YOUTH
PARTICIPATION IN URBAN GOVERNANCE:
A CASE STUDY OF
ODISHA
Prof. Bijoyini Mohanty
Department of Public Administration
Utkal University, Vani Vihar
Bhubaneswar, Odisha
ABSTRACT
The
youth constitute a sizeable mass of the colossal population of our nation.
Yesterday's ideology of keeping them free from politics
and participation is now abandoned. The youth is taken
as part of the flourishing participatory democracy with feedback loops. The vulnerability of the youth for some social and health hazards can be
remedied by making them participant. Their capability to
construct a corruption free administrative medium can be exploited to reform the milieu interior of governance. The youth is
dynamic and aspirant, hopeful and does not believe in an impossible
task. The zig zag floor of politics is beyond his expectation.
The youth, per se, believes in truth and the reality in politics.
The
youth may have a say in governance: in field of education, employment, public distribution system or recreational facilities touching their life style.
In fact, the adults and the aged are out of the arena of the exact requirements
of the adolescent and the young, they have proceeded generation ahead to appreciate
to the changing needs of the day. This study intends to
find out the knowledge, attitude and interest of the youth in urban governance
in Odisha and extent of their involvement. Remedial
measures, if felt necessary, will be suggested out of
this study.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Preface
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER II: CONCEPTUAL
ANALYSIS
CHAPTER III: EMERGENCE
OF YOUTH AS A FORCE IN INDIAN POLITY
CHAPTER IV: GRASSROOTS
DEMOCRACY AND THE NEW VISIONARY
CHAPTER V: UNIVERSE
OF STUDY AND PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS
CHAPTER VI: DATA
ANALYSIS
CHAPTER VIII: CONCLUDING
OBSERVATION
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
ANNEXURES
INTRODUCTION:
The youth is a valuable human resource of the
nation. The responsibility for transformation, progress
and innovation of the nation lies on their shoulders. The population of India
has crossed the staggering one billion mark since
long. The economic progress of the country been
seriously challenged by the huge mass of population. The government has
effortlessly woven various programs to bring the
economically backward people into the national mainstream,
but the attempts have failed to percolate to the masses. The youth are the most
vital human resource of the nation on whom the
present and future of the country depend.
The Department of Youth Affairs and Sports is
implementing a number of schemes for youth development. Our Five Year Plans
have also laid emphasis on the importance of the youth in national development, the needs of the youth and training of the youth
leadership and to harness their vast potential for creative
causes. A National Youth Policy was framed in the Seventh
Plan and a plan of action formulated since 1992. The National Youth Policy
seeks to provide the youth with new opportunities to
participate in nation building.'
The government is always aware of the need to
tap the youth power. With the lowering of the voting
age to 18 years, the youth have suddenly become politically important because
they can decisively tilt the political scenario in
any election.
Demography reveals that the youth forms a huge
volume in any population, more specifically in
Indian context. Seventy percent of India's population is below the age of 35 years.
According to the figures of the 2011 census,
the youth population in the country including adolescents
is around 550 million. This enormous rise in the youth population has made
India the youngest nation with a demographic
dividend appearing to be a reality. It prompts to utilize
this demographic dividend as the initiative to channelize the youth and their
creative energies for nation-building.
The UN General Assembly had celebrated 2011 as
the
International Year, for Youth with the theme
"Dialogue and Mutual Understanding". As a signatory to the Millennium
Development Goals India has its youth population as a major stakeholder in the
endeavour. United Nations has defined youth as people from 15 to 24
years of age. Countries of the world differ in assigning
the "age of majority' on political rights like voting right. This age is
often 18 in many countries, and once a person passes this
age, they are considered to be an adult. However,
the operational definition of `youth' often vary from country to country,
depending on the specific socio-cultural, institutional, economic and political
factors.
The age group set out in the National Youth
Policy (2003), India is 13-35 years. It is a
heterogeneous group of people having different concerns, roles and
responsibilities. It is,
therefore, necessary to divide this age-bracket into three sub-groups:
the first sub-group of 13-18 years in the educational institutions; the second sub-group of
18-25 completing their education and waiting for employment and the
third sub-group of 25-35 years who have completed
their education and are employed. The Working Group has recommended that 18-35 years of age should be the age criterion for youth and those between
13 to 18 years of age should be categorised as adolescents. Further
it is recommended that in the light of the provisions
of the Right to Education Act, young persons are included in the formal educational system until the age of 14 years. Thereafter, it is
anticipated that until the age of 18 years, they would
be seeking skill training, vocational education or secondary education. Logically this age group must be the responsibility of Schemes under the
School Education and the Child Development Sectors. The age for
exercising adult franchise is 18 years.
Therefore Youth Policy focuses on youth between 18-35 years.
The theme of `Citizenship' is emphasized in the National Youth Policy,
India, and the WDR (World Development Report). They describe
youth citizenship as `the full and effective participation of youth in the life of society
and in decision making'. The Right to Participation from
childhood is emphasized in the Convention for the Rights of the Child and this
Right is integral to any democratic society. It is important for citizens,
especially youth to have a say in matters that affect their life.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY:
To quote Pearl S Buck, "The young do not
know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt
the impossible, and achieve it, generation after generation". This gives
immense pleasure to take up the funny group of
miniature adults as the subject of study.
In the literature, there are many definitions for the terms youth, participation, and governance. In practice, youth participation in governance can and does look differently depending on who is involved and the structure in which it occurs. The following concept of youth participation in governance is based on other literature and is articulated here to clarify a working definition for this literature review: Youth participation in governance means that youth have equitable access to and play an active role in making decisions, setting policies, and influencing outcomes on matters relevant to their lives at the municipal, organizational, and program level. Youth are active and contributing members of society now, not future citizens or leaders of tomorrow, as they are referred to by many adult leaders earlier. Municipalities have a legal obligation to engage youth. Political spheres of the urban set up cannot flourish without the vibrant activities of the youth.
In the literature, there are many definitions for the terms youth, participation, and governance. In practice, youth participation in governance can and does look differently depending on who is involved and the structure in which it occurs. The following concept of youth participation in governance is based on other literature and is articulated here to clarify a working definition for this literature review: Youth participation in governance means that youth have equitable access to and play an active role in making decisions, setting policies, and influencing outcomes on matters relevant to their lives at the municipal, organizational, and program level. Youth are active and contributing members of society now, not future citizens or leaders of tomorrow, as they are referred to by many adult leaders earlier. Municipalities have a legal obligation to engage youth. Political spheres of the urban set up cannot flourish without the vibrant activities of the youth.
Youth
participation in governance, in turn, benefits youth, youth participation
benefits the communities. Also the youth participation
benefits governments. Municipal leaders regularly make
decisions, shape policies and take action on issues that directly affect the
youth in matters of public transport, parks and
recreation, use of public spaces, health, child care, education, and housing.
The young people are the foremost experts on their experiences,
needs, and expectations with local
environments. Engaging youth in
decision-making
processes
helps governments make decisions that are more responsive and appropriate to youth needs and interests. Youth engagement in governance is a sound
principle of good governance in terms of inclusive insight.
It
is important that youth are encouraged to take interest in decision making
activities at the local level. Opportunities are created at
local level to ensure their active participation in civic matters. For the continuing harmony of democracy, youth engagement in
representative bodies at the local level has utmost
importance. The youth can bring in a perspective that will look not only at present but at future as well.
Participation
of young people also means that there is enhanced accountability of the local governance to its citizenry. Young people should get productively
engaged, preferably through youth groups or organisations,
directly or indirectly in assessing the performance of the
service provider or programme implementing agencies. Individual voices may not
carry the message strongly to these agencies but if
the feedback is supported by the majority of the beneficiaries,
there will be positive results. Peculiarly, the youth has a strong tendency to conglomerate on sticky aspects of local governance. Thus participation of
young people and interventions on behalf of the community will
integrate youth with their communities and establish a bond. Youth need to be
involved in monitoring the programmes at municipal / Panchayat
level, which will improve the quality and bring down misuse and corruption. Participation of youth in local governance will be institutionalised by
reserving a suitable number of membership positions for them in the
municipal bodies and Panchayats.
The
National Youth Policy of 2010 sets out broad parameters for policies and for
planning programmes for the youth across the country.
This document is based on the inputs provided by
a cross section of experts, youth specialists, Central and State Government
officials, senior representative of voluntary organisations and
above all by young people. However, there are numerous
variables that impact the life of young women and men and as a result, there
may be some state or region-specific needs and concerns of young people that
are not adequately reflected in this document. It is, therefore,
suggested that, keeping the overall national perspective
set out in this document in view, each state should enunciate its own State
Youth
Policy. The states may also look for
additional programmes to respond to the specific needs of
the youth of the respective state. Many Central Ministries, such as, Ministries
of Human Resource Development, Rural Development,
Women's Welfare, Environment, Health, Labour, and
Industry, have significant components of their policies and programmes that are
relevant to young people. There is a need for
convergence of efforts and resources of the state sponsored
youth-related agencies, voluntary sector engaged in social development
activities, international agencies, and the corporate world for the promotion
of youth development programme in India.
The Municipal System and the Youth
Municipal institutions are the grassroots
urban institution of India that glorify as the sociopolitical organisation
since time of urban transformation and technological developments. The large number of youths of urban India certify themselves as a great
mass of one category. As a vibrant group the youth are the
determinant of the system and India has a scope to develop
through them. In order to develop the urban local governance, strategic plans
should be developed involving youth. As basic, the
knowledge, attitude and practices must be understood
before preparing any plan of development.
Specifically, the degree of involvement of
youth in municipal affairs and the mechanism of strengthening
municipal system through youth and developing youth through municipal system by initiating and strengthening youth-municipal interface should
be emphasized. A training strategy based on a research is very
much necessary so that there will be synergistic and
symbiotic development.
Municipal institutions and local participation
are specific to each State in India as the States are the creators and
care-takers of urban governments. The youth involvement in each State has many variables inherent factors of the State itself. So, the study of
a State and the suggestions and recommendations depend very
much on current socioeconomic background of
the State and dynamics of youth disposition in the urban government.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Youth Participation in Governance3 (ICT Urban
Governance and Youth, UN Habitat) focus on
the promotion of participatory skills for all, not just leadership skills for
the few. Leaders will always emerge, but all children and young people need the
chance to learn the multiple Skills of listening and collaborating in groups if
they are to discover that they can play very different roles in building
communities and achieving change.
In the Progress Report4 (November 2009 - June
2010) Citizens' Involvement in Urban Governance, Dr.
Mayeda Jamal, of London School of Economics and Political Science, has shown that citizens' involvement is generally driven by civic sense
amongst the citizens. This is self-driven and sustained through their own
initiative and commitment to improvement. Strong links
have been drawn
between psychological empowerment
and citizens' participation in community wellbeing.
Empowerment has become a vital construct for understanding
the development of individuals, organizations and communities. It is defined as "an international ongoing process centred in the local community,
involving mutual respect, critical reflection, caring, and
group participation, through which people lacking an equal
share of valued resources gain greater access to and control over those
resources". In other words, it is `simply a process by which
people gain control over their lives, democratic participation
in the life of their community" and a "critical understanding of
their environment". It is not sufficient to say
that grass-roots participation is necessary. It is essential
to ask questions about the conditions under which participation is enacted.
Power differentials
dominate these conditions,
maintaining and/or reinforcing
the unequal distribution of power in favour of the more
powerful players. In fact, here we get a discourse on
participation rather than youth participation in urban governance.
Young People Imagining a New Democracy: Literature Review, Whitlam Institute, University of Western Sydney5 Prepared by Philippa Collin, August 2008
analyses that there is a generational shift away from traditional,
institutional forms of political participation such as voting, membership of
political parties and unions. At the same time, there is increased engagement in issue, or cause-based participation. Such action involves
new kinds of political actors like professionals, celebrities, and
participatory activities like boycotting, blogging
political
commentary and new targets like intra-state bodies, business. Politics and governance
have newer milieu and dimensions by today's ICT. Political participation has also been transformed by the internet and new media. Now the individuals
are able to come together in new communities of interest and wide, shallow
networks, to blog, deliberate and campaign online,
beyond geographical borders. Comparative studies have suggested that low levels
of youth participation in traditional political activities do not indicate
broad levels of anathv or disengagement. but a generational change in common forms of
political participation. The dilemmas of how to define
and measure participation in democracy have been
brought into stark relief as the internet and other Information Communication
Technology (ICT) have come to play an increasingly significant role in the social and
political lives of citizens. The study of the internet and youth political participation can be
Technology (ICT) have come to play an increasingly significant role in the social and
political lives of citizens. The study of the internet and youth political participation can be
summarised
in two broad approaches in wider research on citizenship and participation. The
first assumes a normative position on
political participation and looks at how technology is
extending or deepening democracy as a legal and administrative idea and culture. The focus
is often on the opportunities and effectiveness of `e-democracy' in strengthening existing
institutional arrangements, the ability of technology to link decision-makers and political
elites to citizens and extending government to marginalised or `hard to reach' groups, such as
young people.
extending or deepening democracy as a legal and administrative idea and culture. The focus
is often on the opportunities and effectiveness of `e-democracy' in strengthening existing
institutional arrangements, the ability of technology to link decision-makers and political
elites to citizens and extending government to marginalised or `hard to reach' groups, such as
young people.
Girish Kumar and Buddhadeb Ghosh6 in their West Bengal
Panchayat Elections 1993: A
Study of Participation published on behalf of Institute of Social Science by Concept
Publishing Company, New Delhi is indeed an excellent survey on awareness and
participation in Grama Panchayat in West Bengal. It analyses how far the Grama Panchayat
is working on 'local will' as distinguished from its agency functions of State and Central
Study of Participation published on behalf of Institute of Social Science by Concept
Publishing Company, New Delhi is indeed an excellent survey on awareness and
participation in Grama Panchayat in West Bengal. It analyses how far the Grama Panchayat
is working on 'local will' as distinguished from its agency functions of State and Central
Government and preoccupation with such
projects as JRY.
Karnataka
Panchayat Elections 1995: Process, Issues and Membership Profile by K. Subha7, published for Institute of Social Sciences by
Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi, 1997 discusses democracy at work and
details the social background of elected representatives and gives major findings on the election process at grassroots and the rudimentary
drives of caste and money in supporting a candidate in the
Panchayat elections.
Bijoyini
Mohanty8 in her treatise
Glimpses of Local Governance analyses structural and functional elements of urban governance and all the events converging to
the purview of local administration in India. The author has dealt
in great depth the core of the urban as well as the rura1
governance and specifically participation of
citizens in administrative systems available at urban
and rural locations. The institutional structure and function after the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments have been elaborated.
U. B.
Singh9 in his book Decentralized Democratic GovernanceinNew
Millennium, has
discussed in detail the urban local government and its variations in other parts of the world with structural configuration and variation in different nations. The Indian urban scenario has been substantiated in great detail.
discussed in detail the urban local government and its variations in other parts of the world with structural configuration and variation in different nations. The Indian urban scenario has been substantiated in great detail.
L.
N. P. Mohanty and Swati Mohanty10 have dealt with
urban amenities and slum management in urban India, specifically in the
city of Bhubaneswar in the book, Slum in India.
The nidus of the study and the city of study provide glimpses of urban living
and role of each stakeholder in urban phenomenon.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH:
The study will be taken up in Odisha,
specifically in 3 categories of municipal institutions of
one of the prominent districts of the state,
i.e. Khordha district which is better urbanised than other
districts and has the state capital, Bhubaneswar within its geographical
boundary.
Thus, descriptions are to be made of the state of Odisha, Khordha district and age specifications of youth which are quite relevant for this study.
Thus, descriptions are to be made of the state of Odisha, Khordha district and age specifications of youth which are quite relevant for this study.
Universe
of the Study:
The youth population of some of the selected
urban areas of Odisha will be taken as the Study
Universe. Youth in general and a specific group of elected representatives to
municipal institutions in particular will be taken as respondents.
Defining
Youth for this study:
Youth means, both men and women in the age
group of 18-35 in the case of general category and
those youth of the age group of 21-35 in the case of elected representatives.
This is because, as per the legal mandate, only those
youth above the age of 18 are eligible to vote, and
only those above the age of 21 are eligible to contest in municipal election
process.
Study
Area:
Considering the study of youth in urban areas
of Odisha, 3 municipal institutions like Municipal Corporation, Municipality
and Notified Area Council (Nagar Panchayat) of Khordha district of Odisha have been taken
as the representative area.
Orissa
has 1, 55, 707 Sq. Km. of geographical area with 58 Sub-divisions, 171 Tehsil in 30 districts. There are 103 Municipal institutions which includes 3
Municipal Corporations, 37 Municipalities and 63 Notified Area Councils.
Demographic
profile has an important bearing on the development process. The population of
Orissa increased from 368.05 lakh in 2001 to
419. 47 in 2011. The density of population has increased
from 236 per Sq. Km. in 2001 to 269 in 2011 with the Sex Ratio in the State
i.e. number of females per 1,000 males marginally increased from 972 in 2001 to
978 in 2011. The density of population which was 236 per sq
km in 2001 has increased to 269 per sq km In
2011. The urban population of 13.38% in 1991 increased to
14.97% in 2011. The urban population of 14.97% in 2001 has increased to 16.68% in 2011. On the literacy front the achievement has been impressive as the literacy rate increased from
63.08% in 2001 to 73.45% in 2011. The male and female literacy
rates which were 75.35% and 50.51% in 2001 have
increased to 82.40 % and 64.36% respectively in 2011.
HYPOTHESES:
v The youth is not aware of urban governance in its democratic footing.
v He / She are very much eager for leadership role in urban government.
v The youth is satisfied with the regulative, extractive and distributive
functions municipal institution.
METHODS OF STUDY:
For the present study, survey method has been
used. Empirical analysis has been made on the available data. Data are
collected from both primary and secondary sources.
Data from primary sources are collected
through survey research where the techniques of interview
and schedule were used.
The interview schedule will be administered
individually to each of the respondents. Care will
be taken to see that the respondents will correctly interpret each question
before recording any of their opinion. In case of
problem of language, appropriate translation into local
Odia language will be made and the meaning will be explained properly. The secondary
sources of data are the available published books on Municipal System, Urban
Administration, and popular participation. Apart from that, published
governmental and nongovernmental reports and unpublished documents
are used as secondary sources of data for the
purpose.
Data
Analysis:
After collection of data, an elaborate
codebook will be prepared and the data will be posted in the code sheet. Then
the data will be analysed. Statistical analysis of the data will be made by appropriate methods like Pearson's Chi Square Test and p value will be
calculated by Fisher's Exact Test.
REFERENCES:
1.
National Youth Policy of India,
2.
United Nations Division for Social Policy and Development
3.
Youth Participation in Governance
(ICT Urban Governance and Youth, UN Habitat)
4.
Progress Report (November 2009 June 2010) Citizens'
Involvement in Urban Governance, Dr. Maveda Jamal, of
London School of Economics and Political Science
5.
Young People Imagining a New Democracy: Literature Review, Whitlam Institute, University of Western
Svdnev
6.
Girish Kumar and Buddhadeb Ghosh in their West Bengal Panchayat Elections 1993: A
Study of Participation
7.
Karnataka Panchayat Elections 1995:
Process, Issues and Membership Profile by K. Subha
8. Bijoyini Mohanty, Glimpses of Local
Governance, Kunal Books, New Delhi-l 10002, India
9.
U. B. Singh Decentralized Democratic Governance in New Millennium, Concept
Publishing Company, New Delhi, 2009.
10.
L. N. P. Mohanty and Swat] Mohanty, Slum in India, APH Publishing
Corporation, New Delhi, 2005
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