The rhetoric of participation re-examined : the state, NGOs and water users at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

People's participation is usually regarded a sine qua non for the success and sustainability of development projects. Yet in practice, it raises a number of questions. Who are the people? Why is their participation sought, and how or at what level, is such participation desired? This paper seeks to examine the rhetoric of participation in the implementation of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) at Varanasi, in the north-eastern State of Uttar Pradesh, India. Launched in 1985, the GAP is the first major attempt to systematically control and monitor the pollution of a significant river in the country. In addition, it is claimed to be a people's programme because of the powerful and deep-seated cultural and religious meaning associated with the Ganga. Varanasi, however, is indicative of its failure to deliver this promise - the GAP is only acceptable to authority because it does not challenge the existing institutional order, and its participatory content is symbolic rather than substantive. Non-governmental organizations, traditionally viewed as intermediary actors between the micro and macro levels, work within the socio-political framework of the city. In the process, water user groups such as washermen who derive an economic livelihood from washing clothes in the Ganga, are literally excluded from the definition and process of participation. [Author's abstract]