| Policy watch January 2008 |
- Children to play major role under Panchayati Raj
- India should use one poverty measurement
- Settlers in Andamans demand tribal status
- Punjab to probe Panchayat land grabbing
Children to play major role under Panchayati Raj
Karnataka government has asked all village Panchayats to hold special meetings focusing on children’s issues, and to seek direct participation of children in them. The circular states that children’s participation is a way of preparing them to be “active participants in gram sabhas when they grow up”. Under many international conventions that India has signed child participation in local development is a requirement. Off late few steps have been taken to ensure this. But the Karnataka initiative is the largest ever exercise to involve children in development planning.
India should use one poverty measurement
Chairman of the National Statistical Commission Suresh Tendulkar has said that India should use only one measurement of poverty — 365 days consumption expenditure data. At present, one measure is based on consumption expenditure data for 365 days while another is based on data for 30 days. This leads to confusion about the country’s poverty level. Tendulkar’s views are significant as he heads a committee set up by the Planning Commission to come out with a new poverty line that is comparable over time and across states. “States at the lower end of per capita expenditure have nothing to report for the infrequent items in case of the 30 days Uniform Recall Period. However, using 365 days, you get a higher per capita expenditure at the lower end,” Tendulkar said. “The distribution becomes relatively more equal. That is why I think that 365 days recall period data are a better measurement of poverty than the 30 days data. But this is being discussed at the committee,” Tendulkar said.
Settlers in Andamans demand tribal status
Tribal settlers of the Andaman and Nicobar islands, mainly from the Jharkhand and Bihar, are demanding Scheduled Tribes (ST) status. The Ranchi Association, as the settlers group is known in the Andamans for decades, recently took out a mammoth rally in support of their demand. “Because we don't get reservations like the Scheduled Castes (SC) and ST community in mainland India we are called encroachers here. But we were brought here for work. Now we are being asked by the government to vacate land,” said Sylvester Bhengra, general secretary of the association. The association has also asked for occupancy and forest rights (now denied under tribal laws), inclusion of all settlers in electoral rolls of the parliamentary and panchayat elections, primary education in the Oraon and Santhali languages, healthcare facilities and implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2005.
Punjab to probe Panchayat land grabbing
In Punjab some 10,000 acres of Panchayat lands have been transferred to private ownership through fraudulent means. Punjab Government has launched a massive exercise to gather the details of cases in which orders were passed against the Panchayats concerned since January 1, 2000. Punjab Chief Secretary, Ramesh Inder Singh, told the media that all cases in which orders had been passed against village panchayats in recent years would be reopened and challenged at the appropriate level. He said even officers who had the legal authority to decide such cases and now suspected to have played foul while passing orders in favour of private parties to rob panchayats off their lands would be taken to task.
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