Summary

Governance Class 10

BRIEF DISCUSSION OF THE PREVIOUS CLASS (5:06 P.M.)

CHALLENGES FACED BY SHGs IN INDIA (5:09 P.M.)

Historical and Sociological factors
Indian society is mostly a patriarchal society with a feudal mindset.
Historically, women were never given equal opportunities like men to develop themselves.
Since the major occupation of people in rural areas is agriculture, it has mostly resulted in women being confined to their households.
Women are considered part of the family prestige and honour and are not allowed to go out and work.
SHGs are more successful in South India than the rest of the country because South Indian societies are more egalitarian.
The safety and security of women is also a major issue that comes in the way of ensuring the success of the SHG movement.
Solutions
(a) Safety and security of women within the household, in public places, and also in the offices.
(b) Education must focus on gender equality, gender parity, gender sensitivity, and gender justice and empowerment.
Note:
Women in development means that women would receive the benefits of development like any other section.
Women and development means that women are driving the development process.
Gender and development imply that development should be gender-neutral. There shouldn't be any glass ceiling. It incorporates the concept of gender parity.
(c) Media, civil society organizations, and NGOs should be used to create awareness among women about their rights.
(d) Role models should be used to change the attitudes, values, and behaviour of people in society.
Financial constraints
SHGs face financial challenges in the form of inadequate finances.
They are not able to get the right price for their products in the local markets.
The local moneylenders would give the loan to these women, and force them to sell their products to them at very low rates.
The Micro Financial Institutions charge exorbitant interest rates.
It is also found that in certain units the return from the business is not properly invested further in the units, and the funds are diverted for other personal and domestic purposes like marriage, construction of house, etc.
(* Refer to the handout for other such challenges.)

SUGGESTIONS FOR DEALING WITH CHALLENGES FACED BY SHGs (5:47 P.M.)

(a) Media can be used to create awareness about the SHG.
(b) State government must provide matching grants to the amounts raised by the SHGs.
(c) State governments must ensure the SHG-bank linkage.
(d) SHG should be provided the subsidized /interest-free loans.
(e) Schemes like Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) should be used to provide skills to SHGs so that they can produce quality products.
(f) Gender budgeting should be made mandatory for all welfare and development schemes at the local level so that they can implemented with the help of SHGs.
(g) Markets should be created for the products of SHGs at the regional, state, and national levels.
(h) Economic independence is necessary but not sufficient. Distance learning programs and E-learning programs should be used to provide basic education to the members of the SHG.
(i) State governments should encourage the members of the SHGs to contest the elections so that economic independence can be transformed into political empowerment.
(j) Sensitivity training should be provided to bank officials especially in rural areas to ensure easy access to members of SHGs.
(k) In recent times MFIs have bridged the gap between banks and the SHGs by providing easy credit to the members of SHGs.
But it has been observed that these MFIs are charging exorbitant rates of interest, and are exploiting SHGs.
They should be brought under the ambit of the Reserve Bank of India, to regulate their activities.
(l) E-governance can be used to expand the market for the production of SHGs.
Students should prepare these points from the Economic Survey and the Ministry of Women and Child Development:
(a) How many SHGs are present?
(b) SHG-Bank linkage.
(c) Loans given by banks to SHGs.
(d) Loan Repayment.
(e) Total revenues.
(f) Loans given by MFIs to SHGs.
(g) Geographical distribution of SHGs

E-GOVERNANCE (6:26 P.M.)

Need for E-Governance
Indian bureaucracy has been characterized by many weaknesses including:
(a) Rigid hierarchy.
(b) Excessive emphasis on written communication.
(c) Red Tapism.
(d) Time and cost overruns.
(e) Issues related to secrecy.
(f) Complete absence of citizen participation in governance.
(g) Low quality of services.
(h) Total absence of accountability and grievance redressal mechanism.
(i) High levels of corruption.
E-governance is one of the instruments to make bureaucracy efficient, accountable, transparent, responsive, and participatory.
What is E-governance?
In simple terms, E-governance means the use of information and communication technologies to improve the quality of service delivery mechanisms.
Stages involved in E-governance
(a) Computerization of the work.
(b) Development of intra and inter-networks between the departments.
(c) Online presence of ministries and departments.
(d) Online interaction with ministries and departments.
Challenges faced in the E-governance (7:03 P.M)
(a) E-governance in India is restricted only to e-government.
Governance is the process of making decisions and ensuring their effective implementation.
It can be carried out by multiple institutions including government, private sector, multilateral institutions, civil society organizations, pressure groups, and so on.
E-governance in India is only restricted to the computerization of administrative work.
It has not resulted in any improvement in the governance.
Because of the failure of the government to implement other governance reforms like reducing the number of hierarchical levels in the ministries and departments, merger of ministries, implementation of citizen charters, Right to information, social audits, effective grievance redressal mechanism, etc.
It has ultimately led to the failure of e-governance in India.
(b) There is an absence of a trained workforce.
(c) E-governance in India has only resulted in a digital divide. It has benefited only the people from urban areas, and also from the elite sections of the society.
It has failed to benefit rural, poor, backward, and illiterate sections of our society.
It has only created a digital divide in the country.
(d) As pointed out by the World Bank, India has seen rapid progress in the digital public infrastructure, with the help of UPI, mobile transfers, and JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhar, and Mobile).
However, Cybersecurity is a big threat, as pointed out by the second ARC in its report on E-governance, Economic Survey, and NITI Ayog, India is not spending enough on cybersecurity measures.
Still, second-generation security measures are used, whereas, in Europe and the USA, fifth-generation cybersecurity measures are used.
Neither public sector banks nor private sector enterprises are investing enough.
For example, the website of the AIIMS was hacked recently.
(e) There is a challenge related to the language.
Most of the e-governance initiatives are done in English.
(f) According to NITI Ayog's report only 28% of our population has access to broadband internet.
It is restricted mostly to urban areas.
Continuous power supply is also a major issue.
(g) Data protection and data privacy
It has been observed that the personal data of the individuals is being grossly misused by the institutions to promote their business interests.
(h) E-governance in India has only focused on the computerization of the service delivery mechanism without ensuring the efficiency and accountability of the public servants.
For example, e-FIRs have helped citizens to file FIRs without going to the police stations. However, it has not led to any improvement in the investigation mechanisms or convictions.
How can we deal with these challenges?
(a) We need to move from the e-government to the e-governance.
Other governance reforms should be implemented simultaneously so that e-governance can help in the realization of the objectives of good governance.
(b) Create awareness among the citizens about the benefits of e-governance.
(c) E-governance should be carried out in the vernacular languages.
(d) The government must focus on expanding broadband internet to the rural areas.
The BharatNet project is implemented to provide broadband internet to all panchayat offices in the country.
A National Fiber Grid Project is implemented to provide broadband internet to all the citizens in the country.
(e) Mobile governance can be used to overcome the limitations of e-governance.
Since the majority of our population has access to smartphones, the applications can be developed by the ministries to enhance the scope of e-governance.
(f) It should be made mandatory for any organization to invest in cyber security measures so that they can retain the confidence of their customers.
(g) Recently parliament has passed the digital personal data protection bill to prevent the misuse of the personal information of individuals.
(h) The focus of e-governance should be on improving the quality of service delivery mechanisms by fixing accountability at every level within the hierarchy.
(i) Objective performance evaluation should be done in terms of consumer satisfaction so that e-governance can help in realizing the objectives of good governance.
(j) The government should also involve the private sector, civil society organizations, and media to improve the quality of e-governance in the country.
(k) We should also define the objectives of e-governance in a quantifiable manner so that performance evaluation can be done objectively.
(l) There should be a proper feedback mechanism for the stakeholders to evaluate the performance of e-governance initiatives regularly.

THE TOPIC FOR THE NEXT CLASS: CIVIL SERVICES REFORMS