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Abstract:
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"Development policy in India has since long recognized the need for decentralized governance and first introduced it in 1882. However the whole concept of local self-governance in the form of Panchayati Raj came only after independence. Democratic decentralisation and involvement of people in the decision-making process was recognized by the Constituent Assembly, which enshrined it in the Constitution as one of the Directive Principles of the State Policy. Several initiatives were taken in the 1950s and 1960s to promote democratic decentralization. The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts in 2002 mark a watershed in the history of governance in the country. The 73rd Amendment in 1992 has cast a Constitutional imperative on all the State Governments to come up with appropriate Panchayati Raj Acts detailing meaningful democratic devolution of functions, functionaries and funds. The 73rd Amendment to the constitution in 1992 mandating establishment of PRIs in rural India and its subsequent extension to the fifth schedule areas by virtue of Provisions of Panchayats (Extension to Schedule Areas) Act, 1996 clearly mandated the PRIs in the overall village development, including and significantly the management of natural resources. Specifically, it empowers States to endow Panchayats with such powers and authority to enable them to function as institution of self-government (Article 243-G of the Constitution). So while Local Self-Governance is one of the goals envisaged by the 73rd Amendment, PRIs have been identified as the means to achieve it. Bearing this in mind PRIs were introduced as a distinct third tier of government at the time of the Ninth Five Year plan (1997-2002). As far as forestry in India is concerned, the National Forest Policy (NFP), 1988, and the subsequent circular on Joint Forest Management (JFM) in 1990 created the space for community participation in management of forest resources. Both JFM and Panchayati Raj (PR) represent major steps towards decentralization of power and control over resources. While the underlying idea of both these developments was to empower and involve the community at the lower level in decision making and management of resources that impact them the most, the institutional structures envisaged for them serve different purposes. It is here that these structures and their purposes throw new challenges in the participatory governance of natural resources and especially in participatory forest management. Thus while PRIs are elected representatives of the village populations as mandated by the Constitution to be empowered on certain aspects of forests management, the user groups, (JFMCs in this case) are created specifically to give effect to the concept of participatory or joint forest management, working under the respective state forest departments. Notably the panchayat system has existed in rural India even before the independence, having a marginal role in forest management; similarly JFM was conceived and initiated on an experimental basis around 1970s and was formalized only in 1990."
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