Discussions on Devolution

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Discussions on Devolution

• Focus on Gender Issues

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Discussion starts with ..

• A query looking for
• 1.Ways of Larger participation of women
• 2.Experience of Good Gender Balance leading to
  positive or negative outcomes
• 23 community members replied

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Examples of participation

• 10 women component plans (Kerala)
• Assets in womens or joint names (GOI)
• Mahila Sabha and / Mahila Quorum (kerala)
• SHG Cluster as member of GP standing committee,
  woman as head of one Upasamity (WB)
• 15 of untied fund for women SHGs (WB)
• KARCHUMA (Karnataka)
• Jagratha Samity (Kerala)
• Panchayat Sakhi (Maharstra)
• Involving SHGs in all interventions (WB)

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Outcomes experienced.

• Attention on issues of education, health,
  sanitation, etc. greatly improves
• Women members effective when backed up by family
  and / or Party
• Strong SHGs, Cluster and Fed acting as pressure
  groups
• Development outcomes are faster, empowerment
  outcomes are slow
• SHGs and women groups become good vote banks
• Administration and political parties are more
  receptive to women leaders

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Where do we go from here ..

• Policy issues ---- Converting good practices into
  policy
• Process issues ---- at ground level
• Capacity building Programme of EWRs and SHGs
• Specific NGO-GP collaborative projects
• Process issues. At the Decentralization
  community level
• Documentation of Good practices
• Documentation of state wise existing practices
• Work on GP Gender Improvement Index

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Possible actions.

• Documentation of selected good practices like 10
  women component plan, gender budgeting, 15 SHG
  component plan
• Documentation of various institutional processes
  involving women
• Exercise in building a gender component in
  activity mapping
• Exercise in Panchayat Gender Index

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Issues of Fiscal Decentralization

• Documentation of actual implementation of SFC
  recommendations across states
• Exercise in allocation of resources to three
  tiers commensurate to devolved functions
• Exercise on application of principle of
  subsidiarity in fiscal decentralization