Scope of policy convergence approach to freshwater management in rural Jharkhand. A review of public policy
| Pages | 129-147 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/WJSTSD-09-2014-0027 |
| Date | 07 April 2015 |
| Published date | 07 April 2015 |
| Author | Nafisa Priti Sanga,Rajeev Kumar Ranjan |
| Subject Matter | Public policy & environmental management,Environmental technology & innovation |
Scope of policy convergence
approach to freshwater
management in rural Jharkhand
A review of public policy
Nafisa Priti Sanga
Welfare Department, Government of Jharkhand,
Jharkhand Tribal Development Society, Ranchi, India, and
Rajeev Kumar Ranjan
Department of Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India,
DRDA, East Singhbhum District Collectorate, Jamshedpur, India
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to study Indian aspects of policy convergence in the context
of budgetary linkage of two nationalized flagship programs –Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and Integrated Watershed Management Program (IWMP).
Therefore, in lieu of inter-departmental convergences; issues related to water resource development of
Jharkhand’s (India) rain-fed areas were addressed.
Design/methodology/approach –Centered on policy convergence strategy, present study applied
comprehensive review and analysis approach for formulation of research base. A conceptual framework
was thus designed for analytical purposes and therefore advancing toward conjectural knowledge base.
Findings –Application of inter-departmental policy convergence strategy suggested ample opportunities
for optimal water resource development. Presence of abundant wage labor, rich indigenous water
management techniques, tested replicable models, under-harvested rainwater potential, etc., appeared as
catalysts of policy convergence. Yet, State’s lack of inter-departmental coordination and grass-root
institutional framework will continually challenge policy convergences in absence of good governance.
Originality/value –An initiative of Indian government; MGNREGA has received international
attention due to its wider coverage including natural resource management, besides guaranteed wage
employment. Targeted at freshwater management discourse of Jharkhand; present paper reviewed
prospective inter-departmental policy convergence strategy within various arena of MGNREGA, by
exploring associated scopes and challenges. Similarly for cost effectiveness, related to maintenance
and lift-irrigation demands of rain-fed area development; the present study suggested optimum
utilization of inter-departmental funding linkages for development of sustainable water resources.
Keywords Freshwater harvest, Policy convergence, Public expenditure, Rain-fed areas,
Rural Jharkhand, Watershed management
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Rain-fed agriculture serves as economic backbone of several agrarian countries such as
Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, East and South Asia, etc. Out of world’s 13.4 billion
ha land surface area, about 1.2 billion ha consists of rain-fed areas supporting food
supplies of nearly 40 percent global population (FAO, 2005). Freshwater management
and conservation constitutes core strategy of rain-fed area development. Th erefore,
owing to the current threats of climate change on global freshwater supplies (IPCC,
2007); these rain-fed areas appear to be of utmost importance requiring appropriate
public policies pertaining to sustainable resource management. India’s rain-fed areas
World Journal of Science,
Technology and Sustainable
Development
Vol. 12 No. 2, 2015
pp. 129-147
©Emerald Group Publis hing Limited
2042-5945
DOI 10.1108/WJSTSD-09-2014-0027
Received 7 September 2014
Revised 7 December 2014
Accepted 16 December 2014
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2042-5945.htm
129
Freshwater
management
in rural
Jharkhand
envelop over 200 million hectares constituting about 62 percent of total geographical
area of the country (Sharma, 2011). Despite the immense developmental potential of
rain-fed areas; high incidence of chronic poverty, malnutrition, and food insecurity
persists in the latter; due to poor resource management as well as lack of social and
institutional infrastructure (Rockstrom et al., 2007).
Global population had been predicted to rise above 8 billion by 2025 resulting in
mounting pressures on world’s food demand and supplies (FAO, 2009). Developing
countries in particular, will be severely affected by food insecurities since more than
80 percent of population growth had been anticipated to occur in the developing world
such as China and India (Godfray et al., 2010). In the context of food insecurities
ensuing due to increasing population; sustainable management of rain-fed areas
becomes an overarching issue for India, due to higher concentration of vulnerable
marginalized communities in such regions (Gray and Srinidhi, 2013). Agriculture in
India still constitutes primary livelihood of rural communities due to lack of
occupational diversity. Rain-fed agriculture alone contributes about 55 percent of
India’s total agricultural output; yet inappropriate use of available resources, poor
husbandry practices and low investments have led to widespread resource degradation
of otherwise productive rain-fed regions of the country (Joshi et al., 2008). Besides the
lack of proper irrigation infrastructure of rural India; deficient or erratic rains due to
climate change recorded during recent decades, had also been reported to cause severe
reductions in crop output and even total crop failure (Aggarwal and Mall, 2002).
Sustainable water harvesting practices continued to be one of major challenging issues
even in rain-fed areas, since rainwater harvesting is not only influenced by many factors
but the method applicability also varied depending upon geographical diversity (Li et al.,
2000). Additionally, the feasibility of technology adoption and management of various
water harvesting systems had further been reported to be greatly challenged by
construction and maintenance costs (Kunze, 2000). Further, greater technology adoption
and communal ownership of resources dependstoahighdegreeonprovisionof
appropriate educational and extension support. Additionally, formation and strengthening
of sustainable institutional framework supported by community participatory approaches
are also required (Wani et al., 2008). Since post-independence period India had been making
several public expenditures by rolling out various public policies for addressing overall
water demands of the country. However, such public policies projected toward
management of rural and rain-fed water resources had always worked in isolation; aimed
at their own-specific strategies. The latter in several occasions had resulted in either
duplication of strategies or caused conflicts related to execution of activities; thus affecting
the quality of projects. The present paper attempted to examine recent policy convergence
scope of two specific public policies of Indian Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), i.e.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA –2005) and
Integrated Watershed Management Program (IWMP –2009), in the context of prospective
freshwater management issues of rural Jharkhand (India). Aiming at studying regional
scopes and challenges of these particular government programs, the present study also
intended to evaluate the potential of policy convergence strategy in the context of inter-
departmental convergences for resource optimization in tribal Jharkhand.
Methodology
Research approach design
From the perspectives of qualitative exploratory analyses (Allan, 2003; French et al.,
2012), sociological research methods provides a variety of analytical tools such as
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