Table 5.14 Characteristics of Leaders of User Organizations in Karnataka (percentage of members of each group)
Item Chairperson holds other community or political position Chairperson is member of gram panchayat Chairperson is male Secretary is male Organization reserves seats in executive committee for women Caste of chair SC/ST OBC General Other
Dairy Water and Farmers cooperative sanitation Vigilance cooperative society committee committee (n = 20) (n = 29) (n = 40) (n = 27)
Women’s self-help group (n = 50)
5
14
55
43
12
0
0
68
69
17
100
89
90
60
0
100
97
94
100
0
25
55
45
68
5 85 10 0
4 96 0 0
30 60 10 0
31 60 6 3
n.a. 16 74 8 2
Source: ISEC-TISS-IFPRI Survey 2008. n.a. = Not applicable.
vice-chair, or the secretary, however. The share of SC/ST chairpersons was particularly low in farmers cooperatives; in contrast, in water and sanitation committees and vigilance committees, almost a third of the chairpersons came from these groups. Dairy cooperative societies appear to be the most democratic type of user organization: in about a third of these societies, members elect their chairperson (table 5.15). In almost half of farmers cooperatives, the chairperson is elected by the executive committee or board. In more than a quarter of the water and sanitation committees, the chairperson is appointed by the gram panchayat and gram panchayat members; members elect their chairperson in just 5 percent of these committees. These figures indicate that competitive elections by members are not a major mechanism for creating accountability. How well the other mechanisms worked could not be explored. However, it is likely
THE SHORT ROUTE OF ACCOUNTABILITY
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