PARTICIPATORY RESOURCE MAPPING PROGRAMME IN ALL PANCHAYATS IN ALAPPUZHA DISTRICT

Funding Agency: Grama Panchayats of Alappuzha District

Considerable emphasis has gone into decentralization and micro-level planning with people’s initiative and participation in the process of development since introduction of the Eighth Five-Year Plan. The 72nd and the 73rd Constitutional amendment bills of 1991 provided Constitutional safeguards towards the establishment of Panchayati Raj Institutions at the district, block, and Panchayat levels.

The Panchayats are supposed to be empowered with respect to:
1. Preparation of plans for economic development and social justice; and
2. Implementation of schemes for economic development and social justice as may be entrusted to them including those in relation to matters listed in the 11th Schedule of the Constitution.

These tasks of Plan preparation and execution require detailed technical, socio-organisational, and institutional inputs at various levels. Information related to resource availability, resource use, and information gaps, and constraints and potentials has to be generated/ gathered for preparing viable Plans.

The project aims at preparing the Resource Maps for the entire Panchayats of Alappuzha district. The activities included field mapping and data collection, preparation of thematic maps, socio economic data analysis and report preparation. The field mapping was carried out with the help of trained local volunteers.