NIRDPR’s new initiative to empower select GPs

​Hyderabad: The Ministry of Panchayati Raj and the Ministry of Rural Development Government of India launched People’s Plan Campaign for Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPGP) across the country under the caption ‘Sabki Yojana Sabka Vikas’. In tune with that, the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) launched an Action Research Project on GPDP on the same day in Gwalior for its “100+ Panchayat Clusters Development Programme”.

The Action Research Project will cover around 500 Gram Panchayats (GPs) which have been grouped into 100+ Clusters in 19 States. The objective of this initiative is to reinforce the efforts of the States / the MoPR by enabling the selected GPs in the 100+ Clusters to apply all or most of the available good practices in GPDP in the country. This target will be achieved with specialized, value-added and incremental capacity-building and sustained handholding support through two Young Fellows and two Beacon Panchayat Leaders per Cluster.

The selected GPs under the Clusters will be treated as "Schools of Practice" in terms of professional GPDP preparation and effective implementation. The Project will provide support to these GPs to demonstrate themselves as “Beacon GPDP”. ‘Seeing is believing’ - observing the good results in these GPs which would function as the training hubs would have a spillover effect on the nearby GPsto learn how to replicate the good practices for further development through this Action Research Project.

WR Reddy, Director General of NIRDPR reiterated the goal and objectives of the initiative. He explained that GPDP is a tool for people’s movement for overall development in rural areas through voluntarism and missionary zeal. Appreciating the enthusiasm of the Beacon Panchayat Leaders and encouraging them, he remarked that it would be an action research project, not of NIRDPR, but of common people.

At this consultative workshop, there were discussions on how best the systems of planning and monitoring can be enhanced through the effective utilisation of Geo-Informatics and the available untapped human resource on the ground. The Action Research Project was introduced at this workshop as an effort to create ‘Schools of Practice’ for Panchayats who are yet to arrive at their aspired level of development in a swift manner.
Anjan Kumar Bhanja, Associate Professor, CPR, NIRDPR, stressed the need for attitudinal development of all the stakeholders through intense capacity building and training interventions to achieve the goal.

Shri Dilip K. Pal, the Project Leader, who anchored the conclave, emphasized the necessity of an aggressive and “out of box” approach to accelerate all-round development with focus on human development, social development and environmental upgradation through the initiative.

The Beacon Panchayat Leaders will be finally selected from those who have first-hand experience of working on Panchayats & Rural Development, particularly at the GP level, who are familiar with GPDP processes and who have outstanding leadership qualities to motivate Elected Representatives and functionaries of GPs to strengthen GPDP processes. With this end in view, NIRDPR hosted a Conclave on 26-27 October 2018 with prospective Beacon Panchayat Leaders to fulfillthe following objectives.

1. To develop a clear and common understanding about the purpose, approach, focus, institutional arrangements, stages and processes of overall GPDP

2. To clearly understand the objectives, institutional arrangements and methodology of implementing the Action Research Project on GPDP alongside the mainstream People’s Plan Campaign for GPDP

3. To enable the Beacon Panchayat Leaders to visualize how the GPs in the Clusters can acquire the distinctive features of Beacon GPDPs and demonstrate themselves as “Islands of Success”

4. To clearly understand the roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders, including the Beacon Panchayat Leaders, in the Action Research Project on GPDP.