Will Green Kerala Express become All-India Express?

[The following article reached us quite sometime ago when the State Government of the LDF was in power in Kerala. But it could not be used earlier for unavoidable reasons. —Editor]

by ANAND MATHEW

Prabhakaran, the proud president of Vellamunda gram panchayat in Wayanad district of Kerala, maintains a stoic equanimity and replies in an unrehearsed manner when asked probing questions from the informed gathering. The audience applauds often and even the jury seems impressed. Set amidst the scenic backdrop of hills and waterfalls in Mananthavadi taluk, Vellamunda panchayat, with one-sixth of its population comprising of tribals, has now brought tribal students into the village classrooms with the cooperation of the panchayat administration and local NGOs. It was not an easy task for Prabhakaran and his team as they needed to look at the need for providing education along with preserving the innate tribal customs and methods. Needless to say Vellamunda panchayat portrays the human face of development and that is where it scores heavily. This is not the usual staple of mindless hysterics under the garb of television programming that one is bombarded with nowadays.

Welcome to Green Kerala Express, India’s first social reality show that went on air and has proven that the idiot box is not necessarily that anymore.
The Green Kerala Express having traversed the length and breadth of the State to find its most development-savvy panchayat has lessons for similar initiatives across the country. It brought together panchayats and municipalities in the State to talk and show what each one of them had achieved in the development field. It is another story that this pioneering initiative was given the cold shoulder by the national media, but many in the State of Kerala has hailed this as the first social experiment which looks at development through the eyes of the different stakeholders and puts it onto the centre-stage and in front of the masses in the form of prime-time television viewing. The brainchild of G. Sajan of Doordarshan and Mohankumar of the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT), it got exceptional support from the Department of Local Self-Government, Suchitwa (clean Kerala) Mission, and Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA). Political personalities like Finance Minister Thomas Isaac and the Local Government Minister, Paloli Mohammed Kutty, as well as commited officials like S.M.Vijayanand putting their weight behind this endeavor caught the imagination of the people of Kerala like never before.

The premise was that Kerala being the frontrunner in the sphere of local government in the country, there were many lessons in the field of sustainable development from more than 900 gram panchayats, 57 municipalities and five corporations that could be shared and brought to the forefront. What better way to do this than to stylise this content into the format of a reality show without the gimmicks of dance and drama, but focus on the varied achievements of the local government entities. The quest to find which panchayat was doing innovative work in the field of sustainable development and adding its bit to an ecologically greener society was never going to be an easy task. About 200 panchayats sent in their entries and about 150 were short-listed to participate in the show. The entries covered development sectors like water, sanitation, agriculture, land management, health, education, social welfare, women’s empowerment through the Kudumbashree programme etc. The strict validation checks by the producers and research teams of C-DIT, KILA, Suchitwa Mission ensured that the entries submitted by the panchayats were in fact actually done by them.

These teams travelled to the respective panchayats and held intensive interactive sessions with the local people to get their feedback and ideas about the work done by the panchayat. Ultimately the show became exceptional when the panchayat representatives were invited for a discussion and debate with the jury members consisting of eminent persons in varying fields and recognised experts—agricultural scientists, health care practitioners, women leaders, and academics. The general public and viewers (viewers sent SMSs to vote for the best panchayat) were also involved taking it to the core value of panchayats—people’s participation. The Chief Minister of Kerala presenting the award of Rs 1 crore to the Elapully Panchayat, being the best in the State was a unique event in Independent India. Since the 73rd and 74th Constitution Amendments, local government has made long strides in the country and despite the chauvinist attitude of the states, the third tier of government has been able to span success stories that the country as a whole should be proud of. While it is true that the panchayats in Kerala are much ahead than the rest of the States, there are also second generation issues of institutionalisation that the State is grappling with. It is admirable that in a politically volatile State like Kerala the Green Kerala Express initiative was embraced by everyone cutting across party lines.

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A pertinent question here is: what stops other States in the country from adapting this to showcase the panchayats in their own States? Is it difficult to fine-tune this idea and bring in experiences of other States in promoting sustainable development models? As is evident, no State has been willing to take this up as a challenge or get its panchayat department interested in this. Why is this so? Is it because there are no panchayats worth its name that can find its way to such a competition?.

It is time that the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) takes lessons from the Green Kerala Express and make it an All-India Express. Why there is not even a mention of this path-breaking experiment on the Ministry’s website? It is the responsibility of the MoPR to look out for relevant impacts, evaluate them publicise and urge the States to replicate it. But unfortunately, this is not happening now and we are paying a heavy price for this deficit.

There is a lesson in this that comes across very clearly and one to which the Finance Minister of Kerala, Dr Thomas Isaac, alluded to during the kick off of the Green Kerala Express. According to the Minister, since independence and during the post-73rd Constitution Amend-ment, the development model has been top-down, it was always the centre and the states directing the local governments. But now this top-down approach has been turned on its head by the state of Kerala through this social experiment.

This is something the Centre and the Ministry of Panchayati Raj should take note of. Otherwise they are in danger of losing the big picture coming from Gandhiji’s dream of Gram Swaraj—the Village Republics.

Anand Mathew is a Development Consultant. He can be contacted at e-mail: anandmatthew@ gmail.com