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A comprehensive website on life & mission of Acharya Vinoba Bhave
A comprehensive website www.vinobabhave.org
On Life & Mission of Acharya Vinoba Bhave (A search for Nonviolence)
developed by Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal
On Life & Mission of Acharya Vinoba Bhave (A search for Nonviolence)
developed by Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal
Main features:
- Pictorial exhibition on life & works of Vinoba Bhave
- More than Hundreds of Books & Articles in various languages on & by Vinoba Bhave
- Magazines: ‘Maitri’ & ‘Samyayog Sadhana’ published by Organisations of Sarvodaya.
- Audio clips: Geeta Pravachane, Geetai, Vishnusahstranam, Video related to Vinoba.
Science + Spirituality = Sarvoday (welfare of all)
Vinoba declared, "The days of Religion are over. World will be a family and all narrow boundaries of nationhood, caste, creed will dissolve and people will live in peace with each other". Vinoba's vision is that the days of Politics will be over. With love for one another, people will share all the God's resources just like air & water. The age of idol worship is over & the service to our fellow humans should be considered as service to God. Today's place of pilgrimage is the one that functions as per this maxim. People are today's God and their collective group is our sacred temple.
You are humbly requested to visit the website.
If you like the contents, please suggest other people to visit the website.
Please send your valuable suggestions / comments by email at
vinoba.bhave.mum@gmail.com or info@vinobabhave.org
If you like the contents, please suggest other people to visit the website.
Please send your valuable suggestions / comments by email at
vinoba.bhave.mum@gmail.com or info@vinobabhave.org
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Ahmedabad IIM student turns to Social Entrepreneur
A degree from IIM Ahmedabad could have easily landed Nirmal Kumar a job with a fat pay packet at a multinational company. However, Kumar chose to earn Rs. 45,000 a month, managing a fleet of 10,000 auto rickshaws in Gujarat.
Haggling with an auto rickshaw driver over fare changed the course of life for this physically challenged, 2008 batch graduate from the country's premier management school. Kumar was in the city on Sunday to speak at the TIECON meet on promoting entrepreneurship.
Kumar comes from a modest background, with the family based in Siwan district of Bihar. His father is employed as a primary schoolteacher. Kumar was overcharged by an auto while coming back to the college from a restaurant. He felt cheated, and the idea for a business came to him.
He entered into a deal with the auto drivers who park outside the IIM campus. He assured them free newspapers and an health-cum-personal insurance cover, for which he spent his own money. In return, they only had to give an undertaking that they would charge proper fares.
The idea clicked, and the next tranche of funding came from some companies in Gujarat. The companies happily agreed since the expenditure also accounted for their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, he said. "When I needed more funds, I contacted Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. The access was easy, and Modi was keen too. I requested his presence at the inauguration too and he obliged. He allotted funds and designated a senior bureaucrat to ensure we got the money," says Kumar.
With funds, Kumar increased the facilities for drivers, and developed the brand 'G Auto'. The drivers got benefits like subsidized health care and education for their wards, besides the insurance. Today, revenue comes from mixed sources, including government, corporate as well as advertisement.
"The vehicles carry ads, from which sizeable revenue is generated, and we can break even. We have formed a trust, which pays my salary and also 21 of my colleagues," he said. Kumar is the managing director of the Nirmal Foundation.
"Even now, anyone flouting the rules loses the benefits and membership of G Auto. But we also fight for the drivers if the cops wrongly harass them," he says.
G Auto was voted second in the SMART Mobility Awards by the University of Michigan on transportation solutions. Recently, the union urban development secretary has written to all the states to emulate the model. Kumar, who also wants to expand, recently met Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit with plans for the national capital.
Use of technology has enabled better monitoring of the vehicles through GPS. The vehicles also have computerized meters, which cannot be tweaked, says Kumar. Like a radio cab, customers can request a G auto from a call centre or through a free mobile phone app.
Kumar's analysis is that a day's income for an auto rickshaw driver does not go beyond the minimum wage of Rs. 250, after all expenses and vehicle maintenance is taken into account. Nirmal Foundation's system ensures they get more trips with the help of the call centre facility. The volumes compensate for the low margins, he said.
On whether he regrets not having chosen the beaten path, Kumar says, "Today, my batch mates want to emulate me, but it is not the other way round."
Courtesy: http://groups.yahoo.com
Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal - Gandhi Book Centre – Gandhi Research Foundation
299 Tardeo Road, Nana Chowk Mumbai 400 007 MH India
Tel. +91-22-2387 2061 / Email: info@mkgandhi.org Web: www.mkgandhi.org
299 Tardeo Road, Nana Chowk Mumbai 400 007 MH India
Tel. +91-22-2387 2061 / Email: info@mkgandhi.org Web: www.mkgandhi.org
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Hon. Justice K. Chandru, an iconoclastic High Court judge blazes a new trail in the judiciary
Justice Chandru
Hats off to this man who retired as Judge of Madras High Court last week. A Judge, who- did not want the red capped, silver mace bearing "Dawali" to announce his arrival - which was seen as a symbol of Power and Authority;
- did not want red beacon in his car;
- surrendered a sub-inspector ranked personal security guard;
- did not want to be addressed as "My Lord" in courts;
- who had disposed off 96,000 cases in 6 years - Many judges did not touch even 50% of this number.
- who had surrendered his official car in the Morning of retirement and travelled in suburban train for going back home;
- Did not accept any post retirement jobs such as Supreme court judge, Tribunals, Commissions etc.;
- Did not accept farewell and dinner in a star hotel - last occasion any Judge refused a farewell was in 1929.
- One among the fist judges to declare his assets to Chief Justice. On the day of retirement once again declared his assets to the Chief Justice.
- at the entrance of his official chamber, a notice was seen " No deities- No flowers, No one is hungry-No fruits, No one is shivering - No shawls.
- Some of his landmark judgments are
- Women can become priests in temples;
- there should be common Burial ground irrespect of caste;
- For staging plays, police permission not required;
- there should be community based reservation in noon meal centres.
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Gandhian concept of Village Development and India's Development Policy
(Special reference to Panchayat Raj)
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Good governance demands respect for human rights, rule of law, strengthening of democracy, promoting transparency and capacity in public administration. The responsiveness of the state and its institutions to the needs and aspirations of the people, and inclusive citizenship are imperative to good governance. Democracy depends upon the equality of all human beings, their right to participate in social and political transformation and the right to development, to live in dignity. Panchayat Raj is a system and process of good governance. Villages have always been the basic units of administration in India since ancient times. The Gram Sabha can become the cornerstone of the whole Panchayat Raj institutional set-up, thereby the Indian democratic system. So in this paper focus is on Gandhian concept of Panchayat Raj. This is useful to development of India. So in 21st century this concept becomes powerful in the Nation.
Importance of Democratic Decentralization:
Gandhi's concept of democratic decentralization bears the stamp of his passionate belief in non-violence, truth and individual freedom. He calls it Panchayati Raj or village Swaraj. He wants to see each village a little republic, self-sufficient in its vital wants, organically and non-hierarchically linked with the larger spatial bodies and enjoying the maximum freedom of deciding the affairs of the locality. Gandhi wanted political power to be distributed among the villages in India. Gandhi preferred the term ‘Swaraj’ to describe what he called true democracy. This democracy is based upon freedom. Individual freedom in Gandhi’s view, could be maintained only in autonomous, self-reliant communities that offer opportunities to the people for fullest participation.1
Village Panchayats
The vehicle that was most ideal to initiate both political and economic democracy at the grassroots level was the Panchayat Raj system. Mahatma Gandhi's tours all across the country reinforced his convictions that India would benefit if the villages were governed by Village Panchayats based on the principal of "simple living and high thinking". These were village republics which were self-contained and self-reliant and having all that people want. These were the institutions where minimum standard of living could be accorded to all human beings. An individual had maximum freedom and opportunity to develop his personality to the greatest extent. In these republics there would be a diminution of the state and the roots of democracy deepened. According to him centralization cannot be sustained as a system without adequate force.2
The affairs are to be managed by Panchayats consisting of five persons elected annually. Gandhi aimed at the individual the centre of the local administration. People are expected to take personal interest and turn up in large numbers at the meeting to deliberate problems of common interest such as village industries, agricultural production, obligation and planning.3
Village -unit of a decentralized system:
Gandhi made it very dear that concentration of either economic or political power would violate all the essential principles of participatory democracy. To check centralization, Gandhi suggested the institution of village republics both as institutions of parallel polities and as units of economic autonomy. Village is the lowest unit of a decentralized system. Politically a village has to be small enough to permit everyone to participate directly in the decision-making process. It is the basic institution of participatory democracy. The technical skills of the villages will be fully developed, there will be no dearth of men with high degree of skill and artistic talent. There will be village poets, village artists, village architects, linguists and research workers.4
Gandhian decentralization means the creation of parallel politics in which people's power is institutionalized to counter the centralizing and alienating forces of the modem state. According to Mahatma Gandhi, utilization of the local resources is quite fundamental to the development of the Panchayat Raj system. The Panchayats with the Gram Sabhas should be so organized as to identify the resources locally available for development in the agricultural and industrial sectors. Gandhi wrote, "Democracy becomes an impossible thing until power is shared by all, but let not democracy degenerate into mobocracy".5 Each village a little republic, self-sufficient, enjoying maximum freedom for deciding the affairs of the locality.6 Gandhi also proposed a scheme of government under the Gandhian Constitution beginning from the primary unit the Village Panchayat to the level of the All-India Panchayat, with the powers being assigned to all levels of the government.7 These villages should not only be self-sufficient but also capable of defending themselves, even if need be, against the whole world.8 In his Presidential Address at the Belgaum Congress, Gandhi said that the Panchayat was not only a right medium for securing cheap justice but also an instrument for avoiding reliance on government for the settlement of mutual justice.9
Panchayat Raj system:
The Gandhian ideas of Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj system can become vehicles for ushering in the much needed social and political change by including all the stakeholders in the process of decision-making and public policy formulation. As Gandhi said, "Panchayat Raj represents true democracy realized. We would regard the humblest and the lowest Indian as being equally the ruler of India with the tallest in the land".10
India's Development policy about Panchayat Raj:
Mahatma Gandhi advocated Panchayat Raj, a decentralized form of Government where each village is responsible for its own affairs, as the foundation of India's political system. The term for such a vision was Gram Swaraj ("village self-governance"). Recommendations of Balwant Rai Mehta Committee. The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee was a committee appointed by the Government of India in January 1957 to examine the working of the Community Development Programme (1952) and the National Extension Service (1953) and to suggest measures for their better working. The recommendations of the committee were approved by NDC in January 1958 and this set the stage for the launching of Panchayat Raj Institutions throughout the country. The committee recommended the establishment of the scheme of 'democratic decentralization' which finally came to be known as Panchayat Raj. (i) Establishment of a 3-tier Panchayat Raj system. This system was adopted by state governments during the 1950s and 60s, as laws were passed to establish panchayats in various states. It also found backing in the Indian Constitution, with the 73rd amendment in 1992 to accommodate the idea. The Amendment Act of 1992 contains provision for devolution of powers and responsibilities to the panchayats both for the preparation of economic development plans and social justice, as well as for implementation in relation to 29 subjects listed in the eleventh schedule of the constitution.
Social Audit:
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj has issued specific guidelines to make Gram Sabha as a vibrant forum for promoting planned economic and social development of the villages in a transparent way. The guidelines are a part of the proceedings to observe the year 2009-10 as year of Gram Sabha and relates to the social audit for the effective implementation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA. According to the guidelines, the Gram Sabha as a Key to the self-governance and transparent and accountable functioning are a forum that ensures direct, participative democracy. It offers equal opportunity to all citizens including the poor, the women and the marginalized to discuss and criticize, approve or reject proposals of the Gram Panchayat and also assess its performance. Hence, the States may, by law, endow the Panchayats with such powers and authority as may be required to enable them to function as institutions of self-government under them, Article 243G read with the Eleventh Schedule stipulates that. Such laws may also endow powers and responsibilities upon Panchayats for the preparation and implementation of plans for economic development and social justice including in relation to the 29 matters listed in the Eleventh Schedule. This did lead to the enactment of Gram Panchayat Acts by various States; these were no more than half-hearted attempts for the creation of rural local government institutions. But the failure of the Community Development Programme, which had been launched for bringing a silent revolution in rural society by awakening the dormant forces of progress, led to the appointment of Balwantrai Mehta Study Team.
Conclusion:
But the studies of several distinguished scholars on the working of the Panchayat Raj in different States and the Status Report of the Ministry of Panchayat Raj (1996) lead us to the inference that the Gandhian ideal of Gram Swaraj remains an unfinished agenda even after six decades of the implementation of the Panchayat Raj on the recommendation of the Balwantrai Mehta Study Team on October 2, 1959. 73rd Amendment was implemented by various States in 1994. Therefore, concerted, systematic and sustained endeavors are needed on the part of those for whom Gram Swaraj remains a cherished dream for the empowerment of people and for making national development of India a participatory democracy.
References:
* Dr. Shubhangi Rathi is a Associate Professor & H.O.D. Poliical Science, Smt. P.K. Kotecha Mahila Mahavidhalaya, Bhusawal, Maharashtra, India.
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