2015 06 24 - csos and governance in india
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CSOs and Governance in IndiaTRANSCRIPT
Afghanistan Public Policy Research Organization
July 2015 Project Report
Patterns of State-‐Civil Society Interactions in India: Key Features
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Acknowledgements This study was commissioned by Afghanistan Public Policy Research Organization (APPRO) as part of a series of research papers for the “Citizens First: Improving human security in Afghanistan and Pakistan” project, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through Oxfam Novib. About the Authors This paper was authored by Anuja Upadhyay, an independent researcher based in New Delhi, India and expanded and edited by Saeed Parto, Director of Research at APPRO. Anuja Upadhyay and APPRO would like to thank all the individuals from civil society organizations and governmental bodies who agreed to be interviewed for this research and who generously shared information and insights about the interface between civil society organizations and the Government of India. Particular thanks go to Prachin Ghodjaker, Professor Mondira Dutta, and Professor Amita Singh from Jawaharlal Nehru University. About APPRO Afghanistan Public Policy Research Organization (APPRO) is an independent social research organization with a mandate to promote social and policy learning to benefit development and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and other less developed countries through conducting social scientific research, monitoring and evaluation, and training and mentoring. APPRO is registered with the Ministry of Economy in Afghanistan as a non-‐profit non-‐government organization and headquartered in Kabul, Afghanistan with satellite offices in Mazar-‐e Sharif (north), Herat (west), Kandahar (south), and Jalalabad (east). APPRO and its individual researchers have undertaken projects in Central Asia, Pakistan, India, Africa, China, and Turkey. For more information, see: www.appro.org.af Contact: [email protected] Photo: Indian Express (April 3, 2013) APPRO takes full responsibility for all omissions and errors. © 2015. Afghanistan Public Policy Research Organization. Some rights reserved. This publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted for non-‐commercial purposes only and with written credit to APPRO, Oxfam Novib, and the author(s). Where this publication is reproduced, stored or transmitted electronically, a link to APPRO’s website at www.appro.org.af should be provided. Any other use of this publication requires prior written permission, which may be obtained by writing to: [email protected]
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Acronyms
CSO Civil Society Organization EVAW Elimination of Violence Against Women FCRA Foreign Contribution Regulation Act MDG Millennium Development Goals NAC National Advisory Council NBA Narmada Bachao Andolan NGO Non-‐Government Organization MNRGEA Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Employment Act PWDVA Protection from Domestic Violence Act RTI Right to Information Act SRA Societies Regulation Act VAW Violence Against Women
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Table of Contents
Acronyms ............................................................................................................................... 2
Background ............................................................................................................................ 4
Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 8
Objectives and Methodology .................................................................................................. 8
CSOs in India........................................................................................................................... 9
CSOs and Governance in India .............................................................................................. 13
Challenges and Risks For CSOs .............................................................................................. 15 Indian CSOs and Fighting Corruption .............................................................................................. 15 Indian CSOs and Violence Against Women ..................................................................................... 18
Current Perceptions and Status of CSOs................................................................................ 20 Perceptions of CSOs in Governance ................................................................................................ 20 Challenges for CSOs........................................................................................................................ 21 CSO-‐Government Interface ............................................................................................................ 21 Good Practices in Combating Violence Against Women and Corruption ......................................... 22
Conclusion............................................................................................................................ 23
Implications for Afghanistan................................................................................................. 24
Recommendations................................................................................................................ 25 Recommendations for Fighting Corruption..................................................................................... 25 Recommendations for Fighting Violence Against Women............................................................... 26
Annex 1: Key Informant Interview Guiding Questions........................................................... 27
Annex 2: List of interviewees ................................................................................................ 28
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Background
The “Citizens First: Improving Human Security” project was designed to examine the possibilities for intensified and constructive engagement between civil society organizations and governments in effecting good, or better, governance in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The project is being implemented in close collaboration with local communities and civil and governmental structures at the provincial and national levels in both countries. The sites of this project in Afghanistan are three districts from each of the three provinces of Herat, Nangarhar, and Takhar, selected for their geographical and ethnic (Hazara, Pashtun, Tajik, and Uzbek) diversity and based on the available resources for this project. The selection of the districts within each province included urban and rural communities to reflect the widest possible economic diversity within each province. Table 1 shows the provinces and districts. Table 1: Site selections for Afghanistan Province District Herat – West Herat City, Guzara, Enjil Nangarhar – East Jalalabad City, Behsud, Surkh Rud Takhar – North Taloqan City, Baharak, Fakhar A key concern for many stakeholders in Afghanistan is that human security is likely to deteriorate in the post-‐2014 period due to the decrease in development aid funding and the economic contraction that is likely to follow. In addition, the impact of this economic downturn will be unevenly distributed throughout the country. For example, since Afghanistan is likely to remain a net importer of many goods for the foreseeable future, Herat and Nangarhar will be less adversely affected economically than Takhar since both Nangarhar and Herat will continue to receive a steady and reliable flow of revenue from their customs operations, approximately 220 million USD per year for Herat and 165 million USD per year for Nangarhar. This compares to 350,000 USD per year for Takhar’s minimal customs operations.1 Provinces such as Takhar are likely to be affected much more adversely with the general reduction in development aid in the post-‐2014 period. Given this background, the Citizens First project’s overriding goal is to establish how this economic outlook will affect the Afghan population in each of the three province and what roles can be played by civil society organizations in ensuring that responding to the threats to human security remain a top priority for the Government of Afghanistan and its international donors. There is a need to ensure that the provincial government in each province is willing and able to respond to the needs of their communities. A key aim for the Citizens First project is to contribute to the creation of legitimate, representative, and strong CSOs that can effectively and constructively engage governmental officials to ensure that citizens’ needs are served. As such, this project will identity the structures through which governance is exercised in Afghanistan, the effectiveness of these structures, and the entry points for strengthening those structures that best serve citizens and initiating change or reform toward structures that undermine attempts at good governance. The ultimate goal for Citizens First is to increase the citizens’ trust in their government, government’s sense of responsibility toward serving its citizens, and mutual respect by the government toward the citizens and vice versa. 1 These figures were furnished by a key informant from the Customs Department of the Ministry of Finance, on January 15, 2015.
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Citizens First is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through Oxfam Novib – Afghanistan, partnering with Afghanistan Public Policy Research Organization (APPRO) and Peace, Training, and Research Organization (PTRO) as the Afghan national counterparts. Figure 1: CSO / Government Interface in Citizens First Project
An expected output of the Citizens First project is to devise a human security model based on the rule of law, responsive government, and civic involvement in policy making resulting in good governance. This model, developed and tested in Afghanistan, will be expanded and further developed to enable
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improved awareness by local governments in Afghanistan and Pakistan as a means to increase government and citizens’ responsive capacities to resolve conflicts at different scales through peaceful means. The model will also serve as a monitoring tool for evidence-‐based advocacy and mutual accountability between governments and citizens. In Afghanistan, Citizens First has engaged CSOs at the local / district, provincial, and national levels through training and mentoring on the policy process and good governance while, at the same time, parallel training and mentoring programs have been carried out at the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL), Ministry of Education (MoEd), and Ministry of Economy (MoEc). Figure 1 describes the structure of Citizens First. Throughout 2015, national and sub-‐national advocacy committees will be formed to commence activities in support of food security and access to education in the three target provinces. This paper is one of a series of papers to examine, and learn from, CSO-‐government interface in contexts similar to Afghanistan. This paper focuses on the evolution of CSO-‐government interface in India. To ensure currency and availability of data, the two topics selected for this paper are violence against women and corruption. The analysis in the following sections is based on the available information from secondary sources such as books, journal articles, and news media and primary data collected through a series of interviews with key informants in India. The key informants were drawn from governmental bodies, CSOs, and academics. The frame of analysis in this paper combines policy making, governance, and institutions as intertwined and embedded processes. The policy process is depicted in Figure 2. Figure 2: Elements of the Policy Process
Adapted from Ostrom (1999) According to Figure 2, policies are products of the material and physical conditions, attributes of the community, the mode or system of governance, the institutional context, and patterns of interaction between the relevant actors and factors. Figure 2 also highlights the fact that all policy outputs cause
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and/or identify new problems. As such, a third key proposition in Figure 2 is that policy making is a never ending, circular, process linking problems to policies in a repetitive feedback loop. For the Citizens First project, the focus of all the activities is on the institutional context and the patterns of interaction between the relevant actors and factors (Figure 2). The findings the case study of India (this paper) and the case study of Turkey need to be examined for their implications for formal governmental entities in Afghanistan and whether and how these entities interact among themselves and with CSOs representing community issues and interests.2 The working definition adopted for governance is the manner in which a community of interdependent actors organizes itself / is organized. The working definition for institutions in this project is the tangible and intangible structures through which governance is exercised.
2 See APPRO (2015), State-‐Civil Society Interactions in Turkey: Retrospect and Prospects, available from: http://appro.org.af/state-‐civil-‐society-‐interactions-‐in-‐turkey-‐retrospect-‐and-‐prospects/
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Introduction
Since the late 1960s civil society organizations (CSOs) have been active in governance, or governing, in relatively more democratic systems of government in developed and less developed countries. The term non-‐government organization (NGO) has been used interchangeably with civil society organization (CSOs), grassroots organizations, lobby or interest groups, major groups, and social movements.3 CSOs have emerged as capable and mostly independent actors adept at fostering change and affecting political agendas. Simultaneously governance has evolved into a broader notion than government. Governance is now broadly understood as encompassing the constitution, legislature, executive and judiciary and all the relevant actors engaged in societal decision making at different levels, territorial scales, and spheres. Governance now involves different types of interaction between government and non-‐government, formal and informal institutions.4 By all accounts CSOs have been an inseparable component of governance in India for a number of decades. Given this long history, the purpose for this paper is to establish how Afghanistan may benefit India’s experience in collaborative modes of governance involving ongoing and active interaction between government and civil society organizations. To this end, this paper documents the diverse roles that CSOs have played and continue to play in governance in India, focusing on the two major issues of corruption and sexual violence against women to highlight some of the key lessons learned and the potential for their adoption and adaptation for the Afghan context. CSOs in India emerged as community-‐driven entities carrying out voluntary work for developmental programs and activities. Later, CSOs became actively involved in social movements to demand rights and challenge social inequities as well as bring about changes in public policy. Today CSOs in India are seen, and act, as the link between Indian civil society and the government in a number of key areas. This paper examines the nature of the interface between CSOs and the government in dealing with key social issues. Since corruption and sexual harassment have been headlining the news from India since late 2013, the paper focuses on the collaborative work between CSOs and the government on these two issues, the challenges each face, and the critical and instrumental role of Indian CSOs in fighting corruption and combating sexual violence. The characteristics of this interface have important implications for collaboration between CSOs and governments on other issues such as food security and government service provision in India and beyond.
Objectives and Methodology
The following objectives were set for this study:
3 Civil society is a term that became popularized at the end of the Cold War to describe what appeared to have been missing in state-‐dominated societies, broad societal participation in and concern for governance, but not necessarily government. Civil society is thought to be the necessary ingredient for democratic governance to arise. NGOs are one part of civil society. See: http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/role-‐ngo
4 See Parto (2005a).
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• Establish the role of civil society organization in government decision making/policy making in India
• Document the formal role allocated to CSOs by the Government of India • Synthesize the key features of the mode of governance in India with a focus on the interface
between CSOs and government • Identify and document the mechanisms and legal provisions for dealing with corruption and
sexual violence against women through collaborative arrangements involving CSOs and the government, and
• Generate recommendations of best practices relevant to the Afghan context. The paper is based on an analysis of primary and secondary data. Primary data were collected from key informants drawn from Indian CSOs, government organizations, and donor agencies working on women’s rights issues, especially those combating sexual violence against women and those working on anti-‐corruption. The key informants included academicians, lawyers, women’s rights activists, and government officials from the administrative, revenue, and law enforcement branches of government. The data were gathered from February 25 to March 20, 2014. Access to officials was more limited than expected due to the General Elections in late 2014. The secondary data sources included academic research papers, books, technical reports, laws, newspaper articles, and websites of relevant organizations.
CSOs in India
India has had a long history of civic engagement in providing public and social good, partly propelled by its cultural ethos and values. The sudden growth of organized voluntary action by civic organizations became manifest only after independence in 1947, however. Since independence successive Indian governments have undertaken a number of initiatives to encourage voluntary work by civil society organizations to assist with developmental programming. Today, some CSOs cooperate with the national government to implement public policy while others serve as watchdogs and monitors who can put pressure on government agencies to uphold the spirit of the state's laws and implement policies in accordance with stated objectives. CSOs strive to raise the political consciousness of various social groups, encouraging them to demand their rights and challenge social inequities. Some CSOs serve as innovators, experimenting with new approaches to solving social problems.5 Rajesh Tandon defines civil society as a collection of individual and collective initiatives for the “common public good”.6 Civil society organizations are thus linked to public arenas where the promotion of broadly defined “public good” is the purpose of the interactions between civic organizations and the government. Public good could be education, health care, sanitation, prevention of pollution, protecting natural resources, protection of human rights, maintaining peace and harmony, or simply the right for expressing disagreement. The broad definition of civil society has three key features. First, civil society is a free, open, and accessible space for the expression of ideas, taking action, and initiating discussion, debate, and
5 Pranab Bardhan, Our Self-‐Righteous Civil Society, XLVI(29), Economic and Political Weekly, (July 16, 2011). 6 Tandon, R.(2003).The Civil Society-‐ Governance Interface: An Indian Perspective. In, R. Tandon and R. Mohanty( Eds.), Does Civil Society Matter? Pp.59-‐76
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contestation. Second, civil society nurtures movements for advancing various causes. In recent decades causes such as human rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, tribal rights, peace, and environmental protection have all advanced through a variety of social movements. Protest movements against policies and actions of powerful national and international institutions on building dams, factories, mines, and the related dislocations of the affected communities are examples of such movements. In all of these examples, civil society actions as movements enable organized efforts at articulating the voices of those who are typically not heard by formal authorities. Third, civil society includes sub-‐national, community-‐based structures such as village councils, neighborhood associations, local sports and cultural groups, forest protection groups, voluntary development organizations, advocacy groups, and campaign organizations. The formal role and contributions of CSOs in governance in India only came into widespread recognition in 1991, when liberalization policies and economic reforms began to be introduced in India. This turn toward liberalization coincided with a broader, global move from government to governance.7 In India the simultaneous liberalization of the domestic market and the international trade arrangements signified a shift from protective government welfare and trade policies to open and less strictly regulated domestic and international market and trade regimes. As with most other countries undergoing a shift from government to governance, in India this shift resulted in an era of greater public participation in governing through decentralization of power to village councils or Gram Sabhas.8 In addition, a mandatory quota for women of half of the seats in government bodies was introduced as a means to institutionalize gender equality in government. In the period since 1991, India's urban middle classes have increasingly looked to CSOs to express their expectations and aspirations for governance. The educated middle class citizens were further empowered by a series of significant laws such as the Right to Information Act (2005), Public Disclosure Law (2005), and Community Participation Law (2005). The Right to Information Act obligates governmental bodies to provide timely response to citizen’s requests for government information. The Act has established the RTI Portal Gateway for the citizens to search for and access government information while various public authorities regularly publish information and disclosures on the internet with open access.9 The Community Participation Law (also known as Model Nagara Raj Bill) was issued by the Ministry of Urban Development to obligate all states to undertake reform programs for more inclusive engagement with CSOs in matters of governance with a focus on the implementation of the Jawaharlal Nehru
7 Jessop, B. (1998). The rise of governance and risks of failure: the case of economic development. International Social Science Journal (50:155).
8 Gram Sabhas are village councils in India which include all the adult citizens of the village. It is empowered to support or topple down the Gram Panchayat (local self-‐governance institution). The Sabha can contribute to a number of decisions taken by the Panchayat and can modify weak decisions whenever they want. The Panchayat can be established for a village having a population of 1,000-‐25,000. The villages having smaller populations are grouped under Gram Sabhas. The member count usually ranges from 7 to 17 depending on the strength of the village population. These form various Committees on, for example, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Public Works, Social Welfare and Health and sanitation in the village.
9 For more information, see: http://rti.gov.in/rti-‐act.pdf and http://ccs.in/sites/default/files/files/CCS_6_Public%20Disclosure%20Law.pdf
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National Urban renewal Mission. The main objective of the Law is to institutionalize citizen participation at the lowest level of governance in urban areas.10 Moreover, the spate of disasters, both man-‐ made and natural, reinforced the need for partnerships between CSOs and government in disaster management processes. For example, CSOs played an active role in providing humanitarian assistance during in period following the Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984, Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, and the Maharashtra floods in 2005 to name a few.11 After the Bhopal tragedy 4 different NGOs were immediately engaged in disaster management work. The first disaster reports were published by activist organizations such as Eklavya and the Delhi Science Forum. Around ten local organizations have been engaged in disaster management since Bhopal on a longer term basis. Some of the most active NGOs are Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila-‐Stationery Karmachari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan, Sambhavana Trust, and International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal. The December 2004 tsunami resulted in the Disaster Management Act of 2005 after a nationwide consultative process between the government and over 600 CSOs for coordinated action on disaster management. This Act has provided the legislative framework and legitimacy to the state executive management committees and district authorities to provide advice, assist, and coordinate the activities of NGOs engaged in disaster management. The District Authorities are mandated to encourage the involvement of NGOs and voluntary social welfare institutions working at grass root level in the districts for disaster management.12 After the July 2005 floods in Mumbai the municipal authorities and CSOs formed a partnership to bring about inclusive and effective governance to prevent the repeat of such disasters. The NGO Council, a pan-‐city citizens' organization, comprised 69 CSOs working together for better governance in Mumbai. The NGO Council adopted a partnership model with the municipal authority of Mumbai and with other NGOs and government bodies. The role of CSOs in the development process was to serve as a non-‐political link between the people and governmental bodies and bring professional expertise to assist in the government's efforts. The issues addressed in various meetings between the municipality and the NGO Council included corruption, accountability, better governance, service delivery especially with respect to cleanliness, solid waste management, disaster management, beautification of urban spaces, traffic, management of street vendors, and the management of pedestrian spaces. Fighting corruption was the highest priority for the NGO Council.13
10 For more details, see: http://www.civicspace.in/sites/default/files/attachments/Community%20participation%20laws%20-‐%20analysis%20by%20Shyam%20Singh%20.pdf.
11 The Bhopal Gas Tragedy was a gas leak incidence in India considered the world’s largest industrial disaster which occurred on the night of 2-‐3 December 1984 in the city of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh at the Union carbide India Limited pesticide plant. For further details see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster. The Maharashtra floods of 2005 refers to the flooding of many parts of the Indian state of Maharashtra including large areas of the metropolis Mumbai in which at least 5,000 people died. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtra_floods_of_2005.
12 For more information about this process see: http://nidm.gov.in/idmc/IDMC_Abstract/D6-‐Role%20of%20NGOs.pdf
13 Singh, B. (2013) ORF Issue Brief, Governance, citizens and new civil society in contemporary urban India: Lessons from Mumbai. Available from: http://orfonline.org/cms/export/orfonline/modules/issuebrief/attachments/Issuebrief54_1371713087707.pdf.[Last accessed on 2014 Jan 25]
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At the same time, international funding agencies had been emphasizing the need for the role of CSOs in governance of international development globally. The current emphasis on the role of CSOs in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 has formalized the inclusion of CSOs in all matters of global governance. The role of CSOs in governance has evolved over the years in India. Currently, CSOs are engaged in the political process for the formulation of Five Year Plans by the Planning Commission.14 Although some budget had been allocated to CSOs (then known as NGOS) in the 1980s, the actual recognition of CSOs’ work and contributions began in 1998 after the eighth Five Year Plan (1992-‐ 1997). Similarly, during the eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-‐2012) the Government engaged CSOs in consultations on the budget, seeking their inputs, suggestions, and experiences. Traditionally CSOs in India have acted as voices of the dominated, and often disempowered, segments in society to the dominant elements. Some view the role of civil society in good governance in India in the context of electoral processes and elections.15 According to this view, CSOs should act as a vigilant watchdog and see that corruption does not seep in electoral processes. The Indian elections are funded mainly by private corporations and a candidate’s entrance into politics is mainly facilitated by their ability to secure funds for their candidacy. Given the high corruptive potential of these arrangements, the role of CSOs is to minimize, if not eliminate, corruption. The role of CSOs is thus to educate all concerned about the need for the legislative, judiciary, and legislature branches of the government to be fairly representative since in a democracy those who govern should be drawn from all sections of the society. Another view of CSOs in good governance outlines three main contributions of CSOs in national development in the context of economic liberalization. These are:
1. Innovation: CSOs have been experimenting with new ways of promoting more sustainable, people-‐centered development and have been able to develop methods, models, and equipment widely adopted by the state and national governments as well as internationally.
2. Empowerment: CSOs have been involved in the empowerment of socio-‐economically marginalized and exploited sections of society.
3. Research and Advocacy: CSOs have undertaken significant public education and policy advocacy initiatives through their own research on women, tribes, Dalits (untouchables), environment, education, and human rights.16
According to this view there are linkages between civil society and government in a number of key areas as follows. Local self-‐governance: Civil society plays a meaningful role in ensuring self governance of public institutions that use public resources. Civil Society can ensure that community-‐based organizations,
14 The Planning Commission of the Government of India formulates India’s Five Year Plans. For more information see: http://planningcommission.nic.in/
15 Oommen, T.K. (2003). Civil Society and the Role of Good Governance. In Tandon, R. and R. Mohanty (Eds.), Does Civil Society Matter? Pp.125-‐44
16 Goswami, D. and R. Tandon (2013). Civil Society in Changing India: Emerging Roles, Relationships and Strategies
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cooperatives, trade unions, sports associations, and the like establish standards and norms of self-‐governance consistent with democratic principles and practices in urban and rural areas. Defining public good: Civil society contributes to good governance through articulating definitions for and prioritization of public goods. It plays a role in speaking for those whose voices are likely to remain unheard. In India, civil society organizations have created channels through which the needs and concerns of Dalits, tribes, religious minorities, women, and children are expressed to formal decision and policy making bodies.17 Influencing public negotiations: The collective role of CSOs is to shape public opinion for the provision and protection of public goods through community organization. Public goods may include health services, education, women’s rights, fighting corruption, safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, transport, and employment. CSOs participate in public negotiations in various ways such as presenting perspectives and experiences on their own work in a micro setting, monitoring impact of previous and related policies, and raising questions about the larger public good and how it is protected or undermined through government planning and budgeting. As such, CSOs interact with the legislature, ministries, and other governmental entities. Even though CSOs themselves may not be directly responsible for the formation of policy, they play a role in influencing it. Ensuring state accountability: CSOs interact with different arms of the state to ensure that they function with accountability and in accordance to the relevant laws and the constitution. A related of function of CSOs is to hold the law and order machinery accountable. Other areas where accountability is needed the mechanisms through which the large funds provided by international development agencies are allocated and spent. Many CSOs in India also play roles in bringing accountability to the functioning of political parties and electoral processes. Accountability of the private sector: Since private sector organizations and associations represent the interests of their members and participate in the public arena, CSOs often assume the responsibility of ensuring accountability to the public by private sector interests. Consumer protection movements and organizations protect the rights of the consumer and counteract to initiatives deemed as damaging to or undermining consumers.18
CSOs and Governance in India
The role of CSOs in governance in India has been evolving and changing with time. CSOs in contemporary India organize in innovative ways to exert influence on government policy making and actions. They make effective and elaborate use of the media to bring attention to issues of concern
17 Dalit a designation for a group of people traditionally regarded as untouchable. The word “Dalit” comes from the Sanskrit root dal and means “broken, ground-‐down, downtrodden, or oppressed.” Those previously known as Untouchables, Depressed Classes, and Harijans are today increasingly adopting the term “Dalit” as a name for themselves. Dalit refers to one’s caste rather than class and applies to members of low castes which have born the stigma of “untouchability” because of the extreme impurity and pollution connected with their traditional occupations. As such, Dalits are outcastes, falling outside the traditional four-‐fold caste system consisting of the hereditary Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra classes. For further detail see: http://www.ncdhr.org.in/dalits-‐untouchability/
18 Goswami, D. and R. Tandon (2013)
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for their constituents and use formal and informal mechanisms within the state machinery to disseminate their demands based on their interactions with communities. At a formal level a number of specific roles have been delineated for CSOs as follows.19
CSOs as watchdogs: One of the most significant roles of CSOs in contemporary India is that of acting as watchdogs especially against human rights violations and governing deficiencies. In many ways, the Right to Information Act (RTI) institutionalizes the role of CSOs acting as watchdogs.20 Under RTI CSOs have access to information on the basis on which they can press for accountability and transparency of the government. CSOs monitor legislative processes and evaluate the impact of public policy decisions. CSOs are also in a position to pressurize the government to formulate policies to benefit the more vulnerable sections of society. Of late, CSOs have been participating in social audits and budget monitoring and analysis.
CSOs as service providers: CSOs provide delivery of services to areas and communities underserved by the government due to access or other issues. For example, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) of 2005, Forest Rights Act, and the Right to Food Act ensure at a formal level that basic community needs such as employment, food and food security, and a right to using forest resources are addressed. The bulk of program implementation activities at the grassroots level have been provided by local, community-‐based CSOs, however. CSOs as advocates: Many CSOs are engaged in Planning Commission’s formulation processes of Five Year Plans. In 2012 a review of the eleventh Five Year Plan was conducted by a consortium of voluntary organizations after a series of consultations at state and thematic levels. Various subgroups were created by the Planning Commission to help draft the next Fiver Year Plan. Since 2009 selected CSOs have been invited by the Finance Ministry for a pre-‐budget annual consultation while many consultative committees have been formed by various ministries to seek structured input from the voluntary sector. CSOs as mobilizers and campaigners: CSOs bring different groups and individuals from different strata in society together with activists, academics, and celebrities. A recent example of such mobilization is the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) against an expansive program of dam building along the Narmada River, displacing a large number of people. The large masses of people organized by a number of CSOs managed to convince the Government of India and the World Bank (who funded the project) to stop the program in 1992.21 CSOs as capacity builders: CSOs assist in the formation of additional community-‐based organizations and provide capacity building for the more nascent organizations. CSOs as educators: CSOs educate citizens on their rights, entitlements, and responsibilities while keeping the government informed of the needs and aspirations of the most vulnerable segments of society. The Forest Rights Act is a good example of the educational role of CSOs in India. Based on the information provided by CSOs, the Act gave the tribal population legal rights over the forestlands where they had been living for generations but without legal ownership.
19 Available from: http://orfonline.org/cms/export/orfonline/modules/issuebrief/attachments/Issuebrief54_1371713087707.pdf
20 For more details see: http://rti.gov.in/ 21 For more details, see: http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/narmada-‐bachao-‐andolan-‐nba-‐forces-‐end-‐world-‐bank-‐funding-‐sardar-‐sarovar-‐dam-‐india-‐1985-‐1993
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Recognizing the crucial role played by CSOs, the Government of India has made several attempts to regulate their activities. Two such attempts are the Societies Registration Act (SRA) and the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) in 2010. Both legislations call for formal registration of CSOs, currently numbering around 40,000. Also, the government has been much stricter of late in registering new CSOs/NGOs. Under FCRA a CSO license has to be renewed every five years. CSOs must be registered under both SRA and FCRA.
Challenges and Risks For CSOs
Indian CSOs are faced with several challenges, particularly since the early 1990s. Due to the increase in funding from foreign governments, international donors and corporations, questions have been raised about the authenticity, accountability, transparency, intention, and credibility of CSOs involved in spending large funds. There are worries that the large sums of funding being given to CSOs could have a corruptive effect on CSOs more concerned with raising large funds than serving civil society. In India, as elsewhere, many NGOs are fronts for entrepreneurial businesses profiting from development activities. Also, many CSOs lack organizational capacity to manage funds appropriately. CSOs are also facing growing pressure from different levels of government, the public, and other stakeholders to have transparent systems for keeping track of their funding sources, expenditures, and effectiveness of their activities. Stakeholders are also asking CSOs to provide proof of the measurable impacts created by their work. Though many CSOs have remained faithful to their initial mandates serving their communities, many others have become subservient to the needs of their actual and potential donors. There is suspicion in many communities, and among many government officials, about the intention of CSOs, the funds they receive, and the ends to which these funds are put. At the same time, CSOs are vulnerable to intimidation, especially if they receive foreign funding and/or are engaged in advocacy including challenging government authority. Since 2007 India's average per capita income rose sufficiently to qualify India as a lower middle-‐income country.22 With this change of status, the total amount of development aid from international sources to India is likely to continue to decrease compared to before. As a result, there has been mounting pressure on CSOs dependent on international donor funds to find other means of sustaining themselves. The likely outcome of the change in development funding arrangements between India and donor countries is closure of many foreign fund-‐dependent Indian CSOs. Despite these challenges and issues, there are a number of CSOs in India that have demonstrated vision, commitment, innovativeness, and capacity to address major social concerns. The next two sections provide two illustrative examples of the role of CSOs in addressing major issues of concern to their constituents.
Indian CSOs and Fighting Corruption
CSOs and the Government of India collaborated in devising the Right to Information Act (RTI), the first instance of participatory law making in India. The formation and formalization of RTI took more than 20
22 Available from: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Worlds-‐poor-‐move-‐with-‐India-‐into-‐middle-‐income-‐bracket/articleshow/7165089.cms.[Last accessed on 2014 Feb 10]
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years and a long struggle by CSOs rooted in the Majdoor Kisan Sakthi Sangathan (MKSS) social movement.23 The policy making process started in 1995, generating the first draft of the RTI policy in 1996, compiled by MKSS and the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI).24 The campaign for RTI started in the state of Rajasthan as a product of the popular demand for a minimum wage for workers employed by the government. The campaign attempted to grapple with the root causes of and reasons for the non-‐payment of wages by the government and demanded official information recorded in government files in rural areas. The need to access government records on wages was formalized, catalyzing a general demand by the people for the "right to know". As part of its campaign, MKSS used a variety of tactics to make its demands known to the government. These included sit-‐ins, rallies, lobbying the government, and organizing cultural events such music festivals and street theater to gather support and disseminate its message. A National Advisory Council (NAC) was setup in 2004 as an interface between civil society and the Government of India.25 NCPRI then submitted its recommendations for the RTI draft bill to NAC in 2004, which endorsed most of them and submitted the bill to the parliament. The Indian Parliament passed the bill in May 2005. Since the enactment of RTI there has been considerable improvement in governance, dissemination of information by the government, and involvement of civil society in the policy making processes and actions by the government. The Act has created a freer environment for the interface between the government and civil society and its organizations. The Act applies to all constitutional authorities including the executive, legislature, and judiciary and other entities established or constituted by an act of parliament or as a result of state legislature.26 As such, the Act contributes to efforts to enforce effective implementation of other laws and policies. Case studies and media reports show that RTI is being used to redress individual grievances, access entitlements such as ration cards and pensions, investigate government policies and decisions, and expose corruption and misuse of government resources. Much of the information regarding corruption in the allocation of tenders and contracts for the 2010 Commonwealth Games was unearthed using RTI. In 2010, a series of RTI applications filed by the Housing and Land Rights Network, a Delhi-‐based NGO, revealed that the Delhi government had diverted funds of over USD7 billion from its social welfare programs meant for infrastructure benefiting underprivileged castes and tribes to development under the Commonwealth Games.27 Another remarkable development is the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act in 2013 to fight corruption. The long and arduous struggle for this Act included several rounds of rejections over the decades. The origins of the movement date back to 1963 and a suggestion made by the Prime Minister of the time, Moraji Desai. To fight corruption, an institution resembling Scandinavia’s ombudsman was envisaged and presented in the Parliament as a Lokpal Bill in the Lower House on May 9, 1968. This Act seeks to create national and state level mechanisms for investigating allegations of corruption against certain public 23 Majdoor Kisan Sakthi Sangathan(MKSS) is an Indian social movement and grassroots organization best known for its struggle and demand for RTI in India. For details see: http://www.mkssindia.org/about-‐us/
24 The National Campaign for People's Right to Information(NCPRI) is a campaign that was established in 1996 to push for the creation of the RTI in India. For more information see: http://righttoinformation.info/about-‐us/
25 The task of the National Advisory Council (NAC) is to provide input in the formulation of policy by the Government and to provide support to the Government in its legislative business. For more information, see: http://www.rtiindia.org/forum/blogs/shrawan-‐pathak/1751-‐role-‐civil-‐society-‐evolution-‐rti-‐act-‐2005.html
26 Available from: http://rti.gov.in/rticorner/guideonrti.pdf.[Last accessed on 2014 Feb 09] 27 For more information see: http://governancenow.com/news/regular-‐story/games-‐propped-‐cost-‐dalits
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functionaries or matters connecting them with corruption.28 The Act is a direct outcome of the largest mass mobilization in the recent history of CSOs in India. Starting in 2011, the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement emerged to fight against endemic political corruption in the country through protests, hunger strikes, and peaceful demonstrations led by the social activist Anna Hazare and supporters such as Arvind Kejriwal.29 One of the initiators of this movement, Arvind Kejriwal, later formed a political party and contested in the elections in 2013, becoming a Chief Minister for a short period of time. CSOs have played a major role as watchdogs and capacity builders in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Employment Act (MNRGEA) of 2005. Under this Act the government is obliged to involve CSOs and community based organizations (CBOs) in conducting social audits to review official records and determine whether state-‐reported expenditures reflect the actual monies spent on employment initiatives through transparent planning and monitoring of work and to prevent corruption.30 Although MNRGEA is focused on employment, it is an effective means of providing access by communities to governmental processes that affect employment, particularly in rural areas. The Act was the Government of India’s response to signals it received from CSOs about the distress within rural communities due to lack of work and income in the dry months of the year when there was no agricultural work, a major cause of poverty in rural India.31 The Act guarantees the right to work and ensures livelihood security in rural areas for 100 days of paid employment during the dry season for every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The scheme has been vital for poor households without productive land or marketable skills by providing non-‐discriminatory access to work and the timely payment of fair wages. The National Consortium on NRGEA acts as a federated collective of civil society organizations to document innovations and good practices in managing employment issues through organizing workshops and consultations and bring together officials of the states and central government to discuss how to address the many challenges of the MNRGEA.32 Another initiative that has revolutionized the government-‐citizen interface in India is e-‐governance. In India it refers to the application of technology to transform the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of exchange of information and transactions between government agencies, government and citizens and between government and business. E-‐governance also aims to empower people through giving them access to information. The National e-‐governance Plan of 2006 makes all
28 The Lokpal is the anti-‐corruption ombudsman at the centre and the Lokayuktas are the anti-‐corruption ombudsman organizations in the States.
29 See: http://www.annahazare.org/ [accessed January 2014] and: http://www.arvindkejriwal.in/ [accessed January 2014].
30 Social audit as a term was used as far back as the 1950s. In a nutshell, it refers to the steps that are taken to ensure that the work done by the Government is actually benefiting the people whom it is intended to benefit. It is based on the principle that the local governance should be carried out, as much as possible, with the consent and in complete understanding of the requirements of the people concerned. Thus, social audit is a process of understanding, measuring, reporting, and most importantly improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the local governance.
31 Available from: http://tap.resultsfordevelopment.org/sites/tap.resultsfordevelopment.org/files/resources/Transparency-‐and-‐Accountability-‐in-‐Governance-‐in-‐India.pdf.[Last accessed on 2014 Jan 25]
32 See: http://www.samprag.org/downloads/mnrega/mgnrega_lucknow_meet.pdf
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government services available to the public via electronic media. An extensive countrywide infrastructure reaching the remotest of villages has evolved for large-‐scale digitization of records to facilitate easy and reliable access and interaction between the government and citizens through the use of Internet. The plan aims to make the government more accessible to citizens and businesses alike and foster a more open environment.33 The Bhoomi Project, as part of e-‐ governance, provides easy and quick access to land records for farmers. Under this project 20 million land titles in Karnataka have been digitized. The access is provided through designated information kiosks which also serve as protection against harassment and extortion of the users. Assessments of the Bhoomi project have claimed that the project has reduced corruption from 66% to less than 3%.34
Indian CSOs and Violence Against Women
The background for the many various laws and policies to protect women against violence in India has been a series of mass movements over the years demanding change for better protection of women. The first anti-‐rape movement where CSOs championing women’s rights emerged at a national level was in 1980, many years after the gang rape of a minor tribal girl, Mathura, by the policemen on the premises of a police station in a village in the western state of Maharashtra in 1972.35 This event placed violence against women on the public agenda despite the fact that the Supreme Court at the time acquitted the two accused policemen. The tragedy brought to fore several crucial aspects of women's oppression in India including the role of class and caste in women’s oppression, and the issue of accountability to the public by public servants, the police, and the judiciary in upholding the constitutional guarantees to protect citizens. A letter by four law professors objecting to the Court’s decision to acquit the two policemen and the Chief Justice, started a long process that included a major role for women’s rights activists and organizations and resulted in significant legislative changes through the passing of the Indian Evidence Act 1872, the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPc) 1973, and the Indian Penal Code 1860 introducing a category of custodial rape.36 A second movement emerged in 1994 when CSOs campaigned for a change in the law after the gang rape of Bhanwari Devi, a grassroots worker employed as part of the Women's Development Project (WDP) run by the Government of Rajasthan in North India. Bhanwari Devi had tried to stop a child marriage in a village in Rajasthan in 1992. The men who gang raped Devi were acquitted by the court. In response to this decision several women’s groups and CSOs filed a petition with the Supreme Court in 1994 under the collective platform of “Vishaka” against the State of Rajasthan and the Union
33For more information see: http://india.gov.in/e-‐governance 34 For more information see: http://www.bhoomi.karnataka.gov.in/landrecordsonweb/ 35 Agnihotri, I and Majumdar, V. Changing Terms of Political Discourse: Women’s Movement 1970s to 1990s. Economic and Political weekly; 1995: 30. Available from: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4403023?uid=3738256&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21103560650153[Last accessed on 2014 Mar 05]
36 The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 contains a set of rules and regulations regarding admissibility of evidence in the Indian Courts of Law. For details see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Evidence_Act. The Criminal Procedure Act, 1973 is the main legislation on procedure for administration on substantive criminal law in India. For details see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Criminal_Procedure,_1973. The Indian Penal Code,1860 is the main comprehensive criminal code of India intended to cover all substantive aspect of criminal law. For details see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Penal_Code
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of India asking for a change in the outdated laws that did not provide adequate protection for women. In 1997 the Supreme Court passed the landmark Vishaka Judgment and laid down Guidelines on Sexual Harassment at the Workplace, to be followed by establishments dealing with complaints about sexual harassment. Prior to Vishaka there were no formal guidelines in India for dealing with incidents involving sexual harassment in the workplace or by an employer. Also in the early 1990s the Lawyers Collective (LCWRI) began its campaign for a civil law on domestic violence, resulting in the passing of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) in 2005 by the Central Government. The Act aimed at creating a mechanism for safeguarding the constitutional rights and privileges of women subjected to family violence and cruelty. The Act also grants protection to women against family violence and marital relationships. A key outcome of the Act has been police training on PWDVA in collaboration with the State Police in different states of India to sensitize them about different forms of violence against women and stressing the issue of domestic violence as a social problem rather than a private matter. LCWRI has been actively involved in follow up and monitoring of implementing PWDVA through publishing a series of monitoring and evaluation reports over the years. The 2013 report, for example, assesses the effectiveness of protection women against violence within the framework of marriage and domestic relationships. Over a period of 9 months 9,526 out of the 22,255 Magistrate and Sessions Court Orders were received by LCWRI from 27 states and Union Territories. In April 2013, almost 16 years after the issuance of the Vishaka Guidelines, India enacted its own law on sexual harassment in the workplace, the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act and Rules. This Act endorses many of the Vishaka Guidelines, and is a step toward codifying gender equality. Although CSOs had been lobbying for many years since Vishaka for further legislative reform, specific laws only came into force in 2012 after the anti-‐rape movement by led by CSOs and women’s rights organizations in response to a spate of cases of rape including the brutal gang rape and subsequent death of a 23 years old medical student, Nirbhaya, in December 2012.37 In January 2013 the Justice Verma Commission, a three member committee headed by Justice J.S. Verma, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was formed to recommend amendments to the Criminal Law of India as a means facilitate speedier trial processes and enhanced punishments for criminals accused of committing sexual assault against women.38 More than 2,000 CSOs including academics, lawyers, activists, voluntary organizations, students, and others were consulted prior to the issuance of the recommendations by the Verma Commission. The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 2013, which provides for the amendment of the Indian Penal Code and the Indian Evidence Act and Code of Procedure was also passed by both Houses of Parliament in December 2013. As a result of this Act there is now stronger punishment for stalking, attempts to acid attack, acid attack, voyeurism, and sexual harassment, none of which were specifically mentioned in the earlier versions of the Indian Penal Code. Some of the participating CSOs were also involved in the follow up, which eventually led to the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act in 2013. The passing
37 Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Delhi_gang_rape. [Last accessed on 2014 Mar 05] 38 Justice Verma Committee was constituted to recommend amendments to the Criminal Law so as to provide for quicker trial and enhanced punishment for criminals accused of committing sexual assault against women. The Committee submitted its report on January 23, 2013. The Criminal Law of India (divided into three major acts Indian Penal Code 1860, Indian Evidence Act 1872 and Code of Procedure 1973)For further details see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_criminal_law
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of all these major landmark judgments and legislative changes on fighting violence against women in different spheres have been, by and large, the consequences of major incidents of sexual violence against women, significant readiness of CSOs and women’s rights organizations to organize and protest, and the readiness of India’s legislators to respond to the strong messages and actions being issued against violence against women by India’s civil society.
Current Perceptions and Status of CSOs
This section is based on the key findings from a series of interviews held with key informants during mid to late 2014.
Perceptions of CSOs in Governance
Within the current institutional landscape of India CSOs are viewed as watchdogs to ensure accountability from the Government, mobilizers for mass movements demanding public goods, advocates for formulating new, or amending existing, policies and laws, capacity builders at the grassroots level in rural and urban areas, and educators of the public through awareness raising initiatives. CSOs are also recognized as service providers and as entities that provide spaces or create platforms for the community to make its demands known to governmental decision makers. Some government officials see CSOs as advocates and innovators for formulating policies while others view CSOs as catalysts for social change, through providing leadership for popular movements demanding change. For some women’s rights organizations the most significant role for CSOs is advocacy, awareness raising, and mediating to combat sexual violence against women.39 This role involves advocacy programs through information dissemination in the form of pamphlets and brochures, sensitizing law enforcement agencies and the police on laws and the judiciary on how to deal sensitively with sexual violence cases:
CSOs intermediate and support victims and survivors of violence who do not want to go directly to the police to lodge complaints for fear of stigmatization. When women go to the police, they do not receive much response but if the complaint is lodged through a CSO it has much more weight.40
One Government official describes CSOs as innovative because they articulate ideas in the process of drafting legislation such as PWDVA in 2005, the Vishaka Guidelines, and the Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act. All these legislative measures came into place based on close collaboration between CSOs and the Lawyers’ Collective to propose concrete steps to be taken by the government in fighting violence against women. Some are critical of the role of CSOs as merely program implementers. For example, a key informant from a CSO working on anti-‐corruption and governance issues felt that CSOs should focus more on critical advocacy to hold government authorities accountable and much less on service delivery. According to this view, CSOs should take part in legislative work but this should not be done at the 39 Key informant from Shakti Vahini, a women’s rights CSO specializing in prevention of trafficking women, protection, and rehabilitation of trafficked women and girls which includes victims of rapes. Their primary role is to raise awareness among the public – including young girls who are likely to fall prey to traffickers.
40 Key informant from Shakti Vahini
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expense of the greater role as a watchdog. In addition, CSOs should be intermediaries between the most vulnerable citizens and the government.
Challenges for CSOs
There are concerns that many organizations are being set up as CSOs by businesses and other special interests to promote a positive image of the benefactors and as part of efforts to fulfill commitment to “Corporate Social Responsibility”. CSOs may also be compelled to compromise their commitments and integrity as a condition of securing donor funds. This is seen as an outcome of applying market principles indiscriminately and to such issues as the provision and protection of public good, areas where markets have an established reputation for failing. Despite a significant element of voluntarism among CSOs in India, resource mobilization remains a key challenge for CSOs, many of which fail to secure adequate funds to operate. Of the CSOs that receive donor funds, a large part of the collective effort is directed at securing additional funds to continue operation. The views of CSOs from a government perspective are varied. One key informant stated that the government is often suspicious of CSOs as having vested interests. To overcome this suspicion, the key informant suggested that the demands and activities by CSOs would benefit from being based on concrete problems and sound evidence. Another key informant reported that the Ministry of Women and Child Development gives funds to CSOs to run shelters for victims of violence and to carry out activities such as vocational training. CSOs in this case are seen as bodies that have tremendous capacities and can give constructive criticism. But there are structural limitations to coordinated efforts for programming for women:
Getting the financial resources is a constrain in the work by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The budget for fighting violence against women is to come from a cross section of ministries. Law and order and police stations fall under the Ministry of Home Affairs. When victims of violence go for medical aid the budget falls under Ministry of Health. Legal aid for women, shelters and training centers fall under the Ministry of Law and Justice while domestic violence and dowry come under the Ministry of Women and Child Development.41
Because corruption is endemic in India, there is a general wariness about appropriation of funds by CSOs from a government perspective and by the government from a CSO perspective. One government official admitted that corruption is culturally embedded and complex and, as such, very difficult to fight. Legislation such as RTI may slow the process but it does not stop corruption completely.
CSO-‐Government Interface
Some CSOs are not content with working with the government though they recognize that collaboration with the government is necessary. Working with government often entails appeasing government officials with gratuities to overcome bureaucratic hurdles or to secure government funds. Gratuities are involved when dealing with lower ranking government officials and during the process of tendering. Also, taking funds directly from the government often means not being able to criticize the government.
41 Key informant from Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India
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These pressures force CSOs to become co-‐opted and partial, acting, in effect, as sub-‐contractors for the government. For example,
India has a black economy [made up of] the businessmen, the political class (policy makers), and the executive branch. The executive branch consists of the bureaucracy, the police and the judiciary. The businessman has a white income but he wants to generate extra income and he uses the black economy to generate that, for which he may have to bribe. The cut that is given to the politician and the executive branch is generally only 10-‐15 percent. The businessman gets a return on investment of sometimes up to 700 percent. It is very lucrative. This situation makes corruption systematic and systemic, and hard to fight.42
Good Practices in Combating Violence Against Women and Corruption
VAW and corruption are deeply rooted in Indian society. Different initiatives have been taken by different actors to tackle VAW and corruption. Some women’s rights organizations have been focusing on university students and youth in their efforts to mainstream gender. Initiatives include setting up systems for reporting cases of violence, leadership skills training, and providing gender awareness programs for males and females. A key informant from a women’s rights organization stated that her organization has been working to address violence against women by gender mainstreaming within government institutions and schools, colleges, and universities through working with the youth:
We have a program with university students in Sonepat and Bareilly in the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. This collaborative program involves the university and the community where boys and girls [have roles as] equal partners. Adolescent girls and boys form groups with students from the oldest women-‐only university and boys in Sonepat. These boys and girls are the core group leading the project in the two areas. The participants are taught to reflect on the process of gender discrimination as it happens in their homes and around them. They are made to think how they themselves are perpetuating it and how to address it themselves.43
At the formal level, CSOs are active in advocacy for changes in existing laws on ending violence against women. As a result of advocacy efforts by CSOs, crimes such as rape and “honour killing” have clear definitions, making it easier for the formal justice system to bring perpetrators of crimes against women to justice. Also, disseminating advocacy materials on VAW in local languages, or using local imagery to tackle VAW, plays a major role in raising / changing traditional community awareness. At the same time, literacy, engaging tribal leaders, local councils, religious leaders, the police, and judiciary through training and education have collectively played a key role in ending traditional practices harmful to women. A key informant with experience of working in Afghanistan and some Central Asian countries stated,
… to deal with sexual violence against women the only way is to rope in the tribal leaders, local councils, religious leaders, and the youth (especially men), and change their mindset gradually. One cannot impose
42 Key informant from a CSO 43 Key informant from PRIA, an organization working on governance and women’s rights issues
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democratic norms in [conservative communities] right now and expect them to change overnight. It is basically a tribal society and ruled by customary Islamic laws. Change will take time.44
In fighting corruption, social auditing is increasingly being used by CSOs to take government to account for its expenditures and possible financial abuses. In social auditing trained volunteer auditors are tasked by local organizations to audit and document administrative procedures and forms and financial records of local development projects for irregularities and inconsistencies. In India, RTI is a very effective legal instrument for facilitating social audits and fighting corruption. However, social audit does not really work if it does not benefit from strong community support. Community-‐based, grassroots movements are critical to bringing about change as laws and legislative reform do not, by themselves, effect lasting change.45 E-‐governance also offers numerous opportunities for fighting corruption. A fully transparent means of communication and information sharing between the government and the public is likely to provide easy access to information including rules and procedures for access to government services and names and locations of public officials responsible for different tasks, reducing administrative ambiquity and therefore corruption while promoting better governance. According to one key informant:
E-‐governance is an excellent tool to deal with corruption and promote good governance as there is no manual intervention or manipulation involved in the interaction between citizens and the government officials. When [the number of steps in] interface [between citizens and government] are reduced, the need for speed money or bribes is also drastically reduced.46
Conclusion
In India, changes in governance and the legal framework for addressing VAW and corruption have been products of two key but related processes. First, India has a long, established, and uninterrupted tradition of civic involvement in matters involving the provision of public good. Second, as the largest democracy in the world, India’s various governments have had to be responsive to strong community sentiments being expressed through CSOs, whose number in India is a staggering 40,000. Legislative measures such as the Lokpal, Lokayukta, and RTI Acts have been important instruments for CSOs in ensuring accountability and information sharing by government officials. India has a rich, uninterrupted history of cooperation between CSOs and government. In part this history is a product of context specific community attributes and a relatively open mode of governance, nurtured during a relatively long period of peace in the country since the late 1940s. In practical terms governance in India is now understood by many as encompassing the Constitution, legislature, executive and judiciary and all the relevant actors engaged in societal decision making at different levels, territorial scales, and in different spheres. Governance in India entails various types of interaction between government and non-‐government, formal and informal institutions. 44 Key informant from a CSO. 45 As an aside, PRIA introduced the concept of social audits to Afghan Aid in Afghanistan in 2011, encouraging them to involve the community in audits of the local governance arrangements and workings of Community Development Councils as a means to develop the capacities of the local communities and to hold the local governance actors accountable to the communities.
46 Key informant from a CSO.
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CSOs in India are widely accepted as entities with the right to function in a free, open, and accessible space for the expression of ideas, taking action, and initiating discussion, debate, and contestation. CSOs are active at all levels of governance ranging from community-‐level neighborhood associations to cultural groups, forest protection groups, and rights campaign organizations. Increasingly CSOs have become involved in advocacy for various causes such as human rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, tribal rights, peace, and environmental protection. Some of these initiatives have resulted in the emergence and legitimization of protest movements against policies and actions of powerful national and international entities on such issues as building dams, factories, mines, and the dislocations caused by these projects in host communities. Through these initiatives and activities CSOs have become catalysts for the emergence of organized efforts to articulate the voices of most vulnerable and the least advantaged in India. Arguably, the passing of significant laws such as the Right to Information Act (2005), Public Disclosure Law (2005), and Community Participation Law (2005) is in part a product of the process of political maturation and sophistication by Indian CSOs. The Right to Information Act, for example, obligates governmental bodies to provide timely response to citizens’ requests for government information. The RTI Portal Gateway allows citizens to search for and access government information while various public authorities regularly publish information and disclosures on the internet with open access. In economic development matters, Indian CSOs are active participants in the formulation of Five Year Plans by the Planning Commission, with budgetary allowances made to facilitate and formalize this participation. In the political process Indian CSOs often act as watchdogs to ensure that elections, for example, are transparent and that corruption is minimized. This watchdog role limits the degree to which private corporations and vested interests can influence the electoral process. Over the decades Indian CSOs have become synonymous with social innovation, citizen empowerment, policy-‐relevant research, and advocacy. At the same time, Indian CSOs are increasingly faced with challenges similar to those faced by CSOs in other countries. A most fundamental challenge is funding dependency. Whereas the origins of CSOs in India are community service, voluntarism, and rights advocacy, the reliance by many international development aid organizations on local CSOs as service delivery partners has resulted in a change of approach among CSOs, with many criticizing fund-‐receiving CSOs as having become income generating enterprises for their members in the first instance and community service providers as a secondary mandate. Despite these challenges, there are numerous lessons that could be drawn from the experience and history of CSOs in India for Afghan CSOs. The key recommendations based on the findings from the analysis of primary and secondary data may be summarized as follows.
Implications for Afghanistan
The role of civil society organizations in development aid programme implementation in Afghanistan came to the fore after 2001 though a number of national and international NGOs had been active since the early 1990s in providing mostly humanitarian aid but also services in health, education, and agricultural development. The demand for national implementing partners to deliver programmes in agriculture, health, education, women’s rights, and construction services multiplied manifold in the period that followed the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. Currently, there are over 3,000 national and
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international NGOs registered with the Afghan Ministry of Economy.47 The general understanding of the role of civil society organizations is mixed and even suspicious.48 The governmental agencies in Afghanistan do not view CSOs as fully trustable or as reliable sources of information and expertise. There is also little or no acceptance of the role of CSOs as watchdogs.49 Nevertheless, CSOs have been active as individual organizations or as coalitions to lobby for legislative and other changes. Unlike Indian CSOs, however, Afghan CSOs are largely dependent on foreign funding as local sources of support for the sector are scarce or non-‐existent. Nascent democratic government, low institutional maturity and capacity, and endemic corruption are major hindrances to the emergence of an enabling environment for CSOs to play their full part in governance and development in Afghanistan. Corruption is present at every level and has become a social practice with patronage and bribery being acceptable parts of the daily life and routines.50 In India too, corruption has become a part of daily life as evidenced in the recent spate of scandals and social protests. The key difference between India and Afghanistan is the public’s reaction to corruption. Whereas in India there is formal recognition of the citizens’ concerns through such initiatives as the India Against Corruption (2011) movement, in Afghanistan there is no organized, civil society-‐based reaction to corruption and all measures and mechanisms put in place to deal with corruption are characteristically top-‐down with little or no influence on corruption and corrupt practices by all manner of officialdom. Over the last few decades there have been major changes in India in mechanisms and legal provisions for combating violence against women. In Afghanistan a similar trend is discernable with the key difference that the mechanisms and legal provisions have been in place only since 2001 and thus lack relative permanency. In both countries, although the number of cases of violence have not decreased, more incidents of violence are being reported and more women are coming forward to seek justice from the system due to an enabling legislative environment, increased general awareness, and formal protection of the victims of violence.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Fighting Corruption
1. CSOs can lobby for anti-‐corruption laws such as the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act (2013). The thought of being exposed and answerable to the public along with legal repercussions is likely to prohibit or limit corruption among politicians, civil servants, and private sector actors. In addition, such legislation is likely to empower citizens in making their dissatisfaction about corruption known to
47 Afghanistan Public Policy Research Organization, Kabul. Transitions and Non-‐Government Organizations in Afghanistan: Assessments and prospects.(2014)
48 Civil society Development in Afghanistan: Elizabeth Winter.(2010).Available from: http://www.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/research/NGPA/publications/winter afghanistan_report_final.pdf
49 2011 CSO Sustainability Index for Afghanistan(2011) USAID. For more details see: http://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1866/Afghanistan%20CSOSI%202011.pdf
50 Afghanistan in 2013: A Survey of Afghan People.(2013). Asia Foundation. Available from: http://asiafoundation.org/resources/pdfs/2013AfghanSurvey.pdf
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governmental bodies. Corruption can also be regulated through CSOs lobbying an access to information act similar to the RTI (2005). RTI holds the government officials accountable for any information within a certain period of filing a request, with disciplinary consequences for those officials who fail make information available within a specific time frame.
2. CSOs would be most effective if they form alliances and associations on specific issues such as corruption. Alliances and associations would create a critical mass and minimize the possibility of individual CSOs being singled out or persecuted by corrupt officials.
3. Every effort should be made by anti-‐corruption CSOs to engage youth and the most vulnerable, as well as professionals such as human rights and criminal lawyers in the fight against corruption.
4. The Government to citizen e-‐governance model offers a significant potential for more active engagement of civil society in governance. In addition, e-‐governance is likely to bear pressure on governmental ministries to improve their service delivery role and efficiency, likely to result in strengthened trust between governmental officials and their public.
5. Community monitoring and social audits need to be central to advocacy efforts by CSOs as they are likely to mainstream CSOs in the political arena and curb abuses and corruption by governmental officials.
Recommendations for Fighting Violence Against Women
6. Young girls and boys, as well as women and men, should be involved in efforts to fight violence against women. Advocacy and education on fighting VAW must be clear that protecting the perpetrators in the name of “culture”, “tradition”, “honor”, “shame”, or religion is inhuman toward women. Much of the awareness changing will need to start early on within the family and in schools.
7. Religious institutions such as governmental ministries dealing with religious affairs and places of worship such as mosques should be used as instruments for educating the public on the importance of fighting violence against women.
8. The current laws should be implemented with as much pressure from CSOs as possible. Where there are deficiency in the existing laws, collective efforts will need to be initiated by CSOs to effect reform.
9. To prevent violence from occurring and re-‐occurring, strong punishment should be meted out to perpetrators and results publicized through media.
10. Identifying and providing services to protect survivors and victims’ once crime occurs should be seen as a necessary measure alongside legislative enforcement mechanisms.
11. Efforts should be made by CSOs to raise awareness on EVAW and gender sensitization through capacity building programs among the judiciary and the police. Basic concepts and definitions of VAW, situation analysis, legislation, human rights training, and religious values on protection of basic human rights should all be employed as means to engage men and women on the importance of women’s rights.
12. Where there is resistance to training on women’s rights, innovative approaches should be employed to address women’s rights within the more general framework of improving human security.
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Annex 1: Key Informant Interview Guiding Questions
• What are the most important roles for Indian CSOS in governance? • What is the actual role of CSOs in government decision and policy making • What is the formal role allocated to CSOs by the government? • What are the significant contributions of Indian CSOs in dealing with sexual VAW and
corruption? How has government responded to them? • How can CSOS contribute to dealing more effectively with both issues so as to promote good
governance? • What are the biggest challenges that CSOs face? • What are the major challenges for CSOs and Government working together on issues of
corruption and VAW in India? • What innovative measure are CSOS taking to be heard? • What are the relations between women CSOs and those working on corruption government on
issue of VAW and corruption movements? What does the government make of all these events/movements?
• How are CSOS engaging innovatively in engaging the Government to act? • What are the good practices that would work for Afghan CSOs, the government and donors to
work collaboratively in dealing with corruption and sexual VAW?
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Annex 2: List of interviewees
1. Subir Roy (Programme Director, Shakti Vahini) 2. Namrata Jaitley (Deputy Director, PRIA) 3. Nandita Pradhan Bhatt (Assistant Programme Manager, PRIA) 4. Arun Kumar (Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University) 5. Mondira Dutta (Centre for Inner Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University) 6. Tenzing Tchoesang (UN Women Consultant, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India) 7. Renu Wadehra (Senior Advisor, Norwegian Embassy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs) 8. Prafulla Kumar Prushty (Commissioner/ Income Tax Department; on deputation as Competent Authority and Administrator under SAFEM(FOP) Act, 1976 & NDPS Act, 1985, Ministry of Finance, Government of India 9. Informant from Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) 10. Amita Singh (Centre for Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University)