The largest but one of the most formalized organizations in India is Indian bureaucracy. It's claimed to be key to India's development. If this claim is taken as truth then reason for India's failure on most of the fronts will naturally be attributed to it. Text books deal in length the reasons behind failure of India's bureaucracy. Many scholars have also explained the reasons in detail. But what's an account of failures of bureaucracy by a bureaucrat himself? Of course from experience a long list can be produced, but here we will be confined to only one, rest will be discussed at some latter appropriate time.
India's permanent bureaucracy is expected to deliver anything. A framework of hierarchy has been established which is expected to do anything entrusted to it , whether it's meant for that or not. Size and area of functioning of the government is so big that it covers almost everything beneath the sky. And government has only one agency to perform every task falling under the ambit . Whenever a new policy is prepared the bureaucracy is entrusted with the task and expected to deliver. Interestingly from top to bottom no one in the system has experience to do the new task , no one has any idea to do what. What's the practice is that a letter or a policy paper is circulated from the top to bottom detailing what to do and the rank and file is expected to read the letter or paper and to act accordingly. No training, no orientation of any worth is given. A person dealing with water resources may be suddenly transferred to a welfare department, for instance and he is expected to do wonders . Interestingly a bureaucrat who may be a trained engineer may be asked to solve intrinsics of finance, a bureaucrat, who is a trained historian may be asked to go to health department to take responsibility of improving health services. Interestingly the most of the force below consists of highly untrained people. Almost every government policy which is to reach to the grass root level is to be executed by block and panchayat level employees who have least idea to implement the policy. Without any training, without any orientation they are forced to perform and those responsible for their monitoring are equally untrained for the job at hand. At the same time there is a flow of dictate from higher to lower level and at no level there is any sense of belongingness. The entire bureaucracy which is not trained to perform a particular thing is forced to do that thing and the bureaucracy which consists of top secretary to panchayat secretary moves to do the job not at the instance of any dedication , rather it's done only as a part of government service for salary. There is no attachment with the task allotted.
And interestingly this largely untrained and detached force is expected to deliver goods. One of the best examples is the SWAKSHATA ABHIYAN, popularly called ODF Abhiyan. The aim was to provide sanitation services in both rural and urban areas. In Bihar in rural areas panchayat sachivas, and BDOs were entrusted to the task . For their help a Block Level Coordinator was appointed on contract. Now see, neither Panchayat Sachiv, nor BDO, nor even district level DRDA's officers were given a formal training with the condition of evaluation. District Magistrates were asked to ensure the achievement, who in turn implemented the scheme as per their own understanding. No one who was involved was trained to develop a sense of belongingness with the scheme. A large force of officers and field staffs were engaged without any formal training of basics. Coercion was the only force to mobilize the machinery. And this is equally true for almost every government program. The result is obvious. All in the system do a task not due to motivation, rather due to fear of coercion which is driving force to achieve the goal. This method is neither modern nor democratic . This only strengthens master servant pattern of working where one person gives orders, others follow not due to dedication but due to fear of punishment. And so the system has to fail in delivering the result and it actually fails.