Page 3 - MGMG July to December 2019 Special Issue

Back to Village: A People’s Programme

In June 2019, the administration in Jammu & Kashmir embarked on a unique initiative – Back to
Village. The principal aim of this ambitious initiative undertaken by the
government of Jammu and Kashmir was strengthening the grassroots democracy and participatory
development, taking administration and administrative officers to the doorsteps of villagers to redress
the development and governance deficit in villages and bridging the gap between public and public
servants. This was a unique project because an initiative of this scale and size had never been attempted
before- certainly not in Jammu and Kashmir. While programmes similar to this had been attempted in
many other parts of India before, Jammu and Kashmir?s B2V was unique for the sheer audacity of its
scale and scope-the programme involved deputing nearly 5000 gazetted officers of all levels of
seniority- one for every Panchayat- who would then stay for two days and a night in the village. Not
only would there be a gazetted officer for every single Panchayat, the designated officer would
genuinely stay in the village for two days and a night notwithstanding any challenges of geography,
climate or law and order.

Back to Village focused on four quintessential themes viz. energising panchayats, collecting feedback
on delivery of government programmes, capturing specific economic potential and undertaking
assessment of needs of the villages.

It was the developmental equivalent of the elections-every single citizen was to be covered, all remote or
difficult area would be left untouched. During the campaign, the government assiduously deputed top-
rung gazetted officers to all 4483 Panchayat halqas of the State. Each gazetted officer was assigned a
gram panchayat, where, unlike previous practices, the designated officers stayed for at least two days
including a night halt in the village. The officer was supposed to make a first-hand assessment by
seeking the comprehensive feedback from the panchayat representatives, elders and other local people
about their concerns, developmental needs and economic potential of the area. Throughout this
campaign, the officers literally lived with them, ate with them and rested with them to fully understand
the pain and agony of the villagers and to assuage the feeling of alienation among the villagers. The
officers were also mandated, inter alia, to discuss all sort of relevant social issues such as sex ratio,
literacy rate, girl education, water conservation, health and hygiene issues in the Gram Sabhas. Further,
considering the programme was held shortly after the successful conduct of Panchayat Elections in

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