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Capacity building for women PRI leaders

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The Panchayati Raj Campaign, initiated by The Hunger Project, is a comprehensive programme to empower women leaders in panchayat to strengthen their participation in decision-making process.

The presence of women representatives in grassroots democracy has increased over the years because of affirmative action policies implemented by the government. However, representation is not synonymous with their participation. In a male-dominated political sphere, there is a wide-spread scepticism in trusting the capability and effectiveness of women leaders as rural women are percieved to be incapable of discharging the constitutional responsibilities. To address this concern, in 2001, the Hunger Project, a global strategic organisation designed a comprehensive capacity building programme called the Panchayati Raj Campaign.

Under Panchayati Raj Campaign, the Hunger Project collaborates with local civil society organisations, government bodies and the media to impart trainings through organising workshops and forming community federations. The participatory workshops that aim to inform women of their rights and responsibilities as panchayat leaders and federations facilitate bottom-up approach to development. These activities are carried throughout the entire five year term of the elected leaders. Each year a new skill is focused upon to ensure effective intervention.

Presently the campaign is operational in nine states, training more than 78,000 women representatives. One of the important achievement of this initiative is the formation of successful women leaders federations that have given a collective platform to make their voices heard at the bureaucratic and policy level. As the country that has the distinction of having the highest number of women leaders in the world, this all inclusive capacity building model can be considered as a suitable initiative to be replicated in all the states for ensuring gender justice and decentralised democracy.

Corruption

Over 39,000 Corrupt Public Servants Punished During Last 3 Years

Action against all delinquent officers is taken in accordance with the relevant Acts and Rules. An elaborate vigilance system exists in the Ministries/Departments to check corruption at all levels of administration and punish the corrupt officers under respective conduct rules in consultation with the Central Vigilance Commission. Besides, the comprehensive legislation and statutory provisions under various laws of the country such as IPC, Cr. PC, PC Act etc. have adequate and stringent provisions to punish those who are found guilty.

As per the information provided by the CVC in its Annual Reports, a total of 39,123 officers (all category ) were awarded punishment during the last three years, i.e. 2008 to 2010. Details are as under :-

Year	Major Penalty	Minor Penalty	Total
2008	3528	9011	12,539
2009	4562	9862	14,424
2010	3853	8307	12,160
Total	11,943	27,180	39,123

As per information provided by CBI, it has registered total 2706 cases under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, 1988 during the period from 2008 to 2011 (upto 31.10.2011) as under :

Year	No. of PC Act cases registered
2008	744
2009	795
2010	650
2011 (up to 31.10.2011)	517
Total	2706

Several steps have been taken by the Government to combat corruption and to improve the functioning of Government.  These include :-

(i)    Issue of Whistle Blowers Resolution, 2004 and the introduction of the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons making the Disclosure Bill, 2010 in the Parliament ;

(ii) Enactment of Right to Information Act, 2005;

(iii) The pro-active involvement of      Ministry/Department through Annual Action Plan on Vigilance as a preventive measure;

(iv) Issue of comprehensive instructions on transparency in tendering and contracting process by the CVC;

(v) Issue of instructions by the CVC asking the organizations to adopt Integrity Pact in major Government procurement activities;Similar instructions have been issued by the Central Government on 16^th June 2009 advising the State Governments to adopt Integrity Pact in major procurements;

(vi) Introduction of e-Governance and simplification of procedures and systems;

(vii) Issue of Citizen Charters;

(viii) Acceptance of the First Report of the Group of Ministers to consider measures that can be taken by the Government to tackle corruption; 

(ix) Introduction of the Lokpal Bill, 2011 in the Lok Sabha;

(x) Ratification of United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC);

(xi) Introduction of the Prevention of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials and Officials of Public International Organizations Bill, 2011 in the Lok Sabha;

(xii) Introduction of the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010 in the Parliament;

(xiii) Placing details of immovable property returns of Members of the All India Services and Group ‘A’ officers of the Central Government in the public domain.

Parliament

We are a young nation with old civilization with 121 crore people, with a democracy based on adult franchise, we are the largest democracy in the world. The progress we have been making in various fields has drawn the attention of the entire world. We can deal with the challenges and resolve the issues through democratic means. With the type of diversity we have, there can be no other means.”