After the successful completion of three phases of Back to Village programme, which was first launched in June 2019, the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory Government launched its fourth edition of Back to Village programme on October 27th which was scheduled to run till November 3rd, with a focus on youth, skills and self-employment, good governance and strengthening of Panchayati Raj at grassroot level. The initiative was to continue with the aiming to bridge the communication gap between the administration and citizens.
When the UT Government of Jammu and Kashmir launched its Back to Village programme on the lines of nationwide programme of Government of India which comprised of Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan and Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana, they might not have been sure of it’s success in the beginning, but the initiative and enthusiasm behind the concept made it so popular among the masses, that even the just concluded fourth edition of the programme was very much successful and well appreciated.
The bottom-up approach of the ‘B2V4 programme’ like the previous three editions was again successful in building the trust and strengthen the ties between the people and administration.
The Government succeeded in its ambitious target for this year with over 2 lakh certificates issued, and 65,000 self-employment cases were taken up by the Government. A huge number of 1 lakh youths were identified for skill training. The administration tied up with J&K Bank to deliver its credit linked schemes.
Moreover, IT-based Common Service Centres (CSCs) were set up, demonstrations and training camps were organized to help citizens to access 225 online services including 70 G2C services.
To deliberate on supply of safe drinking water to remote areas, 4200 Paani Samitis have been instituted and over 10 lakh land passbooks were issued to eligible farmers.
To encourage sports among youth, the government aims to build at least one playfield in every Panchayat. Special camps will provide support to the specially abled and the quality of delivery of public services will be examined in the delivery process for easy delivery of services.
The visiting officers were designated as Panchayat Prabharis whose roles were designated to act as mentor officers for the Panchayats.The principal objective of this programme is to strengthen the newly constituted Panchayats. Led by the District Commissioners, over 25,000 Government employees at all levels participated which included 4,500 gazetted officers who were directly deployed to these Panchayats, which helped the administration to reach the doorsteps of citizens to register their grievances and address them promptly.
‘B2V4’ programme like its past got a massive response, especially from people in the militancy-infested areas. The aim of the programme was to bridge the gap between the achievable and achieved goals in development, take governance to doorsteps of the rural and inaccessible areas and generate credible and empirical feedback.
Innovation is an important aspect of democracy. The most important part in any democratic set up is that how the basic issues of the people are accessed, assessed and addressed. Jammu and Kashmir has faced this problem the most as there exists a big gap between the ruled and the rulers.
Undoubtedly, the elected representatives have a clear responsibility to do the things that their constituents want, but over the decades it has been observed that the ruling classes have ignored this vital concept of connect with the masses. It is perhaps because of this gap that the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir has arisen. This situation is quite threatening for the very democratic fabric of the state, and it impacts the overall ratings of democracy in the country as well.
The democracy means listening to the people at their doorsteps, understanding the circumstances in which they are living, feeling a pinch of the difficulties that impact their lives, and finding a way out of it. This was the essence of the initiative of “Back to village”. If continued and its feedback responded in a positive fashion, this concept can change the whole dynamic of the governance in the state.
The ‘Back to Village’ programme is aimed to involve the people of the state and government officials in a joint effort to deliver the mission of equitable development. The program is primarily aimed at directing development efforts in rural areas through community participation and to create in the rural masses an earnest desire for decent standard of living.
The ambitious programme has four main goals heavily energising panchayats, collecting feedback on delivery of Government schemes and programmes, capturing specific economic potential, and undertaking assessment of needs of villages.
Energising Panchayats: Providing an energizing boost to panchayats by empowering Gram Sabha will give a much needed impetus in the direction of good governance. Gram Sabha can be an effective forum for information sharing on programmes, schemes, good practices and matters of common interest.
Collecting Feedback on Delivery of Government Schemes and Programmes: The feedback obtained directly from the people will help design Government schemes, Central and state based on their needs. It will also help in smooth implementation of government programs like PM-KISAN. Getting a comprehensive feedback by deploying as many as 4500 officers for duty in villages is a much needed task to be carried on.
Capturing Specific Economic Potential: Back to village program will help in providing tailor-made customized solutions by taking into considerations of local area needs. There needs to be area specific economic program to reap the potential of natural resources, geography etc of the area.
Undertaking Assessment of Needs of Villages: Undertaking assessment of needs of village is much needed as there can be area and demography specific problems particularly in the case of the people living in remote areas whose connectivity problem is acute than few others, or for that matter such areas are having health and educational facilities far away from their reach.
Before the introduction of Back to Village programme, a general problem in addressing the issue of rural development was the lack of concepts and visions about the future of villages. In many parts of the world, rural areas and village life has been weakened or destroyed by badly designed policies based on misleading concepts and theories. But the people of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir are lucky enough for the redressal of their issues and this fourth edition of the Back to Village programme is the continuous process in this field.