It is felt by many that the contemporary debates on economic policies need to go beyond need to go beyond the issue of economic reform in its present form. It is a matter of concern that the singular focus on broadening the reach of the markets may result in substantial conceptual derailment of the basic purpose of development. In response to the need for strengthening the foundations for a pluralist democratic society and a well functioning market economy, new institutions and economic infrastructure are evolving. The difficulties encountered in this respect perhaps relate to being able to strike the right balance between public and private markets and planning, between short-term contingencies and long-term visions based on ideals of social justice. The concept of decentralisation matched with considerable institutional flexibility and open-minded experimentation, could be instrumental in re-orienting development debates more towards the prospect of participatory economic expansion.

We approach the possibilities of the self-governing institutions' involvement in the planning process, as being the instrumental inference for people's empowerment and development from below. We try to approach the issue of plan reforms and examine the possibilities of such reforms being able to generate endogenous forces of recovery for the repairable lapses of some of the society's basic institutions. It is in this context that the emphasis on such a planning mode, which itself may incorporate institutionalised participation, gains importance. It is our opinion that such reforms may be conducive to a 'negotiated and contractual environment'.

As a logical extension, one can examine whether such reforms may pave the way for the emergence of the 'people's sector'. If such a third sector could evolve in response to democratic decentralised planning, an alternative interpretation of civil society may be attempted.

In recent decades economists have begun to reexamine the psychological as also organisational premises of their discipline. As the economics of organisational form is producing new models of institutional behaviour, interest in 'non economic institutions' like churches, club, political parties & charities, is growing. The literature on altruism, nonprofits or in other words, the interface between nonprofits and for profits sector has been reviewed by many. To some, volunteerism could be seen as an attempt o open alternative political space outside the usual arenas, of party and government. To others, it is to be dismissed as strengthening the status quo, quite counter-revolutionary. There appears to be considerable ambivalence regarding the transformative potentialities of volunteerism.

At this present juncture, it night be interesting to examine whether as the planning mode may transform from a 'statist' to a 'people-centric' one, volunteerism may be generated.

In West Bengal, the history of the voluntary sector in the recent past may be traced to the extensive development works that had been executed by the migrants from erstwhile East Pakistan to the Calcutta subburbs and other areas in the late forties to early sixties. The migrants were seen to establish colonies and settlements in the face of state apathy and often antipathy of its organs. They could mobilise themselves to build roads, to set up schools, libraries & dispensaries, to rejuvinate water bodies and sink tubewells and execute such other works wholly with their own contributions over the years. Unsettled, uprooted existence was seen to release the forces of people's power, quite independently of state effort or impulses. Yet, one finds also in the relative stability of the post independence decades, examples of primary, junior & high schools being established through local initiatives and voluntary public contributions motivated by public spirit. One may recall also the 'Shramdan' programmes associated with the community development projects of the fifties and sixties.

The point of departure of our conceptualisatior, of the people's sector, as compared to the earlier evolutionary patterns is that here volunteerism may be interpreted as a rational response to the changes in the institutional arrangements, particularly that of planning. The question addressed here is: Whether the forces of peoples power could be released to sustain volunteerism when planning mode could be reformed from a statist to a decentralised participatory one.

While a lot of documentation exists regarding the democratic relationship between the state and people for better functioning of irrigation schemes in India, we explore the institutional environment that may best promote participation. Democratic accountability appears to be an important issue.

In West Bengal, it seemed collective organised participatory interaction may make people's involvement forthcoming. It is said that such integration has enabled the grassroot bodies to plan for a gradual transformation of village life as a whole through the betterment of communication, irrigation & educational facilities and other durble social assets creation. The efficiency and effectiveness of such schemes have been studied by many & considerable differences of opinion are seen to exist.

It was our objective to examine on the other hand to what extent the involving of the people in the planning of such schemes via their self governing institutions could be related to the absence or presence of the local voluntary sector. All gram panchayats (i.e. below the district level institution of local governance) selected from two Zilla Parishads (i.e. below the state level institution) in West Bengal formed the data set. Information were collected from these grassroot bodies. The elected members of these bodies were asked to identify only four outstanding examples of such schemes which in their opinion were able to generate voluntary co-operation (in terms of contributions) and participation & whose planning, selection and execution were the sole responsibility of this lowest tier of self-governance. The time period related to 1985-86 to 1992-93. It was found that in these grassroot bodies commitment appeared to be a common phenomenon, irrespective of whether such schemes may confer benefits of immediate value or benefits that might accrue at some future time.