In a welfare state, the role of bureaucracy is crucial in service delivery. What are the issues that lead to faulty implementation? Also, suggest measures to ensure effective implementation.

Bureaucracy is the backbone of civil administration & play a vital role in the implementation of various welfare initiatives taken by the government. However, despite various initiatives, there are issues related to implementation which impedes desired outcomes. Reasons behind faulty implementation are:

1. Emphasis on paperwork versus outcomes: the focus is on output not on outcomes, If officially stated duties are completed and reports sent to the state and central governments regularly, there is no accountability for poor outcomes.
2. Leakage in program implementation: Sometimes the contractor-politician-bureaucrat nexus diverts the resources, thereby leading to poor implementation.
3. Sociocultural barriers: Traditional social prejudices and behavioral patterns also adversely impact the successful implementation. For example, the various household doesn’t use toilets despite toilet availability. This renders the sanitation drive less effective.
4. Inadequate infrastructure specifically basic service like health, education face the problem of resource scarcity and poor infrastructure. For example health and education sector. The problem is aggravated arrogant behavior of the authorities. Such experiences discourage citizens from using the facility.

various initiatives like e governance, DBT, privatization of services, Aadhar based solutions are utilized to improve service delivery and for better implementation. Most importantly, the political and bureaucratic leadership should provide a conducive and supportive environment for the effective functioning and effective implementation. Along with this, there should be special emphasis on awareness generation and grievance redressal.

Topics: GS-II: Role of Civil Services in Democracy