Participation a word used very heavily these days and specially so in the realm of development work. I just saw this in a new light today when I was attending a workshop on some development subject in Islamabad. There was a consultant from a donor agency who was lecturing as to what could be the best way forward in a certain sector. I just tried to put myself in his shoes to see how i can manage with little or only superficial knowledge about a country or its people. And still advise them with a lot of confidence and get a lot of money.

The use of participation came as a great rescue as it allows to make all kinds of blunders of not understanding the context and yet sail through the process of looking smart and wise and able to advise. you keep on gleaning all the information regarding the situatioon, culture or the reality on ground (which is not a bad thing in any case) and cover up your follies in the garb of learning process. But the idea is turned upside down when it comes to participation for others. In that case it boils down to a meaningless exercise of getting the inputs and then paying no heed to them. The devcisions can be made without regard to any input. Worst of all in this participatory process the down trodden or the exploited ones do not get any knowledge or they never get to share the real understanding of the masters. This makes the whole process a mokery and a one sided thing only.