Vidya Bhawan Institute of Local Self Government

Established in 1997 with the initial financial support of the European Union the Institute aims to reinforce confidence in democratic processes at the grassroots level in the tribal belt of Udaipur region through its ''Capacity Enhancement Programme' for the elected representatives of Panchayati Raj. The Programme was conceived by the Institute to orient the grassroot democrats to the scope and responsibilities, which devolved on them with the 73rd Constitutional amendment.

The programme and activities are being supported by 'Sir Dorabji Tata Trust' since 2000. The Institute has also been conducting the project on 'empowerment of elected women representatives of Panchayati Raj' since 2001with the support of the HPS Foundation (First 3 years) and now of MINT, Germany. The Institute is running in a rented building and the training/residential facilities are being provided at the Vidya Bhawan Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

It is an institution with small faculty which consists of people with a knowledge of the local area and of the local language. The institution attempts to increase the capacity of the elected representatives to participate in the functioning of the Panchayat more effectively. We helped the elected members to understand the system, their rights, duties and responsibilities. An attempt is also made to give them a long term view of the society and the kind of role they can play in improvements here. The main points of focus in the capacity enhancement programme are :

1. development of qualities of responsible citizenship and effective leadership.
2. socio-economic challenges vis-a-vis Panchayati Raj Act 1994 & Rules 1996 (Rajasthan).
3. gender equity, i.e., empowerment of women.
4. empowerment of disadvantaged sections of society-especially the Scheduled Tribes who form the majority of population in this tribal region.
5. sensitization of Human Rights-especially, Right to work, Right to information etc.

The institution has so far oriented and worked with over 6000 elected representatives more than one third of which were women. These numbers include Sarpanches as well as Panchayat and Zila Parishad members. It is obvious that over 80% of these are from backward communities and many of them are illiterate. The institution provides experiences and interactions that help these elected representatives also to understand the above mentioned issues and develop some self-confidence.

The institution is working towards consolidating a feedback and regular contact program with the oriented persons. Over a period of time we look towards linking with other institutions of VBS as well as with Seva Mandir to wider the scope of exposure that we provide. We feel from our work so far that these continued actions are very crucial and the Panchayat melas, the Mahila Sammelans and the newsletters have made our relationship with those oriented stronger and richer. We feel the need to increase our presence.

Vidya Bhawan is an institution that values citizenship in the democratic framework and all our institutions are focussed at working towards that Democratic citizenship, it not only requires clarity of ideas, it also requires better access to social economic and educational resources as well as a climate of confidence visa vis our rights. We hope that this center would become a pivot of the work in citizenship in this area and provide a forum to analyse the present, formulate the challanges and develop a strategy to address these over time.