Browsing by Author "Jain, Nihal C."

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Heterogeneity and Equity: Some Contradictions and Compromises in Collective Action
(2002) Jain, Nihal C.
"Several analytical models that have been formulated for examining the CPR management regimes provide an important stress on community structure and its implications in the form of homogeneity and heterogeneity and the efficiency and equity outcomes. Most common property scholars have argued that for the success and sustenance of collective action, the benefits derived from the collectively managed resources should flow equitably to all the members of a group. The process of globalisation has also led to greater emphasis on equity principles in the public policy. It is easier to ensure equity concerns in homogeneous groups because of similarity in resource dependence. Nevertheless, it becomes difficult to enforce equity when the group is heterogeneous with members having different economic interests and use perceptions about the resource. There are diverse sources of heterogeneity that include caste, ethnicity, social grouping, economic status, enterprises, political influence, habitation pattern, physical location etc. It becomes difficult for the factions and group members having heterogeneous objectives to come to common agreement. Even then many heterogeneous groups have sustained collective action although without eliminating inequalities. Based on the analysis of case studies from six village institutions, from Rajasthan in India, involved in the collective management of forest resources, this study is aimed at understanding such factors that contribute to the success of collective action under the circumstances of heterogeneity where there is a greater likelihood of inequalities within the groups."
Promoting Gender Equity in Community Institutions: Evidence from Indigenous Communities in Western India
(2002) Jain, Kalpana; Jain, Nihal C.
"In the present era of globalisation, the values of gender equity are being accepted and promoted in almost all regions of the world. There are inherent cultural differences in different communities. The level of disparities between both the genders is generally higher in developing countries and especially among indigenous communities. "The importance of gender equality for sustainable people-centered development is well accepted (SIDA, 1995) and it is widely recognized that gender inequalities create inefficiencies and hamper growth (The World Bank, 1995a; MFA, 1995; Byers et al., 1994). The Agenda-21 adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 laid emphasis on the country governments to review policies and adopt suitable changes to encourage greater participation of women in the decision-making process (UNCED, 1992). Women specially face an unusual number of obstacles that limit their participation (FAO, 1989; Sarin and others, 1997) and therefore, there is a special need for adopting pro-active approaches (The World Bank, 1995b; Sarin and others, 1997). It is in this background that several steps have been taken up by the Rajasthan Forest Department in India recently by making suitable policy amendments and adopting some proactive measures to encourage women participation in community institutions being promoted for joint management (JFM) of common property forest resources. This study analyses the impact of such recent policy changes and the proactive measures."
Promoting Sustainable Collective Action: Lessons from Behavioural Sciences
(2011) Jain, Kalpana; Jain, Nihal C.
"Several tools and techniques are used by psychologists and the counsellors for behaviour shaping. Some of the techniques such as contingency management of reinforcement, modelling procedures and rational emotive approaches have considerable relevance for community groups. In community development activities, rights and incentives provided for motivating community members act as reinforcement for collective management of resources. If the benefit flow from collectively managed resources increases, it further acts as reinforcer. The extension activities such as exposure visits to some exemplary cases or success stories provide as models for communities. The participatory exercises, community meetings and other sensitization activities act like rational emotive approaches of behaviour shaping. This study has been carried out in south Rajasthan where Joint Forest Management approach has been implemented for nearly two decades. The delivery and process of community development activities in selected villages were analyzed in each community to understand how they compared with the community behaviour shaping approaches. This was then related to the effectiveness of community institutions. The results indicated decline in effectiveness of institutions in many cases which was primarily associated with absence of proper scheduling of reinforcement while delivering development activities. While in some cases sustained collective action was observed where a combination of factors motivated community members. In overall, it was evident that collective action remained sustained when the combination of rights, incentives, benefits and sensitization processes was delivered in a manner that they acted as reinforcers of the desired behaviour. Based on these observations, a strategy of delivering a combination of development interventions is discussed to promote sustainable community institutions."
Providing Incentives for Sustainability: Rationality Beyond Economic Considerations
(2011) Jain, Nihal C.
"For achieving sustainability through collective management of forest and other natural resources, the incentives should be attractive enough that communities feel motivated to regulate the use of resources. When people have rights over the resources, they can derive benefits from products flowing from the resources. If benefits are not significant, additional incentives can be provided to communities through development investments. With this consideration, many government and non-government agencies, implementing the participatory resource management programmes, emphasize on providing additional incentives in various forms to local communities. This paper examines the effectiveness of such provision of incentives in motivating local communities for sustainable management of resources. The analysis is based on some case studies from Rajasthan, where different forms of additional incentives have been provided by implementing agencies, in addition to the benefits flowing from the resources managed. This revealed that it is not merely the economic incentives, which always motivate communities. Rather it is the emotional attachment of people and feeling of belongingness to resources, which drive people’s action, specially if they are sensitised around this issue. The rights, benefits, additional incentives in terms of development investments and emotional attachment make a combination which needs to be considered in totality. This implies that even if the potential benefits from collective protection and regulation are significant, unless the community members become emotionally sensitised and take over the responsibility, sustainable forest management may not be achieved. However, generally this understanding is hardly applied in the programmes being implemented, and as a result sustainable collective action is often not achieved despite several efforts and considerable investments. Based on this analysis, this paper outlines key considerations of a strategy for achieving sustainable collective action."