e-Governance: empowering rural mass

About four years ago, while traveling in the forest ranges of Jharkhand to engage with the tribal communities, on issues related to the delivery of essential public services, I had a fascinating chat with a survey enumerator from one of the country's leading market research agencies. He was recollecting his experiences in carrying out a survey on public health facilities in one of the poorest states in India, a few years back. He and his team had gone to a remote district to carry out an institutional assessment of the facilities that exist in government hospitals.

He was surprised to see a long line of patients (in various stages of distress) waiting in front of a rectangular box wrapped in black cloth. A hospital staff sitting near the box orders each patient to come closer and take a deep breath. A door suddenly opens and a bright light shines for a moment. The door closes in a jiffy. The patient moves on and the next one lines up. Intrigued by this "machine" my friend politely enquired with a patient waiting in the line as to what this apparatus was. Prompt came the reply-X-Ray Saab! Now curiosity got the better of my friend and he inched closer to the "X-ray machine". It was a plain refrigerator!

The anecdote is both tragic and comical at the same time. But it brings to play an interesting plot of how technology can be misused in a context of ignorance and vulnerability. In some sense, one can locate the current discourses on the prospects of e-Gov as a panacea for all developmental ills along the same lines. e-Gov and its more ubiquitous avatar-the Internet-are today seen as the new Spartacus, all set to liberate the seemingly insurmountable problems with a click of a mouse. The rapidly proliferating evangelists of the new "electronic" faith preach the glory of this messiah in terms of the absolute power ordinary people will have once they get baptized.

I must hasten to add here that I am not one of those anti technology Luddites. I understand and appreciate that technological possibilities could effectively address most of the daunting social realities that excite and dampen the collective spirit of a nation transfixed at the crossroads between economic prosperity and widening inequity. While the potential of ICTs to enhance governance outcomes is quite undisputed, it is this observed infatuation with technology as the sole driver for good governance that is under a critical scanner. So, what does the future hold for e-Gov in India? I propose seven themes that are likely to shape and influence the outcomes and impacts of the next generation e-Gov strategies:

A Tech Paradigm: Governance is, in its true sense, all about the vibrancy and resilience of institutions-economic, social and political. Issues of accountability, transparency and responsiveness (often quoted as the cornerstones of good governance) depend on the character and nature of prevailing institutions. In socially fractured, economically skewed and politically corrupted contexts, technology can easily be appropriated by the powerful. It is naïve to assume that technology is a great leveler. Or, it is a value neutral tool. It all depends on who owns and drives the tool. The right strategy would be to create a level playing field through affirmative institutional reforms and then unleash the potential of technology.

A Conscious Shift: The primary driver in most e-Gov initiatives continues to be processes and techniques. Seldom are outcomes measured and monitored. It is not uncommon to see many grand narratives on e-Gov initiatives describe in detail issues of technology selection, re-engineering of internal processes and organizational leadership qualities but remain conspicuously silent on issues of inclusion, representation and other specific governance outcomes.

Shifting Focus: A continuing weakness in many e-Gov initiatives is the lack of clarity between e-administration and e-Gov. The former is process driven and depends on internal changes, reforms, and supply-side management. The latter, on the other hand, is outcome driven and results in the real empowerment of the intended beneficiaries. Very often, organizational imperatives override the larger social objectives. Using technological possibilities to empower the marginalized and the vulnerable is quite often sacrificed on the altar of efficiency and administrative controls.

Consumer Vs Citizen: One of the hotly contested themes in public service delivery is the recasting of the citizen to that of a consumer or user of services. From a strictly commercial sense this may make perfect sense. However, given the welfare angle of most critical services, this recasting leads to a danger of excluding those who don't fall under the category of a "user". Further, the ambit of citizen rights is far wider than that of a consumer. Also, in the case of critical services like health, security and education any aberration or denial of services is a violation of a citizen's fundamental right and not just a matter of consumer grievance.

It is naïve to assume that technology is a great leveler, a value neutral tool. It all depends on who owns and drives the tool. The right strategy would be to create a level playing field

Revenue Models: A major strategy in the roll-out of next generation e-Gov is the creation of 100,000 + Common Services Centers (CSCs) in rural India. The National e-Gov Plan (NeGP) envisages that these front-end platforms will enable government, private and social sector organizations to integrate their commercial and social goals for the benefit of rural populations in the remotest corners of the country through a combination of IT and non-IT services. Though the rationale of facilitating a multi service point is well appreciated (especially to incentivize potential rural entrepreneurs), the lack of any clear thinking on the regulatory mechanisms is worrying. Emerging evidences on public-private partnerships of similar nature show some disquieting trends. An independent assessment carried out on the much celebrated Computer-Aided Administration of the Registration Department (CARD) reforms in Andhra Pradesh found no significant improvements on the service process–information transparency, staff behavior, and the payment of bribes to secure registration–or, on outcomes–perceived changes in service delivery ('Public Sector Reform and Corruption: The CARD Façade in Andhra Pradesh', Jonathan Caseley, Economic and Political Weekly. Yet another study on the Bhoomi project in Karnataka (seen by many as the most successful e governance project in India) found evidences of new rent-seeking and data compromising activities. The key USP of the project–ease of access to land registration documents–is seen to come at a price. A collusive nexus has emerged between the kiosk operator and the taluk officials under the new digital system. Errors are deliberately introduced on the pretext of typographical and then bribes are demanded to make corrections. Ironically, this sort of manipulation was not possible in the old manual system as the underlying text would show the original matter and the over-written error. The same study also quotes that agents who facilitate buying and selling of land in the Bangalore periphery region saying that the Bhoomi data was being used by land sharks to identify properties that were vulnerable and buy them. For instance, directed queries in the database were used to identify those farmers in the taluk who had not paid land taxes and the landsharks would then bribe taluk officials to grab control of the land. The point to note here is that issues of transparency are not addressed automatically by just migrating to a digital system. New forms of corruption and abuses are emerging. And with the private partners now part of the service delivery process, the lines of accountability are getting increasingly blurred. It should also be noted that a key loser in this emergent scenario is the marginalized sections of society.

Adapting Technology

While on a visit to Kerala to study user feedback on an e-Gov project, a poor farmer mentioned that interacting with a machine is quite intimidating. He drew an interesting analogy: "it's like being put in a huge modern supermarket just to get my daily quota of rice. I can't read or write and it's impossible to figure out where provisions are kept. I would any day prefer my neighborhood provision shop. I can talk to the shop keeper, argue, negotiate and then buy". We are still in many senses a community moored in a strong culture of orality. The challenge when looking for extending the contours of e-Gov into the rural areas is to visualize beyond computers and explore other media like television (especially, cable networks), radio and other interactive media. The key here is to ensure that technology doesn't end up as an alien and/or intimidating tool but blends and adapts itself to exiting social and cultural ethos.

The key is to ensure that technology doesn't end up as an alien and intimidating tool, but blends and adapts itself to existing social and cultural ethos

Political Incentives

For all those who sang praises on the wonders of what IT could do for the country, the last Parliamentary election was a rude wake-up call. Champions of the new IT faith like Chandrababu Naidu and SM Krishna lost out to a strong negative vote from the rural constituencies. But the way the triumphant incumbents responded to this message was more disastrous. Instead of applying some of the effective urban centered e-Gov initiatives to the rural areas, the instinct was to immediately disown most of the promising developments: "Throw the baby with the bath water". There is a strong need to reach out to the political levels and locate incentives for the politicians. The prospects, promises and pitfalls of e-Gov should seep out of the current technocratic frameworks to more political spaces. It is impossible to leapfrog into a new technological future without the inconvenience of any political discourse.

At the end of the day, it is the creation of strong institutions and the empowerment of citizens through information and education that has the potential to translate technological innovations to well meaning strategies to counter some of the crippling economic and social maladies. All hyperbole on the emanicipatory potential of technology will remain as a Pentium powered fantasy which if played out, will only widen all existing chasms.

The author is the executive director of Public Affairs Foundation, a non profit company, working on issues of good governance

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in