Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

380 RAJESH RAMAKRISHNAN, VIREN LOBO AND DEPINDER KAPUR
programme, the impact was very meagre, and that the reach of the programme
was poor because only 100 sathins had been chosen per district.
The Chief Secretary charged the sathins with having stultified the programme
by wanting permanent government posts in their villages, and
by not moving out to new villages. The Chief Secretary went to the extent
of charging sathins with internalising the values of government employees.
It was clear that the government, through the statements of the Chief
Secretary, was trying to falsely implicate the sathins for its own unstated
policy of scuttling the WDP. Seeing the resistance of the sathins to unbridled
exploitation, the WDP itself refrained from meeting the prescribed
target of 100 sathins per district. Only about five districts had anywhere
close to the required number. The NCW report listed 64 tasks that the
sathins performed and noted that these tasks routinely took the sathin to
neighbouring villages. The very success of the sathin in combating existing
social evils and feudal practices was due to her success in mobilising cohesive
groups in the communities.
The idea of Mahila Samoohs replacing single sathins appears correct
in principle. Yet, in practice, the operation of these Mahila Samoohs was
along the same lines as the routine top-down approach to which the WDP
as a whole had reverted.
Even on an experimental basis, to be effective the Mahila Samooh model
requires a completely different approach. The lacunae in implementation
have been identified as the arbitrary and mechanical manner in which
the Mahila Samoohs have been formed. The formation was done without
a detailed planning of the approach, the processes and the training required
for facilitation of the empowerment process … . It is felt that the
kind of training that is given is very mechanical and content-based. This
is in contrast to the experiential and value-based nature of the earlier
training. It has been felt that this kind of training does not bring about an
attitudinal shift which is the very crux of the empowerment process … .
This has resulted in various problems at the field level, such as a relative
lack of commitment and responsibility, ad-hocism and a high turnover.
The fact that the Samooh members do not feel bound to attend meetings
and training programmes has been a cause for concern … . (NCW 1996)
Quite clearly, any stultification of the programme had been done by
WDP itself.