Islamabad: Absence of the state writ in the villages resulted in the extreme violation of human rights, as people took the law in their own hand.
Owing to absence of the state writ in the rural areas, the informal institutions played havoc with the lives of the poor villagers. There is need of bottom-up reforms and a new formal institution at the grass-roots level, as top down centralized model of the state has already failed to address the challenges of the villages. We direly need a new participatory institution of the state at the local level to reduce the power and influence of the local political elite.
Speakers expressed these views at the book launching ceremony titled ‘Transforming Villages: How grassroots democracy can end rural poverty at a rapid pace’ by Javed Ahmed Malik, organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here.
Javed Ahmed Malik, author of the book said that the disparities between urban and rural lifestyles and development trajectories aren’t accidental. He said that it is part of a serious political neglect and an urban bias in the development policies. It is not just the previous government but successive governments that have ruled the country are responsible for this appalling rural livelihood. He said that poverty and deplorable living standards are essentially a rural phenomenon. There are millions of people in Pakistan who are below poverty line, whereas, around 71 million of them live in rural areas as per the recent planning ministry’s survey, he added.
“We should form village level institution, as an extension of executive branch of the state, with legal structure and fiscally empower. This model at the community and village level can be an answer to the miseries of the villages”, said Javed Ahmed. He said that the state is not really relevant at the village level. There is no efficient and effective public service available in the rural areas as compared to the urban areas, he added.
Dr. Rashid Bajwa, Chief Executive Officer of the National Rural Support Program (NRSP) said one has to take risk to change and transform. He said that the only fear and the problem to take this country to the next level of development is our policymakers. NRSP is a model of social enterprise, which is largest social enterprise in the country, to create positive impact in the society. Rural growth centers of NRSP are the successful model to transform the villages that RSPN has initiated, he added.
Safiya Aftab, Economist and Social Scientist said that the book is a good addition with the different perspective in the realm of rural development. She said that the book introduced a new idea on political organization and to identify an innovative approach to tackle Pakistan’s rural problems.
Dr. Husnul Amin, Associate Professor, Islamic International University Islamabad (IIUI) said that the book is insightful and learning on the cultural, history, economy and power politics of villages. He said that the book provides a lot of food for thought on fighting rural poverty and transforming people’s life at the village and community level.
Dr Sajjad Amin, Senior Research Fellow SDPI, said that sustained growth cannot be achieve unless we consider villages in the part of our development plans.