Administrative Decentralization and Combating Covid-19:The Case of a South Indian State

Bala Ramulu Chinnala; Sudarshanam Gankidi

Authors

Bala Ramulu Chinnala University of Hyderabad Telangana Author
Sudarshanam Gankidi University of Hyderabad Telangana Author

Keywords:

central and state governments, decentralization, districts reorganization, education, lockdown, migrants, pandemic, public health, public institutions, rural-urban local bodies

Abstract

Decentralization is a vital strategy of governments the world over, tailored to eliminate the drawbacks of excessive centralization and promote the effectiveness of administrative systems. In India, administrative decentralization has been viewed as a crucial strategy for addressing the challenges of public service delivery. Several state governments have rationalized the jurisdictional areas of the local administrative units—the districts, planning bodies, local bodies, and special agencies.
The analysis reveals that the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us lessons. First, the crisis has exposed the multiple vulnerabilities of India’s development model very starkly in tackling the pandemics. Second, there is a desperate need to put in place a system of universal health care. Third, there are enormous opportunities to reorient our priorities to overcome the crises.
The south Indian state of Telangana experience, however, shows that measures initiated in 2016, i.e., territorial decentralization and other measures, inadvertently enabled the government to combat Covid-19 effectively. The field evidence reveals that the role of public institutions, particularly in healthcare, is unparalleled by private institutions in providing safety and basic services to people, thus putting administrative decentralization and public health institutions on the national agenda once again for debate to restructure state/national administrative units.

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