Budget for outcomes: Governance and financing reforms hold the key

The challenges to inclusion need to be addressed head on with governance changes and higher untied funding with community accountability and ownership

There is hope in India’s macro-economic resilience and stability, reasonably decent rates of economic progress during hard times, central bank’s reasonable balance between growth and stability, inflation and development. While there are good times for many sectors, most economists agree that a higher rate of economic progress requires better outcomes in education and skills and in productivity.

 

While social participation has improved in human development, outcomes in public good sectors have remained a concern. The nine challenges to inclusion (wages of dignity, education and employability, higher female labour force participation rates, better outcomes in nutrition, health and education, skilling with productivity, lives of dignity in emerging urban growth points, and clean water and sanitation for all through sustainable response to climate changes) need to be addressed head on with governance changes and higher untied funding with community accountability and ownership. This alone will take us on an even higher growth trajectory.

 

 

A long way to go

 

A few public policy leaders are despondent in putting money into public systems in education, health and nutrition. They should learn from the success of the pro-poor public welfare. Both governance and financing reforms hold the key to a faster inclusive progress in India. The successful initiatives for diversified rural livelihoods through women’s collectives, the convergent, decentralised community action successes in creating lakhpati didis, a social class of beneficiaries of housing, sanitation, safe cooking gas, electricity, bank accounts, women’s collectives, nano and micro businesses, gives hope that transformation is possible on a large scale if the community connect remains integral to the intervention.

 

Rural areas experienced more successes than urban ones in these initiatives, leading ultimately to a faster decline of multi-dimensional poverty in India, between 2005-2006 and 2019-2021. Covid did cause disruption. While recovery is discernible in subsequent years, we in India still have a very long way to go to secure lives of dignity with much higher per capita incomes and quality, productivity enhancing opportunities for higher quality of employment.

 

Based on the evidence, the following is suggested for a budget for outcomes:

 

First, we must build on the successes of pro-poor public welfare, that was based on convergent, decentralised community action, with use of technology and scientific principles, backed with adequacy of untied resources for local household and community-level action. The nine challenges to inclusion require adoption of similar approaches at the last mile for effectiveness. Governance reforms must improve outcomes by providing professionals and decentralised community action in human development sectors. Schools, health facilities, skill centres, nutrition and day care centres, green growth, female-led economic activity, adequate community enterprise funds for social capital led credit access, are all required at the last mile.

 

Second, let us make a concerted effort to develop at least one fully integrated and provided for, nursery to Class 12 higher secondary schools in every gram panchayat and every urban sub ward unit. Rajasthan tried this effectively. Let the headmaster/principal of this integrated school be selected with utmost transparency and excellence. Notify the selected headmaster as the panchayat education officer responsible for all feeder schools in that school complex. Provide the headmaster with community institutions for planning, implementation and accountability. Instead of a few PM SHRI schools, create an integrated School of Excellence in each panchayat/ urban sub ward and fund it liberally to acquire high quality. This shall also be the hub for skills. Provide a designated headmaster to each feeder school in that panchayat as school leaders are needed to make the transformation that we are looking for. Give school heads, in partnership with the local government/school management committees that authority for financial and human resources. Like the Kendriya and Navodaya Vidyalayas, make the integrated panchayat/sub urban ward higher secondary schools autonomous in every respect. Allocate funds to such school complexes with robust, accountability framework.

 

Third, convert every graduate college and course into a finishing course with a certificate/diploma in a vocational, locally employable course, to go along with the B.A., B.Com. and B.Sc. Many years ago, a University Grants Commission initiative made colleges like St. Xavier’s Mumbai and Ruia College Mumbai, to offer employable Courses along with the graduation courses. This made a remarkable difference in the association of future employers’ with the college and course design. We need to do this on a very large scale. It can energise the employability ecosystem. We need employer participation in course design and financing.

 

Fourth, engage with the social capital of women’s collectives and elected panchayat/urban basti level leaders to bring about innovation and outcomes across sectors. The vision of lakhpati didis needs to be enlarged for even higher incomes. Do everything that frees up opportunities for women-led development. Establish at least ten-hour comfortable creches and day care centres for infants that give mothers the confidence to go to skill centres, schools and work. A developed India needs many more caregivers, adequately compensated.

 

Fifth, the green growth thrust will come from convergent, decentralised community action with professionals and scientific principles. We need to respect scientific findings in taking up development works. Our victory over the unsatisfactory air quality index will come through community-led collective action from below and not through a few prescriptive top-down inversions during periods of crisis.

 

Sixth, connect every household to a health facility and health personnel with facilitation and hand-holding at the last mile. Use the social capital of women’s collectives to improve our institutions – schools, health facilities, aanganwadis, skill centres and so on. Convergent community action using the 11th and 12th Schedules of the Constitution of India, is the way to devolve for outcomes.

 

Seventh, we must make local governments and community organisations like women’s collectives, the focal point of our development initiatives with funds, functions and functionaries.

 

Enhanced focus on human development

 

There is enough evidence to support this. Urban areas must have another tier of elected leaders at the basti level. Like women’s collectives, we must build a community institution and collective for youth for development.

 

We really need a budget for outcomes. Outcomes are there only if we accept decentralised community action, convergence from below, professionals and scientific principles, and a total thrust on the last mile. A higher growth trajectory will come through productivity enhancement by human development.

 

(The writer is a senior fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress. The views are personal)  Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the writer. They do not reflect the views of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper