“Single-Blind Experimental Case-Study on the Deviant Functionaries of the Revenue Department in the District Kathua-184101, Jammu and Kashmir, Republic of India February 2019 - May 2024”
Pursued solo by: - Ishu Upadhyay, Research Practitioner and Director, Department of Research at Council for Research on Sociological Problems and Mitigation Studies (www.crspms.in), Kathua-184101, Jammu & Kashmir, Republic of India.
Research Problem:
In February 2019, the researcher discovered a dilapidated and defunct Patwarkhana (Office of the Village-level Revenue Accountant) situated in the Government-declared backward Village Kathera of the District Kathua illegally occupied by a migrant labor supervisor and his family. The district Kathua falls under the administrative jurisdiction of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Republic of India. The research project aimed to make the office operational in the public interest as the residents of the village Kathera, Kumri, Androt, Fafal, Sangan, Punwari, Bhed Blore, Tipri, Alari, Dral, Sher Kotla were forced to travel to main town of Kathua for availing the revenue-department-related services. Prerequisite to achieve the aim required completion of the basic research. To investigate the underlying reasons for the inoperative Patwarkhana required conducting a Preliminary inquiry, Participant field ethnography, collecting qualitative evidence, Analysis of the Landscape on the problem, Cartographic depiction of the Bystander effect, Analysis and Segmentation of the stakeholders into different Groups based on their common characteristics and sanctioned power relative to the Problem causal group to understand the power dynamics responsible for sustaining the problem for years as the building was constructed in the early 2000s and remained defunct since then. Over the years, some miscreants stole the water tank placed on the terrace of the building and decamped with the water pump installed at the bore well. The combined results of all the research methods provided clear evidence and established the hierarchal negligence of the revenue department. The defunct and illegally occupied Patwarkhana was caused by the persistent hierarchical negligence aggravated by a lack of accountability and an ineffective supervisory mechanism. These findings led to the completion of the basic research.
Afterwards, the researcher prepared an evidence-based survey report and shared it with the district administration of Kathua in March 2019, and demanded the opening of the Patwarkhana. It led to the culmination of the primary single-blind experimentation phase to document their natural response to investigate the department culture, level of nepotism, and the group affinity in the department.
In March 2019, during the primary phase of the single-field experimentation, the experimental group exhibited highly deviant group behavior to shield their collective negligence by implicating another department to legitimize and cover up the illegal occupation of the building. They used psychological tactics involving careful use of the circumlocution, double-bind communication and arbitrariness to evade their accountability and falsely denied the administrative custody of the building. Subsequently, research practitioner inquired the custody of the building from the Block Development Officer, Kathua and compiled the supplementary survey report.
In July 2019, the supplementary survey report was presented to the experimental subjects. The report reiterated the earlier findings and contested the biased and evasive response of the experimental subjects and employed “Naming and Shaming” strategy to prompt them to open up the defunct and illegally-occupied Patwarkhana. Following this, the Deputy Commissioner Kathua directed the Tehsildar Kathua to take immediate necessary action on July 2019. However, they continued to exercise inaction and the same was documented during the monitoring of the implementation phase. On January 1, 2021, they cited the previous response given by them. In this way, the Deputy Commissioner Kathua contradicted himself by recommending the necessary action in July 2019 and later colluding with his colleagues by pasting the old response. Thus, experimental subjects deliberately chose to linger on the problem. By doing so, they exhausted their threshold limits and option to exercise arbitrariness. Because retracting from their official responsible became impossible for them. Additionally, the researcher employed more independent variables and identified the confounding variables affecting the desired experimental outcomes before beginning the tertiary experiment in February 2022 to increase the efficacy of the experimental-embedded treatment. It involved demanding evidence from them including their predecessors and incumbents for their professional misconduct and negligence by creating a Prisoner’s Dilemma for them and they had no other option than to open the Patwarkhana. It triangulated and forced them to admit their lies and open the defunct Patwarkhana in March, 2022. However, they suppressed the official records to protect their collective interests and departmental image. Concluding the project based on the official confirmation provided by the experimental subjects in the light of their deviant behavior and professional misconduct was unscientific. Therefore, the post-experimentation monitoring phase lasted for two years (April 2022- May 2024) which established that the Patwarkhana is merely operational on papers only and is still defunct. The illegal occupants (Family members of a private labor supervisor) vacated the building after the road construction in the mid-2021). Moreover, the field functionaries posted in the revenue office continues to mark their attendance by corrupt means under the patronage of the senior officers. Throughout the project (February 2019- May 2024), the departmental negligence and professional misconduct of the subjects including the predecessors, successors and the incumbents in the revenue department remained constant which proves the degradation of the department culture plagued with indiscipline, falsehoods, nepotism, absenteeism and process-oriented corrupt work practices. They are eroding the strengths of their institutions and damaging the public trust as well by their complacency and biased workings. This project has highlighted a real-life scenario involving a problem causal group trying to solve the problem and adjudicating the same too with sheer impunity. No research project can run forever and is bound to cease after considerable time. This research project was culminated in February 2019 in the erstwhile princely state of the Jammu and Kashmir and witnessed the bifurcation of the state into the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh following the abrogation of the Article35-A, Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. The Union Government passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019 and it became applicable on October 31, 2019 thereby ending the special status and dividing the state. What did not change was the apathetic and deviant behavior of the experimental subjects despite the evolution of the State into a Union Territory.
Therefore, this project stands concluded in May 2024 and is based on the repeated experimental results and secondary qualitative data sourced from the government records and other sources which triangulates and corroborate the research findings. It is up to the decision makers of the country to imagine the repercussions when the government officials entrusted to safeguard the public property and maintain public order turns hostile and begins performing contradictory functions swayed by their selfish interests and group affinity? Awarding impunity to the negligent and biased officers would turn disastrous in the long-run and is likely to cause irreversible damage. Therefore, the research recommends making accountability an integral part of the government service at all levels with robust supervision and regular performance appraisal based on the real output for the optimum utilization of the public funds and ensure its usage on the well-being of the people. The concluded project has demonstrated the triumph of the scientific method over the collective arrogance of officers performing roles in contradiction to their assigned duties with impunity. When a solitary research practitioner can arrest the deviant behavior of influential subjects through the application of the scientific method in one district, one can only imagine the transformative potential the Government holds with its vast prestige, power, and resources.