On the last Utkal Divas celebration day in Bhubaneswar, the Chief Minister had promised that the State Government would come up with a 2036-Vision document soon, keeping in view that Odisha shall complete 100 years of independent Statehood on April 1, 2036. However, the Government is yet to initiate the process.
It is heard that some NGO representatives who never visited Nagada or Malkanagri have given a set of suggestions to one official of the State Government. In the past, most of the Government plans have failed as those were prepared theoretically inside the Secretariat by big “babus”, netas, sycophant NGOs and fat consultants in absence of participation of stakeholders. The same mistake should not occur in case of Vision -2036 exercise.
What is a vision concept and how a vision exercise can be better organisedIJ Is vision is something like “Mungerilal ke haseen sapneIJ”. Gandhiji’s Gram Swaraj was a great vision. Nehru had a vision of socialistic society. The lead team of freedom movement wrote their vision of free India in the Indian Constitution. Today, the two words, dream and vision, are used interchangeably. In Odisha, the ruling BJD, talks about translating the dreams of former- CM Biju Patnaik into reality. Apart from use in political environment, the word “vision” has entered into development discourse in the 21st century. The Union Government’s flagship programmes in 1950s and 60s were termed as revolutions like the Green Revolution or White Revolution. During Rajiv Gandhi’s period, the term ‘mission’ got into Shastri Bhawan, creating such schemes like Technology Mission, Watershed Mission, literacy Mission and such nomenclature continues till now like National Rural literacy Mission.
NGOs and Government organisations used another framework of development planning called Vision-Mission-Goal-Objective-Strategy, since 2000, which was derived from strategic planning literature. The UN took the lead role in this sphere and prepared Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) for the world for the next 15 years in 2000. The eight MDGs were eradication of poverty and hunger; achievement of universal primary education; promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women, reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health , combat against HIV, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and development of global partnerships. Here instead of “Vision”, concrete “Goals” and “Objectives” were used. From the goals, the vision of the new world was evident. As MDG expired in 2015, the UN again formulated new goals for the world for next 15 years termed as sustainable development goal (SDG) for 2030 in 17 areas with 169 targets.
The Odisha Government should follow the UN SDG framework while drafting the State Vision 2036 document. It should set goals and formulate targets under each goal. Recently, the State Government has declared a series of sectoral vision such as Industrial Vision 2025, Child labour Free State Vision 2025 and so on. But these vision declaration needs to be supplemented by goals, objectives and strategies without which they will remain as mere “ Day dreams”. From a theoretical point of view, Vision should be broken down to mission, goals/objectives, and strategies.
Most of the goals set under UN –SDG-2030 are also applicable to Odisha such as poverty mitigation, mitigation of hunger and food insecurity, ensuring quality primary quality inclusive education, ensuring gender equality , availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation, sustainable and inclusive economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all, , promotion of inclusive and sustainable industrialization, disaster resilient infrastructure and communities, action to combat climate change, conservation and sustainable use of seas, forests , marine, aquatic resources ,combating desertification and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss, promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, access to justice for all and building effective institutions at all level. We can add mitigation of caste and regional inequality, inter-State water management, indigenous rights, primary healthcare provision etc. On the income side, the State can envisage 10 per cent sustainable annual growth rate with 25 per cent agriculture contribution to SGDP and 10 per cent drop in fiscal deficit every year. Therefore, we can draft a vision-document on such line, sitting at Secretariat, from various reports. This was the way vision exercises were created in the past, yielding no results. The UN SDG was also done in a similar way by few think tanks without participation of national and sub-national Governments and industrial houses operating in various nations.
All the Chief Ministers of the past in Odisha have had middleclass background, even some were from tribal background. Since 2000, the people of Odisha have reposed their faith on the regional party , BJD, which carry many value based politicians. But Odisha poverty still continues though hunger has abated successfully. It is time the State Government became serious to fulfill the aspiration of the masses who are mostly poor and the marginalized class. It is true that the State Governments have limited finance now- a- days to deliver their services in Indian federal structure, but achievement can be made in certain areas under the State subjects or the State can demand for more financial rights.
The stakeholders of vision planning comprise of mainly two groups such as the business group and the service providers. To solicit the opinion of the people, the key stakeholder, the state government, can adopt panchayat or UlB ward as the micro- institution of vision planning to be carried out with the help of BDOs and the Panchayat Samity Chairmen in panchayats and with UlB Chairman in UlB wards. The people can share their current issues and the issues they imagine to emerge by 2036 during the first session and then map their strengths and weaknesses in another session. During the third session, they can share how would they set their goals in order of priority for 2036 and how can they contribute to reach those sectoral goals. They might set kharif crop protection, drinking water or a road or a school as first priority in panchayat/ward level. Such exercises shall not only speak about public priorities but importantly enable the people to “own’ the Vision Document and later participate in its implementation. When the plans are consolidated at Zilla Parishad or UlB levels, local MlAs, MPs, Government departments, service delivery agencies and business groups should participate to give their inputs.
The other stakeholders, the business organization bodies, should be asked to give their vision of business growth at State and district levels. It will make the process of doing business ease while protecting the marginal groups. Every State has a different business-public-Government relationship. In Odisha, the big public and private sector houses have earned the wrath of people by not giving them their promised rights in the past. Instead of a top-down vision plan, a bottom-up plan could expedite the inclusive growth of Odisha. Such a process will equip the Government with better political strength to bargain with the Center. While implementing the plan, the Odisha Government cannot leave it to the mercy of bureaucracy, which is good in implementation but has limitation in mobilizing people. There is need for a hybrid-model of both bureaucracy and legislators, to execute the plan. NGOs and other CSOs can assist in planning and implementation at micro level and the corporates can play their resource allocation role to the Government. If done in a committed manner, the Vision Exercise can mitigate most of the worries of the people within five years and bring the Government and the public closer.