Women and grassroots planning: An institutional analysis

Participatory planning, the acclaimed mission of decentralisation, has been propagating the involvement of grassroots institutions in local governance since 1996. Kerala witnessed a proliferation of ground-level institutions in local planning and the presence of women's collectives in grassroots-level institutions since the inception of decentralised planning during the mid-nineties. The present study addresses the question of whether the local self-government institutions claiming disproportionately high participation of women could assure their active involvement in decision-making and whether women could voice their needs in the grassroots institutions of planning. Although women have been given special privileges in local planning, whether the much-celebrated entry of women into grassroots-level institutions of planning could make visible changes from the status of benefits recipients to decision-makers is explored here. The study identified major factors of participation of women in planning, such as inclusive approach of LSG, motivation, access to information, transparency of GS, capabilities generated from NHG network and awareness on local governance