Economic and Political Weekly February 26, 2005822

MAHI PAL

The concept of social capital (SC),which came into being a decadeago, has been receiving the atten-tion of researchers, practitioners and policyformulators on the extent to which it fa-cilitates effective democracy and develop-ment. It has been argued in the literaturethat there is a positive relationship be-tween SC and the productivity of financialand physical capital. These days, network-ing, public-private partnership, colla-boration, linkages and collective actionhave been used frequently to show therelevance of SC in promotion of develop-ment and democracy. Seeing the signifi-cance of SC in accelerating the pace ofdevelopment, the Tenth Plan document ofthe Planning Commission, in its chapter,Poverty Alleviation in Rural India-Strategy and Programmes stated: Thepromotion of a movement which enhancessocial capital and forges linkages withother formal and informal stakeholdersengaged in developmental activities wouldbe a major thrust during the plan.

There are umpteen agencies, associationsand actors which have been active at themacro, meso and micro levels to achievetheir stipulated objectives. The associa-tions, networking, trust and social cohe-sion are important for effectivelychannelising the energies of these agen-cies and actors to build the nation in variousdimensions. In this context , there is a needto deliberate on various dimensions andapplications of the SC amongst differentstakeholders in order to arrive at concreteprescriptive measures so that the same maybe put before the policy-makers to embedthem into various developmentalprogrammes for their effective delivery.

Against this background, the HaryanaInstitute of Rural Development organiseda one-day workshop on role of SC in rural

development in Haryana with the objec-tives, inter alia, to deliberate on the con-cepts and implications of SC in ruraldevelopment for poverty alleviation andrural development through social inter-mediation. And to discuss the methodo-logy of measuring SC and to arrive at aconcrete plan of action for enhancing thestock of SC and activating the existingdormant SC in rural Haryana. The partici-pants in the workshop included inter aliaacademicians, NGOs and bureaucrats.

ConsensusOn the issue of the definition of SC,

there was a general consensus that theconcept of the SC is itself evolving. Dif-ferent scholars have defined it differently.Robert Putnam, who may be said to be thefather of the concept of SC, defines it asfeatures of social organisation such asnetworks, norms and social trust that fa-cilitate coordination and cooperation formutual benefits. There is a need to widenthe definition of SC. The main argumentfor SC is that it facilitates cooperation andcoordination for mutual benefit of themembers of an association. However, someof the scholars argued for commitment andredistribution of resources which alsofacilitate cooperation and coordination,which in turn, facilitate development.

The participants referred to SC as humancapital, social relations and redistributionof resources. A detailed discussion was heldon the measurement of social capital. It wasa general observation that it is very difficultto measure SC as it varies from village tovillage and hence some common para-meters have to be evolved for measurement.It was emphasised that since SC is morecognitive than structural, it becomes moredifficult to measure. However, there was ageneral consensus that in addition to for-mal groups, informal groups/associations

may also be considered as components formeasuring social capital. Some of the parti-cipants even went to the extent of sayingthat each and every human being is a SCand in this sense SC is both the means aswell an end in itself. It was also pointedout by the participants, particularly theacademicians, that SC is a neglected fieldamong academics. Hence, conceptual andpractical research is required to be donein this field particularly in the northern statesof India so that the concept is properly putinto practice.

Depletion of Social CapitalSome of the scholars suggested the need

to prepare a working paper on SC inHaryana because SC in the villages hasbeen depleting day by day. Some of theparticipants were also of the opinion thatSC has been depleted in the villages withthe intervention of the state by introducingvarious schemes for rural developmentparticularly after the mid-1970s. The caringand sharing by village communities them-selves has been to a great extent dimi-nished because of the target-oriented ap-proach of rural development. It was alsopointed out that the panchayati raj institu-tions have also depleted the existing stockof SC in the villages because these insti-tutions have broken the social cohesion ofthe village community.

Elections to the panchayats were con-tributing factors for this trend. It wasexpected that these institutions will pro-mote rural development through peoplesparticipation. But it has not happened tothe desired extent. However, in thosevillages where sarpanches were chosenwithout election, more developmentalactivities have been done and the mainreason for this was the stock of SC whichfacilitated the process of choosing thesarpanch without losing cohesion amongdifferent castes and communities of thevillages. In this context, it may be said thatalthough associations/committees which arepart of SC have been formed throughoutthe length and breadth of Haryana, butdue to non-functioning or networking ofthese bodies, they are not facilitatingcooperation, which resulted in in-effectiveness of the various stakeholdersat various levels.

Finally, the discussion was focused onhow to increase the stock of SC and as howto activate the latent SC in rural Haryana.Here, the role of Agency is very importantin forming and activating the dormant

Role of Social Capitalin HaryanaA report on a workshop on how social capital could aid ruraldevelopment in Haryana.

Economic and Political Weekly February 26, 2005 823

SC. In Haryana, various institutions andassociations like the gram sabha (villageassembly), mahila mandals, youth clubs,kisan clubs and parent-teacher associationsand health committees have been in exis-tence but they are not active. But in placeswhere an NGO or an individual, acted asan Agency, these associations not onlybecame vibrant, but also networked witheach other and performed their work ef-fectively. In other words, through Agencythe latent SC was activated. Interestingly,the created SC has strengthened panchayatiraj institutions by inducting peoplesparticipation, transparency and account-ability in their functioning.

Dormant Social CapitalFinally, the discussion centred around

on how to activate the existing SC whichis lying dormant in the form of the gramsabhas, SHGs, mahila mandals, youthmandals, parent-teachers associations andkisan clubs. It was observed that accordingto the local needs, various agencies likeofficials, NGOs, traditional leaders, social

workers, social reformers and panchayatsmay act as Agency to activate SC forcoordination and cooperation by network-ing with various associations. More em-phasis may be given to micro financing asSC in the form of SHGs could facilitatecooperation and coordination among dif-ferent stakeholders.

In the end, the consensus was that thereis a need to develop the concept of SCparticularly in Haryana. On the operationalpart, there is a need to develop a trainingprogramme on the theme of participatorytraining on application of SC in ruralHaryana. The focus of the programme couldbe on institutions and their networking atthe micro, meso and macro levels, the roleof PRIs, cooperative societies, DRDAs,management of common properties suchas common lands, schools, dispensaries,ponds, etc. The participants in such atraining programme may include amongothers, functionaries of the voluntaryorganisations, community based organi-sations, officials of department of ruraldevelopment and panchayats and electedrepresentatives of the PRIs