Decentralisation and delivery of urban basic services: the West Bengal experience

Abstract

One of the major promises of decentralisation is that it brings popular participation and accountability to local governance, making local government more responsive to citizens' desires and more effective in delivering services. Acknowledging the potential of decentralisation in improving delivery of basic services, the present article uses primary data to demonstrate that higher availability of urban basic services (UBSs) is associated with higher levels of citizen dissatisfaction. Policymakers need to adopt a comprehensive set of reform policies – strengthening the organic link between urban residents and municipalities, exploring alternative service delivery options, etc. – to improve the delivery of UBSs.

Décentralisation et prestation de services urbains de base : l'expérience du Bengale-Occidental

L'une des principales promesses de la décentralisation est qu'elle introduit la participation et la redevabilité dans la gouvernance locale, ce qui rend les collectivités gouvernementales locales plus à même de satisfaire les désirs des citoyens et plus efficaces dans la prestation des services. Reconnaissant le potentiel de la décentralisation pour améliorer la prestation de services de base, le présent article utilise des données primaires pour démontrer qu'une disponibilité accrue de services urbains de base (SUB) est associée à un degré plus élevé de mécontentement parmi les citoyens. Les décideurs doivent adopter un ensemble complet de politiques de réforme – renforcer le lien organique entre les résidents urbains et les municipalités, étudier d'autres options possibles pour la prestation de services, etc. – afin d'améliorer la prestation des SUB.

Descentralização e implementação de serviços urbanos básicos: a experiência de Bengala Ocidental

Uma das principais promessas da descentralização é que ela promove a participação popular e prestação de contas à governança local, tornando o governo local mais receptivo às vontades dos cidadãos e mais efetivo na implementação de serviços. Reconhecendo o potencial da descentralização para melhorar a implementação de serviços básicos, este artigo utiliza dados primários para demonstrar que uma maior disponibilidade de serviços urbanos básicos (UBSs) está associada a níveis mais altos de insatisfação dos cidadãos. Formuladores de políticas precisam adotar um conjunto abrangente de políticas de reforma – fortalecendo a ligação orgânica entre os residentes urbanos e as municipalidades, explorando opções de implementação de serviços alternativos, etc. – para melhorar a implementação de Serviços Urbanos Básicos (UBSs).

La descentralización y prestación de servicios urbanos básicos: una experiencia de Bengala Occidental

Una de las grandes esperanzas de la descentralización es que genera participación popular y rendición de cuentas de los gobiernos locales, consiguiendo que los gobiernos locales estén más atentos a los deseos de los ciudadanos y sean más eficaces en la prestación de servicios. Este ensayo reconoce que la descentralización puede mejorar la prestación de servicios básicos y utiliza información de primera mano para mostrar que las tasas de acceso a servicios urbanos básicos (SUB) más altas están asociadas a tasas de inconformidad ciudadana también más altas. Para mejorar la prestación de SUB, los políticos necesitan realizar un conjunto global de reformas políticas, fortaleciendo el vínculo organizativo entre los habitantes urbanos y los municipios, y ensayando nuevas formas de prestación servicios.

Keywords:

• Governance and public policy
• Social sector
• South Asia

Notes

West Bengal is located in north-eastern part of India. In terms of absolute size of urban population, West Bengal ranks fourth among the Indian states. In particular, as per the 2001 census, some 28 per cent of the total population resides in urban areas. The growth rate of the urban population in West Bengal is 6,798 per km², which is the highest in the country. Municipalisation has also kept pace, with the number of municipal bodies rising from 96 in 1951 to 126 (6 Municipal Corporations, 117 municipalities and 3 Notified Area Authorities) in 2005. These bodies are normally divided into municipal bodies located within the Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA) and the non-KMA municipalities (Government of West Bengal 2006).

The Government of West Bengal makes it mandatory to constitute the WCs for all municipalities, irrespective of the size of the population. The committee provides a forum where people from every part of society can voice their opinion, criticise elected officials and suggest solutions to practical problems.

For example, health services certainly influence the levels of infant mortality, which may also be influenced by other factors like general economic conditions, increased public awareness, etc., many of which are beyond the control of the Health Ministry.

For example, it is not easy for an authority to monitor how a doctor treats their patients. Even if the government puts such a system in place, there remains a possibility of collusion between the service providers and the monitoring authority, which renders the monitoring system powerless.

In the context of the developing countries, we have few instances of governments seeking user feedback on their services and programmes. The few initiatives in developing countries have come from the civil society organisations such as the Public Affairs Center (PAC), which pioneered the report cards on urban services (e.g., Report Card for Bangalore) (Paul 1998). These report cards summarise the citizens' assessment of services provided by public agencies. The PAC used its report cards not only to create public awareness, but also to advocate policy and governance reforms. In fact, it also led to similar works in several Indian cities (Paul et al. 2004).

In Bally municipality, with the highest population density among the three municipalities studied, the pressure of population on water services is relatively much greater than in the other two municipalities and this may be one of the reasons for greater user dissatisfaction there. Also, there may be reporting bias against the quality of water in relatively prosperous municipalities as the respondents may be more quality-conscious.

Some respondents reported that although they have in-house connections, water is not available from there. So they are left with no other option but to depend on street-taps or to make their own private arrangements. Geo-physical characteristics of the municipalities also influence water pressure; for example, high altitude of one of the wards of Bolpur municipality results in low water pressure.

Untreated ground water with high iron content increases the probability of water-borne diseases.

This partly explains why comparatively greater proportion of respondents in the Cooch Behar municipality was reluctant to use municipal water, as compared to the other two municipalities.

The state institutions like Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority and PHED plan, build and maintain water supply infrastructure. Under the present decentralised set-up, projects related to water supply are decided by municipal planning committees. But then, as far as implementation is concerned, it largely remains in the hands of the state institutions. This complicates the picture and leads to a dilution in responsibilities, resulting in poor water supply in the municipalities. This weakens municipalities' effectiveness and legitimacy in the eyes of the citizens.

Quite a significant proportion of respondents (60 per cent) in one ward each of Cooch Behar and Bolpur municipalities were satisfied with the drainage services. The chairman of Cooch Behar municipality, also a resident of the ward, actively monitored regular cleaning of drains. Similarly, one influential political party member in a ward of Bolpur municipality, the holder of a key post in one of the municipal departments, used substantial manpower (casual labour) to clean drains on a regular basis. These two instances highlight the importance of involvement of peoples' representatives and local people themselves to improve the efficacy of the service delivery process.

In Ward 6 of Bolpur municipality, respondents notified WC members about problems of irregular collection of waste materials and WC meetings were held to discuss these problems. Still, this ward emerged as one of the poorer performers, both in terms of respondents' access to and satisfaction with this service. According to the municipality officials, lack of manpower was one of the reasons for poor collection. Moreover, in recent years, this ward has experienced geographical expansion and respondents of recently added areas did not yet have any garbage collection facilities.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Soumyadip Chattopadhyay

Soumyadip Chattopadhyay is Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Politics at Visva-Bharati University.