spaces to negotiate policies at national level. In this frame they are building a strategy which is using three rethorical topics:
· Emotional
· Cognitive
· Prescriptive
The use of symbolic signals leads to changes at an information- knowledge based level, it will further give the assumption of a different concept of development that keep the distance from the mainstreaming perspective on the concepts of development-gender-natural resources management. Throw shaping the ideas on development they are making pressures to the Indian government to change his policies towards development.
Despite the disappointing progress of the Indian reform process on panchayat law, it is not our purpose to state the effectiveness of those strategies described above. They are part of a process under construction and is not possible right now to define future interactions among the actors.
We can find in the social context new patterns to draw as we are concerning Communication of Development. As fields research are showing (Cleaver 2003; Mosse 1997) new perspectives in Communication of Development needs to investigate interactions among concepts like development, participation and communication. Moreover, institutions, agencies and researchers have to look thorough into criss-crossing of different arenas of the communication process (Hilgartner and Bosk 1988).
Conclusion: A conceptual frame for development
We want to frame the discourse on development from an “endogenous” perspective because we are talking about natural resources which local communities depend on. Although many literature talks about development as a strictly endogenous process, this remains a wishful thinking. Development implies that local actors, both institutional and informal, are should be engaged in a negotiation on their positions and rules in social, economic and political arenas. In addition to that, transnational and global flows have an important influence on this process.
If we consider development as the empowerment of marginalized groups, we must consider that the only way to achieve it is by using local knowledge in the strategy building process. Local stakeholders interests and traditions are tools and means to implement so called participatory strategies.
It has been show from the field research that development is becoming an integrated “orchestral” process which embrace social, cultural, human, environmental, economical and political perspective. Despite that and although it has been stressed in many literature on development, that there is a need of local communities to have more focus on their own social production and re-production, a different participatory approaches is hard to handle.
Increasing recognition of grassroots, community-based development in asserting, defining, organizing and acting to build their own realities was a big step in last thirty years in the short history of development studies. But there is still a gap between policies and implementation of these strategies, as we have stated below. It has been notice in the field resource that there is a call for political processes in which participation is not a mere operational goal but a mean to ensure more equity on natural resources conflicts.
We saw two different communicational approaches within the social facilitators that have been analyzed. Those approaches comes from two different areas of the social discourse. One talks about rights of citizenship and the other is inspired by the symbolic and ritual sphere.
The first one uses a grassroots approach, where leads the assumption that changes can arise within the community. Those changes in the political behaviour at grassroots level can lead to develop horizontal networks called “voice” (Hirshman 1970). The focus is not on giving more “voice” to subaltern groups but to re-positioning them into local political arenas, which means that these groups can be perceived as legitimate political interlocutory in development process. This implies that people from these communities are considered “citizens”, instead of “underdeveloped” or just “backwards”. This is possible in the way in which one can assume that natural resources are a right instead of a need: that allows communities to stand for those rights and it legitimate them to ask a position and a role in negotiation process in public and political arenas. This define the participatory process as citizens actions more than as an instrumental process.
The political perspective calls for an “orchestral” and deliberative exchange between actors, so, concerning participatory process it’s not about attaining a consensus between parts, it is about negotiating stakeholders interests and visions. This collective definition ask for different frames as it can happened at institutional or community-based level. It has been stated by Habermas (1992) that decisions are taken throw discussion or “reasoning”: he develops from the idea of public sphere a theory of the communication action, placing an emphasis on the possibilities of attaining consensus through the exercise of rationality in public deliberation, which is pragmatic rather than idealistic. Instead of searching consensual solutions for local problems, the focus of this process is to highlight dissimilar perceptions of reality and different stakes concerning specific and defined issues.
Moreover, in the globalized context of economics and governance, translocal identifications and transnational flows of ideas, people and resources, discourses on participation are gaining space into public arenas, involving even more complex configurations. These growing actors are calling for political spaces within and outside the national-state (Cornwall 2002).
Strictly related with this is a call for spaces of participation, sites for communication, possibilities, and circulation of information, which define, on the one side, the chance of expression of different opinions and interests, and the empowerment through information and communicational interaction on the other side.
The life world of social knowledge distribution can be implemented by socio-cultural relations and clusters of values that are sensitive to local realities, it can further push for social engagement.
It is very clear that media have a significant role to play in national development with the changing communication and media scenario all over the world, it is possible to evolve appropriate communication strategies to meet the development needs of the people. The growth and expansion of satellite communication has opened up several possibilities for exploiting modern communication technologies for development.
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