AIDS Awareness Campaign
Let Panchayats Take the Lead
Ash Narain Roy

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is spreading with alarming speed in India. According to official National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) data, from a small figure of 2,00,000 in 1990 the HIV positive population has gone up to 5.1 million in 2003. According to another projection, the number of HIV positive persons in India could grow to about 25 million by 2010. In states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland, HIV infection among antenatal women has already crossed 1 per cent. Poor people in rural areas are more prone to be the victims of this dreaded epidemic due to lack of awareness and basic health facilities. That being the situation what is the role of panchayats in stemming the pandemic? The article by Ash Narian Roy discusses the issue in detail. (Read Full Article)

Does Decentralisation Reduce Poverty?
Towards a paradigm based on the experiences of Kerala and West Bengal
M.A. Oommen and Buddhadeb Ghosh

Does decentralisation bring about better and more equitable economic and social outcomes? If so, what is the mechanism and process? These are the questions that have been investigated in two case studies of West Bengal and Kerala. The two case studies have empirically examined whether a correlation between decentralisation and poverty reduction can be established and, if so, how and under what circumstances this relationship may or may not work. (Read Full Article)

Fiscal Decentralization in Kerala
Speech by  Geeta Sethi,
Senior Economist, Agriculture & Rural Development, World Bank, Washington International Conference on
‘A DECADE OF DECENTRALISATION IN KERALA: ISSUES, OPTIONS AND LESSONS’
Thiruvananthapuram  7 - 9 October 2005

Decentralization is a big issue in India, but things have not progressed very far.  There is a great need to improve service delivery in rural areas where most Indians live, and it would appear that the current system of government and government finances are not getting the job done. The amendments to the Constitution argue that fiscal decentralization i.e. empowerment of local population by empowering their elected local governments is the route for improving local service delivery. Kerala has a long tradition of decentralized planning, hence ready for fiscal decentralization. However prior to implement the fiscal decentralization, the state government has to correct certain drawbacks like fiscal deficit, weak mobilization of local revenue etc., in the existing system. (Read Full Article)

People’s Plan Campaign
Valedictory Address by Pinarayi Vijayan,
Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Kerala
International Conference on
‘A DECADE OF DECENTRALISATION IN KERALA: ISSUES, OPTIONS AND LESSONS’
Thiruvananthapuram  7 - 9 October 2005

From the time 73rd and 74th Constitutional amendments were enacted in 1993, local self governments in Kerala have witnessed a tremendous transformation in their powers, resources and functions. This transformation was initiated through the People’s Plan Campaign launched by the Left Democratic Front (LDF), one of the prominent political parties of Kerala in the year 1996. The People’s Plan Campaign empowered the local self-governments to prepare local plans as well as to implement them despite the fact that necessary statutory changes had not then been formalised. (Read Full Article)

Turkey Local Agenda 21 Program

Agenda 21 - the background:

During the 1992 Rio Earth Summit "sustainable development" was endorsed as the common goal of humanity, along with the global action plan entitled "Agenda 21" delineating the principles and areas of action to cope with environmental and development problems and to move towards attaining the goal of sustainable development in the twenty-first century. (Read Full Article)