Crafting credible public systems

Addressing the challenges of the last mile is key to ensuring outcomes

Public policy is expected to learn from the field. While consultations occur and good ideas are reflected in policy documents, these documents often do not detail how the policy will be carried out, what skill sets would be required, what is the divergence of the field situation across the states, what technology use options are there, how financing will be planned and provided, and how communities will become central to the implementation process. Crafting credible public systems for quality and timely outcomes needs the adoption of public management that addresses the challenges of the last mile. It is about plumbing delivery systems and guaranteeing quality public services.  

The sectors that have a role in addressing the well-being of deprived households are more vulnerable when it comes to centralised efforts, as the last-mile challenges are a great deal more. It must be realised that there are some public goods and pro-poor asset deficit removal efforts that need credible public systems. The health sector is a good example of market failures on account of information asymmetry and therefore the need for a countervailing presence of a functional public system. Singapore’s education system is a public system and is known for its excellence. We cannot neglect public systems and their excellence as the deprived access their services across sectors. 

The poor asset base often compromises the ability of deprived households to fully leverage the benefit of technology. The challenges faced by children from the poorer communities and those living in remote regions in accessing high quality online education that was offered during the Covid pandemic have already been well-documented. Similarly, under Ayushman Bharat’s Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) for cashless secondary and tertiary care, the states that focused on last-mile facilitation and public information to the deprived households have fared better. The Gram Swaraj Abhiyan that provided seven basic services to over 63,974 villages across the country tried to address some of these challenges through an intensive community connect. Deprivation reduces accessibility and public management has to realise the power of community connect for outcomes. 

The adoption of people’s perspective requires that public policy accords priority to human resource challenges. Colonial India’s delivery machinery was a regulatory one that was not geared to development functions. In sectors like education and health, a beginning was made by bringing in new skill sets for IT, planning, civil construction, hospital and health management. While many states recognise the need for new skill sets, they have as yet not formalised their recruitment. We need more managers than magistrates for human development outcomes. 
 

Illustration: Binay Sinha

While technology offers many solutions to long pending challenges in bringing about transparency, timeliness, evidence-based beneficiary selection, and so on, we must remember that technology is a means and not an end. Every technological intervention needs an equally strong last-mile facilitation. Redress of grievance at the household level is needed to demystify the process. The IT/direct benefit transfer and Aadhaar-linked payments have required sincere local-level effort, with frontline workers, panchayats, women’s self help groups playing a lead role in ensuring outcomes.  

The recently approved New National Education Policy is an outstanding example of a policy document that is the outcome of intensive consultation at all levels. Its success, though, will depend on the willingness to address the challenges in actual implementation. Teacher and teacher development, community and school connect, flexibility and decentralisation allowing for school-specific innovations with funds, functions and functionaries, will be needed.

The Mission Karmayogi for capacity development can meaningfully address some of the systemic skill set issues in public governance through re-skilling and upskilling. Many new skill sets will be required to improve governance of public systems. Appropriate capacity development is central to outcomes. 

Regulation will need to be revisited from a completely new perspective to change its role from negative to facilitative, without compromising on standards. Peer group consultations in addressing regulatory challenges, more transparent reasons for approval or rejection, simplified compliance parameters, will all pave the way for a regulation built on trust and quality.  

A state like Tamil Nadu, with a very evolved public health cadre, is able to operationalise many health initiatives far more effectively than many other states. Similarly, efforts at crafting new institutions like the District Institutes of Education and Training have raised fundamental issues of sustaining quality in faculty for effective teacher development in remote locations. The map is not the territory and it is better to understand the problem before arriving with a solution. We need to explore partnerships with civil society organisations with mastery over teacher development to make a difference.        

If human development is integral to a person’s ability to exercise his/her freedom of choice, there cannot be any compromise in access to public services. All such efforts need to harness the best skills and capacity to make a real difference. Partnerships with institutions and individuals for excellence have to break the binary of public and private and look at these sectors as a community initiative for creating opportunities for the development of the fullest human potential of every Indian citizen. An India for all is about an inclusive society.

The thrust on the mobilisation of women under the Livelihood Mission into self help groups, the power of elected panchayats, all need to be harnessed for the greater well-being of the community. Decentralisation within the framework of the Eleventh and Twelfth Schedule of the Indian Constitution with adequate focus on human resources is needed for effective governance. Technology offers options for accountability. Social audit institutionalises community oversight.

Public management has to address the challenge of not leaving any poor household behind. Beneficiary selection is fraught with challenges even with the most sophisticated use of technology. The Socio Economic Census made a good beginning with selection based on easily identifiable deprivation parameters, irrespective of caste, creed or religion. While it was able to identify deprived households, it is also true that some vulnerable households got left out. Participatory identification of the poor through a vibrant and purposive Gram Sabha is the best way to address the challenge while using all technological evidence at our command. It is these last-mile challenges that need to be addressed to ensure that no one gets left behind.

The writer is a retired civil servant. The views are personal