2 SOCIAL SCIENTIST PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN FOR DECENTRALISED PLANNING IN KERALA People's Campaign was initiated by the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala. The budgetary provision made in the favour of LSGs as part of the PPC involved devolving of 35 to 40 per cent of the plan funds of the State. This laid the foundation of a massive and unprecedented effort for building capacity for decentralised planning, and for formulation and implementation of the Ninth Plan in the state. In the words of EMS Namboodiripad, one of the pioneers of the idea of decentralisation, the campaign is the "most radical development that has taken place in Kerala since the attainment of Independence, formation of the state of Kerala and the land reforms." Thomas Isaac discusses in detail the building up of this campaign. He explains how decentralisation is a political process. In Kerala, the process of decentralisation started with a political initiative and was followed by capacity building and setting up the administrative and juridical infrastructure. The recognition that the political initiative for decentralisation was an inevitable outcome of the longstanding political struggle, both for comprehensive land reforms and for a different development experience in the state, was important. This makes the PPC quite different from many other decentralisation initiatives worldwide. The political struggle itself has a dialectical relationship with decentralisation: on the one hand it forms the foundation of the PPC, and on the other, decentralisation itself is an important means to the political and social mobilisation of the people. As a result, the PPC has not only made possible wide participation of people in planning and development activities but improved its quality too. While it is still too early to assess the impact of decentralisation on development of Kerala, and an attempt to reduce the impact to certain categories of activities and outcomes could be illusive, some of the numbers on the scale of activities and outcomes are indeed impressive. Thomas Isaac records that 15,000 elected representatives, 25,000 officials and 75,000 volunteers were given training on different aspects of decentralised planning. The PPC involved, probably for the first time in the world, a large-scale application of the techniques of resource mapping. While there is a wide variety of initiatives (as suited to the local conditions, resources, requirements and priorities) undertaken as part of decentralised planning, the outcomes on a few of these illustrate the achievements. "In the two years 1997 to 1999, 98,494 houses have been built, 240,307 sanitary latrines constructed, 50,162 wells dug, 17,489 public taps provided and 16,563 ponds cleaned. A total of 2,800,179 individual beneficiaries received support