Democracy thrives on the underlying principle that the administrative mechanism is for the people, of the people, and by the people. In this context, India being the largest democracy, the need for people and civil society participation in the preparation of annual budget increases.
The participation is helpful in the following ways -
1. Promotes democracy
2. Helps in channelising funds to areas where it is necessary
3. Promotes inclusive development
4. Helps in increasing people’s representation
In India, people’s participation in the preparation of budget is ensured by pre-budget consultative sessions. The consultative sessions are organised between Government of India, individuals, and non-governmental organisation. This helps in achieving the ends of participative democracy.
However, the scheme of consultative sessions have certain lacunae -
1. The duration and number of the sessions is low
2. Participation from governmental heads such as the Secretaries is low
3. The time frame as to when the session is conducted is towards the finalisation of budget, thus not extremely helpful
4. It is conducted only pre, but not post-budget
The entire scheme over time has become a mere compliance measure without ground-level involvement of individuals. These sessions can be improved by the following measures -
1. Increasing the number and duration of consultative session
2. Making the consultative session continuous
3. Conducting post-budget consultative session
4. Organising consultative sessions at the lower echelons of administrative hierarchy
CONCLUSION:For a country as big as India, it is of extreme relevance to include civil society participation in the budget preparation. The Government needs to improvise the system to make it effective and outcome oriented.
