People’s Participation

PRIME Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said that the genuine development of the country is possible only when people from all walks of life actively participate in the development activities. Inaugurating a workshop concerning decentralisation and local self-governance in Kathmandu the other day, Prime Minister Deuba underlined the need for tapping the talent, skill and energy of all the people in accelerating the pace of social and economic development of the country. It is true that unless and until people take active part in the development activities, efforts for social and economic transformation of the country cannot be possible in a sustainable way. The sustainable development requires active popular participation. Decentralisation is the key to ensure and promote people’s participation in political, social and development activities. Decentralisation empowers people and their representatives and enables them to design, operate, supervise and evaluate development projects that cater to the needs of local community. Plans designed at the central level do not meet the demands and desire at the local level.

Decentralisation develops a sense of belonging and accountability of people towards people and develops local capability. Decentralisation has, thus, been a catchword for the last few decades in Nepal. However, the genuine decentralisation process began only after the restoration of democracy and the formation of the first popularly elected government in Nepal in 1991. Democracy seeks to empower people at the grassroots level and make them master of their own destiny. This can be accomplished only when decentralisation is made a way of life. His Majesty’s Government has realised the need and importance of decentralisation. In view of the need and importance of decentralization, the government has announced policies and programmes concerning decentralisation and brought about new laws to strengthen the decentralisation process. In the absence of decentralisation, participation of the people in the political process would be only at the time of election. But decentralisation ensures full and continued participation of the people in each and every activity at the local level. Experiences have shown that development projects launched with people’s active participation have fared better than those implemented from the center without consulting with the people and their participation. Once the concept of local-self governance is fully implemented, it would make decentralisation a success and enable people to carry out development activities that suit the needs of the local level. Against this background, the remarks of Prime Minister Deuba to bolster the concept of decentralisation in a genuine manner indicates the commitment of the government to fully implement decentralisation and consolidate democracy at the grassroots level.

Anti-Tetanus Drive

WITH a view to make the government’s recently announced vaccination campaign to eradicate tetanus among newborn infants in Nepal by the year 2005 a success, the Siraha district health office, as per a news item carried by this daily the other day, organised a seminar. The anti-tetanus vaccination is to be conducted in three phases in the district from September 13. The campaign is indeed laudable in that it would go a long way in reducing the quite high mortality rate among infants in the country. Provided, of course, the anti-tetanus vaccination campaign is implemented by the concerned health authorities in a way and manner that would lead to its success. This, needless to point out, is no doubt a daunting proposition. The more so if we are to consider the lack of required health infrastructure needed to vaccinate each and every newborn infant in the country with the anti-tetanus vaccine. If some places, particularly those lying in the remote areas, lack even basic health delivering services like health posts, then others that do have health centres are devoid of gadgets to properly store the vials containing the anti-tetanus vaccine in the prescribed method. As if all this was not enough, the health authorities do have to take into consideration the lack of reliable air and surface transport facilities in the mountainous and hilly regions to not only deliver the anti-tetanus vaccines to the designated vaccination centres but also to send medical personnel to administer the vaccine to the newborn infants in those inaccessible areas. The only redeeming factors are the time factor and the lessons learnt from the successful nation-wide anti-polio vaccination campaign launched by the government in various phases.

The anti-tetanus vaccination campaign is about one and a half months away. This means that the concerned health authorities have enough time to put their nation-wide anti-vaccination campaign act together. Especially in training the required personnel in delivering the vaccine to the infants as well as in finding the resources to establish the temporary vaccination centres. More importantly, by now the concerned health authorities have obviously learned valuable lessons from past vaccination drives against one disease or the other, the most successful being the nation-wide campaign against polio. Since the outcome of campaigns like this heavily hinges on the people’s cooperation, nation-wide drive to elicit the people’s assistance should also be launched.