October 2009

Annual Forum of the UN Solution Exchange Decentralization Community, October 2009, Lucknow

Posted on:30-10-09
Bala Posani

The Annual Forum of the UN Solution Exchange Decentralization Community was held this year between 22nd and 24th October in Lucknow. It was attended by 135 participants from 23 states, among whom were elected representatives from Panchayats in 15 states across the country. I had the opportunity to attend the forum, and in this post I have summarized my takeaways from it.

Experiences from the Bhilwara NREGA Social Audit

Posted on:26-10-09
Abhijit Patnaik

The NREGA guarantees certain rights to all workers - 100 days work to each family in a year, full pay for full work, unemployment insurance if work is not given in the first fifteen days after applying, work within 5km of the village, the right to inspect employment registers and muster rolls at the panchayat office being some of them.

Grama Swaraj in Karnataka: How is it going?

Posted on:07-10-09
Jeffrey Hammer

Checking in on the ongoing Gram Swaraj project in northern Karnataka recently raised a few interesting questions, re-enforced some prejudices of mine and pointed out some trouble spots of which we should all be aware.