Public Policy problems in india

Designing and implementing of public policy in a country like India is a huge task. But in last three years while working in development field, I found that there are some very obvious problems with the way the public policy are designed and implemented in the country. Some of them are –

1. The policies are formulated by the concerned department/ministry but their successful implementation depends upon contribution of different departments/ministries. In the absence of a joint implementation and monitoring system often policies are not implemented properly.

2. Planning and implementation of public polices failed to factor in social, economic and geographical barriers like poverty, illiteracy, regional and gender disparities.

3. Planners and implementers are accountable only to their higher ups but not to the public or stakeholders who are directly affected by those policy.

4. In most of cases before policy formulation not all the stakeholders are consulted which results in opposition by certain stakeholders at the time of implementation.

5. Not enough discussion takes place in parliament before taking major policy decisions. Specially in last few years, the number of Parliament work in a year is decreasing steadily

6. In many cases the policies are formed by Centre but they have to be implemented by states and states depending upon their priorities and availability of resources implement those policies. It results in uneven implementation of policy among different states.

Government and civil society is aware about these problems. But still nothing has been done to rectify these problems. Considering the impact and importance of public policies, there is immediate need of overhauling the complete public policy making mechanism in the country. There is need to make it more responsive to the country’s need and requirements.

Public Policy as a discipline in India: Still in infancy stage

Even after sixty two years of independence, a significant percentage of population is deprived of basic amenities which show the failure of policies adopted by successive government. Though a lot has been written on lost opportunities and government failures but nothing concrete has been done to correct those mistakes. I was trying to understand why public policies in the country have failed consistently. I searched for the relevant material on internet but barring one paper couldn’t find anything useful. I searched for the courses in public policy, found a few but the course contents were nowhere near to courses offered in developed countries. I couldn't understand that why in country like India with poor social and physical infrastructure, and inefficiencies in delivery of basic public services, Public policy as discipline still in infancy stage. Though IIM A and B started a course in Public Policy but the intake is limited and it primarily focuses on officers from various government services. The works of so called “think tanks” or on policy research by some institutes are limited to studying the implementation of some government programmes in a district or at state level. There is serious shortage of people with understanding of public policy designing and implementation. All developed countries and many of the developing countries like China, Japan, Korea, and Singapore have institutions dedicated for researching public policy related issues and imparting knowledge in public policy domain. The output from these institutions is of high quality and helps the government in making right decisions. There is immediate need to develop world class institutions for imparting knowledge in public policy domain and studying the public policy challenges in the country. .