From Reinvention to communitization: The himalayan Indian state of Nagaland shows the way

Abstract

Access to services is inextricably linked to wellbeing in terms of the expansion of human capabilities and human freedom. The traditional hierarchical centralised bureaucratic model of public services however has been critiqued as inefficient, unresponsive and rigid. To meet these challenges, governments are gradually resorting to the use of a variety of innovative service delivery methods such as contracting out, outsourcing, vouchers and user fees or the decentralisation of services to the lower-level government or partnerships with non-profits, community groups and information and communication technology to deliver services. In India, innovative modes of service delivery have also been adopted and accepted widely. In the state of Nagaland, the adoption of community participation as an innovative service delivery model has improved the delivery of MDG critical services like education and healthcare. In this chapter, an attempt is made to study the contribution of Nagaland communitisation of institutions for accessing the MDGs.