ISSN:
1573-2991
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
Notes:
Summary People's participation is usually regarded as a sine qua non for the success and sustainability of development projects. Yet in practice, it raises a number of questions. Who are the ‘people’? Why is their participation sought, and how or at what level, is such participation desired? This paper seeks to examine the rhetoric of participation in the implementation of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) at Varanasi, in the north-eastern State of Uttar Pradesh, India. Launched in 1985, the GAP is the first major attempt to systematically control and monitor the pollution of a significant river in the country. In addition, it claimed to be a ‘people's programme’ because of the powerful and deep-seated cultural and religious meaning associated with the Ganga. Varanasi, however, is indicative of its failure to deliver this promise — the GAP is only acceptable to authority because it does not challenge the existing institutional order, and its participatory content is symbolic rather than substantive. Non-govemental organisations, traditionally viewed as intermediary actors between the micro and macro levels, work within the socio-political framework of the city. In the process, water-user groups such as the washermen who derive an economic livelihood from washing clothes in the Ganga, are literally excluded from the definition and process of ‘participation’.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01902655
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