Dorbars and the need to be relevant

By Toki Blah

The Shillong Times of Feb 4, 2021 carried an interesting editorial titled ‘Health Budget for Local Bodies’. The write-up carried a noteworthy story of a recent decision of the  Ministry of Health, Govt of India, to outsource Primary Health care initiatives to Panchayats. The news appeared to have come out of the blue but as a matter of fact it was simply the Govt keeping up with the provisions of the 73^rd Amendment of the Constitution dated 1992 and which resulted in the birth of the Panchayati Raj Bill and the 11^th Schedule to the Constitution. The 11^th Schedule encompasses the list of subjects or activities to be undertaken by panchayats or local bodies and item No 25 of the Schedule includes ‘Health and sanitation, including hospitals, primary health centres and dispensaries’ as one of the subjects earmarked for local self government intervention. This announcement by the Health Ministry is of major significance as it indicated a paradigm shift in Govt thinking on the delivery of public services through empowered peoples’ grassroots institutions. We are seeing the germination of ‘governance from below; approach to development; the dismantling of the conventional top-down approach, so beloved by I–know-it-all bureaucrats and technocrats and replacing it with a community participation approach ; a gradual empowering process to enable communities through their locally elected institutions to participate, take charge and acquire ownership over their own planned destination. To put money where its mouth is, the Govt also came up with a hefty matching budget allocation of 13,192 crore for first phase implementation of this new “Basic Health Care by the people” policy. All in all, an attention grabbing decision with all its implications on the future of India’s elected local bodies!

              The reaction that the above editorial and news produced among Shillong’s reading public was disappointing. It hardly caused a ripple that is until the realisation slowly began to sink in of its far-reaching consequences on the welfare; wellbeing; health and very relevance of our traditional local body, namely the Dorbar Shnong. The Dorbar as it is viewed by many contemporary citizens of Meghalaya is seen as a revered part of our custom and tradition but at the same time maligned and neglected by those mandated to nurture. Meghalaya was exempted from the Panchayati Raj as its local traditional bodies were expected to be at par with Panchayats, but this sadly was not to be. Empowerment of our Dorbars failed to materialise and they continue to remain as fossilised as the British found them 200 years ago. Today they still have no legal status. The electoral process by which the Rangbah Shnong and other office bearers are elected to office lacks the procedural uniformity, gender equity and the official franchise that modern 21^st Century democratic practices demand. Worse, neglected and left to their own devices, the Dorbars need empowerment in financial management skills; concepts of transparency and accountability in local self governance and last but not least the ability to address a growing variety of welfare services schemes required for the well-being of the community. Viewed from this perspective, will Meghalaya once again miss the bus; miss the initiative to bestow ownership of basic and primary health care to our local communities; miss the chance once again to legalise and empower our traditional grassroots institutions? Time to examine the possibilities!

              The Dorbar, our traditional body for grassroots governance, is the community pride and strength of Meghalaya that our modern day politicians, both at the State and District Council level have deliberately chosen to suppress; weaken and make redundant. They see the Village Dorbar with its impartial value systems and practices it represents, as a threat to the amoral party based political entity they belong to. It has resulted in the neglect of our traditional institutions; the independence and authority of the Dorbar eroded by the money power of the corrosive MLA scheme and I say this with all the authority at my command! Today as administration and especially development-oriented governance in the rest of India rapidly moves towards the process of decentralisation to grassroots functionaries, Meghalaya because of the inward thinking of its political elite, sticks out like a sore thumb. So how will Meghalaya deal with this new initiative in providing basic health care? In the absence of a legalised empowered Dorbar system, Meghalaya will have to turn to the time tested dependence on Govt Departments to do the job. No other way out.  The bureaucrats on their part will simply take this as another central scheme with a financial target that has to be met. They will carry on with that. The need to strengthen, empower and make relevant the traditional institutions of the people will be lost sight of. Why should bureaucrats be blamed if our own elected politicians are unwilling or reluctant to do so? Why expect it from a Govt servant? The point I’m driving at is, if we continue to leave the destiny of our traditional Dorbars to the whims and fancies of our politicians; as our traditional bodies continue to be irrelevant to the governance requirements of the day, it  will not be far off when they will ultimately be replaced with Panchayats. Are we ready for this?

As we speak of trends in decentralisation of administration and governance to grassroots functionaries, let us turn to the Constitution of India and find out what it has to say on the subject. Article 243G (Powers, authority and responsibilities of Panchayats) is very clear and precise. It states – “Subject to the provisions of this Constitution the Legislature of a State may, by law , endow the Panchayats with such powers and authority  that may be necessary to enable them to function as institutions of self Government…” It is therefore very clear, and precise that it is the duty and responsibility of the State Legislature alone to empower the Panchayats. In Meghalaya’s case its Dorbars with the wherewithal towards local self governance. The onus is on the State Legislature to provide a uniform legal system for all the traditional grassroots bodies of the state to enable them to enjoy the benefits of Article 243G and its accompanying 11^th Schedule. We have lost precious time by allowing a blinkered, narrow-minded and inward-looking District Council to tinker with the basic structure and foundation of our traditional bodies. It has led us nowhere. It was emotional faith totally misplaced. The half hearted VAB which primarily aimed only on how to route direct funding through the ADCs has proved to be a non-starter. It’s time to change the narrative. If Meghalaya wishes to enjoy and benefit from the move towards decentralisation; direct funding and meaningful interpretation of the 73^rd Amendment, it needs to come up with a uniform legal platform for the traditional institutions of all three tribes. We need a law to provide a standardized application of administration; a common approach to development; a common system of electioneering; a homogenized regime of financial accountability for all the traditional grassroots institutions of the state. Any other consideration will simply mean going back to the political bickering of the past between the State Govt and the ADCs. There’s no gain from such useless political exercises. We only stand to lose and we cannot afford to lose any longer.

While dwelling on the need to legalise and empower our traditional durbars one cannot run away from the sense of grievance and aversion that these bodies have towards the Govt and its administration. The complaint is that Dorbars are often utilized or employed by the Govt which discourteously takes them for granted. They feel that they are called upon only in times of emergencies (citing law and order situations and the recent Covid crisis) and then unceremoniously jettisoned when such emergencies disappear or dissipate. On the other hand there is this unexplained feeling of loyalty to the District Councils even when the latter has done absolutely nothing for the welfare of the Dorbars for the last 70 odd years of its existence. The truth of the matter is there is very little commonality between the mandate of the District Council and its Dorbars. The truth of the matter is the State Govt and the Dorbars have more in common between themselves than they care to admit since both are mandated to provide service to their respective constituencies. Maintaining law and order; ensuring peace and tranquillity; ensuring security and safety for the citizen; providing essential services; offering assistance and help in times of need are what both Govt and Dorbars do best. The mandate of both is service to the community. It therefore makes complete sense for them to work in tandem for the good of humanity than to work at cross purposes. A state law that will ensure decentralisation of administration to provide for better coordination between the State and its traditional bodies is the need of the hour. In the rest of India people are enjoying the fruits of the 73^rd Amendment. Time for us to also make hay of the liberties it has bestowed on our traditional bodies. Time to make our Dorbars relevant to the governance and administrative needs of the 21^st century.

(Author is President of ICARE a body that focuses on governance and its related issues: Email- [email protected])