12/11/2019

REPORT ON:
Bridging
Regional
Disparities
throughDistrict
Planning

BY
SAHIL PRUTHI
18/PUR/003
GAUTAM BUDDHA UNIVERSITY
“Redressing regional disparities is not only a goal in itself but is essential for
maintaining the integrated social and economic fabric of the country without
which the country may be faced with a situation of discontent, anarchy and
breakdown of law and order”

District Planning is a critical instrument that can be used to direct investments in districts and
areas which lag behind in development. Areas which need special attention – and also district
planning in its true essence of participatory planning, implementation and monitoring – include
border areas, hill areas, areas affected by militancy and insurgency, etc.

Border areas
 Seventeen Indian states have a land border with six countries. Some of this land border is
disputed or even undemarcated. India’s border runs through diverse geographical terrain
ranging from glaciers and snow-clad peaks to the sand dunes of Rajasthan. Difficult
living conditions, exacerbated by a lack of basic facilities such as health and education
and lack of livelihood opportunities cause people who live there to lead lives of hardship
and struggle. In the current context, the old outpost mentality needs to be shed and border
areas must have a high standard of living if they are to ably serve as a demographic
buffer. Infrastructure should, therefore, not only address current needs but also include
scope for further expansion.
 Most border areas have but a thin administrative presence and the delivery of basic services is
hampered by lack of staff and facilities. Local governments in border areas, who challenge these
circumstances on a daily basis, must be given freedom to recruit or take on contract functionaries.
Special pay, for which there may be no provision at present, would act as incentive for employees
in these areas. Medical care, veterinary services, sports and education facilities of Paramilitary
and Armed Forces ought to be open to the local population too (Operation Sadbhavana in Drass
area, still ongoing, which shares medical, canteen, and school facilities).

Hill areas
 Mountain ranges and hill areas are critical to the nation’s climatic and ecological
stability. Their crucial importance in determining the climate and physiography of the
country determines their vital bearing on socio-economic development. However,
increasing population pressure has led to the abandonment of sustainable and
traditionally protective practices in the hills. New resource-intensive practices have led to
rapid and irreplaceable use of local resources. The need to conserve fragile ecosystems of
hill areas often conflicts with the need to improve infrastructure, particularly of roads and
power. As hill areas are relatively thinly populated, funding is much lesser than required
to preserve the fragile ecology. Participatory district planning and additional funding
would send a signal regarding special treatment necessary for the people of the hills to
meet their aspirations while they act responsibly for conserving and preserving the hills
for posterity

Areas affected by militancy and insurgency

 Good governance must lead to progressive decrease in social and economic inequality
and the development of all regardless of social or economic background. However, we
are a long way off from achieving these goals of good governance (See Box 10). While
 equal status and dignity are accepted as basic human rights, in reality there is widespread
practice of social and economic discrimination and injustice and atrocities against the
weaker sections leading to disaffection on a large scale. The Report of the Expert Group
to the Planning Commission – “Development Challenges in Extremist-Affected Areas”
observes that “poverty does create deprivation but other factors like denial of justice,
human dignity, cause alienation resulting in the conviction that relief can be had outside
the system by breaking the current order asunder”
 Areas affected by extremist movements in central India and the north-east have low
population density, concentration of tribal population, hilly topography and undulating
terrain. The failure to provide infrastructure and services as per national norms is one of
the many manifestations of poor governance in these areas. Districts where the Naxalite
movement is active are located in states which have the worst social infrastructure in
general, and SC and ST hamlets tend to be excluded when locations for such social
infrastructure are being decided. Therefore, to remove this disparity, universalisation of
basic services to standards should be given top priority and should be the foremost
priority in visioning exercises. Plan allocations should be used for filling this gap.
 The Report has identified a high rate of correlation between the following factors and the
prevalence of militancy:
o high SC/ST population;
o low literacy levels;
o high infant mortality;
o low urbanisation;
o high forest cover;
o high population of agricultural labour;
o low per-capita food grain production;
o low level of road length per 100 sq. kms;
o high share of rural households which have no bank account; and
o high share of rural households without specified assets.
The strategy for governance in areas affected by militancy would need to be multi-dimensional
and have elements of protection, development, participation, effective administration,
accountability and inclusive politics so that people do not remain alienated. It is necessary to
address issues of rights to livelihood and life, as well as the right to a dignified and honourable
existence. Following from the Expert Group recommendations in the context of district planning,
the following aspects require special consideration in visioning, planning and implementation of
participative district plans in militancy-affected districts. Needless to say, these
recommendations apply equally to border areas and hill areas

Food and income security: Families without resources, whose livelihoods are dependent upon
agriculture, deserve particular attention. During periods when work is scarce, such families have
to resort to moneylenders even to purchase foodgrain. A large proportion of the population of tribal
areas also depends upon selling minor forest produce to earn some income. Artisanship and
handicraft skills are also well-developed amongst many tribal groups but in the absence of
established markets, they are forced to sell the Minor Forest Produce (MFP) as well as their
handcrafted items at low prices to middlemen who are able to dispose these at much higher rates
in better organised markets. Hence, there is need for the following:
o employment through National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS): SCs and
STs are the two groups that have truly taken advantage of the employment being offered
under NREGS. While SCs account for only 14 percent of the population, but form 27
percent of the households that received employment under NREG in 2006-07; STs form
eight percent of the population, but make up 32 percent of those households which received
employment. In other words, NREGS is even more important for the STs than for SCs.
Therefore, resource-depleted areas with high incidence of involuntary migration and
malnutrition should be saturated under NREGA on priority;
o widespread provision of grain banks managed by Gram Sabhas/Village Councils in tribal
areas. The public distribution system (PDS), should also address the specific requirements
of the forest dwellers;
o forest produce should be provided a protective market particularly through upgradation of
traditional ‘haats’ and provision of modern storage facilities to avoid post-harvest losses;
and development of traditional ‘haats’ can also provide a market for handicrafts
produced by artisans in tribal areas, particularly if linkages are established with SARAS
and marketing organisations such as Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development
Federation of India (TRIFED).

Agriculture: Rain-fed and dry-farming areas must have a surfeit of participatory watershed
development projects for conservation of soil and water and development of natural resources.
This must be accompanied by suitable changes in the cropping pattern under the common
guidelines issued by the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development for the National
Watershed Development Projects for Rainfed Areas. The common guidelines for watershed
development can provide a base for participatory institution-building, capability-development
and convergence of all activities pertaining to land and water.
Shelter: There are lakhs of rural families without a homestead. Urgent action is needed to give
them top priority in the allocation of not just a house under the Indira Awas Yojana and allied
state government schemes, but also a piece of land where that house is to be constructed and
which allows for a kitchen garden that can supplement and qualitatively improve foodgrain-
based diets.

Rural electrification: Rural electrification has to mean that households actually receive
electricity, not merely an electric pole with a line going to below poverty line (BPL) households.
All villages and habitations should be electrified through the creation of a Rural Electricity
Distribution Backbone in each block and village electrification infrastructure with at least one
distribution transformer in each village/habitation or Decentralised Distributed Generation
(DDG) where grid supply is not feasible, together with electrification of all BPL households
without electricity. Recourse may also be had to non-conventional energy sources for lighting
homes and cooking food. This would help minimise dependence on kerosene oil as well as
reduce depletion of forests for fuel wood to some extent.

Skill development: Recognising that unemployment and livelihood insecurity is a growing source
of dissatisfaction and anger among youth in rural areas, educated unemployed youth without
employable skills must receive skill-development to promote regular employment or self-
employment.
District Planning Committees in areas to which Part IX of the Constitution applies, and
counterpart bodies in other districts may take guidance from the recommendations of the Expert
Group for planning the socio-economic development of their areas.

Transparency, ICT and media policy: One of the important planks for winning the support and
confidence of the local population is transparency in all aspects of development planning and
execution. The flow of funds at each level, the choice of schemes and their locations, tendering
process, stage of implementation, etc. should be given wide publicity not only through websites
but also through display boards at Panchayat Offices and at project sites. Information-
communication-technology or ICT should be used along with an imaginative media policy to
ensure that information related to the programmes is available to everybody. Funds under various
programmes may also be used to make life easier for the local population so that access to
licences, land records, ration cards, photo identity cards and other such documents is
streamlined.