Social Audit refers to a process of measuring and improving the social performance of a project. It attempts to assess the people's interest, priorities and perceptions to make the implementation process open and accountable to the people. The benefits of certain rural infrastructure projects had to be necessarily viewed from society's angle and for that matter RIDF supported Gokul Gram Yojana projects implemented in Gujarat was subjected to social audit by an external agency, viz., ORG-MARG. Gokul Gram Yojana (GGY) providing 16 basic amenities, within a time period of five years (1995-2000) was conceptualised to seek people's participation right from its planning to monitoring and maintenance of the assets created under the scheme. NABARD sanctioned a loan of Rs.70 crores in March 2000 under RIDF-V for implementation of GGY where state government proposed construction of rural roads and primary schools.
2. The main components of Gokul Gram Yojana being rural roads and primary schools, these infrastructure facilities supported under RIDF were selected for the study. The Agency covered six rural roads (3 each from Banaskantha and Rajkot districts) and eight primary schools (2 from Amreli, 3 from Banaskantha and 3 from Rajkot districts).
3. The major findings and suggestions/recommendations of the report submitted by ORG-MARG are as follows:
- A major proportion of the total expenditure was met through budgeted provision of Rural Development Department (including NABARD's share) and the rest through funds of other ongoing schemes in Banaskantha and Amreli districts.
- Most of the sample projects were completed within the proposed time. However, a few projects, which got delayed, late receipt of funds and internal conflicts at the village level emerged out as the main reasons for the time overrun. Also for a few of the projects, cost overrun due to additional number of works undertaken was observed.
- People in the project area appreciated the quality of roads by and large. Majority of people were satisfied with the present condition of the schoolrooms and with the quality of construction.
Impact
Perceived benefits from schoolroom projects
New schoolrooms provided sitting space to children and protection from heat, rains and cold.The attendance of children during hot and rainy seasons increased by 20-25 per cent.
Schoolroom also helped children to concentrate on studies without disturbance and distraction, thereby improving the environment of education.
Necessary books, equipments, maps, etc. could now be safely stored in schoolrooms.
Perceived benefits from road projects
The new roads provided clean look to the village, facilitated movements of commuters/vehicles during rainy season, facilitated frequent visits of vendors supplying vegetables, crockery, cloth, newspaper, milk, etc.
Road has improved accessibility of people to the village resources like, dairy, co-operatives, post office, health centre, shops, etc.
Internal road also saved time and efforts during rainy season by improving the portion of internal roads which was not usable earlier.
Suggestions/Action Points
DRDA as nodal agency may fix some standards for prioritising the project sites for the various phases of scheme implementation as to make the selection procedures more efficient and transparent.
There is a need to involve women in the process of need identification to make the selection procedures participatory to greater extent and free from gender bias.
Voluntary groups/women groups at the village level may bring awareness among the people to sustain the assets on long-term basis. Gram Panchayat may collect revenue from the community for maintaining the assets.
Implementing agencies may maintain separate financial accounts by activities and sources of funding.
A common platform to facilitate the different departments in converging all the programmes of the Government related to Rural Infrastructure is warranted to make the villages really 'Gokul Grams'.
NABARD may continue to monitor these programmes at field level regarding physical progress of the schemes on quarterly basis and entrust the evaluation of the programme to a national level organisation to get an outsider's view. |
