Policy design: the process of layering to develop policy mixes in the context of forest policies in colonial and post-colonial India

Abstract

Presenter: Tejendra Pratap Gautam Policy design is a dynamic process. It is a mix of goals and objectives, target populations, agents and implementation structures, rules, and policy instruments that develop over the period through the process of layering by amending the laws and policies. The paper uses policy design theory in examining how the policy processes of layering and policy mixes in the context of colonial forest policies – Indian Forest Act (IFA) 1865, IFA (amended) in 1878, and IFA (amended) in 1927, including National Forest Policy 1894 – were helped the British Administration to establish a monopoly over the forest produces, all wastelands and timberlands in colonial India. In addition, it analyses how the post-colonial state continued a similar trend unless pro-tribal forest policy mixes – the Forest Bill 1980, National Forest Policy 1988, Joint Forest Management (JFM) Guidelines 1990, Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) 1996, JFM Guidelines 2001, Forest Rights Act 2006, Forest Rights Rules 2012 – were enacted to undo the historical injustice done during the colonial and post-colonial India. The study argues that policy mixes have profoundly contributed to the incremental development of pro-tribal policy design to help recognise the forest rights of forest-dwelling communities after the liberalisation of India. It uses policy document analysis and textual analysis methods to analyse policy documents and secondary literature. Lately, several attempts have been made by the post-colonial state to alter the existing design elements, such as instruments of forest policies, in order to influence the agenda-setting of forest laws under the influence of neoliberalism and put forth the agenda of ease of doing business in India.