DUPI Association, New Delhi


Please Support the endeavour for upliftment of urban poor.

The DUPI Association is well known NGO working for the betterment and development of Urban Poor and Infrastructure in India. Our dedicated volunteers and professionals are doing a great job for the upliftment of the poor. DUPI is an NGO working for the development of urban poor and basic infrastructure in the growing urban areas of India. The organization is registered under Societies Registration Act, 1886 of the Government of India.

Visit DUPI at

www.dupi.in 

Published Books written by Shashikant Nishant Sharma

A Bank for You

There is a bank
With valuable cash
Not dollar or pound
With pleasing sound
Everywhere it is found
It is time, people say
24 hours of the day
Every Morning
86,400 seconds is credited
Every night
The amount is debited
Leaving no balance
At each morning
The account is re-credited
With same amount
It is you who should know
How to count
And make prudent investment
So that you can reap a dividend
You will have deficit
If you miss to use the credit
You don’t have to wait in row
There’s no drawing against tomorrow
So live in present
Accept the present
Try to always invest
And reap the best
Interest from the credit
You and only you can make it
Shashikant Nishant Sharma

 

Good Deeds Leads You to Succeed



This World is a double edged knife
And we have only one life
Enjoy it, Live it well
In good company do dwell
Always do good deeds
Sow in yourself character’s seeds
Cultivate mind with manure of thought
For ages, the experiences brought
Feed your life with good deeds
So that there is no place for weeds
To harm, that oft leads
The decay of character’s seeds
The one who wants to succeed
He must always heed
And must seek
The good qualities
And not the quantities
A wise man can only pleads
But you have to pay heed
What are you needs?
Then decide what to do
And what not to do
Shashikant Nishant Sharma

 

Edupedia Publications Pvt Ltd

True Humanity

It will be my top priority
To cultivate in all individuals
A true sense of humanity
And selfless service to community
Everybody will talk to heart
Everybody will learn science and art
For the benefit of country
There will be no fear
Everyone will be friends loving and dear
Shashikant Nishant Sharma

 

Edupedia Publications Pvt Ltd

Passage of life,,,,,,,,,,,,



Life is a wonderland filled with happiness to embrace ,
Pebbles of anger, hatred,greed are the pillars of disgrace..
Must hue this land with the fluid of honesty and hard labour,
Farms of wisdom , intellect and consciousness , let us all endeavour.
No matter how much we live, and how much we move,
life is a wonderland which will haunt and groove…..
Time has finally come to snatch the rose from the narrow wild thorn
So lets cheerup , sing along with the tune of this winning horn..
Life as we know is a wonderland filled with happiness to embrace………
Stills from Romeo juliet and the finale of Laden are all part of this race.

Soham Banerjee

PARTICIPATORY PLANNING APPROACHES

Participatory planning processes can have many goals with a variety of communication modes, as well as the decision- making actions taken by stakeholders during such a process.  Parties involved in a planning process have their own goals based on political, cultural and economic factors that are relevant for them. The overall challenge is to define how to support these processes. One approach to tackle this challenge is to make a careful definition of the needs of the intended audience. These needs can be roughly divided into three main orientations that are described below (Geertman, 1996, Wachowicz, 2002). 

Decision-Oriented Approach

The central paradigm in this approach is that planning is a process of choice in a situation of uncertainty. This uncertainty is present in the knowledge of the planning environment.  In this case, one is not sure about the physical and socio-economic structure of the environment and its response upon the actions of actors. The goal of planning is mainly to inform actors about future decision- making and make future operational decisions interpretable

Action-Oriented Approach

In this approach, planning is defined as the result of actions between actors, which are part of the socio-spatial system. Their actions need to be compliant to and embedded in the society. Decisions are based upon interactions among actors. This means that the focus of planning is not per se on a critical evaluation of the spatial organization itself, but on the analysis of the intentional actions and knowledge of the actors involved in planning.
Search-Oriented Approach

The aim of planning as search for direction is not directly to prepare for an operational decision given a well-defined problem, but to reveal alternatives and new solutions outside the direct scope of the observed problems. It is meant for actors to learn and become wiser (Kleefmann, 1984).

Shashikant Nishant Sharma
Urban Planner
{Courtesy: Sharma, S.N. (2012), Participatory Planning in Plan Preparation: A Case of Delhi, Graduate Thesis, Department of Physical Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi}

NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF PARTICIPATORY PLANNING

Even those who are most sympathetic towards participatory planning have pointed out some shortcomings of the process. High degree of citizen mobilization will heighten political conflicts rather than consensus (Grant, 1994).
As stated by Day (1997) there is the problem that the outcomes of participatory processes will not truly reflect the aggregate of citizen preferences as few people take the advantages of the opportunities for participation that do exist. Also Grant (1994) explains that participation is a luxury in modern societies because it requires skills, resources, money and, time that many citizen do not have. People tend to become involved in planning issues only when they perceive that the issue is in their immediate and tangible interest (Cataneseet al, 1984). Sometimes, objectives of participation are those of experts and being possessive of their ideas often planners and policy makers are unwilling to admit nonprofessional interference in decision making.Some of the shortcomings of the participatory planning can be enlisted as follows:
a.    The participative approach has not been yet validated in real case studies, therefore its actual application is still unknown
b.    To start each of the steps, a set of technical and non-technical requirements need to be met, which in many cases might not be in the hands of the planner and the sanitation team. This situation could discourage the team, and the process could be stopped
c.    In order to carry out such a process, it is necessary to train the community workers in participatory techniques
d.    To carry out a participatory decision making process, it is necessary to continuously involve the stakeholders and organize meetings for discussion. This will need the availability of sufficient funds and time
e.    There is the risk of concentrating the decision making process only on those stakeholders who have a technical background (such as sanitation experts) and the authorities, leaving the end users out of the process
Thus, we can see that participatory process is not a fool proof mechanism for planning. It can be seen that the need of public participation arises due to two main reasons so far as I can perceive and they are either the plan/planning is inadequate to serve the purpose of the general public or we want to share responsibility or to counter the bureaucracy and political stalemate. This also reflects that planners’ expertise in interest articulations fails and then the need for greater participation arises. In society, there exist far greater differences than assumed equality of resources, access to information, capacity to articulate and present issues, capacity to organize into groups that forms the conceptual foundation upon which participatory methods and processes are built (Beatley, 1994 et al). Participation is often skewed in the interest of the influential classes or some powerful groups active in decision making. If few groups participate then it is sure to get skewed plans and if many groups participate then it become unmanageable and sometimes it take a lot of time in arriving at consensus or common agenda.

Shashikant Nishant Sharma
Urban Planner
{Courtesy: Sharma, S.N. (2012), Participatory Planning in Plan Preparation: A Case of Delhi, Graduate Thesis, Department of Physical Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi}

PRINCIPLES FOR PARTICIPATORY PLANNING

The principle underlying participatory planning has been explored over time and here, we will discuss them in brief. According to the Parish/Ward Planning Manual of Uganda the key principles that this approach to participatory bottom-up planning are based on include:
a) Inclusion of poor people and other vulnerable groups in the planning process and promote gender equity
b) Plans need to be realistic and the planning process must be for projects which can be implemented using available resources
c) Planning should not be a one-off exercise, but a continuous process
d) Plans should be people focused and empowering
e) Planning should start from vision and strength /opportunities not problems
f) Plans should be comprehensive covering all sectors (holistic) and integrated
g) Planning should promote mutual accountability between community and public officers
h) Plans should be flexible, simple and learning oriented
i) The scheduling of planning activities at the lower local council levels should put into consideration the recommended timeframe of the overall planning.
The key principles that this approach to participatory bottom-up planning are based on inclusion of poor people and other vulnerable groups in the planning process and promote gender equity in sharing of the benefits of planning and development. Plans need to be realistic for involving public and the planning process must be for projects which can be implemented using available resources and augmented by the local expertise. Planning is a continuous process and thus for a fruitful result participation starts. Participation of public will be greater if the plans are people focused and empowering in nature. Planning starts from vision and strength /opportunities of an area and them it tries to sort out the threats and weaknesses through the use of expertise and participation of the users. Plans that are comprehensive covering all sectors and integrated entails more public participation as people view this as an opportunity for their redemption. Planning which promote mutual accountability between community and public officers leads to increased participation of the stakeholders. Public participation is feasible where plans are flexible, simple and learning oriented. The scheduling of planning activities at the lower local levels should put into consideration the recommended timeframe of the overall master planning for the town. After understanding the principle underlying the public participation, it would be fruitful to see how planners and policy makers have used public participation in different forms like planning with people approach.

Shashikant Nishant Sharma

Urban Planner

{Courtesy: Sharma, S.N. (2012), Participatory Planning in Plan Preparation: A Case of Delhi, Graduate Thesis, Department of Physical Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi}

THE NATURE OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Public participation has diverse nature and the diversity of its nature and interpretability has made it popular for the policy planners and authors alike. Public participation is an inclusive rather than exclusive process as more and more stakeholders are involved where only a few planners used to make plan for the multitude of population.
Moreover, a number of studies have determined that the majority of those who choose to attend hearings actually represent organized interests with significant economic stakes in the outcome (Fiorino, 1990). Although public participation is voluntary but often is guided by the motives of the interest groups except where a legal requirement specifies otherwise for the initiation of the process and to the implementation.It may be a complement to legal requirements, but cannot conflict with legal provisions in force, in particular with ownership and user rights.
As Kenney (1999:498) expresses:  “While local governments and stakeholders are often tangentially involved in these programs through mandatory public participation processes, many of the most salient regulatory programs channel decisions almost exclusively through federal agencies and, eventually, through federal courts where the influence of national interest groups is paramount.”
It is fair and transparent to all participants and follows agreed basic rules applicable to all. It is based on participants acting in good faith for the betterment of the community at large. It does not guarantee or predetermine what the outcome will be as it involves a great degree of consensus building and persuasion to common agenda.After understanding the nature and forms of the public participation, now let’s look at the basic benefits associated with public participation process and exercise.

Shashikant Nishant Sharma

Urban Planner

{Courtesy: Sharma, S.N. (2012), Participatory Planning in Plan Preparation: A Case of Delhi, Graduate Thesis, Department of Physical Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi}