Effective Consultative Process

In India and Globally

Participative governance is viewed as the natural manifestation of democratic governments; however, its success depends on the effectiveness of citizens’ participation. Moreover, participatory governance is an essence of deliberative democracy and includes processes, such as civic engagement and pre legislative consultation among others. Civic engagement aims at creating social change using the collective efforts of citizens in matters of governance, while the pre-legislative consultation process aims at understanding citizen’s perspective on a policy before it is made a law.

In a report titled ‘Effective Consultation In India and Globally’ we attempt to paint a picture of the landscape of citizen’s engagement in policy deliberation as it stands today. This report sheds light on the emergence of participatory governance and pre legislative consultation process across different countries, with special emphasis on India.

The global emergence of pre legislative consultation highlighted the growing complexity around issues of governance, and the difficulty for Governments to arrive at acceptable solutions. Civic engagement toward the end of the second millennium started gaining prominence, making it a preferred way of incorporating competing interests, and enhancing the political legitimacy of the laws/policies. Different and novel exercises, such as inviting comments, proposals, and responses on new laws and evaluation and auditing of existing provisions with the help of citizens, were undertaken. Some countries continued with in-person and pen-and-paper modes of consultations during public meetings, town halls, or through mail posts. Others adopted technology to make the process more democratic and widespread by accommodating the younger tech-savvy generation. A hybrid model has also been adopted by certain countries.

In India, the increased demand by citizens and activists, limited experience gained of civic engagement in regulatory consultations, social audits under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, and civil movements to propose new laws or oppose proposed bills led to the incorporation of Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy (PLCP) in 2014. Until 2014, the consultative process was limited to regulatory agencies, such as Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERC), Competition Commission of India (CCI). However, due to its increasing prominence, India introduced a mandatory policy for public consultation. Similar instances can be observed in other countries, such as Brazil, who took a step ahead of India by including provisions pertaining to participatory governance in their Constitution. The PLCP in India has been complemented by platforms such MyGov, which is a product of Digital India Mission and backed by a robust technological backbone.

To understand the practical aspects of pre legislative consultation, the authors conducted interviews with people engaged in this field. The authors have also translated their theoretical and practical knowledge into best practices for effective consultation.

Since the PLCP is at a nascent stage, it becomes crucial to lay down best practices for consultation. Some of the best practices explored in the report reflect, carving out a clear, cross-cutting government-wide guiding policy, developing objectives for stakeholder engagement, gauging degree of citizen engagement, providing a clear idea to the citizens regarding the different stages of engagement.

Read the report and leave your thoughts and comments here: https://www.academia.edu/s/3ffc6f61b2?source=link

Authored by Shradhanjali Sarma and Utkarsh Kumar.