Including the ‘excluded’; including the marginalized groups in the decision

making

Thematic Session on including the excluded‘International Symposium on Community

Governance Practices (ISCGP)’

Upali PannilageSenior Lecturer, Department of

Sociology, University of Ruhuna pannila@hotmail.com

Outline of the PresentationOutline of the Presentation

• Introduction• Governance and Social Exclusion• Social Exclusion and Marginalised• Social Exclusion & Social Stratification• Present scenario in Sri Lanka• Conclusions• Some inputs for recommendations

Introduction• Communities do not have proper

representation structures or processes that create a space for them to engage in the decision making systems,

• In certain parts of the world; traditional governance systems were existed to make collective decisions to address the needs of the all community members ( eg Gam Sbha in Sri Lanka),

Introduction….

• New/modern/formal governance systems eliminated these existed traditional systems,

• As a result, the real needs and aspirations of the communities are not represented properly,

• Lack of participatory and inclusive governance system largely contributes to increasing poverty levels and social injustice as well.

Governance & Social Exclusion

• Governance is a multi dimensional concept.“Governance can be seen as the pattern of

structure that emerges in a socio-political system as a common result or outcome of the interacting intervention efforts of all involved actors. This pattern cannot be reduced to one

actor or group of actors in particular” (Rhodes, 2003).

Social Exclusion……

“The idea of social exclusion has conceptual connections with well-established notions in the

literature on poverty and deprivation..” (Sen, 2000)

Social exclusion means ..the inability to participate effectively in economic, social,

political and cultural life and in some characterizations alienation and distance from

mainstream society (Duffy, 1995)

Social Exclusion..

Social exclusion is a complex and multi-dimensional process. It involves the lack or

denial of resources, rights, goods and services, and the inability to participate in the normal relationships and activities, available to the

majority of people in economic, social, cultural or political arenas. It affects both the quality

of life of individuals and the equity and cohesion of society as a whole

(Ruth et al, 2007)

Social Exclusion..From rights based perspective…

Social exclusion is a dynamic process of being shut out, fully or partially, from any of the social,

economic, political or cultural systems which determine the social integration of a person in

society. Social exclusion may, therefore, be seen as the denial (or non-realization) of the civil and

political rights of citizenship (Walker and Walker, 1997)

Social Exclusion and Marginalised

• Social exclusion and marginalisation are interrelated concepts

• Marginalised: exclusion from the “minimal acceptable way of life”

• Eg..Poor, children, youth, women, people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, low caste groups etc.

• However, these groups are not always marginalized;

Social Exclusion and Marginalised….

• For example: women are not always marginalised in the society, but in general term they are marginalised as they have not been recognized as equal to men in the society.

• Low caste people could identify as marginalised , but when such low caste person gets political power can exclude from marginalization due to the power vested to him/her by the political structure of the society.

Social Exclusion & Social Stratification

• Another dimension of social exclusion can be understand through social stratification

• Social strata: groups of people such as people who belong to the same social class or have the same education level

• Social strata are organized in a vertical hierarchy and can be organized in terms of class, caste, gender, race and ethnicity, age or disability.

• Karl Marx in his analysis highlighted that class is the main factor that create hierarchies in the society . (classes as defined by people's relationship to the means of productions in two basic ways: either they own productive property or labour for others).

Social Exclusion & Social Stratification…

• Max Weber in contrast to Marx explains that there are three main factors which contribute to the social stratification.

• Class: A person's economic position in a society, based on birth and individual achievement,

• Status: A person's prestige, social honor, or popularity in a society,

• Power: A person's ability to get their way despite the resistance of others.

Present scenario in Sri LankaThe political system of the country has three hierarchical layers in addition to the Executive Presidency

Scenario in SL…

• When analyzing the most common factors that contribute to the social exclusion and social marginalization; it is worth to understand the composition of representatives in these decision making mechanisms.

• Country has more than 51% of female population, current parliament have only 13 women out of 225 members which accounts only about 5% (Generally in South Asia this has been increased since 2000 to 2013 as 5 – 18.5 – MDG Report 2013)

Scenario in SL….

• The Cabinet of the present government have 65 ministers (including 10 Senior Ministers & Prime Minister),but only two female ministers

• 29 deputy ministers with one female deputy minister

• In 2010 had 58 ministers (with 09 senior ministers) out of which only two were women members.

• In 2009, 17 out of 417 (4%) were women in Provincial Councils and 78 out of 4327 (2%) women representatives in Local Government Authorities. (Excluding Northern PC where the elections have not been held yet)

Scenario in SL….

• According to the Government’s data in 2001, there were around 1.6% people with disabilities in Sri Lanka (UNESCAP (2003) says there are 7% of disabled in Sri Lanka, According to WHO this figure is 5%).

• However, there aren’t any representative in Parliament which identifies as Disabled .

• Although, reliable data is not available the situation at provincial councils are similar as there are less than 15 disabled in all provincial councils.

Scenario in SL….

• There is no mechanism to find out number of poor people in the governance mechanism of the country .

• However, it is well understood that any poor can’t survive in the present proportionate preferential election system as it required a large amount of money to be spent on the propaganda campaigns of elections.

Conclusions

• Social exclusion is a complex and multi-dimensional process, mainly it links with economic factors, social factors and political factors.

• Governance is the process of decision-making and the process of which decisions are implemented ( or not implemented).

Conclusions..

• Since the decisions are taken to the effect of the society, it is necessary to have equal rights for every citizen in that particular society to participate in such decision making processes.

• The inclusive decision making process demonstrate the social diversity and as well as it provide space for marginalized to actively take part in the legitimacy.

Some inputs for recommendations

• Recognition- It is necessary to recognize the importance of including marginalized in the decision making process (and also need to identify marginalised in the society).

• Positive attitude- Essential to have positive attitude towards marginalized from top to bottom (Need to recognize dignity).

Inputs for recommendations…

• Policy decisions for fair representations at governance structures o Indian Loksabha have reserved few numbers of seats for

marginalized (eg scheduled caste and tribes) o Indian Panchayat system have regulations on

representation of women in their three-tier local governance system (Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti (Block level) and Zilla Parishad (District level))

Sri Lanka could also learn from these systems and consider policy regulations to include a considerable percentage of marginalized in the decision making structures.

Inputs for recommendations…

• Need to change the current election system allowing poor and marginalised to be elected as per the wish of people. This can be achieved by introducing amendments to the local government election system (if not the national and provincial council level) to have marginalised representatives.

• Regulations for participatory systems The government could regularize and implement

participatory mechanisms for local community representatives to participate in the decision making and implementing processes of the local development.

This can be done through amendments to the present local government act of the country to include participatory planning, budgeting, participatory committees etc .

Inputs for recommendations…

Inputs for recommendations…

• Allocating resources Setting out criteria when allocating funding for

development programmes. Those criteria should include active participation of marginalised as one of the key factors to approve funding.

• Establish platforms for marginalised to participate Village level systems (similar to Gram Sabhas) need to be introduced for local communities including marginalised to actively engage in decision making and implementing process of local development.

• Recognize existing community governance structures-Recognize informal governance structures as part of community governance eg Farmer Organisations, Fisheries Societies, Rural Development Societies, Women Development Societies, Youth Societies etc in implementing local development interventions.

Inputs for recommendations…

Thank you….