On November 26-27, 2024, I had the opportunity to facilitate a participatory planning exercise for the preparation of the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) in Aamsi village and Gram Panchayat, located in Umarban block. The GPDP is an annual planning process undertaken by local governments to capture key needs and demands from citizens, ensuring that the village's development aligns with available resources, as well as various programs offered by both the Union and State governments.
Over the years, the GPDP process has become more routinized, with frequent changes in formats and options designed/ suggested by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj & Rural Development (PR&RD) and local administrations. However, a persistent challenge remains: how can we preserve the core spirit of bottom-up planning and genuinely capture the deeper issues faced by community stakeholders, such as farmers, laborers, women of all age groups, and youth?
During the planning exercise, the women of the village highlighted the pressing need for drinking water, which has become increasingly scarce due to depleting groundwater levels and excessive water usage in agriculture. Meanwhile, farmers pointed out the need to desilt or deepen a large pond that once met the village's water demands. Although a multi-village piped water supply system is being planned, it will take a few years for the project to be completed. In the meantime, the community has recognized the importance of maintaining handpumps and other traditional drinking water systems to minimize the risk of a water crisis, should the piped water system face any breakdowns.
Interestingly, the community also identified the need for roads connecting farms and schools, placing greater emphasis on these pathways over others. This insight reflects the community’s deep understanding of their local needs and priorities, often overlooked in routine planning processes.
The issues raised by the community are interconnected, and an efficient allocation of resources through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) can help address these challenges comprehensively. Unfortunately, in many villages, the planning culture has become symptomatic, focusing on resource-dependent demands such as new roads in various hamlets of powerful people and boundary walls for Anganwadi centers to prevent vandalism, without adequately analyzing the root causes of the problems at hand.
To address these deeper issues, skilled facilitation, patience, and time are required—qualities that are often in short supply in large-scale planning processes like GPDP and MGNREGS. It is during such community reflections that participatory planning can truly thrive, fostering a more accurate and holistic approach to local development.
As Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), we have a vital role to play in demonstrating best practices in participatory planning. By using bottom-up approaches, we can empower communities and their leaders to practice democratic planning. This, in turn, strengthens their ability to negotiate with service providers and development administrators, ensuring that community needs align with programmatic goals and targets. The convergence of funds and resources is key to making this a reality and ensuring that the community's voices are truly heard and acted upon by the executives sitting at the district level and enabling conditions are created by the policy makers at the state and national level.