MA-Sem-IV-Project-Paper-English-version-munotes

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INTRODUCTION
Unit Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Evolution of Panchayati Raj Institutions in India
1.3 Constitutional framework : 73rd Constitutional amendment act.
1.4 Comparative study of Maharashtra, Kerela, West Bengal & Madhya
Pradesh
1.5 Summary/Conclusion
1.6 References
1.0 OBJECTIVES
In this unit you all will be familiarized with aspects of Rural Governance
in India. “India lives in its villages” - these words of M.K. Gandhi summarize
the significance of villages in Indian society. Until independence, majority
of the population lived in villages. After that, the process of urbanization
was accelerated and the urban population grew faster. Even till date,
according to the Census of Indian (2011), majority of Indian population
(about 69 %) live in about 649481 villages. The rural society has its unique
social structure and a way of living that is different from the urban society.
It must be remembered that In dian society is not monolithic. It is diverse in
many aspects. The villages are different in terms of the size of population,
social composition, spatial arrangement of houses, economic condition,
proximity to cities or even in terms of their location with in the cities. It is
important to keep this in mind when we study rural society, and not imagine
“Indian village” as a homogenous or uniform social entity. Moreover, it is
also important to know that there is no single perspective or theoretical
framework through which one can see a social entity such as a “village” and
understand it in its entirety. There are different perspectives or view -points
that enable the students to appreciate the complex nature of social world
and different ways of perceiving them . The rural society in India has to be
understood through understanding these social institutions, the way they
were operating earlier, and the manner in which they have come to function
in their contemporary forms. How people marry and how kinship networ ks
are maintained, how economic activities are structured, how political
institutions function, and how religious and cultural institutions shape
people’s lives - all these are significant themes or windows through which
we would be able to see and apprecia te the rural society.
Panchayati Raj (PR) is a salient feature of the political and governance
system of the Indian subcontinent. As a system of local self -governance,
Panchayati Raj has been practiced in India since a long time. However, it munotes.in

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2 Rural Governance in India
2 was not necess arily functioning as a true democratic institution in the
modern sense. Local caste/class hierarchy was ingrained into it. During
nationalist movement, Gandhi had emphasized on village level local self -
governance (gram swaraj). His dream for independent In dia was to establish
Panchayati Raj to empower the local people to self -rule, rather than
establishing rule from above. After independence, the local level
Panchayats operated, but with lot of limitations. The Article 40, one of the
articles under the Dire ctive Principles of State Policies in the Constitution,
directed the government to enact laws for proper implementation of local
self-rule with political and financial authority, and provisions for
representation of the marginalized sections and women. Acc ordingly, the
73rd Constitutional Amendment Acts of 1992 provided constitutional status
to our Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). Afterwards, the PRIs became
recognised as the third level of India’s federal democracy.
After studying this lesson, you would be able to -
• To explain the meaning of Panchayati Raj and provide the rationale
of its emergence
• To acquaint students with the Constitutional basis of Panchayati Raj
in India with particular emphasis on 73rd Constitutional Amendment
• To explain the organization/structure and function/role of Three Tier
PRIs
• To highlight the issues/challenges for PRIs to become effective in
grassroots democracy
• Analyze comparatively the rural governance of four states of India,i.e,
Maharashtra, Kerela, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.
1.1 INTRODUCTION:
Panchayati Raj can be understood as a form of direct democracy at the
village or local level in contrast to the practice of representative democracy
at the state/provincial and country level. It means tha t in the PRIs, powers
of the government is directly exercised by the common people who are
immediately impacted by its decisions. Local people’s direct involvement
in the decision making process at the village level is a paramount feature of
Panchayati Raj . Thus, PRIs are the cornerstones of local self -governments
and peoples’ participation in India. The idea behind Panchayati Raj is to
ensure that democracy becomes more meaningful by making governing
institutions functionally more responsive to the local/r ural people’s needs
and aspirations. This makes democracy more substantive at the local or
grassroots level. In our democratic system, the PRIs actually materialize the
idea of devolution of power from the Central or State government to the
periphery or lo cal level. In fact, the practice of Panchayati Raj is driven by
citizens’ everyday needs and with their active and continuous participation.
The word panch means five and raj means ‘rule’; thus, panchayat means the
‘governance by five persons’. In India’s traditional rural governance
framework, panchayats referred to assemblies of respected elders chosen by munotes.in

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3 Introduction the local or village community. Of course, such assemblies exhibited
variations. These assemblies of wise village elders settled disputes between
indiv iduals and between villages as well. Usually, the leader of the
panchayat in rural India was referred to as the mukhiya or sarpanch. This
was an elected/nominated or traditionally acknowledged position in villages
steeped in traditions and customs. However , we should not equate the
modern Panchayati Raj system of India as established by our Constitution
with that of either the traditional village panchayat of the past nor with the
present -day extra -constitutional/extra -legal khap or caste panchayats found
in a few north Indian states. Panchayati Raj can be defined or understood as
a system of local self -government in a decentralized democratic framework.
We can define the Gram Panchayat as a village level governing institution
with the Sarpanch as its electe d head. The members of the gram panchayat
are called “ward members” or panchs. These ward members are elected by
the voters who are all members of the Gram Sabha for a period of five years.
The Rationale for Panchayati Raj
India is the largest democracy i n the world. It’s a country of sub -continental
size with large and complex diversity. India’s democratic government is
structured as a federation, with the Union or Central Government at the
national level and twenty -eight State Governments at the provinci al level.
Besides, there are 8 Union Territories administered under direct supervision
of the Union Government. The governments at both the National and State
levels are of Representative nature. It means that the people’s
representatives chosen to the Par liament and State as well as some UT
Assemblies make the decisions and policies of the government. People
themselves don’t directly make the decisions and policies that impact their
everyday life. In fact, it’s impossible for all citizens to gather togethe r at
one place to directly discuss and decide about their own affairs at the
National or even at the State levels. Though the Union and State/UT
governments have legislative bodies and executive agencies to take care of
people’s welfare, the vastness of ou r country, the complex diversity of our
people and the enormity of their issues makes it difficult for them to attend
to the every -day life needs, interests and aspirations of the people at the
local level. In India, having elected or representative govern ments at the
central/federal and state/provincial levels is not just enough. It doesn’t solve
people’s problems and their everyday needs at the local level. Even at the
local level, we always need elected governments to look after our local
needs or aspira tions more effectively. Hence, our Constitution provides
local government in the form of Panchayati Raj Institutions or PRIs at the
village, taluk/block and district levels. Local government is that governing
institution which is closest to the common peop le. It deals with the everyday
needs and problems of the citizens at the local or grassroots level. That is
why the common citizen at the local level are so concerned with what the
local government does or doesn’t do. It has a direct bearing on their every -
day lives. Local government system is built on the idea or belief that local
knowledge and local interests are quite important in the democratic decision
making process. There are certainly some advantages of the local
government; it’s relatively closer t o the people and thus it becomes
convenient for them to approach it to address their grievances promptly and munotes.in

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4 Rural Governance in India
4 with lower expenses. Hence, we can reasonably conclude that local
government could really provide an administration which is efficient and
responsi ve to people’s needs. What is good about a healthy democracy is
that it helps foster a sense of agency among people as they meaningfully
participate in the decision making about their own lives. It also gives
common citizens a sense of confidence as they c ould hold the government
to account. People’s active participation and their ability to hold officials to
account are critical aspects to make the local governments efficient.
Therefore, it’s important to strengthen the local governments to make
India’s democracy more vibrant.
1.2 EVOLUTION OF PAN CHAYATI RAJ
INSTITUTIONS IN INDI A.
Panchayats or traditional village councils are quite an old feature of India’s
political history. They have been a part and parcel of India’s long tradition.
Readings of India’s history tell us that almost every village in India had a
Council of Elders or Panchayat that was responsible for managing the
village affairs. Local self -governing bodies, with remarkable self -
sufficiency and autonomy, had flourished throughout India’s civilization.
They were a key aspect of public life in India. In our study, we can find the
presence of local gover nment in India’s long indigenous as well as colonial
history. Highlighting the significance of Panchayati Raj in India’s political
history, Sir Charles Metcalfe observed: “Panchayats seemed to last where
nothing lasted. Dynasty after dynasty tumbled down; revolution succeeded
revolution; Pathans, Mughals, Marathas, Sikhs and British were all the
masters in turn, but the Village Communities and their autonomy remained
the same”.(Aggarwal & Bhatnagar: 2005). Let’s discuss the evolution of
Panchayati Raj or lo cal government in India taking two broad time frames:
Pre and Post Independence Periods.
Pre-Independence Period
The evolution of local government and Panchayats before India’s
Independence is discussed through the following periods: Ancient,
Medieval and The British Period.
A. Ancient Period
India’s legacy of Panchayati Raj is quite long. It goes back to the
ancient times. We can find references to the existence of rural local
self-governing bodies in various forms in the epics of 'Ramayana' and
'Mahabh arata'. The Rig -Veda and Samhitas also contain references to To-Do-Activity: Watch two video documentaries from YouTube- Panchayati Raj in India (2014) telecast by Rajya Sabha TV under the
episode Nazariya, and For the Dorbar of the People (Ministry of
Panchayati Raj, Government of India, 2017). Collect information on
“Khap Panchayat” as well. Compare both ideas of “panchayat” and discuss what the differences between the two types of Panchayats. munotes.in

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5 Introduction the existence of such self -governing bodies. The village Panchayat,
known as ‘Samiti’, was the basic unit of administration during the
Vedic period. The head of a Samiti was called Gramin. In the
‘Arthashastra’, Kautilya mentions about the system of governance
during the Maurayan period. This great treatise of politics and
administration highlights the significance of local self -governing
institutions. The principle of administrative decentralizat ion was
followed during Chandragupta Maurya’s regime. Then the village
was regarded as the smallest unit of governance. In Kautilya’s scheme
of administration, the king had very little interference in the
governance of local bodies.
In his book Indica, th e ancient Greek diplomat, historian and Indian
ethnographer Megasthenes, who visited India around the later part of
3rd Century B.C.E., describes India’s society and political system as
a ‘plurality of local rulers and autonomous communities operating
unde r the vague control of the King’. (Bosworth:1996) There is also
mention about six committees consisting of five members each were
in charge of administering Pataliputra, the capital city of the Mauryan
Empire.
Similarly, the government system of the Guptas was known to have a
largely decentralized structure. The local authorities and social groups
has significant autonomy in their functioning. Villages enjoyed
considerable autonomy in administration. The village council
popularly known as the Panchayat was managing the affairs of the
village. Gramik, the village headman was at the apex of administering
the affairs of a village. Village councils, variously known as Pancha -
Mandali or Grama -Janapada or Parishad, assisted the Gramik in his
work. Almost all funct ions of the government like looking after
village security, settlement of disputes, carrying out public welfare
works,collection of government taxes/dues were discharged by
village councils. Village Councils also enjoyed the authority of
issuing documents under their own seals. Further, provinces and
districts had their own administrative setups indicating that local
administration was far from the King’s regular intervention. Thus, it
can be fairly observed that the Village Communities in ancient India
were self -sustained as mini republics with minimal control from the
central or provincial government. Village Communities and other
local bodies enjoyed a greater level of autonomy. This was because
the ancient Indian polity was characterised by a distinctive presence
of the state and society as independent entities. Ancient customs and
traditions had played a vital role in the formation of this autonomy of
the village republic. The economic self -sufficiency of village
communities was quite evident. Besides, t he absence of faster
transportation and communication systems compelled the King or
central government to allow more space to the local bodies at the
village level. Villagers used to elect village assemblies or committees
consisting of either the heads of all households or all adult members
to manage their own affairs. These assemblies functioned
democratically with definite rules and regulations (Venkatarangaiya munotes.in

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6 Rural Governance in India
6 and Pattabhiram: 1969). Such Village Assemblies in South India had
attained a higher level of o rganizational development.
The Uthiramerur stone inscriptions in Kancheepuram district of Tamil
Nadu speaks of a long history of local self -governance in the region.
Historical accounts indicate that these village Councils were levying
taxes, improving community life and administeri ng justice in their
local areas. The reign of Cholas during 10th and 11th Centuries
witnessed the peak of this dynamism of these village communities.
Very interestingly, the village members ‘used the secret ballot method
called “Kuda Olai Murai” to elect m embers to the Village Councils.
With the downfall of Cholas, the State experienced a decline of such
Village autonomy and the consequent rise of a centralized
administrative system’ (Akilandeswari: 2017; Ramakrishnan: 2019).
In North -Eastern India too, there were small republics which were
quite independent in the management of internal matters. The Village
Panchayats enjoyed sufficient administrative autonomy, and the
king’s interference was minimal.
B. Medieval Period
The indigenous rural administrati ve system with self -governing
Village Councils (VCs) retained its character in the early phase of
Mughal rule. Major changes happened at the higher levels of
administration leaving villages at the bottom to themselves. The
governance setup of the villages with Village Councils of elected
village elders was not much disturbed and remained as the primary
unit of decision making. Except the judicial powers and land
management, these Village Councils continued to carry out all other
previous functions. The vill ages were incorporated into the larger
administrative system of the Mughal rule only as units for revenue
collection and police purposes. The Empire’s central authority did not
involve itself in the day -to-day regulation of the local affairs.
Management of village affairs was the responsibility of village
officials, who were primarily accountable to the village councils. The
village headman known as muquaddam, was responsible for
maintaining law and order matters in the villages. In fact, the Sultans
in Del hi were aware of enormous difficulty or even the impossibility
of governing vast territory under their rule in India. Hence, they were
averse to directly and regularly intervene in the local affairs of far off
villages. Similarly, the Peshwa rulers constit uted local self -
government institutions in the rural as well as urban areas of
Maharashtra. However, the long heritage of local -self governing
institutions and administrative system started crumbling steadily. In
due course, the situation worsened with vil lage headmen, the upper
castes and rich peasants dominating the village councils.
Subsequently, in the aftermath of the fall of Mughals, the rural self -
governing councils lost their sheen and disintegrated due to several
factors like the developments in tr ansportation & communication,
increased commercial contacts of the rural society with the outside munotes.in

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7 Introduction world, rapid changes in the production system, increasing
urbanization and the decline in the influence of customs and traditions
in people’s everyday life, e tc.
C. The British Period
Introduction of new legal and judicial systems as well as emergence
of newer institutions for revenue collection like Zamindari under the
British rule gave substantive blow to Panchayats’ significance.
Village panchayats lost the ir autonomy and became weak under the
British regime, though India saw the re -emergence of local
representative institutions since 1870s. Of course, local self -
governance was introduced by the British rulers primarily as an
administrative convenience for t he imperial Government. It was to
protect the colonial interests like reducing the financial burden on the
State exchequer rather than to promote self -governing bodies in India
for its inherent benefits for Indians.
Lord Mayo’s Resolution of 1870
Famous Mayo’s Resolution of 1870 was a milestone in the evolution
of local self -governing institutions in India. It proclaimed the need for
local interest, local supervision and local care on issues like
education, sanitation, medical relief and public works. Thi s
Resolution introduced the concept of elected representatives in urban
local bodies and emphasized the necessity of associating Indians in
local administration. In fact, the Revolt of 1857 had caused
considerable strain to the imperial finances and it was convenient to
finance local services out of local taxation. Thus, Lord Mayo’s
resolution on decentralization could be seen as a result of fiscal
compulsions of the Colonial rule.
Lord Ripon’s Resolution of 1882
Lord Ripon’s Local Self Government Resolution of 1882 was the
most important Act on local selfgovernment in British India. It was
regarded as the ‘Magna Carta’ of local self -governance in India. It
provided the much needed democratic framework to the municipal
bodies as well as local boards in rural areas. As per Ripon’s
Resolution, the proportion of non -official members in local bodies
was increased to not less than two -thirds of total members. The non -
official members were to be elected and the chairman had to be only
from among the electe d non -official members. The government
officials were to guide them rather than control them.
Royal (Hobbehouse) Commission on Decentralization of 1907
The Royal Commission lead by C.E.H. Hobbehouse brought out a
Report on Decentralization in 1909. It su ggested that local
government should start from the village level rather than the district
level. It also highlighted about the limitation or scarcity of funds as
well as caste and religious disputes standing as primary obstacles in
the effective functioni ng of the local bodies. munotes.in

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8 Montague -Chlemsford Report& Government of India Act of
1919
The Montague -Chelmsford Report of 1918, which became
background paper for the Government of India Act of 1919, suggested
that local boards should be filled with elected r epresentative than
mere official members. It further advised that the government’s
intervention in the everyday functioning of these local bodies should
be the minimum. The suggestions of the Royal Commission were also
incorporated. The municipalities were vested with more powers to
impose local taxes. The Village Panchayat Act was passed and
Panchayats were established in many provinces as a legal body.
The Government of India Act of 1935
The Government of India Act, 1935 assigned more powers to the
elected governments in the Provinces with greater provincial
autonomy. Provincial governments were allowed to enact legislation
to take the democratic decentralization process to the next level by
establishing local selfgovernments including the Village Panchayats.
D. India’s Freedom Struggle & Gandhi’s Advocacy of ‘Gram
Swaraj’
The idea of Panchayati Raj was prominent in the agenda and as well
as a strategic factor in India’s freedom struggle. Post-1920, Mahatma
Gandhi had emerged as the principal anchor and architect of India’s
freedom movement. For him, Panchayati Raj is a swadeshi institution.
He set the tone of the nationalist movement on the Panchayats. His
vision of a free nation in India was characterised by village self -rule
(Gram Swaraj) and all -round development at the grass roots level in
the rural areas. Strengthening of village panchayats was an effective
means of de -concentrating political and economic power.
As Gandhi famously tol d, “the independence of India should mean
the independence of the whole of India......Independence must begin
at the bottom. Thus every village would be a republic....It follows
therefore that every village has to be self -sustained and capable of
managing its own affairs. In this structure composed of many villages,
there will be ever –widening, ever -ascending circles. Life will be a
pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom”. Besides Gandhi,
many leaders of our freedom movement were also concerned about
too much concentration of powers in the Governor General’s hands
during British rule. Hence, to them, independence of India should also
mean decentralization of power and a move towards participatory
democracy. The Indian National Congress at its Lahore S ession in
1909 had urged the colonial Government to take steps to make all
local bodies functional with adequate financial authority.
With the backdrop of Gandhi’s emphasis on Panchayati Raj as a
crucial component of India’s future polity, the Constituent Assembly
held detailed discussion on this important question so as to give an munotes.in

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9 Introduction appropriate place to Panchayat system in our new Constitution.
However, it was incomprehensible to note that the word 'Panchayat'
did not occur even once in the Draft Constitutio n. Huge controversy
emerged on this emphatic miss of Panchayati Raj from the Draft
Constitution. Fortunately, with Gandhi’s intervention, Panchayati Raj
or local self -government got some honourable place in India’s
Constitutional scheme.
Post-Independence Period (Upto 1992)
The evolution of Panchayati Raj in Independent India is discussed in two
parts. The first part is from 1947 to 1992 and it is discussed in this section.
The second part is from 1992 (73rd Constitutional Amendment onwar ds)
and it is discussed in the section that follows.
A. From 1947 to 1992 : The Making of India’s Constitution and the
Panchayati Raj
In spite of our Freedom Movement’s call for decentralization of
power and participatory democracy, the subject of local g overnment
and panchayats did not initially get adequate importance in our
Constitutional scheme . In framing the modern Indian Republic’s
Constitution, the Constituent Assembly was split between Gandhi’s
vision of and strong belief in Panchayati Raj and Am bedkar and
Nehru’s opposition to it. Thus, it was evident that the inclusion of
panchayats into the Constitution was not unanimously agreed upon by
the Constitution -makers.
Leaders such as Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru, Begum Aziz
Rassul, Dr. Man Moh an Das, A.D. Gorwala and several Marxists
were opposed to the inclusion of the provision of village panchayats
in the Constitution. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the Chairman of the
Constitution Drafting Committee did not favour more power to
panchayats. The faction and caste -ridden nature of rural society was
considered as to defeat the noble purpose of local self -government.
To Ambedkar - “the Indian village was a sink of localism, a den of
ignorance, narrow -mindedness and communalism”. Besides such
negative view on village society, the immediate historical context was
the turmoil due to India’s Partition which lead many constitution
makers to favour a strong Union or Centre.
On the other, leaders such asSeth Damodar Swaroop, H.V. Kamath,
Prof. N.G. Ranga, Alladi Kr ishnaswami Ayyar, Mahavir Tyagi, T.
Prakasham, M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar & Dr. B.N. Rau
advocated for the inclusion of Village Panchayats in the new
Constitutional scheme. For instance, Ananthasayanam Ayyangar
argued in the Constituent Assembly that “*In the interest of
democracy, the villages may be trained in the art of self -government,
even autonomy...We must be able to reform the villages and introduce
democratic principles of government there.” munotes.in

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10 Rural Governance in India
10 Gandhiji came to know about the voices against inclusion of
Panchayati Raj in the Constitution. He insisted on including the
provisions relating to village panchayats in the Constitution. With
Gandhi’s strong view favouring Panchayati Raj, a provision on it was
included in the Constitution's Directive Principles of State Policy
(DPSP) under Article -40. It stated that "the State shall take steps to
organize village Panchayats and endow them with such powers and
authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of
self-government”.
With the Constitu tion coming into force, Article 40 in the DPSP and
Article 243 empowered the state legislatures to legislate with respect
to any subject relating to local self -government. However, as a part of
the DPSP, the provisions under Article 40 were non -justiciable . It was
not legally binding on the government and was primarily advisory in
nature. As a consequence, there was the absence of a uniform
structure of Panchayati Raj bodies throughout the country. Besides,
the subject of local government was assigned to th e State List,
meaning that only state governments would be doing something about
it. Despite all these inherent constraints, Article 40 of the Indian
Constitution can be considered as the key launch -pad towards the
revival of Panchayats in post -Independent India.
Balwantrai Mehta Committee
The Union Government had launched the Community Development
Programmes (CDP)in 1952 and the National Extension Service
Scheme (NESS)in 1953. The goal was to promote people’s
participation in local development through a r ange of activities. A
Committee under the chairmanship of Balwantrai Mehta was set up
to examine the working of CDP. Its Report submitted in 1957
observed that “primary reason for the failure of Community
Development Programme was the lack of people’s part icipation”.
On the basis of B.R. Mehta Committee’s recommendations, a three -
tier Panchayati Raj system for rural areas was introduced. It included
the Gram Panchayats (GPs) at the village level, Panchayat Samiti
(PSs) at the block level and Zilla Parishad (ZPs) at the district level.
The plan was to organically link all three levels in the Panchayati Raj
system, with chairpersons of lower level bodies to be included as ex -
officio members of the higher levels. In explaining the rationale of its
recommendati on, the Committee observed, “Panchayati Raj system
establishes a linkage between local leadership enjoying confidence of
local people and the government and it translates the policies of the
government into action”.
The B.R. Mehta Committee highlighted th e potential of Panchayati
Raj system as a mechanism to ensure the involvement of local people
and their representatives in various development programmes of the
government. These local bodies or councils would take up various
planning and development works in the rural areas. As recommended, munotes.in

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11 Introduction the village panchayats were considered as subordinate agencies of the
government to implement its programs at the local or lowest levels.
This was not to make the PRIs as institutions of self -government or
Gram Swaraj a s Gandhi had envisioned. Subsequently, Panchayati
Raj system lost its importance/sheen. Afterwards it was noticed that
people's participation gradually weakened as elections to the
panchayats were not held regularly.
Ashok Mehta Committee
In 1977, the Janata Party Government came to power at the Centre.
The Morarji Desai lead government tried to revitalize Panchayati Raj
(PR) institutions and appointed a committee under the chairmanship
of Ashok Mehta in December 1977. This Committee was t o suggest a
viable organization of grass -roots councils to mobilize the
participation and active support of the people. In its landmark 1978
Report, the Committee suggested PR structures with a development
orientation at two levels -District Panchayats and Mandal Panchayats
covering 15,000 - 20,000 people. It also recommended for open
participation of political parties in Panchayati Raj elections and
constitutional protection to PR bodies. This was to entrench the
decentralization of process at the grass -roots level and strengthen the
PRIs to become effective agencies for development in rural India.
B. Issues/Factors Keeping the PRIs Weak
Subsequently, many states like Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh in
1959; Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtr a,
Odisha and Punjab in 1960 enacted their own state laws to set up
Panchayati Raj Institutions in their respective states. Though elections
to PRIs were held for several years in many of these states, powers
and functions were not appropriately delegated and finances were not
adequately available. The lack of appropriate funds, functions and
functionaries kept the Panchayats weak. The PRIs remained
dependent on the state and central governments for financial
assistance to run their show. Besides, many stat e governments did not
consider it necessary to establish elected local bodies. They continued
the provision of indirect elections to most local bodies. In several
instances, elected PRIs were indiscriminately or whimsically
dissolved before the expiry of t heir due terms. On many occasions,
the local government bodies were taken away from elected
representatives and handed over to the government officers. In many
cases, elections to the local bodies were postponed persistently.
However, the leadership at the national level realized that real
development of villages was possible only through active and
efficient PRIs.
In 1989, the P.K. Thungan Committee recommended constitutional status
to local government institutions. Afterwards, concerted efforts were made
to bring the needed Constitutional Amendment so as to give the PRIs a
constitutionally guaranteed existence. The intent was to make them function munotes.in

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12 Rural Governance in India
12 as institutions of self -government in the real sense of the term as well as to
give them an all India uniform pattern.
Check Your Progress Exercise 1
Note: i) Use the space given below for your an swer.
1) Critically analyze the evolution of Panchayati Raj Institutions in
India with relevant examples .
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____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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________________ ____________________________________________
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1.3 CONSTITUTIONAL F RAMEWORK : 73RD
CONSTITUTIONAL AMEND MENT ACT.
Constitutionalisation of Panchayati Raj in India
With these varied experiences/experiments from across India, the necessity
of constitutional mandate for Panchayati Raj was felt. Many state
governments were not sincere about creating durable and efficient
Panchayati Raj Institutions and sharing power with them. In fact, s ome
states had taken the devolved powers back from the PRIs. Status and dignity
are crucial factors to make PRIs function effectively. This required
Constitutional guarantee or Constitutionalisation of the Panchayats.
Previously, local self -government or P anchayat Raj was a State Subject.
Hence, the Union government could not bring any legislation on Panchayati
Raj. This prompted it to amend the Constitution under Article -368 enabling
the Parliament to enact laws on Panchayats applicable to the whole of Ind ia.
The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 on PRIs has a chequered
history. This Legislative Bill on Panchayati Raj took nearly three years of
Parliamentary process to emerge as an Act. Let’s find out the notable
historical steps taken by successive Governments at the Centre towards
Constitutionalisation of the Panchayati Raj system in India. Below are some
of these Parliamentary milestones:
a) The Union Government headed by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
introduced the 64th Constitution Amendment Bill i n the Lok Sabha in
1989. It proposed to constitute an uniform Three -Tier Panchayati Raj
system for the whole of India. Though approved by the Lok Sabha,
this Bill couldn’t become an Act as it wasn’t passed in the Rajya
Sabha.
b) Then in September 1990, th e Union Government lead by Prime
Minister V.P. Singh introduced the 72nd Constitution Amendment
Bill on PRIs. This Bill included the provision to constitute Gram
Sabha in each village, direct elections to all seats in Panchayats at the munotes.in

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13 Introduction village level as wel l as to not less than 50% of seats in Panchayats at
other two higher levels. It proposed to confer financial powers and
authority on these local bodies like the power to levy, appropriate
taxes, duties, tolls and fees. Significantly, it proposed to constit ute a
Finance Commission to review the financial position of PRIs, fixing
five years tenure for PRIs and to hold elections within a period of six
months in the event of PRIs’ dissolution. However, this Bill could not
be taken up for consideration by the Pa rliament and lapsed with the
dissolution of the 9th Lok Sabha in 1991.
c) Later, in September 1991, the Union Government headed by Prime
Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao again introduced this Constitution
Amendment Bill, with some modifications, to constitute PRIs. And
fortunately, this time with Mr. Rao at the helm, the Panchayati Raj
Bill was to see the light of the day as an Act.
d) Ramnivas Mirdha lead Joint -Parliamentary Committee submitted its
Report on the proposed Bill on PRIs to the Parliament. Both Houses
of Parliament conducted extensive debates on it and brought in crucial
amendments. With Lok Sabha on 23rd December and Rajya Sabha on
24th December 1992, Parliament almost unanimously passed the
Constitution 72nd Amendment Bill.
e) Afterwards, 17 State Leg islatures ratified this Act by 23 April 1994,
with the Kerala Assembly as the first to ratify it and West Bengal and
Tamil Nadu Assemblies not giving their consent. “Though PRIs have been in existence for a long time, it’s observed that these institutions haven’t been able to acquire
the status & dignity of viable and responsive people's
bodies due to reasons.... absence of regular elections,
prolonged super -session, insufficient representation of
weaker sections like SCs, STs and women, inadequate
devolution of powers & lack of financial resources..Art 40
of DPSP lays down that the State shall take steps to
organise village panchayats & endow them with such
powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to
function as units of self -govt....In light of experience in last
40years and in view of short -comings..., it’s considered that
there ’s an imperative need to enshrine in the Constitution
certain basic & essential features of PRIs to impart
certainty, continuity & strength to them”

** Quote from the STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND
REASONS appended to the Constitution(72nd
Amendment) Bill, 1991 which was enacted as the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 munotes.in

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14 Rural Governance in India
14 f) On 20th April 1993, the President of India gave his assent to this Bill
passed by the P arliament. With this, the 73rd Constitutional
Amendment Act of 1992 (introduced in Parliament as the 72nd
Amendment Bill in September 1991) came into force from 24th April
1993.
g) Along with it, the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act was passed by
the Par liament to create similar three -tier local bodies or councils in
the urban or municipal areas. On 1st June 1993, this Amendment Act
to establish urban local self -governments was enforced.
h) This Act also provided for a District Planning Committee with
responsibility to consolidate the plans prepared by Panchayats and
Municipalities (Article 243 ZD).
i) This Act inserted Article 243 to Part IX of India’s Constitution and
gave Constitutional s tatus to the Panchayati Raj Institutions. As per
Article 243 M, all state governments became duty bound to amend or
enact their respective State Panchayat Acts in conformity with the
Constitutional provisions.
The 73rd Constitution Amendment Act, 1992:
Implications for PRIs in India The 73rdConstitutional Amendment Act,
1992 provided constitutional status to PRIs as institutions of local self -
government for rural India. It guaranteed fixed tenure and perpetual
existence to PRIs by adding Part IX titled a s “The Panchayats” to India’s
Constitution covering provisions of Article 243 and Articles 243 A to O. It
added Schedule XI which enlisted 29 subjects as functions and powers of
PRIs. This Amendment turned the Constitutional goal mentioned in Article
40 of the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) into a reality. It says
“States shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with
such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function
as units of self -government”. In s ome way, we can say that Article 40 long
incubated the seeds of Panchayats and the PRIs’ baby was delivered through
the surgery of the 73rd Constitution Amendment Act. ‘Local government’
is a State Subject as per India’s Constitution. Earlier, state govern ments
enjoyed the freedom to make or not make or in whatever form they wanted
to make their own laws on this subject. Significantly, this Constitutional
Amendment brought generic uniformity to the organization of Panchayati
Raj Institutions across the coun try. With the Constitution being amended,
states had to change their laws on local bodies to bring them in conformity
with the 73rd Amendment Act.
With this PRI Act coming into effect on 24th April 1993, it became
incumbent upon the states either to enact a new state PRI law or conduct
full-scale amendment in the existing PRI law. The reason was to bring all
State PRI laws in conformity with the amended constitutional provisions,
within one year from the Act coming into force, i.,e., by 24th April 1994.
Government of India’s Ministry of Rural Development with technical help
from National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Hyderabad had
prepared a Model Bill. This Model Bill was circulated to the states as a basic munotes.in

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15 Introduction guideline or foundational framework to fo llow in preparing Stat PRI laws.
It was to accelerate the pace of action by state governments on this front. In
bringing the new state PRI law, Karnataka became the first state. Then
Gujarat, Bihar, Tripura, Sikkim, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh followed suit.
Tamil Nadu was the last state to enact its new state PRI law as per the
Constitutional mandate on 19th April 1994. The constitutional deadline was
23rd April 1994. All states and Union Territories passed the PRI law by this
date to conform to the constitu tional requirements.
This Amendment brought a significant change to the Constitution by
inserting a new part - Part IX - into the Constitution, which contained
provisions relating to PRIs. It gave constitutional recognition to PRIs and
their elected represe ntatives. Afterwards, Panchayats became, at least in
principle, Institutions of Self -Government in their own right. They no mere
remained as mere administrative extensions of the State or Union
Government. With it, the magnitude of democratic representatio n increased
manifold as about 3 million representatives get elected to Panchayats in
India.
Salient Features
The Salient features of the Seventy -Third Constitution Amendment Act are
given below:
The Amendment stipulates for certain compulsory provisions which are
obligatory on the part of the State Governments to incorporate in their
respective Acts. Some aspects have, however, been left at the discretion of
State legislatures .
A. Three -Tier Structure of PRIs: Panchayati Raj is organised as a
three -tier s ystem - Gram Panchayats at the village, Panchayat Samiti
at the intermediate level (block or taluk) and Zilla Parishad at district
level. Smaller states with populations below 20 lakhs given the option
not to have an intermediate level Panchayat. Constitut ion in Part IX
lays down a broad outline for 3 -Tier PRIs in rural areas. It creates a
baseline upon which States would enact their own PRI laws taking
into account the variations in their population, social structures,
economies and political frameworks. W hile the detailed provisions or
features relating to PRIs in different states were not uniform earlier,
this Act ensured a great level of uniformity among them. While
Article 243B says - “There shall be constituted in every State,
Panchayats at the Village, intermediate and district levels”, State
legislatures finally decide how these are defined, though Art 243 Q of
the Constitution provides guidelines for this.
B. Gram Sabha refers to all voters or persons registered in the electoral
roll of a village with in the area of a Panchayat. Gram Sabha is the
only permanent body or perpetualentityin the Panchayati Raj system.
It does not have a fixed tenure; no such time -frame or period for it to
be dissolved. For the Panchayati Raj system, the Gram Sabha is the
foundation. But it’s not among the three tiers of the PRI system. It’s
visualised as the soul within the framework of Panchayat Raj System. munotes.in

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16 Rural Governance in India
16 State legislatures are free to assign or allocate powers and functions
to the Gram Sabha by law, however, its creation is mandatory (Article
243A). People's widespread participation in the Gram Sabha meetings
boosts the efficiency of Panchayats. It helps in identifying and
consolidating the needs and requirements of beneficiaries at
individual and community level. It also prioritizes the tasks for the
Panchayat on the basis of people’s needs. It’s obligatory on the part
of Gram Panchayats to consider all suggestions and ideas for planning
and expenditure coming from the Gram Sabhas. After filtering and
selecting, the Gram P anchayat sends such proposals to the Panchayat
Samitis or Block Panchayats for budgetary approval and allocation.
C. Direct Election of Members from Territorial Constituencies:
Article 243 C (1) lays down the provisions for the composition or
organization of Panchayats. Its members are to be chosen by direct
election from territorial constituencies. All members of the three -tiers
of the Panchayat Raj system are chosen by Direct Election. Moreover,
the principle that guides these elections is that “the ratio of the
territorial area of the local body to the number of seats it elects should
be, as far as possible, the same throughout the state”. Further, “the
state legislatures are empowered to make specific provisions for the
inclusion of other elected represe ntatives such as Members of
Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies as members in the
PRIs”. The minimum Qualifying Age for Election to any level of
Panchayat is 21 years.
D. Disqualification for Membership: Article 243F (1) enumerates the
provisions for disqualification of a person for being chosen as or
continuing as a member of a Panchayat: — “If he is so disqualified by
or under any law for the purposes of elections to the State
Legislature”. Of course, su ch disqualification excludes the age bar of
25 years as 21 years is the qualifying age for election to the PRIs. As
the 73rd Amendment allowed States to legislate detailed laws on PRIs
in conformity with the Union Law, states have enacted laws on the
quali fication of candidates seeking election or criteria for
disqualification from membership. The criteria or norms included
educational qualification, number of children and even having or not
having a toilet.
E. The Constitution provides for uniform five -year term for all levels
of Panchayats. It also lays down that elections to constitute new
Panchayati Raj bodies should be completed before the five year term
expires. In case, the PRI bodies are dissolved before their regular five
years’ term, the state gove rnment is duty bound to compulsorily
conduct elections to these PRIs within six months’ time. In such cases,
the reconstituted Panchayats will serve only for the remaining time
period of the five -year term. In this way, by providing a fixed and
reasonably guaranteed tenure, the Constitution has protected the PRIs
from any whimsical or illegal takeover of Panchayats by the state
government. Ensuring such durability has helped PRIs to function
more independently and efficiently. munotes.in

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17 Introduction F. Election of Chairpersons/Presidents Article 243 C (5) : Further, this
Act empowers state legislatures to make specific law or regulations
for the election of Chairpersons or Presidents of PRIs. Chairpersons
of panchayats of the intermediate and district level have to b e elected
by indirect method from among the elected members. But at the
village level, election of the Sarpanch or Chairperson of Gram
Panchayat can be conducted by either direct or indirect election as per
state’s own Panchayati Raj Act. However, the elec tion of Sarpanch of
the village Panchayat is usually by direct election in all states.
G. Reservation of Seats (for Membership &Office of Chairperson)
in PRIs:(Article 243 D): The Act lays down that seats shall be
reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Sche duled Tribes in proportion
to their population at each level of PRIs. Out of the Reserved Seats,
1/3rd has to be reserved for women belonging to the SC and ST
Community. It also mentions out of the total number of seats to be
filled by the direct elections , 1/3rdhas to be reserved for women.
Even, 1/3rd seats to be reserved for women out of the reserved seats
for SCs and STs. While reservation of SCs& STs is in proportion to
their share in population, that for women is at least 33.33%. However,
many States have increased the reservation of seats and chairperson
posts for women in Panchayats even up to 50%. The Act provides that
If a State finds it necessary, it can make provisions for for reservations
for candidates of the other backward classes (OBCs).
H. State Election Commission: As per the Act, states are duty bound to
establish an independent State Election Commission for conducting
elections to the Panchayats. The State Election Commission would
have powers to supervise, direct and control the elections to the PRIs.
Earlier, the State administration administrative agencies were
performing these tasks. Now, the office of State Election
Commissioner enjoys autonomy like the Election Commission of
India. ( Article 243 K).
I. Functions and Powers of PRIs (Ar ticle 243G) : Twenty -nine
Functions: Schedule XI added to the Constitution through 73rd
Amendment enumerates distribution of powers between the state
government and Panchayats. Twentynine subjects, which were in the
State List earlier, got listed with the Eleventh Schedule and devolved
/transferred to PRIs to prepare plans for economic development and
social justice at the local level. State legislatures were mandated to
enact laws to endow powers and authority to Panchayats to enable
them to function as lo cal self -government. The actual transfer of these
subjects depends upon the state legislation. Each state decides how
many of these 29 subjects would be transferred to the local bodies.
States are to devolve adequate power to Panchayats to prepare plans
for economic development and social justice. Eg - Agriculture,
poverty allievation programme, Minor forest produce, social forestry,
animal husbandry, drinking water, fuel and fodder, rural
electrification, libararies, public distribution system, markets and fairs
etc. munotes.in

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18 Rural Governance in India
18 J. Adequate Funds: The Act mandates that adequate funds shall be
allocated to the PRIs to carry out their functions as institutions of self -
government. Panchayats’ finance consists of the budgetary allocation
from State Governments, share of rev enue of certain taxes, collection
and retention of the revenue it raises, financial support for Central
Government programmes and grants, Union Finance Commission
grants (Article 243 H).
K. State Finance Commission: (Article 243 I) - Limitation of financia l
resources had been the principal cause for Panchayati Raj’s failure in
the past. To overcome this financial crunch, this Act authorizes the
Panchayats to levy and collect appropriate taxes, duties, tolls, and
fees. Besides, the PRIs are entitled to grant s-in- aid from the
Consolidated Fund of the State. Under this Act’s directive, State
Governments appoint State Finance Commission each five years to
review the financial position of Panchayats.
Areas Not Covered under Part IX (Non -Applicability of the 73rd CAA)
Part IX of the Constitution applies to most parts of our country. But, Article
243M (1) of the Constitution exempts the Scheduled Areas and tribal areas
enumerated in Clause (1) and (2) of Article 244 from the application of
provisions contained in Part IX . The areas mentioned below are exempted
from the operation of the Act due to some socio -cultural and administrative
considerations:
a. “Scheduled areas listed under the 5th Schedule in the states of Andhra
Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhy a Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan.
b. The Schedule areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
c. The hill areas of Darjeeling District of West Bengal for which
Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council exists”.
The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution deals with the administration of the
tribal areas in the four north -eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura
and Mizoram as per Article 244. The Fifth Schedule of Constitution deals
with the administration and control of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled
Tribes residing in areas other than States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and
Mizoram. In this regard, Article 243M (4) (b) “empowers the Parliament to
legislate and extend the provisions of Part IX to the Scheduled Areas and
Tribal Areas referred to in claus e (1), subject to such exceptions and
modifications as may be specified in such law”.
Provisions of Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996
Initially, the 73rd Amendment Act was not applicable to the Scheduled
Areas inhabited by Adivasis in some states of India. Later on, in conformity
with provisions of the 73rd Amendment Act, an Act titled as Provisions of
the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) or PESA Act,1996 was
passed by India’s Parliament in 1996. This Act extends the appli cation of munotes.in

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19 Introduction Part IX of the Constitution, with certain modifications and exceptions, to
the Fifth Schedule Areas notified under Article 244(1).
There are certain notable exceptions that PESA Act brought in for the
Scheduled Areas. The reservation of seats in all Panchayats of the
Scheduled Areas shall be in proportion to the population of the concerned
community in the concerned Panchayat as per Part IX of the Constitution.
But, the reservation for the Scheduled Tribes in these PRIs shall not be less
than one -half of the total number of seats. Further, all seats of Chairpersons
of Panchayats at all levels shall be reserved for the Scheduled Tribes. Again,
the State Government may nominate persons belonging to such Scheduled
Tribes who have no representation in the Panchayat at the intermediate or
district level. The PESA Act protects the rights of tribal communities to
manage their resources in ways acceptable to their longstanding customary
practices. With this purpose, the Gram Sabha is vested with more power s
compared to their counter parts in non -PESA areas. In their functioning, the
elected PRIs have to get the Gram Sabha’s consent in many respects. The
idea behind this Act is that local traditions of self -government should be
protected while introducing mo dern elected bodies.
Check Your Progress Exercise 2
Note: i) Use the space given below for your answer.
1) Write a detailed essay on 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
________________ ____________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
1.4 COMPARATIVE STUD Y OF MAHARASHTRA,
KERELA, WEST BENGAL AND MADHYA
PRADESH.
Panchayat, institution of rural local self -government, forms the last ti er of
multi order federalism in India. Panchayats derives its power from the sub
national government, i.e. the state government which has the responsibility
to nurture and develop panchayats. In this process, the Union Government
offers the needed support and handhold the States to fulfill their mandated
provisions in the spirit of cooperative federalism. This is discernible from
the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1993 embedded in the
Constitution as Part IX.
The Constitution of India has clearly dema rcated legislative areas between
the Union and the states. It is within the province of state list of the Schedule
VII, under Article 246, that local governments have to function. Despite
Constitutional status being accorded to panchayats, it is the state legislature
which empowers panchayats in any real sense. It is under the Conformity munotes.in

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20 Rural Governance in India
20 Acts of the states that panchayats are governed in the respective states and
in turn they govern public affairs in their jurisdictions. Under the
Constitution Amendment Act (CAA), the state legislature is supposed to
devolve responsibilities, powers and authorities to panchayats to enable
them to function as institutions of self – government. The legislature of a
State may authorise the panchayats to levy, collect and appropr iate certain
taxes, duties, tolls and fees, etc, and also assign to them the revenues of
certain state level taxes subject to such conditions as are imposed by the
State government. Further, grants –in–aid may also be provided to these
bodies.
In order to e xpand the scope and powers of panchayats at the local level,
the process of reforms have been initiated by various states which helped
strengthening of panchayats. While some states have taken measures
towards meeting the basic requirements of devolution a s specified in the
Constitution, other states have taken off to the next level in terms of
promoting good governance, efficient service delivery, decentralised
democracy, transparency, accountability and econnectivity. Following are
the comparative analysi s of rural governance of four states of India:
Maharashtra:
Rural governance in India is based on the Panchayati Raj system. It is a
three tier system, with the Zilla Parishad at the district level, Taluka
panchayat at the Taluka or sub -district level and Grampanchayat (Village
Council) at the lowest level. It is governed under the Maharashtra Zilla
Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Acts 1961 of Maharashtra State. That act
was amended with Act XXI to bring it in line with 73rd amendment to the
Indian constitu tion in 1994. Zilla Parishad (commonly known as ZP) is a
local government body at the district level in India. It looks after the
administration of the rural area of the district and its office is located at the
district headquarters. There are 34 Zilla Pa rishads in Maharashtra.
Panchayat samiti is a local government body at the Taluka (sub-district)(
level in India. It works for the villages that together are called a Block. The
Panchayat Samiti is the link between the Gram Panchayat and Zilla
Parishad. Th ere are 351 panchayat samitis or block panchayats in
Maharashtra. There are 28,813 gram panchayats in Maharashtra. On
administrative decentralization the best performer is Kerela, followed by
Maharashtra. Maharashtra has devolved control over some staff in some
sectors to the district panchayats —primary education, primary health. An
assessment report of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj on the devolution index
titled, “Where Local Democracy and Devolution in India Is Heading
Towards?” was prepared by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences
(Unnikrishnan 2015 –16). It evaluated the operational core of
decentralisation and the support system for devolution in 53 districts, 26
states and six union territories. The report suggested that through the
cumulative index of devolution, only a handful of states made substantive
progress in the operational core of decentralisation, as well as support
systems for devolution. They were mainly Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra,
Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. At a micro level, the inadequac ies in departmental
coordination are refl ected in poor reporting in Schedule V areas, specifi munotes.in

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21 Introduction cally in the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) (PESA) Act areas,
highlighting systemic flaws. However, a few states have initiated some
positive actions to strengthen PESA institutions in tribal areas. If one is to
compare the progress of PESA across states, Maharashtra is seen to be
faring better than other states. Maharashtra has modifi ed a number of
enactments and incorporated PESA provisions to empowe r gram sabhas
from Scheduled Areas. For example, under the PESA provisions for
Maharashtra, the Scheduled Area gram sabhas are empowered to accord
consent for land acquisition and grant moneylenders licences in their
respective areas. The fishing rights fo r local waterbodies and minor forest
produce collection rights are also endowed on the forest community. In
2015, Maharashtra took an ambitious step to devolve 5% of the Tribal Sub -
Plan (TSP) funds to gram panchayats in the PESA districts. The idea behind
this fund devolution under the TSP is to allow communities to have access
to untied funds, which could be used for their own development. It is in this
context that this article is being attempted. This article seeks to explore the
response of communities to this control over funds that has been guaranteed
to them through the special provisions of the state PESA Act.
M aharashtra is known to have initiated a unique model of TSP whereby in
1992, the Sukhatankar Committee suggested the allocation of TSP( Trib al
Sub- Plan) budgets as per the proportion of ST population in the state, with
the confi dence that this proportionate allocation of the state annual budget
will support the development and welfare of the STs. Unfortunately, despite
such foresightedness, development indicators suggest that tribal people are
faring worse than other social groups (MoWCD 2013; IIPS 2017). There
are a number of administrative and political factors that have challenged the
TSP to deliver the desired results. The Kelkar Committe e report (2013)
recommended several changes in approach to achieve optimal results for
development and amongst all its recommendations, it drives the basic point
of recognition of the rights of people who live at the remotest point of
existence, that is, t he gram sabha of the primary habitat (which includes
hamlets, pada, wadi, tola, pod, mohalla, tanda, etc)3 (Kelkar 2013). Besides
this recognition, the report also recommends the demarcation and allocation
of TSP funds to the “neediest and deserving person s.”
Maharashtra is also home to few model villages that have shown excellency
in terms of social leadership, community engagement, sustainability etc.
Padmashree awardee Anna Hazare was one of the pioneers attaining Gram
Swaraj for his village Ralegan Sidd hi. He motivated the villagers to
conserve water through watershed development and rain water harvesting.
With the availability of water, agriculture flourished and so did other allied
activities like dairy business. This increased the per capita income of the
village and became inspiration to the other villages with similar problems
to take up development in their own hands which began with electing
visionary leaders like Padmashree awardee Popatrao Pawar and Santosh
Tikekar etc. They have now become self -sufficient, economically stable and
are even providing employment to other villages. Hiware Bazar, a village
in Maharashtra's drought -prone Ahmednagar district, was sliding into an
abyss after degrading its environment. But in less than a decade it turned
itself around into one of the most prosperous villages of the country. There munotes.in

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22 Rural Governance in India
22 was no magic wand, just common sense. It used funds from government
schemes, to regenerate its natural resources --forests, watershed and soil --
led by a strong village body. It had a role model in the district --Ralegan
Siddhi, the village Anna Hazare turned around. Now Hiware Bazar is in
turn an exemplar for the whole of Ahmednagar district, where others have
used the same scheme to conserve and prosper.
Today, a fourth of the village's 216 families are millionaires. Hiware
Bazar's sarpanch , Popat Rao Pawar, says just over 50 families have an
annual income over Rs 10 lakh. The per capita income of the village is twice
the average of the top 10 per cent in rural areas nationwide (Rs 890 per
month). In the past 15 years, average income has risen 20 times. Hiware
Bazar has scripted this miracle by using egs funds to regenerate the village's
land and water resources, by creating productive assets like water
conservation structures an d forests. In 1994, the Maharashtra government
brought Hiware Bazar under the Adarsh Gaon Yojana (agy). agy was based
on five principles a ban on liquor, cutting trees and free grazing; and family
planning and contributing village labour for development wo rk. The first
work it took up was planting trees on forestland; people were persuaded to
stop grazing there. To implement this, the village made another five -year
plan. An integrated model of development with water conservation as its
core was adopted. An ngo, the Yashwant Agriculture, Village, and
Watershed Development Trust, was created as the implementing agency for
development. Hiware Bazar's strong, participatory institutional set -up has
facilitated success. The gram sabha has the power to decide on a range of
issues, including identifying sites for water harvesting structures, sharing
water and types of crops to be cultivated. The village voluntary body is its
implementing arm. Despite all the bright achievements mentioned above,
Maharashtra one of th e highest GDP contributing state lags behind in terms
of a more robust rural governance model.
Kerela
The State of Kerala in the southern part of India has certain distinguishing
features in terms of socio -economic and political characteristics compared
to the other States in the country. The process of development witnessed in
the State is by now well known as the Kerala Model of Development. The
State has been able to attain high levels of social sector development - in
literacy, health care etc - even a t a relatively low level of per capita income.
Consequently, the quality of life indices - based on life expectancy,
educational attainment etc - for the State have been high, mostly on par with
the middle -income countries. But the other side of the story has been the
poor performance of the State in the real, productive sectors of the economy:
low productivity levels coupled with stagnation in the agricultural and
industrial sectors, high levels of unemployment etc in the State testify to
this. The need to reorient the developmental process, in this context in the
State today is perhaps well recognised. It may be noted that the social sector
development in the State has a long historical basis to it: a complex set of
social, political, economic and cultural factors - working cumulatively as
well as in parallel - underlie this development in the State. By articulating
the demands for education and health care, and organising large sections of munotes.in

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23 Introduction the population around demands for such services, these movements pl ayed
a central role in generating a demand from below, as it were, for these
services, and the provision of these services by the State has, more often
than not, been in response to such demands from below.
It is interesting to note that while the left mov ement in the State, thus has
played a major role in its social sector development, its attempts at
instituting a process of decentralisation of planning and governance in the
State, in the post -independence period in particular, have not met with much
success, at least till recently. There were repeated efforts, largely initiated
by the left -led governments in the State, to introduce legislative measures
for political and administrative decentralisation at various times. Political
fragmentation and instabil ity were perhaps partly responsible for this.
Unlike in the case of other progressive moves spear -headed by the left
movement - like say, land reforms, social sector advances or the public
distribution system in the State - the moves towards decentralisati on did not
become a mass movement, and hence in the absence of popular pressure
from below, could not be sustained.
The decentralisation in the State is the People's Campaign for Decentralised
Planning, or People's Planning in short, was initiated in August, 1996 by the
Left Democratic Front(LDF) government which assumed power in May
1996. This campaign perhaps can be s een as part of a longer term
democratic intervention to institute and sustain the process of
decentralisation in Kerala. Its immediate genesis perhaps can be traced to a
short lived attempt, in the late eighties and early nineties, to bring in
decentralisa tion by a coalition of left parties which came to power in 1987.
To operationalise decentralisation, Kerala chose the path of participatory
local level planning as the entry point. This succeeded to a considerable
extent in harnessing public action in favo ur of decentralisation. The
hallmark of Kerala’s administrative decentralization is the transfer of public
service delivery institutions to Local Governments. Sanitation including
solid and liquid waste management is now totally under Local
Governments. Ru ral Water supply is substantially under the PRIs with the
Kerala Water Authority concentrating on larger schemes.
In respect of poverty alleviation Local Governments play the predominant
role especially in partnership with Kudumbashree which is a unique po verty
alleviation Mission. Under this Mission every family below poverty line
along with a few families just above the poverty line is organized into
Neighbourhood Group (NHG) at the local level with each family being
represented by a woman. NHGs in a Vill age
Panchayat/Municipal/Corporation Ward are networked into Area
Development Societies (ADSs) and all ADSs within the jurisdiction of a
Village Panchayat / Municipality / Corporation are federated into a
registered society called Community Development Soci ety (CDS). The
CDS system works in partnership with the Local Government system
focussing poverty reduction. All centrally sponsored anti -poverty
programmes are planned and implemented by Local Governments.
Planning by the people is perhaps the best known feature of Kerala’s
decentralization. It follows a definite methodology which has been munotes.in

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24 Rural Governance in India
24 continuously refined for the last 12 years. The robustness of the
methodology of participatory planning developed by Kerala is testified by
the fact that the methodology recommended by the Expert Group on
Planning at the Grassroots Level – under Shri V. Ramachandran set up by
the Ministry of Panchayati Raj has recommended a similar methodology.
Fiscal Decentralization initiatives in Kerala constitutes a best practice with
the State following the classical principles of devolving funds to Local
Governments.
Kerala was the first State in the country to set up a statutory Rural
Development Board to raise funds from the market through debentures and
channel them to Village Pan chayats for commercially viable projects. The
Rural Development Board Act was brought into force in 1971. (Incidentally
Kerala was the first State in the country to set up an Urban Development
Finance Corporation to raise funds from the market and financia l
institutions for development purposes in Municipal areas on 24th January,
1970). An important and interesting feature of Kerala’s decentralization has
been the capacity and willingness of the State Government to fully
understand the shortcomings, accept deficiencies and go in for basic
reforms. At this point institutionalization is the most pressing challenge.
West Bengal
In the Indian context West Bengal assumes a special status in respect of
decentralization and local level self government. Among the In dian states
West Bengal is unique in being first to give a new facelift to the three tier
Panchayat Raj system of local government. It also initiated the integration
with the functioning of other departments of the government. After the
initial euphoria of the introduction of the new system of local level
government the question that naturally comes up is how far it has succeeded
from a mere movement to become an integral part of governance in the life
and society of rural West Bengal.
In simple terms what have been extent and achievements of the process of
decentralization and its impact on the delivery of public goods to the people.
The latter is designated to be the ultimate objective of the decentralization
process. The existing literature provides some robust evidence on the effects
of decentralisation on the delivery of public goods and the impact on the
issues relating to governance. But there are not enough empirical studies
that can well establish these issues in unequivocal terms. Bardhan and
Mookh erjee (2003), (2006a) and (2006b), Bardhan et al (2008), Chatterjee
and Ghosh (2003), Ghosh and Ghosh (2003) are some of the studies are a
few in the list of studies undertaken on these issues. Bardhan and
Mookherjee (2003), (2006a) and (2006b) establish t hat functioning of local
level government has been instrumental in the provision of public goods in
West Bengal. Bardhgan et al (2008) found no evidence of political capture
by the rural elites. Bhattacharyya (2006) discussed the role of informal
arrangeme nts rather than well laid out government rules in running local
level government. While some of these studies employ sophisticated
empirical methodologies, they often suffer from inadequate coverage in
terms of spatial variation. munotes.in

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25 Introduction Reviving the Panchayat system in the country was one of the mandates in
the Constitution as the Article 40, under the Directive Principles of the State
policy mentions “the State shall take steps to organise village panchayats
and endow them with such powe rs and authority as may be necessary to
enable them to function as units of self -government”. There was no
initiative to form Panchayats by any State after independence. Importance
was, however, given on community developments after independence,
which was launched on 2nd October, 1952 and Community Development
Blocks were established (which are the precursor of the Block Development
Offices). To assess the effectiveness of the Community Development
programme a committee was appointed under the chairmanship of Mr
Balawant Rai Mehta in the year 1957. The Committee recommended in its
report that without involvement of the local people the programme will not
be successful. On the recommendation of the Committee Panchayats were
to be constituted in different sta tes through appropriate Act of the State
Legislature, since local governance was a state subject.
After publication of the reports Panchayat Acts were passed in different
states. The West Bengal Panchayat Act of 1957 was passed for establishing
Panchayats in the state. The Act recommended constitution of four tier
bodies by splitting the earlier Union Board in to Gram Panchayat and
Anchal Parisad. In 1963 West Bengal Zilla Parisad Act was passed to
replace the District Board by Zilla Parishad and provided for constitution of
Anchal Parishad at the block level. However, the system never took root
because of lack of political will resulting in little assignment of
responsibilities and flow of fund to those bodies as well as political unrest
during the period. Ultimately, all the representatives of 15 Zilla Parishads
and 315 Anchal Parisads were removed in the year 1969 and Administrators
were engaged. All those local bodies remained under the Administrators till
election was held in the year 1978. The legal fr amework for the second
generation of Panchayats was established through passing of the West
Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973. The Act provided for establishment of three
tier Panchayats. Thus, Gram Panchayat (GP) was to be constituted for a
cluster of villages; Panchayat Samiti (PS) was to be constituted at Block
level and Zilla Parishad (ZP) was to be constituted at the District level.
Functioning of any form of government requires legal authority and
institutional framework to exercise the authority and to disc harge its
responsibilities. The West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973, as amended from
time to time, provides the basic legal framework for functioning of the
Panchayat system of the state. The West Bengal Panchayat Election Act,
2003 provides the legal framewor k for election to Panchayat bodies. The
procedural details of the Acts are provided in the Rules and Executive
Orders. Conducting election to the Panchayat (& Municipalities) is the
responsibility of the State Election Commission. The Commission is a
statu tory organization and it functions independently. However, the
Commission utilizes the services of the DM, SDO and the BDO and
officials associated with them for all election related activities.
The District Council for Panchayats has been introduced by th e West
Bengal Panchayat (Amendment Act), 1994 and its basic role is of a
watchdog and a monitor. Chairperson or Adhyaksha of District Council is
the leader of the recognized political party in opposition having largest munotes.in

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26 Rural Governance in India
26 number of members in Zilla Parishad. All members of the Zilla Parishad
including exofficio members elect Chairperson and other five members.
The Additional Executive Officer of the Zilla Parishad acts as Member -
Secretary to the Council. Thus, the District Council enjoys the unique
position of overseeing all the financial transactions, maintenance of
accounts, and inspection reports for all the tiers of the Panchayati Raj
Institutions and has the capability of identifying the lacunae, weakness,
loopholes and deficiencies in the system as well a s suggesting ways for their
removal and improvement. The District Council will prepare a report in the
prescribed form and submit to the Sabhadhipati, who will place it in the next
meeting of the Finance Standing Committee for discussion. The Report
along with decision of the Finance Standing Committee shall be forwarded
to the concerned Panchayat for discussion in its General body meeting and
taking corrective measures. The Panchayat concerned shall send report to
the Zilla Parishad and the District Counci l on the actions taken by them.
The West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973 was amended in the year 2003 to
make provision for constitution of Zilla Sansad and Block Sansad, in line
with the Gram Sansad, as forums for wider participation of elected
representatives of other tiers and making the Z P and the PS accountable
towards them. Every Panchayat Samiti shall have a Block Sansad consisting
of all members of Gram Panchayats pertaining to the Block and all members
of that Panchayat Samiti. Similarly every Zilla Parishad shall have a Zilla
Sansad consisting of Prodhans of all Gram Panchayats, Sabhapatis,
Sahakari Sabhapatis and Karmadhyakshas of all Panchayat Samitis and all
members of Zilla Parishad. Such Sansad will hold a half -yearly and an
annual meeting every year. All information related to f unctioning of the
Panchayat, including details of accounts in Form 27; own source revenue
earned; observations of the audit and its compliance; comments of the
District Council, if any, and its compliance; list of individual beneficiaries,
number of posts lying vacant and action taken on the decisions of the
previous meetings are to be discussed in the meeting. In order to ensure
proper participation of the members, all such information is to be passed on
to the members well ahead of the meeting. The Sansad will guide and advise
the PS/ZP for all matters relating to development including preparation of
annual plan and budget, implementation of development programs, schemes
or projects and for under taking such activities for economic development
and ensuring social justice as are undertaken by the Panchayat body
concerned.
While programmes are monitored and progress is assessed through
utilization of fund, measuring physical progress as well through various
evaluations it is difficult to monitor the instituti onal processes of the
Panchayats. An innovative system of self assessment of the Panchayats for
watching their institutional processes and services delivered have been
introduced in West Bengal. A questionnaire has been developed to capture
the extent and quality of services being provided by the Panchayats, the
objectively verifiable institutional practices in place and the status of
financial management including mobilization of own resources for that
purpose. The questionnaires are different for differen t tiers. The
institutional aspects of functioning of the Panchayats include transparency,
accountability, vertical and lateral decentralization, financial discipline,
promptness in decision making and also implementation of such decision, munotes.in

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27 Introduction proper functionin g of the Standing Committees / Sub -Committees,
involvement of the members in opposition in the decision making process,
increased participation of people in the development process as partner,
greater mobilization of resources and effective utilization of all available
fund and other resources. Ability to discharge specific responsibilities by
the respective tier of Panchayat for delivering various services is also
captured to the extent possible. The officials and the elected functionaries
jointly take up the self -assessment exercise by filling the questionnaire
based on actual status. Each question, indicating certain aspect of
performance or process, has a score and the total score indicates the overall
functioning of the Panchayat.
The best performing P anchayats in each tier is given financial award for
encouraging them to function better and the exercise also helps to identify
the strength and weakness in functioning of the particular Panchayat making
it possible to take appropriate corrective measure. The result of the Self
Assessment report is a very important document for the supervising
authorities to know the actual status of functioning of the Panchayats and
helps to take up measures for building up institutional capacities for due
improvement. Sha ring the same with all Panchayats and exposure visits to
the best performing Panchayats helps to motivate the Panchayat
functionaries to improve their functioning.
Development of human resources is one important thrust area in developing
countries like Ind ia, which are lagging in human development. People living
in rural area generally lag behind their urban counterpart, which is to be
bridged as fast as possible. Also, human development concerns every
individual and, therefore, requires participation of th e entire population,
particularly those belonging to the weaker sections and living in remote
areas in the programmes. Panchayats can play a very important role in
reaching out to the entire population and to mobilize them. Keeping that in
mind the Panchay ats have been given important role in facilitation of
delivery of services related to human development as well as directly
delivering some of the services in West Bengal.
Andhra Pradesh
In conformity with the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, the Andhra
Pradesh Panchayat Raj (APPR) Act was enacted in 1994 repealing all
existing Acts, to establish a three tier system at the Gram Panchayat, Mandal
Parishad and Zilla Parishad level. The Government may by notification and
in accordance with the rules in this behalf declare any revenue Village or
Hamlet thereof or any part of a Mandal to be a Village for the purpose of
the APPR Act, 1994 and specify the name of the Village. For every village
the State Government shall constitute a Gram Panchayat. Every village shall
have a Gram Saba (GS) consisting of persons registered in the electoral rolls
pertaining to the area of the village.
Mandal Parishad - A district may be divided into Mandals comprising of
such contiguous villages as may be specified in the notificati on by the State
Government, and for every Mandal there is a Mandal Parishad which is
divided into many territorial constituencies having a population between
three and four thousand. One member shall be elected to the Mandal munotes.in

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28 Rural Governance in India
28 Parishad from each territorial constituency. The ZP consists of one elected
member from each Mandal besides Member of Legislative Assembly
(MLA) of the State representing the constituency, Member of House of
People (MP) representing a constituency, Member of the Council of State
(MLC), who is a registered voter in the district concerned and two co -opted
members belonging to minorities. Each ZP has seven Standing Committees
(Planning and Finance, Rural Development, Agriculture, Education and
Medical Services, Women Welfare, Social Welfare and Works) and the
Chairperson is the Ex -officio member of all standing committees. The
District Collector, who is a permanent invitee, shall be entitled to participate
in all the standing committee meetings without right to vote.
The State and Central Go vernment funded the PRIs through Grants -in-aid
for general administration and development activities. The Gram
Panchayats generate tax revenue from property and water taxes and non tax
revenue from various fees such as tap connection fee, rent from propert ies,
etc. The Mandal Parishad and Zilla Parishad do not generate any tax revenue
and depend mainly on Grants -in-aid. The funds are utilized by the PRIs for
providing civic amenities and welfare measures. Though the accounts are
prepared by the PRIs individ ually, there is no system in place to consolidate
the revenue and expenditure figures under various heads of accounts of all
the PRIs, due to which effective monitoring of the finances was not possible
and an overall picture of finances of PRIs could not e merge. With the
available information and figures furnished by the Director of State Audit,
the following financial analysis has been made.
Check Your Progress Exercise 3
Note: i) Use the space given below for your answer.
1) Comparatively analyze the rural governance of Maharashtra,
Kerela, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh .
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
1.6 LET US SUM UP ( SUMMARY/ CONCLUSION)
In this module we discussed the Rural governance in India, discussing right
from evolution to comparing the panchayat systems of few states. From
mid-twentieth century to the second decade of the twenty -first century,
Indian village society has travelled a long distance. Rural economy has bee n
transformed to ensure upward mobility for certain sections, yet it has also
brought in severe agrarian crisis. Panchayat is the most ancient institution
at the village level in our country. Panchayats have been functioning as
primary institutions of demo cracy at the grassroots level. The 73rd
amendment gave them constitutional status. The task of rural development munotes.in

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29 Introduction now rests on panchayati raj institutions. The involvement of hitherto
underprivileged sections, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, backward
classes and women in the participatory process will further strengthen the
grassroots institutions. Although the panchayat raj system in the entire
country is not the same but, by and large, Structure of Government most of
the States have the three -tier stru cture: zilla parishad at the district level,
panchayat samiti at the intermediate or block level and gram panchayat at
the bottom or village level. Active participation and vigilance on the part of
the rural public is a must for the sustenance of democrati c decentralisation.
1.7 REFERENCES
• Gandhi, M.K. (1969). Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 34.
New Delhi: Government of India.
• Gandhi, M.K. (1970). Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi. Vol. 41.
New Delhi: Government of India.
• Sen, A. (2000). Social exclusion: Concept, application, scrutiny.
Manila: Asian Development Bank.
• Hiskey, Jonathan T., The Promise of Decentralised Governance,
Making Democracy Work: Democracy, Development and Security
(Ed) Connerley, Eaton and Smoke, 2010, p 33 3 World Bank, 20 00,
in Craig Johnson, 2003, “Decentralisation in India: Poverty, Politics
and Panchayati Raj”, Working Paper 199, ODI, UK. p. 19.
• Oommen , 1999; Craig 2003, p. 20 5 Bardhan, Pranab, 2002,
“Decentralisation of Governance and Development”, Journal of
Econom ic Perspectives, p 187
• Smoke, Paul, “Implementing decentralisation: Meeting neglected
challenges”, Making Democracy Work, p 202.
• Singh, U. B. (2009). Decentralized Democratic Governance in New
Millennium. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. Op.cit.
Sharma, S. (1997).
• Chhabra, G. (2005). Advance Study in the History of Modern India.
New Delhi: Lotus Publisher.
• Baluchamy, S. (2004). Panchayati Raj Institutions. New Delhi: Mittal
Publications.
• Banerjee, R. (2013). What Ails Panchayati Raj? Economic & Polit ical
Weekly, July.
• Arora, R. K., & Goyal, R. (2005). Indian Public Administration:
Institutions and Issues. New Delhi: New Age International Private
Limited.
• Misra, S., & Dhaka, R. S. (2004). Grassroots Democracy in Action:
A Study of Working of PRIs in H aryana. New Delhi: Concept
Publishing Company.
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30 Rural Governance in India
30 2
PRIS: CENTRAL PROCESSING UNITS OF
DEMOCRACY
Unit Structure
2.1 Objectives
2.2 Introduction
2.3 Government Initiatives to empower Local: Reservation and Social
Audit
2.4 Fiscal Decentralisation
2.5 Decentralised Planning
2.6 Summary and Conclusion
2.7 References
2.1 OBJECTIVES
The unit aims to familiarise you with the concept of Panchayati Raj
Institutions as a central processing unit of democracy. After studying this
unit, you should be able to –
• Know about the Panchayati Raj Institutions in India.
• Understand Government Initi atives to empower Panchayati Raj
Institutions such as the provision of Reservation and Social Audit
systems.
• Explicate Fiscal Decentralisation in Panchayati Raj Institutions.
• Explain the Decentralised Planning in Panchayati Raj Institutions.
2.2 INTRODU CTION
Panchayati Raj Institutions are also known as Rural Local Self -Governing
Institutions in India. Panchayati Raj institutions have been
constitutionalized with the passage of the 73rd constitutional amendment
act of 1992. The major aim of introducing this th ird tier of government was
the decentralization of the governing process. It is basically entrusted to
build democracy at the grass -root level. This democratic decentralization
is essential wherein people can directly participate in the process of
governa nce. It has given voice to the people which in a way enabled a better
decision -making process at the local level. It has helped to reduce the gap
between the decision -making process of governance on one hand and
citizens on the other. The 73rd constitution al amendment act established
three levels at the local level – Gram Panchayat at the village level,
Panchayat Samiti at the intermediate level, and Zilla Parishad at the District
Level. Such a system of local governance ensures decentralization and
promote s democratic representation. munotes.in

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31 Pris: Central Processing Units of Democracy “When Panchayat Raj is established, Public Opinion will do what violence
can never do” – Mahatma Gandhi .
Mahatma Gandhi was also in favor of the establishment of the Panchayati
Raj Institutions in India. He was of the opinion that the beginning of
independence should start from the bottom level. The focus should be on
creating self -sustaining villages. He meant that achieving Swaraj means
creating a self -sustaining rural economy. Villages should be capable of
managing their ow n affairs. They will act as “Republics”. Then only we can
realize the true value of democracy (Gandhi, 1947). Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
had exactly opposite views on the Panchayati Raj system. Increasing the
dominance of the Dominant Caste is one of the reasons why Dr. Ambedkar
was against the establishment of the Panchayati Raj Institutions in India. He
opined that the villages are the source of oppression of weaker sections of
society. Creating the panchayats would mean continuing India’s dominant
caste’s hegem ony. If we want to establish panchayats then it should be
representative of all the sections of the society therefore, he fought
rigorously in the constituent assembly to provide reservations to the weaker
sections of the society (Sarabu, 2019).
The World Bank published a report “Governance and Development”, in
which they had come up with 8 principles of good governance . Among
them “Consensus Oriented” and “Participation” are two basic
characteristics of Good governance (Bank, 1992). The establishment of
Panchayati Raj Institutions helps ensure good governance as it caters to both
the Participation and Welfare of the people in general. Also, India is a multi -
religious, multi -ethnic, multilingual, and multicultural country. This
diversity is ultimately refl ected in the demands made by various
communities whose socio -ethnic practices differ. Here, Institutions of local
self-governance can play a major role to cater to the aspirations of people
at large at the local level.
Fiscal decentralization constitutes a n important aspect of democratic
decentralization. It ensures the devolution of financial powers between the
central state and local levels of government. It basically promotes the proper
distribution of resources at the local level as well as efficient me ans of
implementing programs and policies by the local government. For the
effective functioning of Panchayati raj institutions, they should be given
financial autonomy. It is important for achieving the greater goal of good
governance.
These rural local self-governing institutions should be representative of all
the sections of society to cater to their varied needs and demands. To ensure
this representative nature of local self -governing institutions, a special
provision of reservation to marginalized se ctions of the society has been
added by the constitution of India in 1992. With this provision of
reservation, we have achieved a quantitative representation of marginalized
sections such as SCs, STs, and Women at the local level of governance. But,
the re al challenge lies in the efficacy of their representation. Now, we need
to ensure the efficiency in the working of all the local representatives to
achieve the goals of representation and empowerment in a real sense. munotes.in

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32 Rural Governance in India
32 So, this module talks about democratic decentralization in form of the
Panchayati Raj Institutions. It also focuses on the measures needed to
strengthen these rural local self -governing institutions through the provision
of reservations to the weaker sections of the society, and social audits to
keep a check on financial matters, thereby reducing corruption in the
process of governance. Moreover, it also stresses on the decentralized
planning process in India along with fiscal decentralization and its overall
impact on the welfare of the people at large. Let’s try to understand all these
aspects in detail.
2.3 GOVERNMENT INITI ATIVES TO EMPOWER
LOCAL GOVERNMENT: RE SERVATION AND
SOCIAL AUDIT
Local Self -Governing Institutions are primarily meant for democratic
decentralization. Here, citizens have an opportunity to participate in the
process of governance directly. The concept of local self -governing
institutions is not new to India. Since ancient times we can see evidence of
the presence of local government. In the post -independence era, many steps
were taken in the form of establishing various committees such as the
Balwantrai Mehta Committee, Ashok Mehta Committee, C.H.
Hanumantrao Working Group, G.V.K Rao Committee, L.M Singhvi
Committee, etc. to give constitutional status to these local bodies i n India.
These committees have recommended democratic decentralization in India.
It has created a necessary buzz to provide constitutional status to the local
self-governing institutions in India. Finally, the 73rd Constitutional
amendment was passed in 19 92. Through this amendment, a three -tier
system of governance was established in rural areas (Nayak, 2016). This
amendment was historic in nature as it has taken several measures to
empower these local bodies. Let’s try to understand two of the most
import ant initiatives taken by the government:
Provision of Reservation:
India is known as a country with ‘Unity in Diversity . This diversity can be
seen in the demands made by various sections of society. If we wish to cater
to the demands of such a varied p opulation, the service -providing
institutions need the involvement of all the sections. Therefore, Local self -
governing institutions need to be representative of all sections of society.
Constitution makers took immense efforts to include weaker sections o f the
society in this process of democratic decentralization through the provision
of reservation to scheduled castes, and scheduled tribes in every panchayat
(i.e. at all three levels) as per article 243D of the Indian constitution. This
provision of the reservation is according to the proportion of their
population. The 73rd constitutional amendment act also provides for the
reservation of the office of chairpersons in the panchayats at the village or
any other level for the SCs and STs. Further not less than one -third of the
total number of offices for chairpersons at all levels of the panchayat to be
reserved for women. Social inequalities existed in Indian villages for
centuries. Therefore, Post -Independence constitution makers sought to munotes.in

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33 Pris: Central Processing Units of Democracy provide social justice for the development of all sections of society. The
reservation policy in the panchayat seats for the SCs, STs, and women has
proved to be an important step towards achieving the larger goals of
empowering weaker sections and ultimately increasing the efficiency in the
working of local self -governing institutions. It has helped them to establish
their identities. 100% participation of women in village panchayat was
found in Gangadevipally Village in the Warangal district of Andhra
Pradesh. A specia l characteristic that was observed there was the formation
of parallel committees by the women leaders which would act as watch
bodies to the Gram Panchayat in the village. So basically, this political
power has imbibed a sense of responsibility as well as the sense of
importance among these women leaders. Similarly, it has helped SCs and
STs to have a proper share of representation in the political sphere as per
their population. Because of this reservation policy, the representatives of
weaker sections of the society are able to assert the issues of their
community through a proper platform (Venkatesha, 2019).
But, despite providing reservations to weaker sections they are still not
empowered. One major indicator of the empowerment of weaker sections
in society is their share of representation in the political sphere of the
country. The important aspect to note here is that the reservation does not
guarantee effective participation and empowerment of weaker or
marginalized sections of society especially S Cs, STs, and women. Dalit
representation faces many challenges such as lack of education, enhanced
atrocities, and violence against Dalit representatives, especially in
Panchayati Raj Institutions (Thirupathi, May 2021). On the other hand,
women representa tives face even more challenges. Such as challenges put
forth by patriarchy, male dominance in the political sphere in general, and
lack of social status for women. The word “Sarpanch -Pati” is very
prominently used at the Panchayati level to denote such wo men
representatives who work in the political sphere according to the dictate of
their husbands. In all, their representation in the real sense is questionable
(Commission, 2019).
The 73rd constitutional amendment act was very revolutionary to provide
for the reservation of weaker sections of society. But, the intended benefits
of this scheme could not be achieved in a real sense. Therefore, effective
implementation of reservation policy, capacity building, and proper training
for the representatives at t he local level is the need of the hour.
Social Audit:
In simple terms, the social audit can be described as the process through
which information is gathered regarding the financial and non -financial
resources used for developmental initiatives by any public agency. The
audit can take place in various sectors such as health, water, companies,
organizations, financial institutions, and the like. It is basically an indicator
to measure the performance of the institution. Social Audit helps to narrow
the gap between the policy objectives and its outcome, i.e. the goal and the
reality. munotes.in

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34 Rural Governance in India
34 Apart from granting reservation to the marginalized section of society, the
73rd Constitutional Amendment Act also gave legal status to social audit.
With the passage of this amendment, gram sabha has been empowered to
conduct socia l audits, and thereafter the importance of social audits can be
seen on the rise. Wherever there is a use of funds, the chances of its misuse
and corrupt practices are not something new. Overall, it affects the
functioning of local governance. Therefore, i t is necessary to keep a check
on these malpractices. Keeping this in mind, a special structure was evolved
as a measure to check the financial matters of local self -governing
institutions. It was in the form of a social audit which serves as an
instrument to measure the social accountability of an organization. It
basically works as an anticorruption and a mechanism to enhance the
efficiency of an organization. In simple terms, we can say that Social Audit
is a way to measure, understand, report and ultim ately improve the social
and ethical performance of the administration.
Social Audit is based on the principle that citizens have the right to know
about the execution of government policies i.e. how the government
implements a particular policy and what impact it will have on the citizens.
After the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, Gram Sabha is empowered
to regularly conduct the social audit of all its policies. It shall make available
all the relevant documents including the muster roll, bills, vouche rs, and
other books of accounts to the panchayat for the purpose of conducting a
Social Audit. It checks whether the benefits of the scheme are reaching the
citizens or not. The basic aim of Social Audit is to maintain transparency in
the system and to mak e the authorities more accountable to the people in
general. It finds the gap in the administrative system and also suggests
measures to overcome the same. Thereby, it helps in developing the regime
of social transparency (D., December 2016 ). It ensures the enhancement
of local governance and adds value to the mechanism of good governance.
But, there are several limitations of social audit. Most importantly, there is
a lack of apathy among politicians and the administrative wing to
institutionalize this mechanism to deal with the issue of corruption.
Therefore, the existing social audit units get politically influenced. It is very
difficult to conduct social audits as there is a lack of trained auditors to
conduct social audits and the resistance faced by the social audit facilitators.
Also, the lack of action on such audit reports and findings is evident. There
is no structure that will act independently to review the findings of such
audit reports. People are not able to take part in the process due to l ess
knowledge and less awareness about it. To overcome such challenges first
and foremost, there is a need to establish an institutionalized framework to
make the social audit system work effectively and then the institutional
capacity of the local self -governing institutions must be increased.
To sum up, through the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act the
government has taken some important steps in the form of granting
reservations to marginalized sections of the society and conducting the
social audit of the schemes under gram panchayat. The purpose was to
ensure the efficient functioning of the local self -governing institutions and
empower them to perform more effectively for the welfare of the people. munotes.in

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35 Pris: Central Processing Units of Democracy Check Your Progress Exercise 1
Note: Use the space given below for your answer.
1) Describe the initiatives taken by the government to empower the
local self -governing institutions.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____ ________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2.4 FISCAL DECENTRA LISATION
Fiscal Decentralisation means the devolution of finances from the central
government to the local levels of government. The basic motive of fiscal
decentralization is to enable local governments to provide public services
according to the needs o f the people. Fiscal decentralization covers two
important aspects:
a) Division of Expenditure
b) The amount of discretion to be given to local self -governing
institutions in order to determine their expenditure and revenue.
According to the World Bank, Fiscal Decentralisation entrusts substantial
revenue and expenditure authority to local levels of government. Fiscal
decentralization means the allocation of resources from central to local
governments as well as the generation of resources by local governments.
In India, the provision of fiscal decentralization has been mandated by the
constitution. Before the 73rd constitutional amendment act, several
committees were constituted to recommend some measures of financial
autonomy of the local governments. For example, the financial inquiry
committee (1951), the Taxation inquiry committee (1954), and the like. All
these committees more or less recommended fiscal decentralization.
Constitutional measures were taken in this direction by considering these
recommendations.
Article 243A of the Indian constitution talks about democratic
decentralization. Article 280 (3) (bb) provides for the establishment of a
central finance commission to suggest measures needed to augment the
consolida ted fund of the state to supplement the resources of the panchayats
in the state. Article 243H of the Indian constitution empowers states – a)
To authorize a panchayat to levy, collect and appropriate such taxes, duties,
tolls, and fees; b) To assign to a panchayat, certain taxes, duties, tolls levied
and collected by the state government; c) To provide for making grants -in-
aid to the panchayats from the consolidated fund of the state; and d) To
provide for the constitution of such funds for panchayats and also the
withdrawal of such money therefrom; as may be specified by law. munotes.in

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36 Rural Governance in India
36 As per Article 243 -I of the Constitution, each state shall set up the State
Finance Commission (SFC) after every five years. The two major objectives
to set up such SFCs are - to review the financial position of the panchayats
and to make recommendations to the Governor as to I) The governing
methods through which the net proceeds of the taxes, duties, tolls and fees
levied by the state gets distributed between the state and local go vernment.
a)It shall get divided between the state and the local government under this
part and the allocation of the respective shares of such proceeds between all
the three levels of the b) The determination of the taxes, duties, tolls, and
fees which ma y be assigned to, or appropriated by the panchayats; c) The
grants -in-aid to the panchayats from the consolidated fund of the state I)
The measures needed to improve the financial position of the panchayats;
II) Any other matter referred to the finance com mission by the Governor in
the interests of sounds finance of the panchayats (Sen, 1996).
Sources of revenue – There are various sources of revenue for the local
government. Such as local taxation, user charges, intergovernmental
transfers, and capital fi nance. Let’s discuss some of the important sources
of revenue of Panchyati raj institutions: a) Revenue from the central
government, b) Revenue from the state government which includes
allocation as per the recommendation of the state finance commission an d
scheme -specific grants, c) Internal resources of revenue such as taxable
income and fees and non -taxable income from property resources, sales of
goods and services, etc. (Sen, 1996)
Recently, Niti Aayog has come up with the term ‘Competitive and Co-
operative Federalism’. This was basically to redefine the structure of
federalism in India. Co -operative federalism meant that the central
government and the state government will cooperate with each other to
implement various policies. Competitive fede ralism means the states will
have to compete among themselves as well as with the center in order to
attract funds and investment. Here, developed states get more preference
from investors. The Central government also devolves funds to the states.
This dev olution is primarily based on how much previously allotted funds
have been utilized by the states. This concept has given a new dimension to
the concept of fiscal decentralization in India (Aayog, 2017).
To sum up we can say that, fiscal decentralizatio n is very important to
achieve the objective of democratic decentralization in India. In order to
implement the policies and programs at the local level, they need to be given
proper financial autonomy and flexibility. This fiscal decentralization
would he lp attain the larger goal of good governance. But, in the Indian
context, such fiscal autonomy has not been effective in improving the
services provided by the local governments. The problem is twofold – the
first is with respect to design. It means that r ural local bodies simply
implement the schemes designed by central or state governments, they do
not take any decisions on policy design. The Second is concerning
implementation. The rural local bodies are not empowered to raise revenue
which ultimately af fects the implementation of policies and programs. Now,
there is a need to improve the revenue model of rural local self -governing
institutions to enhance their fiscal autonomy. Improving the revenue munotes.in

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37 Pris: Central Processing Units of Democracy structure would help reduce the gap between revenue and expenditure
decisions which eventually help promote efficiency in providing services to
people. Each state should come up with its decentralized planning system
as per the need of the region, state of land distribution, the capacity of local
bodies to impl ement the policies and programs, etc. (M. Govinda Rao, May
2011). A proper activity mapping can resolve these challenges and will help
ensure the smooth and effective functioning of these rural local self -
governing institutions.
Check Your Progress Exercise 2
Note: Use the space given below for your answer.
1) Explain the constitutional provisions of fiscal decentralization in
India.
____________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________ _____
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2.5 DECENTRALISED PL ANNING
In recent years, we can see the worldwide trend of decentralization. In
simple terms, it means the devolution of administrative, political, and Fiscal
responsibilities to the local levels of government. The prevailing centralized
system of administration c ould not function effectively. The service
provided under such a system was not satisfactory. Therefore, to overcome
such challenges put forth by the centralized system of governance, and to
deepen democratic principles, countries started adopting a decent ralized
system of governance. Policy -makers see the decentralized system as a one -
stop solution to many problems faced by society. They perceived it as an
efficient means of allocation of resources to reduce poverty, empower
marginalized sections of societ y, to achieve gender equality. All this will
eventually help improve governance and accelerate the economic growth of
the country. Decentralized planning also means perspective planning. It
basically bridges the gap between the people and administration an d thereby
brings governance closer to the people in general. The major goals to be
achieved under decentralized planning are the welfare of the people at large
and ensuring social justice for all in society.
In 1939, M. Visvesvaraya published a document t itled ‘District
Development Scheme: Economic Progress by Forced Marches’. It was the
first attempt to have micro -level planning in India with an aim of rural
economic development. A district economic council was set up in India to
achieve this goal. So, in a way, it was the first step towards decentralized
planning as far as India is concerned. After Independence, India opted for
centralized planning through a five -year planning system. Though the first
and second five -year plans argued for decentralized pl anning, they did not
create a proper framework for the same. The Third and Fourth Plans took
some initiative to prepare the district plan, but they could not integrate
properly within the state plan. Similarly, the fifth five -year plan advocated
block -level planning. During the same period, Ashok Mehta Committee munotes.in

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38 Rural Governance in India
38 was constituted which stressed on the district as a unit of development. The
importance of local -level planning was reiterated in the sixth five -year plan.
Recognition of micro -level planning was gi ven in this phase. During the
same period, a working group on district decentralised planning was set up.
It provided proper guidelines for the preparation of district plans. After that,
the seventh five -year plan stressed the need for district planning as per the
guidelines of the working group. The Eighth and ninth five -year plans also
sought decentralized planning in India. The District Development Plans
were to be prepared with the help of the District Planning Committee.
Article 243ZD has a provision f or the establishment of a district planning
commission. We can see that decentralized planning was discussed and
debated over a period of time. But, could not get much success due to many
practical reasons.
It is evident that the Central government used t o direct the terms of policies
to local levels of government. It was a top -down approach to governance.
This centralized system has too many drawbacks. For example, it cannot
make sectoral level planning which is needed to cater to the diversity at the
local level, the needs of the local level could not get proper representation,
and their concerns were neglected. Inequality increased and regional
imbalance grew with the centralized system of planning. To overcome these
drawbacks, India has also adhered to the global pattern of a Decentralised
system of Planning in governance. Since the 1990s India seems to have
devolved greater powers to the rural and urban local governing institutions.
Indian policy planners realized the importance of the participation of
citizens in the success of the policy. People’s participation can only be
achieved with a decentralized system of planning. It is very essential to
associate people at all levels of policy -making. Also, they felt the need for
a decentralized system for hav ing an effective system of planning. It was
Mahatma Gandhi who advocated mainly for decentralized planning in India
(Management, 2008).
As we have already noted, the 73rd Constitutional amendment act has given
constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj a s a rural local self -governing
institution. It is the third tier of governance in India after the central and
state level. The Panchayati Raj system also has three levels – at village level
Gram panchayat, at Block or intermediate level panchayat Samiti, a nd
district level Zilla Parishad. As per article 243G of the 73rd CAA, the state
legislature is required to transfer such powers, functions, and
responsibilities to village block and district -level bodies of Panchayats. It
enables them to function as self -governing institutions. The amendment act
has added schedule 11 to the constitution. This schedule contains a list of
29 broad functions of Panchayati Raj institutions. The important functions
include Agriculture, Land Improvement, Rural Housing, Drinking Water,
Family and Social welfare, Public Distribution System, poverty alleviation
programs, and the like . State government devolves these functions to the
panchayats at their discretion and then the Panchayati raj institutions carry
out these functions.
But, there exists a gap in these 29 functions intended to devolve to the local
institutions as per the constitution and its implementation by the states. Most
states have devolved only a few out of the 29 functions and that too with
limited powers. Also, s tates have created parallel or independent agencies munotes.in

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39 Pris: Central Processing Units of Democracy which makes it even more difficult to strengthen local institutions. Now,
proper activity mapping of all these institutions is the need of an hour. It
will help ensure that the specific needs of the peopl e can be achieved,
efficient utilization of the resources, and greater sustainability can be
achieved. Political leaders and bureaucrats should show some willingness
to implement the principles of decentralized planning and share
responsibilities with the local governments to improve their efficiency
(Mahipal, 2008).
Check Your Progress Exercise 3
Note: Use the space given below for your answer.
1) Explain the Decentralized planning in India after the 73rd
Constitutional amendment act.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
________________ ____________________________________________
2.6 SUMMARY AND CONC LUSION
To summarise the discussion, the creation of the Panchayati Raj Institutions
through the 73rd constitutional amendment act was a historic move to
ensure democratic decentralization i n India. Some peculiar features of this
amendment include establishing a three -tier system of governance at the
local level, providing reservation of seats to SCs, and STs according to their
population, reserving 1/3rd of seats to Women, conducting the soc ial audit,
etc. these were some of the initiatives taken by the constitution makers to
strengthen the Panchayati Raj institutions and make it more representative
and efficient in its functioning.
Earlier there were many challenges and loopholes in the cen tralized system
of administration. To address these challenges decentralized planning was
adopted in India. It means the devolution of powers from central to local
governments. It includes the devolution of administrative, political as well
as financial fu nctions to local governments. Such devolution of functions
brings people closer to the governance of the country. It is important for the
welfare of citizens in general. Fiscal decentralization is one major aspect of
it. It ensures financial autonomy to th e local self -governing institutions. In
recent years, the term Co -operative Competitive Federalism has changed
the dynamics of fiscal decentralization in India. This decentralized planning
helps bridge the gap between the citizens and the administration. I t involves
people in the administrative process of the country which is very essential
for a healthy democracy.
Still, there remain many challenges such as red -tapism, corruption, lack of
apathy on part of the central government to adhere to the norms of
democratic decentralization, inefficiency in the representation at the local
level as well as in the proper use of resources, and the like. Now, these
problems should be addressed immediately to ensure good governance in
the country. It will definitely lea d to sustainable development in the country. munotes.in

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40 Rural Governance in India
40 2.7 REFERENCES
Aayog, N. (2017). Niti Aayog. Retrieved from
https://www.niti.gov.in/competitive -federalism
Bank, W. (1992). Governance and Development. Washington D.C.: World
Bank.
Commission, I. o. (2019). Compilation of proceedings: conference and
workshops 2017 -2019. State Election Commission, Maharashtra.
D., K. V. (December 2016 ). Role of Social Audit in development of the
rural area through PRIs – A case study of Shimoga region. ISBR
Management Journal , 84 - 98.
Gandhi, M. (1947). India of My Dreams. Ahemdabad : Navajivan
Mudranalaya .
India, T. C. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://legislative.gov.in/sites/default/files/COI.pdf
M. Govinda Rao, T. R. (May 2011). Fiscal Decentralization to Rural Local
Govern ments in India: Selected Issues and Reform Options. New Delhi:
National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
Mahipal, H. (2008). Decentralized Planning and Development in India.
New Delhi: Mittal Publications.
Management, I. o. (2008). The State of Panc hayats: 2007 – 2008 An
Independent Assessment Vol. I. New Delhi: Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
Nayak, U. (2016). Genesis of Local Government Institutions in India.
Centurion Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 97 - 113.
Sarabu, V. K. (2019). Dr. Ambedkar' s Views on Panchayat Raj Institutions
-Social Justice, Reference to 73 rd and 74 th Constitutional Amendments
And Decentralization -A Critical Analysis. Social Justice and Working of
Panchayats in India: Revisiting Ambedkar School of Thought. Bangalore
(India): Institute for Social Justice and Economic Change (ISEC).
Sen, M. G. (1996). FISCAL FEDERALISM IN INDIA: THEORY AND
PRACTICE. Delhi: Macmillan India.
Thirupathi, D. L. (May 2021). From Reservation to Participation: Issues and
Challenges of Dalit Repre sentatives in Panchayati Raj Institutions.
International Journal of All Research Education and Scientific Methods
(IJARESM), 3158 - 3162.
Venkatesha, V. R. (2019). Political Dimensions of Weaker Sections
Welfare in Local Self Government in India: A Study. Journal of Social
Science Research, 3122 - 3135.
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41 3
RURAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH
PANCHAYATI RAJ INSTITUTIONS (PRI)
Unit Structure
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Objective
3.2 Employment: National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
3.3 Implementation of Mgnrega
3.4 Roles and Responsibilities of Stakeholders
3.5 Evaluation
3.6 Health: National Rural Health Mission
3.7 Features
3.8 Approaches of Nrhm
3.9 Strategy of Nrhm
3.10 Implementation Framework
3.11 Evaluation
3.12 Education: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
3.13 References
3.0 INTRODUCTION
As of 2021, according to the World Bank about 64.61% of population in
India lives in its villages. The central government has prepared and
expanded several schemes of social security for their welfare. This is in tune
with the ideal of social and economic justice laid down in the Preamble of
the Indian Constitution. By backing the schemes with legislations, the
government has guaranteed the services to the intended target population
that can approach courts if their right is violated.
In this chapter we shall be learning about 3 sectors - Employment, Health
and Education. Under each of the schemes, governance has been
decentralized and the Panchayati Raj Institutions are assigned responsibility
to contribute towards the plann ing as well as monitoring the execution of
the schemes.
3.1 OBJECTIVE
• Understand the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in particular
schemes for rural development
• Analyse the working of PRIs and other stakeholders in meeting the
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42 Rural Governance in India
42 3.2 EMPLOYMENT: NATIONAL RURAL
EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is the legislation
that guarantees the ‘right to work’ for people in India. It is a perfect marriage
between labour law and social sec urity. The Act was passed on 23rd August
2005 and was enacted in September 2005. The aim of the Act is to enhance
livelihood security in the rural areas. This employment programme
guarantees atleast 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to a
household. The precondition is that a dult members must volunteer to do
unskilled manual labour.
History
The Act was proposed by former Prime Minister P. V. Narsimha Rao in the
year 1991. In several sessions of the Parliament, the programme was
discussed. However finally on 23rd August 2005, the Indian Parliament
passed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Its nomenclature
was prefixed with ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ on 2nd October 2009 to make it
MGNREGA.
The FAQ section of MGNREGA gives a brief summary of the paradigm
shift brought about by th e program in the following words:
MGNREGA is demand driven wage employment programme and resource
transfer from Centre to States is based on the demand for employment in
each State. MGNREGA is bottom -up, people -centred, demand -driven, self -
selecting and ri ghts-based programme. It provides a legal guarantee for
wage employment by providing allowances and compensation both in cases
of failure to provide work on demand and delays in payment of wages for
work undertaken. Plans and decisions regarding the nature and choice of
works to be undertaken, the order in which each worksite selection etc., are
all to be made in open assemblies of the Gram Sabha (GS) and ratified by
the GP. Social audit is a new feature, which creates accountability of
performance, especia lly towards immediate stakeholders. Thus MGNREGA
also marks a break from the relief programmes of the past towards an
integrated natural resource management and livelihoods generation
perspective.
From the above we understand that the Gram Sabha is the primary unit of
the execution of the programme. It is instrumental in developing plans for
the village and submitting to the gram Panchayat. The Gram Sabha also
ensures availability of machinery and human resources for the registration
of individuals into the programme. With the Gram Sabhas and the entire
Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) involved in the planning and
implementation of the programme, it takes into account the democratic
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43 Rural Development Through Panchayati
Raj Institutions (P RI) The core obj ectives of the MGNREGS are:
(a) Providing not less than one hundred days of unskilled manual work
as a guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household in
rural areas as per demand, resulting in creation of productive assets of
prescribed qual ity and durability;
(b) Strengthening the livelihood resource base of the poor;
(c) Proactively ensuring social inclusion and
(d) Strengthening Panchayati Raj Institutions.
The goals are:
i) Social protection for the most vulnerable people living in ru ral India
by guaranteeing wage employment opportunities.
ii) Enhance livelihood security of the rural poor through generation of
wage employment opportunities in works leading to creation of
durable assets.
iii) Rejuvenate natural resource base of rural areas.
iv) Create a durable and productive rural asset base.
v) Empowerment of the socially disadvantaged, especially, women,
Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), through the
processes of a rights -based legislation.
vi) Strengthen decentra lised, participatory planning through convergence
of various anti -poverty and livelihoods initiatives.
vii) Deepen democracy at the grassroots by strengthening Panchayati Raj
Institutions.
While creating rural development plans for hiring of villagers, th e planning
authority keeps in mind the needs of the village, and creates plans for
construction of durable assets like roads, canals, ponds and wells. There is
a set of guidelines to approve a plan and fund it.
3.3 IMPLEMENTATION OF MG NREGA
The Gram Panch ayats (GPs) implement the programmes under MGNREGA
as mentioned above. The Panchayati Raj Institutions are endowed with sole
responsibility of planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the
completion of work against plans. The engagement of
contrac tors/middlemen is strictly prohibited in the programme. NREGA not
only provides economic security and rural assets but also helps in protecting
the environment, empowering rural women, reducing rural -urban
migration, fostering social equity etc. The MGNREG Act has elaborately
described the principles and agencies for execution, list of allowed works,
financing pattern, monitoring and evaluation and quintessentially the
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44 Rural Governance in India
44 The key stakeholders of the scheme are illustrated below:

With the wage seeker as the primary beneficiary, all the other stakeholders
have designated roles and responsibilities towards the attainment of goals
under the Act.
The Act recognizes the Right to Work of the individuals living in rural
areas. And the policy has hence enlisted the Rights and Entitlements of
wage -seekers under the scheme.

Along with the mandate of providing atleast 100 days of employment, the
state is required to provide employment within 5 km of an appli cant’s home
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45 Rural Development Through Panchayati
Raj Institutions (P RI) and to pay minimum wage. There is a caveat for the vulnerable women,
disabled and senior citizens to seek less tedious work close to their homes.
If the applicant does not get any work within 15 days of applying, s/he is
entitled to receive an unemployment allowance. Hence, it is a legal
entitlement to be employed under MGNREGA.
All this data of programme execution is uploaded by the programme officer
and technical assistants in a specially designed web -app named
NREGASoft hosted at the portal portal accessible as http:// nrega.nic.in.
The backend is enabled to calculate wages of worker after approval of work
completion by the Work Mate – a female supervisory officer who records
attendance in the muster, takes measurements of work at the end of the day
and updates the wage -seeker’s job card. Payment of wages shall be done on
a weekly basis or within a fortnight before closing the muster. In case of
delay in payment, the software will calculate wages including 0.05%
interest per day which will hav e to be borne by the State Government. The
wage seeker also enjoys the right to get 10 per cent extra wage in case of
employment provided beyond 5 km of radius.
3.4 ROLES AND RESPONSIBI LITIES OF
STAKEHOLDERS
Each of the stake -holders from the government si de have very specific roles
to play for streamlined execution of the policy. The chief functions of each
of them are stated below:
• Gram Sabha
• Determine priority of projects
• Monitor projects and be prepared for audit
• Gram Panchayat
• Receiving applications fo r registration, verifying them
• Registering households, Issuing JCs
• Receiving application for work and issuing dated receipts for
them
• Conducting periodical surveys to assess demand for work,
Planning work, developing shelf of projects, determining
priority
• Executing work, monitoring implementation, preparing annual
report, disclosing details of work to Audit machinery
• Awareness generation, social mobilisation, Organize Rozgar
Diwas at GP level
• Programme Officer (Designation: Block Development Officer)
• Coord inator of scheme at Block Level munotes.in

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46 Rural Governance in India
46 • Consolidating all applications from all GPs, submitting record
to District Panchayat
• Monitoring work of GPs
• Ensuring prompt and fair wage payment to labourers;
Maintaining accounts
• District Programme Coordinator (Designated: District Collector)
• Assist the District Panchayat; Review, monitor and supervise
the performance of the POs
• Add new projects after time sanction
• Ensure timely release and utilization of funds
• District Panchayat
• Approving works with expected outcomes
• Cons olidate annual block plans
• State Employment Guarantee Council
• Advice State Government
• Evaluate and monitor the Scheme
• Review the redressal mechanism
• Central Employment Guarantee Council
• Establish central evaluation and monitoring system
• Prepare annual rep ort to be laid before Parliament by the Central
Government
• Ministry of Rural Development
• Frame Rules under the Act
• Review list of permissible works
• Set up and operate National Employment Guarantee Fund
• Civil Society Organisations and Self Help Groups (SHG s)
• Awareness generation among wage seekers
• Capacity building of GPs and State Govts
• Supporting planning, implementing and social audit
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47 Rural Development Through Panchayati
Raj Institutions (P RI) • Other stakeholders
• Members of Social Audit Unit, Vigilance and Monitoring
Committees,
• Technical Staff of implementing agencies,
• Departments with whom MoU has been signed for convergence
with MGNREGA, viz, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of
Forest & Environment, Ministry of Water Resources,
Department of Rural Development, Department of L and
Resources and Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation
As students of political science, we must appreciate the neat hierarchy and
clear designation of roles for each layer of the government and
supplementary stakeholders. We must acknowledge the assistance of civil
society organizations in the execution of the scheme
Process for Wage seeker
Funding of the Scheme
While designing a plan at the GP level, a 60:40 ratio for wage and material
cost needs to be mentioned. The Gram Sabha is also to deliberate upon and
set a priority for the projects as per local area needs and available resources
while aiding the Gram Panchayat in making the Gram Panchayat
Development Plan including preparation of the Labour Budget.
The Development Plan takes into ac count the assessment of labour demand,
identifies work to meet the labour demand, estimates cost of work and
calculates wages, and foresees benefits in terms of employment generation
as well as physical improvements. The Labour Budget is expected to projec t
quantitative data on the households that will get employment, persondays
of labour, expenditure on wages and material expenses.
While allotting a fund for the scheme, the Central government needs to bear
the full cost of unskilled labour and 75% of the c ost of material. The balance
cost of materials is borne by the states. Additionally, the workers are
expected to carry along the implements for work. Under this scheme, no
labour displacing machine is allowed for utilization.
On an annual basis, the below given timeline is followed for the planning
and labour budget preparation task -
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48
Source: FAQs on MGNREGA Operational Guidelines – 2013
3.5 EVALUATION
The MGNREG Scheme is one of the most effective in ensuring rural
development. It focuses on not only ec onomic development of residents by
mandating timely payment of wages in return for labour, but also providing
for community assets to be built as per local needs, while also ensuring
environment conservation.
It benefits rural masses with dignified life th rough earning their means of
livelihood. The scheme specially empowers rural women who get to work
at a location close to their house and can avoid having to travel long
distances. They also get to join or form self -help groups which help them in
socio -economic development.
Principally, the scheme also aims towards social inclusion and equity as it
designates the State Government to include vulnerable groups such as
women who face the threat of trafficking, primitive tribals, de -notified
tribes, senior cit izens above 65 years of age, persons with disabilities, HIV
positive persons, internally displaced persons and rehabilitated bonded
labour. It is responsible for formulating specific plans to include the special
groups in the MGNREGA. While in some cases c loser location of
employment is offered, for others a special job card of a distinct colour is
given for ‘special protection in providing work, work evaluation and
worksite facilitates’.
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49 Rural Development Through Panchayati
Raj Institutions (P RI) The scheme has the potential to reduce rural -to-urban migration in s earch
of jobs. It gives economic security to households by being employed in the
same locality. Additionally, for transparency, the web app NREGASoft has
been developed for all Gram Panchayats, Program Officers and Social
Audit Agencies alike to enter data of wage seekers and work evaluation
reports. For accountability, there are multiple levels of checks and grievance
redressal mechanism provided within the Scheme.
On implementation, it is seen that the minimum wage may not suffice for
the entire househol d. Therefore wages seem to be low, especially as
inflation is not taken into account. There have also been several instances
of delayed payments. The States do not keep a separate budget for wage
liabilities, thus denying the labourers their economic right . In many states,
the entire allotted money gets exhausted within the first six months of the
financial year and thereafter there are no funds to carry out more works.
Certain states have shown low demand for work while workers are being
turned away in rea lity.
A few recommendations that have been put forth include increase in wage
rate as per inflation, increase in minimum number of days of guaranteed
employment upto 150, timely payment of wages as stated in the Act. There
is also a demand for integrating insurance of all members of the families
that hold Job Cards. Since the COVID -19 pandemic broke out, there has
also arisen a need to include health hazard prevention protocol at work sites.
MGNREGA is regarded as “the largest and most ambitious social sec urity
and public works programme in the world.” The World Bank has
acknowledged the benefits of the scheme and coined the term ‘stellar
example of rural development’.
Check Your Progress Exercise 1
Note: Use the space given below for your answer.
1) Explain the objectives of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________ ______________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2) What is the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in employment
guarantee at the rural level?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
__________________________________________ __________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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50 Rural Governance in India
50 3.6 HEALTH: NATIONAL RUR AL HEALTH MISSION
India’s health sector was an area of concern since pre -independence. During
the colonial rule, the Britishers were apathetic towards the outbreaks of
epidemics that raged across the province of Bengal. Problems such as lack
of doctors, nurses, lack of hospital beds, inadequate. Supply of essential
drugs and poor allocation of funds led to high death toll.
A few years before granting independence to India, a committee was
appointed under the Chairmanship of Sir J oseph Bhore. It was known as the
Health Survey & Development Committee. The committee submitted its
report in the year 1946 making comprehensive recommendations as below -
1. Integration of preventive and curative services
2. Development of PHCs
i. Short -term measure: 1 Primary Health Centre per population of
40000
ii. Long -term: 75 -bedded hospitals for population of 10000 -
20000, 650 -bedded at the block level, 2500 -bed at the district
level
3. Medical education to include 3 -month training to prepare ‘social
physician’
Even after independence, the investment in the health sector was negligible.
Health indicators were measly. It was in 2005 that the National Rural Health
Mission was launched with the aim to achieve ‘universal access to
equitable, affordable & quality health care services that are accountable
and responsive to people's needs.’
National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched in April 12, 2005 to
address the health needs of the underserved rural population especially
women, children and vulnerab le sections of the society and to provide
affordable, accessible and quality healthcare.
The Goal of the Mission is to improve the availability of and access to
quality health care by people, especially for those residing in rural areas, the
poor, women an d children. Universal access to public health services such
as Women's health, child health, water, sanitation & hygiene, immunization,
and Nutrition.
The National Rural Health Mission was launched in 2005 for a period of 7
years. In 2012, it was subsumed under the newly drafted National Health
Mission with two Sub -Missions including National Urban Health Mission.
The validity of this Mission was for 5 years subject to extension by the
Central Government. It was continued by the cabinet. On 1st April 2017. It
was further extended till 31st March by the Ministry of Finance. On the 10th
of January 2020 and finally it has been extended from the first of April. Till
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51 Rural Development Through Panchayati
Raj Institutions (P RI) 3.7 FEATURES
The features of the National Rural Health mission include making public
health delivery system fully functional and accountable to the community.
It includes augmentation of human resources by employing women from
the village to work as voluntary health wo rkers. It also includes community
involvement and decentralization of decision making for health care of the
villagers.
The implementation is through members of the community. One of the most
important is the accredited social health activist [ASHA] She i s an honorary
volunteer who promotes universal immunization. She refers and escorts
individuals for health services. She also ensures that construction of
household toilets is completed, among many other tasks that are assigned to
her. Another feature of t he Health Mission is to strengthen the Primary
Health centres. Some of these have been existing even before the scheme
was planned. However, there were several issues such as inadequate supply
of essential drugs and equipment through the scheme. This is ex pected to
be addressed. Community health centers are now becoming the first referral
and shall include the posting of anaesthetics.
Disease Control programme shall we strengthen, for example, the number
of people suffering from and the mortality rate by di seases like malaria,
tuberculosis, Kala Azar, filaria, blindness and iodine deficiency needs to be
reduced as per the targets set by the Mission.
The features include making public health delivery system fully functional
and accountability under community. It includes augmentation of human
resources by employing women from the village to work as voluntary health
workers. It also includes community involvement and decentralization of
decision making for health care of the villagers.
The role of ensuring heal thcare services and planning healthcare priorities
is designated to the Panchayati Raj institutions who are local decision
makers on behalf of the Community. The National Rural Health Mission
also includes rigorous monitoring and evaluation of each distric t’s health
standards against the Indian Public Health Standards.
Another important feature of this mission is convergence of health and
related programs from village level upwards kill the central government.
Infact all the health related programs which w ere run by the central
government work be brought under the umbrella of the National Rural
Health Mission. The Mission encourages innovative schemes for public
health management. It also sets of Rogi Kalyan Samiti at every district
levels.
Love coming to m edical education? Learn NRHM reorients health
education where in it? Recommends inclusion of social medicine as an
integral part of the curriculum and. Seeks medical students to serve in under
the NRHM in rural areas of the country. Also, a Medical Grants
Commission is recommended to be setup in order to ensure that medical
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52 Rural Governance in India
52 3.8 APPROACHES OF NRHM
NRHM has 5 main approaches. They are as follows:
1. Communitize
2. Improved management through capacity
3. Flexible financin g
4. Innovation in human resource management and
5. Monitor progress against standards.
Below we are going to look at each of these approaches in detail.
Communitize: Village health plans are submitted to the district wherein
they are consolidated to pre pae the respective District Health Plan. The
hospital management committee or the Panchayati Raj institutions at all
levels are expected to handle the healthcare services at the local level.
Untied grants are given to the Community or to the PRI bodies. Th ey can
utilize it for the Plans that are made at the district level. Funds, functions
and functionaries are given to local community organisations. This means
that the civil society organizations also become an integral part of the
execution of this missio n. There is decentralised planning where in village
health and sanitation committees take on the mantle of ensuring that health
standards are maintained and pick in a converged approach of improvement
of sanitation to improve the health indicators.
Improve d management through capacity: Efforts made by the state to
improve the management skills at the block and District health office.
NGOs aid in capacity building programmes. There is continue skill
development support offered to all the members of the Distr ict Health
Committee and the other committees that are set up for the execution of the
program.
Flexible financing: Untied grants are given to institutions. The NGO sector
for public health goals also gets a part of this amount for the services
offered. Th ey are used as implementers of the programs. For this purpose,
a set of guidelines has been laid down by the Ministry of health and Family
Welfare. There is also risk pooling wherein money follows the patient. By
covering all individuals of the village und er a health insurance scheme, the
group’s medical cost is combined to calculate premium.
Innovation in human resource management.: More nurses are to be hired
window criteria that they must be local residents 24/7. Emergencies are to
be attended by nurses at the Public Health Centre. AYUSH doctors are
considered equivalent to the doctors from the mainstream. This was enabled
after a petition, which they won when the Supreme Court declared that their
end-role is the treatment of patients. Even in the Communi ty health centre
level. Medical emergencies are to be treated 24/7. Investment is made by
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53 Rural Development Through Panchayati
Raj Institutions (P RI) Monitor, progress against standards: Indian Public Health Standards are
to be set in order to check the achievements of targets under this program.
Facility service are carried out at different districts while auditing
machinery. Independent monitoring committees are also set up at the Block,
District and state level.
3.9 STRATEGY OF NRHM
The strategies employed by the Nati onal Rural Health Mission can be
broadly divided into 2 main categories.
1. Core strategies:
i. Capacity building of Panchayati Raj institutions is considered
one of the core strategies under NRHM as this level of
government constitutes the planning and executing authority of
the scheme.
ii. Household health care improvement is carried out through
ASHA workers. They enable door to door survey and awareness
of the healthcare facilities.
iii. A health plan is created for each village for an annual basis.
iv. Also, developing capacities for preventive healthcare measures
is one of the important strate gies under this mission.
2. Supplementary strategies involve –
i. Regulating the private sector. By taking the help of the private
sector to attend the goals of universal health coverage, it is the
mandate of the government to ensure that persons are not
exploited as accessibility, affordability and being equitable are
important principles of this mission. The public private
partnership is one of the supplementary strategies under this
mission.
ii. This came about after a case was filed by the AYUSH doctor s
that they receive substandard treatment when it comes to
promotion.
iii. Social health insurance coverage of the people under this
Scheme is a supplementary strategy, as risk pooling allows
many individuals to come under the same scheme and thus
money w ill follow the patient.
3.10 IMPLEMENTATION FRAME WORK
As stated above the implementation framework includes. Planning at the
local level, which is the village itself, as the main unit of initiation of the
scheme. Under each village level we see an ASHA wor ker i.e. Accredited
Social Health Activist. You will also see AWW i.e. Anganwadi workers in munotes.in

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54 Rural Governance in India
54 every village. A village health daily needs to be organised and a drug kit
needs to be available. There is also referral change which is created so that
patients ar e referred to the Public Health Centre rather than visiting quacks.
The Village Health and Sanitation Committee is also setup as the village
level. This set up works for a population of under 1000 persons.
At the next level, which is a combination of aroun d 5 to 6 villages, at the
gram panchayat level we see the sub health centre. Here there is skill
upgradation of educated rural medical practitioners, also known as
registered medical practitioner or 2 ANMs - Auxiliary nurse midwives. At
this level there is also one mail multi purpose worker for the 5 to 6 villages.
There is a telephonic link between all the villages and grama panchayat. The
mother and Child Health Program is run Alice. Level which designates
certain immunization days were in the Asha, worker encourages. Windows
to get their children for vaccination. Drugs are also dispensed and the gram
panchayat level and the mother and child Health Clinic is run here.
The Public health centre level is the next level, which is a cluster of gram
panchayats wh ich is a collection of 30 to 40 villages, and this level we see
3 staff nurses. Including one lady health worker for 4 to 5 some health
centre. There is also an ambulance or a hired vehicle. The Mother and Child
Health/ immunization clinics is scheduled on fixed days. The AYUSH
doctor is posted at PHCs. Also, emergencies can be handled by nurses 24/7,
that is round the clock. Services are available here. To work losses and
malaria tests are conducted here and there. Drugs are also dispensed to the
patients. Finally. At the block level hospital we see that ambulance services
telephonic connectivity is available. This is for a population of 100 villages
where the population is around a lakh. There is also obstructive and surgical
facilities available and all s uch medical emergencies are attended 24/7, that
is round the clock services are available at the block level hospital.
This hierarchy is headed by the Chief Block Medical Officer who is
stationed at the Block Level Health Office. He is assisted by a health
manager and accounting and storekeeper. Efforts are also made on this level
to strengthen ambulance transport services. Increase availability of nurses,
provide telephones and encourage fixed date clinics. The Block medical
officer also networks for accre ditation of private health care providers to
meet the public health goals.
Low Health Department of every state government has their own
mechanism for the overseeing of the execution of HRM. With regards to
funding the central government aims to increase p ublic health expenditure
by 10% annually during the mission failure, and the states are expected to
contribute 15% of the outlay annually towards health. After the states
submit their State Program Implementation Plan to the National Program
Coordination C ommittee, the national committee approves this plan and
funds are released for the financial year. The funds are transferred to the
State Health Society in 4 components on submission of Utilization
Certificate and other documents. The state outlay of 15% i s also received
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55 Rural Development Through Panchayati
Raj Institutions (P RI) Role of Panchayati Raj Institutions:
The Mission envisages the following roles for PRIs:
• States to indicate in their MoUs the commitment for devolution of
funds, functionaries and programmes for health, to PRIs.
• The District Health Mission to be led by the Zila Parishad. The DHM
will control, guide and manage all public health institutions in the
district, Sub -centres, PHCs and CHCs.
• ASHAs would be selected by and be accountable to the Village
Panchayat.
• The Vill age Health Committee of the Panchayat would prepare the
Village Health Plan, and promote intersectoral integration
• Each sub -centre will have an Untied Fund for local action @ Rs.
10,000 per annum. This Fund will be deposited in a joint Bank
Account of the ANM & Sarpanch and operated by the ANM, in
consultation with the Village Health Committee.
• PRI involvement in Rogi Kalyan Samitis for good hospital
management.
• Provision of training to members of PRIs.
• Making available health related databases to all stake holders,
including Panchayats at all levels.
3.11 EVALUATION
Studying this policy would be incomplete without an evaluation of the
National Rural Health Mission.
A few benefits of the NRHM haven't seen by a boost in the employment
sector. Wearing locals ha ve been employed to serve the public interest.
There's also. All soul. A strengthening of the public health system. In the
first 3 years we have seen effective and coordinated KO with 19 response
they under 5 mortality rate in India has declined from 49 in the year 2013
to 36 in the year 2018. The number of people suffering from tuberculosis
(TB) has come down from 234 per one lakh population in the year 2012 to
193 in the year 2019. Similarly even the death rate due to TB and malaria
has come down drastica lly.
However, all is not well will the implementation of the program. If we look
at the status of communicable diseases, it seems like number has come
down. However, there is inadequate reporting at certain places. Thus the
data is not captured right from the start. Also certain social reforms are
necessary which regards to early marriages and teenage pregnancy in
certain states of the country. There is some optimal awareness of mothers
on childhood illnesses such as diarrhoea and pneumonia. They try home
remedies and visit quacks before approaching village health centres, certain
times too late. Additionally, certain villages face a dearth of infrastructures
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56 Rural Governance in India
56 instances where tablets an d other essential drugs have not been available at
the Health Centre at the required time. This defeats the purpose of the
program.
The way forward would mean that there is community awareness of the
affordable health services. It is necessary that vacanci es of necessary staff
are filled up at the earliest. The engagement of private labs and facilities
could be done for reporting of data. Active screening and testing of
symptomatic cases is required. Also, tele - psychiatric services under
National Mental He alth mission would benefit society at large. okay
There is a need for investment. In public health insurance. Policies as out
of the pocket expenses are very high and unaffordable value comes to
accessing healthcare services. If we look at statistics, abo ut 70% of the total
health expenditure in the year 2005. Was out of pocket. Thus it places a
considerable financial burden on poor households and also the middle class.
Utilised many people miss work. Suffer from recipes or premature deaths
which could hav e been avoided. Many infectious disease are also taking the
chronic form and we see a rise in lifestyle diseases being suffered by young
patients. In order to address these challenges in the government is
expanding formal health insurance such as the Rasht riya Swasthya Bima
Yojana nationally and several states have implemented their own, such as
Arogyasri in Andhra Pradesh.
Check Your Progress Exercise 2
Note: Use the space given below for your answer.
1) What is the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in t he rural health sector?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________ ________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2) What are the approaches implemented for the execution of NRHM?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
_________________ ___________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
3.12 EDUCATION: SARVA SHI KSHA ABHIYAN
The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was launched in the year 2001 under the
regulation of the Ministry of Human Resour ce Development (MHRD),
Government of India. The core objective of the SSA Programme is to attain munotes.in

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57 Rural Development Through Panchayati
Raj Institutions (P RI) the Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE) in the country. The
overall goal of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is to include universal access and
retention, bridging gender and social gaps in education and enhancing levels
of learning for children.
The suggestion for universalization of education was mentioned in the
recommendations made in the National Education Policy 1986. The
predecessor of the SSA was the District Primary Education Programme
(DPEP). It was launched in 1994 as a centrally -sponsored scheme to
revitalize the primary education system. It was the first programme that
aimed to universalize elementary education. DPEP had an area -specific
approach with a district as a unit of planning.
The features of DPEP were:
1. 85 percent of the project cost was aided by the Central Government
and 15 percent by the concerned State Government.
2. This program covered 18 states
3. International Organisations such as the World Bank and UNICEF
assisted the Central Government externally.
The passage of the 86th Amendment Act in 2022 inserted the Right to
Education as Article 21A in Part III (Fundamental Rights) of the Indian
Constitution by the words ‘The State shall provide free and compulsory
education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner
as the State may, by law, determine.’ The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan thus
received legal backing for its execution. At the same time, the eleventh
fundamen tal duty was added in Part IV of the Constitution stating ‘Who is
a parent or guardian, to provide opportunities for education to his child, or
as the case may be, ward between the age of six to fourteen years.’
What began as an ambitious project in 2002 t o increase the coverage of the
DPEP which had shown several benefits, has now become a large scheme
with several initiatives covering over 200 million children aged between 6
and 14. In fact the program has been expanded in the year 2009 to include
seconda ry education as well under the program Rashtriya Madhymamik
Shiksha Abhiyan. The scheme also includes education imparted in
Madarasas. On similar lines, an adult education scheme called ‘Saakshar
Bharat’ was also initiated.
Objectives
The official websites of State Governments have enlisted the objectives of
SSA as follows:
1. To provide Free and Compulsory Elementary Education for all
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58 Rural Governance in India
58 2. To bridge social, regional and gender gaps with the active
participation of community in the management of schools at
elementary education level by 2010.
3. To allow children to learn about and master their natural environment
in order to develop their potential both spiritually and materially:
Satisfactory quality of education with emphasis on education for life.
4. To inculcate value -based learning that allows children an opportunity
to work for each other’s well being rather than to permit mere selfish
pursuits.
5. To realize the importance of Early Childhood Care and education and
looks at the 0 -14 age as a continuum.
6. All children in school. Education Guarantee Centre, Special Training,
‘Back -to-School’ camp by 2003.
7. All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007.
8. All children complete of elementary schooling by 2010 .
9. Universal retention by 2010.
Goals under SSA
1. To open new schools in those habitations where there are no schooling
facilities
2. To strengthen the existing school infrastructure;
3. To maintain school improvement grants for additional classrooms,
toilets, drinking water facilities in the schools
4. To promote education of girls’, differently -abled or children with
special needs or those belonging to SC, ST, Muslim minority, landless
agricultural labourers etc.
5. To provide free textbooks, uniform s to the children
6. To fill up vacancies for teachers and enhance their skills and capacity
7. To provide life skills to the students and offer computer education to
bridge the digital divide
Role of PRIs
Community participation is sought to mobilize the population for creating
access and enrolment in elementary education. They also constitute the
various committees required for the execution of the scheme, namely -
Village Education Committee (VEC), School Management Committee
(SMC) and Parents’ Teachers’ Association (PTA). Vigilant participation of
the community members would also ensure that the allocated funds are
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59 Rural Development Through Panchayati
Raj Institutions (P RI) The various above -mentioned committees also play a role in ensuring that
the objectives of SSA are fulfilled. T hey aid in preventing gender
discrimination with maximum enrolment of girl students and providing
gender sensitive infrastructure. They also bear the mantle of keeping a tab
on the quality of education being imparted by monitoring student progress
reports and auditing of the facilities provided.
Initiatives
• Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat/ Padhna Likhna Abhiyan: Early reading
and writing with comprehension
• Mid-day meal Scheme: Providing calories and nutrition through
cooked food to students enrolled in school.
• Samagra Shiksha: This Programme subsumed the SSA, the Rashtriya
Madhymamik Shiksha Abhiyan of universal coverage and retention
of children from pre -school to class 12 and Teacher education under
1 one umbrella.
• Shagun: Portal launched in 2017 to monitor SSA progress
• Shaala Siddhi: School Standard Evaluation Programme
• Swaccha Vidyalaya: To ensure clean premises, well maintained
water, sanitation and hygiene facilities
Evaluation
There are varied results of the evaluation studies of each school and district
and state. However below is stated a consolidated list of the findings of a
few reports -
• Positive
• Universal education
• Participation of PRIs
• Increase in enrolment of differently abled
• Availability of Teaching Learning Materials
• Negative
• Quality of education variance b/w states
• Free uniforms not for urban, Rural need Transport from
unserved habitations
• Seasonal High absenteeism
• Infrastructural deficits – Blackboards, drinking water, separate
toilets for girls etc
• Way forward
• Reforms in education
• Reforms in eva luation + No detention munotes.in

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60 Rural Governance in India
60 • Awareness in urban areas
• Recruitment and Reforms for teachers - reduce non -teaching
activities
Check Your Progress Exercise 3
Note: Use the space given below for your answer.
1) How can Panchayati Raj Institutions ensure education for all?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
__________ __________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2) What are the objectives of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
________________ ____________________________________________
3.13 REFERENCES
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. (2005). National Rural Health
Mission: Framework for Implementation 2005 -2012.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. (2018). National Health Mission.
Mini stry of Law & Justice. (2005, September 7). NATIONAL RURAL
EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT, 2005. The Gazette of Inida.
Ministry of Rural Development. (2014, July). Frequently Asked. Questions
on MGNREGA operational guidelines 2013.
Pankaj, A., & Bhattacharya, M. (2022, January). Income and Livelihood
Promotion through Individual Assets under MGNREGA. Economic and
Political Weekly, 57(4).
Planning Commission. (2010, June). Evaluation Report on Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan. Program Evaluation Organization
Press Informatio n Bureau. (2005). National Rural Health Mission ( 2005 -
2012 ). Retrieved from nhm.gov.in:
https://nhm.gov.in/images/pdf/guidelines/nrhm -
guidelines/mission_document.pdf
Sinha, A. (2022, November 15). Where no child is left behind. The Hindu.
Vikaspedia. (un .). Education for All. Rural Poverty Alleviation.
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61 4
RURAL GOVERNANCE:
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
Unit Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Capacity Building at grassroot level
4.3 Capacity Building of Gram Sabha as Civil Society
4.4 Capacity Building of Elected Representatives
4.5 Capacity Building of Elected Representatives on Vertical and
Horizontal Linkages
4.6 Capacity Building of Other Actors
4.7 People’s Participation
4.8 Role of NGOs
4.9 Role of Self -Help Groups
4.10 Globalisation, Localisation and Rurbanisation
4.0 OBJECTIVES:
• To understand capacity building at grassroot level and understand the
real problems
• To analyse people’s participation in development and understand why
people fail to participate
• To understa nd the role of NGOs and SHGs in rural development
• To study and evaluate the terms Globalisation, Localisation and
Rurbanisation
4.1 INTRODUCTION
Local governance is being promoted in India because it is believed that it
provides a structural arrangement through which local people and
communities can participate in the fight against poverty at close range.
However, it is acknowledged that various capacities of a multiplicity of
stakeholders and actors need to be strengthened to meet the requirements of
effective and responsive local governance. The most vibrant democratic
institution at the grassroots level in India is Panchayati Raj Institutions
(PRIs) which is figured to be participatory, accountable, responsive, and
transparent and citizen friendly local self-government. The 73rd and 74th
Constitutional Amendments provided the constitutional provisions for
constructing and operating of such bodies at the local level in India. Some munotes.in

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62 Rural Governance in India
62 of these provisions are inclusive and democratic in nature such as one -third
reservation of seats for women and scheduled castes and tribes and
decentralisation of power, etc. But the nature of functioning of these bodies
for the last few years exposed ineffectiveness and inefficiency in
governance and delivering of services to t he local people. The effective
local self -governance indeed is still a distant dream and needs enormous
interventions to realise its potential. In this chapter, key issues and
challenges of rural governance shall be discussed.
4.2 CAPACITY BUILDING AT GRA SSROOT LEVELS:
There is a lack of consensus on the meaning of capacity. Capacity is a multi -
dimensional aspect consisting of awareness, knowledge, skill, self -
confidence and actions. Capacity can be defined as the totality of inputs
needed by an actor to r ealise its purposes. Applied to local bodies, this will
ensure that such institutions are able to function effectively as institutions
of local self -governance in true sense.
Capacity of such institutions can be seen in three distinct though
interrelated aspects:
i) Intellectual Capacity : implies capacity to think, reflect and analyse
reality independently and in pursuit of self defined purposes of local
self-governance.
ii) Institutional Capacity: includes procedures, systems, structure,
staffing, decisi on-making, transparency and accountability, planning,
implementation and monitoring. It also includes mechanisms for
building linkages with other institutions and actors.
iii) Material Capacity: consists of material resources, physical assets,
funds, syst ems and procedures to mobilise revenues; access and
control over physical and natural resources and infrastructure;
systems and procedures required for adequate management of funds
and infrastructure.
In this sense, capacity building comprises consistent training of individuals
(involved in local governance) for organisational strengthening,
institutional learning, exposure, horizontal sharing and solidarity. Capacity
building is also a long -term proces s of strengthening a local body based on
systematic learning of new knowledge, skills and attitudes. In other words,
capacity building comprises a broad set of interventions which promotes the
development of competent, responsive and accountable local sel f-
government, the establishment of mechanisms by which different
population groups can equally participate in local decision making process
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63 Rural Governance: Contemporary Issues 4.3 CAPACITY BUILDING OF GRAM SABHA AS CIVIL
SOCIETY:
Effective functioning of local self -governance requires decentralisation of
policies, strategies, legal frameworks, programs and activities, the transfer
of authority, responsibilities and resources from central government to local
government structures and t he empowerment of grass -root communities
which enable them to determine plan, manage and implement their socio -
politico -economic development. It also needs active, engaged and organised
citizenry. But in reality, the families and communities are increasing ly
divided on the basis of caste, religion, ethnicity and gender in the society.
The marginalised (women, dalits and tribals) sections of the community are
systematically excluded from political participation by rural elites or higher
castes in support wit h local authority and strong patriarchal system.
Therefore the most significant involvement needed is to strengthen Gram
Sabha as contemporary civil society formation in each village.
A strong Gram Sabha requires institutional mechanisms to function
effec tively. Large scale Pre -Election Voters Awareness Campaigns
(PEVAC) are organised in partnership with other voluntary organisations,
State Election Commission and local bureaucracies. After the election, a
series of orientation meetings explaining the rol es of Gram Sabha as a
collective entity, discussing problems and issues and identifying needs and
priorities of the people are also organised. These orientation meetings serve
the purpose of initiating dialogue between various marginalised groups and
elect ed representatives of PRIs (Gram Panchayat). However, in most cases
citizens, particularly the marginalised, are not aware about dates and places
of such meetings. The very first step of participation – attendance in the
decision making meetings have been purposefully obstructed by the vested
power lobbies in the villages. In many places campaigns are organised to
inform the local citizens before the actual Gram Sabha meetings.
There are many informal local community based associations in the
villages. Som e of them are traditional associations based on caste or kinship,
cultural -religious associations, and many new associations like self -help-
groups, women’s groups, youth groups, village education committee, forest
protection committee, watershed committee, etc. formed by government or
NGO development programs. Strengthening the local demand system
requires capacity building of these traditional and contemporary local
associations. For which, a series of orientation meetings with these
community based organi sations need to be conducted on a regular basis.
This enables the traditional and contemporary local associations to work
collectively with the Gram Panchayat and the Gram Sabha.
There is a vast arena of public education for society that is required so tha t
different individuals and institutions such as the media, academic
institutions, youth groups, human rights organisations and others are
oriented to the challenges faced by local bodies in building their capacities
to accomplish their constitutionally ma ndated purposes. Society at large,
needs to be made aware of their rights and the problems faced by them so
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64 Rural Governance in India
64 4.4 CAPACITY BUILDING OF ELECTED
REPRESENTATIVES
The elected representatives of Gram Panchayat represent a village or a
cluster of villages. In addition, there is a Sarpanch - elected as Chief of
Gram Panchayat directly by all members of Gram Sabha. In some ways,
this body is the first and most direct re presentative body of local self -
governance. However, Gram Panchayat as a vehicle for exercising
representative leadership with transparency and accountability to Gram
Sabha is a distant ideal. These newly elected leaders, especially from the
marginalised community, are experiencing political participation in public
space for the first time in their life. Thus, they lack basic skills and
information about the functioning of these systems. Capacity enhancement
interventions are required to strengthen these leaders and inform them about
their roles and duties for the effective functioning of these systems.
4.5 CAPACITY BUILDING OF ELECTED
REPRESENTATIVES ON V ERTICAL AND
HORIZONTAL LINKAGES
There are different tiers of local bodies, vertical linkages across them and
horizontal linkages between different tiers of local bodies and
commensurate tiers of local administration are also needed to be
strengthened by involving the primary school teachers, village level
workers, anganwadi workers, multi -purpose health workers, forest guards,
etc. According to constitutional provision, all the above -mentioned
government functionaries should be accountable to Gram Panchayat.
However, this is not a reality anywhere in India so far. Gram Panchayats
need to learn how to ass ert their rights and supervision over the concerned
government functionaries and relevant government development programs
and resources.They lack strong control over other government functionaries
and it creates the problem of accountability and smooth fun ctioning of these
units.
Another area of horizontal networking is building relationships and support
mechanisms with other elected representatives in neighbouring villages,
blocks and districts. Capacity building here needs elected representatives to
enha nce their practical understanding about local governance. In addition,
structured educational events on -site support for undertaking participatory
micro planning and budgeting exercises, administration and financial
management of Gram Panchayat, informatio nal materials like posters,
handbills, manuals in local languages and simplified version of the State
Act can be prepared and disseminated among the elected representatives. munotes.in

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65 Rural Governance: Contemporary Issues 4.6 CAPACITY BUILDING OF OTHER ACTORS:
Firstly, orientation and attitudinal change for government officials at all
levels has been a major challenge in working with responsive and
accountable bureaucracy. Sensitization and attitudinal changes are a major
arena of capacity enhancement for political leadership at all levels. Barring
a few individuals, the political culture in most political parties and among
active and elected politicians is one of disregard for the activities and
motivations of ordinary people to take responsibility for village level
development.
Secondly, government off icials lack specific skills needed to work with
Panchayati Raj Institutions. For example, in the system of top -down
development interventions, lowest level government officials have no skill
in planning and monitoring since all of that has been centralised . They need
to learn skills in promoting micro plans as well as social audit and
community monitoring of implementation of these plans.
Capacity enhancement interventions are most urgently needed to sensitise
and re -orient donors. Despite general discussio ns, concrete shifts in donor
policies, resources and programs towards strengthening institutions of local
governance need to be carried out. Carefully selected communication
strategies, meetings, dialogues and workshops should be utilised for such
capacity enhancement interventions. The political leadership shall be
invited to participate in many multi -stakeholder dialogues at thelocal,
district and state levels to change their attitude towards the rural governance
and development programs.
The major obsta cles to capacity building at various levels and promoting
public participation are cultural, systemic, institutional and human. A
significant change is needed at various levels to solve these problems and
enhance the working of these local self - government s.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS - Exercise 1:
1) Explain the term Capacity Building with reference to rural
governance in brief.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
________________ ____________________________________________
2) What are the major problems faced in capacity building of Gram
Sabha?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
__________________ __________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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66 Rural Governance in India
66 3) What is capacity building at grassroot level? Explain key
challenges to it.
_____________ _______________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
_____________________________ _______________________________
4.7 PEOPLE’S PARTICIPATI ON
Rural development is a dynamic, unified, democratic process of social
action for development. People's participation in terms of the objectives,
ideology and methodology of rural development is a n ecessary and highly
desirable component in it. Participation requires that all groups, particularly
those most vulnerable, have direct or representative access to the systems
of government. This manifests a strong civil society and citizens with the
freed om of association and expression. It determines that all men and
women should have a voice in decision making, either directly and
indirectly through elected representatives that represent their interest. Such
a participatory environment is formed when the re is a freedom as well as
capacity to participate constructively.
People's participation, in a broader sense, means their total involvement
with development agencies in deciding the programmes and activities,
fixing up of priorities, taking initiative an d carrying out the projects as
partners by the contribution of their ideas, interest, material, money, labour
and time. People's participation is an educational process. It is to create a
sense of awareness, a sense of participation, a sense of belonging, a sense
of possession and ownership. It is to develop self -reliance, self -confidence,
competence and managerial capacity. It is to train rural people to take
initiative, accomplish and sustain their activities. It is to build up and re -
invigorate communit ies and generate social action. It is to enable rural and
marginalised people to discover their strength, increase their aspiration
level, mobilise and channelise their resources for productive purposes.
Participation is bringing people to the core from th e periphery, to activeness
from passiveness, and to be thinkers, decision makers, doers and
implementers from acceptors.
The Local self Governance Act of India provides spaces for direct
participation of people at grassroots through the Gram Sabha. The
provisions of these acts have the potential of establishing good governance;
this act also provides the reservation for marginalised groups of the society.
The constitutionally decentralised institutions have come into being but the
reality is quite differen t. Rigid patriarchal structure inhibits women
participation in public affairs. Moreover, majorities of the elected
representatives are first timers with little or no prior knowledge of
functioning of PRIs. Many of the womenPRI members are illiterate and
have to comply with social taboos and patriarchal values.. It is not easy for
the rural weaker section to actively participate in the development process.
The literacy level among the rural areas is low. The distribution of rural munotes.in

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67 Rural Governance: Contemporary Issues assets and powers is heavily skewed, the bottom 39 % of rural households
(belonging to lower castes) own only 5 % of all assets, while the top 5 %
own 46%.
People's participation also depends upon the social and class structure of the
rural community, the patterns and traditions of d ecision -making and
carrying out communal and individual activities, the way people perceive
the programmes and projects initiated by the development agencies, and
people's own ability. Further, and importantly it depends upon what the
development agencies expect from the people with respect to participation,
the stipulations they make and the manner in which the agencies mobilise,
motivate, encourage and facilitate people's participation. A major issue is
why people fail to participate in the development pr ocess? Ignorance and
lack of motivation is a factor of non or negligible participation. When
matters are of technical nature beyond the understanding and outside the
experience of the people, participation is less. People look for immediate
and tangible b enefits.
Sometimes, group rivalry, cliques, conflicts within the community, vested
interests, conflict in values, opposition to the programmes, resistance to
change and poor local leadership are factors as to why people fail to
participate .Centralisation of authority also weakens popular participation.
4.8 ROLE OF NGOS
NGOs or Non -Governmental Organisations are difficult to define, and the
term 'NGO' is rarely used consistently. As a result, there are many different
classifications in use. Today, any kind of private organisation that is
independent from government contro l can be termed an "NGO", provided
it is not -for-profit, non -criminal and not simply an opposition political
party. Civil Society, when organised in structure and specialised in function,
takes the form of NGOs. They are organised on community, national an d
international levels to serve a social or political goal such as humanitarian
causes or the environment.
NGOs have more benefits of working in rural areas as compared to
governmental organisations because NGOs are more flexible, NGOs are
specific to a p articular locality and moreover these are committed towards
serving the public and community as a whole. As the task of development
is massive, many NGOs play a vital role in the rural development of India
in collaboration with the government. NGOs act as planners and
implementers of developmental plans. They help in mobilising the local
resources to be used for development and build trust amongst the people.
NGOs help in building a self -reliant and sustainable society. NGOs help in
motivating people and i ncreasing public participation in the development
process. These agencies play the role of mediator between people and
government. NGOs are actually the facilitator of development, education
and professionalisation.
A major problem that NGOs are facing is their dependency upon
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68 Rural Governance in India
68 less flexible in carrying out their task as most of the tasks depend upon
funds. Moreover, the structures of NGOs have become bureaucratic in
nature leading to a decreased effectiveness in the overall development.
The traditional thinking of people, their poor understanding, and low level
of education for comprehending new technology and efforts, lack of
awareness are people related hurdles that NGOs are facing. Vi llages also
lack infrastructure facilities like water, electricity, educational institutes,
communication facilities that leads to their slow development. Apart from
these, there are certain problems like economics such as high cost
technology, underprivil eged rural industries, social and cultural differences,
conflicts between different groups, administrative problems like political
interference, lack of motivation, interest and participation of people acts as
hurdles on the way to rural development.
4.9 ROLE OF SELF -HELP GRO UPS:
Self-Help Groups (SHGs) is a programme initiated in collaborative effort
of government and non -government organisations ( NGOs) in the year
1992. SHGs organise the poor and the marginalised to join hands to solve
their problems an d the method has been very successful. The poor collect
their savings and save it in banks. In return they receive easy access to loans
with a small rate of interest to start their micro unit enterprise.Self -Help
Groups (SHGs) have become the vehicle of ch ange in the rural areas,
transforming the lives of the marginalised.
The Self -Help Groups have contributed a lot in the development of socio -
economic status of the rural people. These groups help the rural economy
of India. Self -Help Groups help in women empowerment as well as work
participation of women in the rural economy. Self help groups are
voluntary, small group structures for mutual aid and the accomplishment of
a special purpose. They are usually formed by peers who have come
together for mutual assistance in satisfying a common need, overcoming a
common handicap or life -disrupting problem, and bringing about desired
social and/or personal change. The initiators and members of such groups
perceive that their needs cannot be met by or through exist ing social
institutions. Self help groups emphasise face to -face social interactions and
the assumption of personal responsibility by members. They often provide
material assistance, as well as emotional support: they are frequently
“cause” oriented, and p romulgate an ideology or values through which
members may attain an enhanced sense of personal identity. They help in
social and financial inclusion of people and generate more participation of
people in the process of development. SHGs have effectively h elped in
empowering women. SHGs have facilitated the process of micro credit for
the rural woman folk thus improving their bargaining power in day -to-day
decision making of the household, and finally in the community.
There has been uneven distribution in the spread of SHGs in India. Socio -
cultural factors along with government support and presence of NGOs have
been major reasons for that. One of the major hurdles in working of SHGs
is lack of support from family members. Due to male dominated society, munotes.in

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69 Rural Governance: Contemporary Issues wom en members cannot uplift their business followed by lack of social
mobility. Most of the SHGs work at the local level and are engaged in
agricultural activities. SHGs in rural areas should be introduced to non -
agricultural businesses too and should be prov ided with state -of-the art
machinery. Political affiliation and interference has become a serious
problem with SHGs. Political affiliation is also a major reason for group
conflicts. The poorest of the poor are excluded from the benefits of SHGs
as they c annot even arrange the minimum amount of money required to be
deposited as weekly/monthly thrift. Those who are relatively well off are
getting the best out of the program as they are able to get more economic
benefits by investing the loan or profit in th eir already existing enterprise.
Participation in SHGs existing in different revenue divisions has differential
potential to empower women.
4.10 GLOBALISATION, LOCAL ISATION AND
RURBANISATION
Globalisation has the tendency to make the earth a “global village”. It sees
the whole world as one family. However, it too has gainers and losers
because of its own unusual appearances of unbalanced progress,
exploitation, defoliation of social costs as w ell as ecological subsystems.
Retaliating to this ongoing process of globalisation, the concept of
localization is developing in different forms in different parts of the world.
The theme of localization is based on self -reliance by developing economy
of the neighbourhood, especially considering the needs of local peoples.
This means to ensure freedom by protecting the rights and interests of
weaker sections vis -à-vis eradicate exploitation by means of globalising
forces, particularly the ‘free market’ econ omy.
Local action is the remedy to solve social and economic problems. It
represents the beliefs of so forth ‘localization’ would mean in its positive
aspects. This includes delegation of economic controls and decisions,
opposite levels of self -reliance, fulfilment of all basic needs, and
preservation of natural resources. Localization provokes comradeship and
co-operation. This reflects the economics of neighbourhood, independence,
and generation of employment. It is a belief of regionalized economy,
revitalization of village economy and the public. Localization not only
improves the quality of local production but also spreads its boundaries. The
use of indigenous skills, resources, manpower and technology, and the
lesser need for transport, packaging, s torage and marketing leads to cost
reduction.
The world is being shaped by the pulls and pushes of two forces often in
opposite directions i.e. globalisation and localization but localisation gives
more glow than globalisation. Globalisation has many benef its. It stimulates
growth of economies and businesses. However, localization is not only
expected, but it has the ability to provide solutions to numerous problems
that must be addressed globally such as inclusive economic growth,
protection of the ecosyst em, food security, and women empowerment. It
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70 Rural Governance in India
70 rights of small farmers or indigenous businesses that lose a platform on a
global level. Globalisation is a major hurdle in the development of rural
areas as the indigenous products cannot stand in the global market, thus
being left out of the financial system which makes them more and more
dependent on the government for basic needs as well. Financial inclusion
eventually leads to social incl usion and the poor become a part of the larger
society. All the factors are interconnected and impact each other
simultaneously. It is wise to deliberate facets like culture, religion, and local
preferences to produce a product that can feel the local sens ations and meet
the local expectations. Localization means tailoring several components
resembling currency, time format, colours, icons, and every part of the
product that could make it feel foreign to our community.
The compulsion for business localizat ion is well -known to all business
leaders. “Think global, act local" is a common slogan in multinational
corporations. The companies with localised products and management grew
both their revenues and profits. They delivered to local customers’
requirement s, took advantage of local capabilities, and enabled innovations
to emerge in many places, whereas their competitors with more centralised
and standardised approaches were slow to hit the mark.
There should be engagement of the local community to provide ultimate
solutions to the local problems. The needs of small farmers must be
considered by the interventions of agricultural production. Apart from this
investment must be made for women producers who are processing and
supplying several food products in d ifferent regions.
The basic needs like energy security, food security, and water security are
becoming much more important, global economic processes are not
effectively controlled by the national government. Basic needs are
underestimated by greed and co nsumerism, and self -exaggeration is
capturing national control over the economy. Integrated global economy
asks for more competencies from existing international institutions whereas
the interests of the poor and weak are overlooked.
The conventional econ omic theory of international trade is based on
'comparative advantage'. It is engrossed with profit maximisation instead of
basic needs, mutual aid, employment and fair distribution of profits. It
allowed trade among unequal and supports who have purchasin g power for
endless wants and luxuries. This exploits the weaker economies by the
stronger like rural poor by the urban elite. Economic and political power is
vested with the ruling elites, delivered by the economic institutions, divide
the society into ‘h aves’ and ‘havenots’, and produce a multiple clash that
retains all apprehensions and disappointments. Power and resources are not
mutually equitable that affect the growth of GDP as well as human
development and environmental sustainability. It imparts mo re benefits to
the rich and powerful by providing access to education, health,
opportunities, travel, etc. GDP indicators are best served when individual
greed is tailed in the ‘market’ freed by governmental regulation for social
good. Therefore, poverty, social conflict, harassment, slums, and
exploitation co -exist with prosperity. The consumption pattern has been munotes.in

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71 Rural Governance: Contemporary Issues changed due to globalisation and thus intensifying inequalities and scarcity
by declining the production of ‘basic’ goods on which the poor ban k on.
With growing globalisation whereby economic controls become ever more
remote and less accountable and profit motive as greed seeks to colonise the
whole earth, the concept of localization becomes ever more relevant. Ethics,
social good of all, peace, prosperity, ecological concerns, co -operation and
brotherhood cannot be globalised without the concomitant of swadeshi.
Localization is a solution -multiplier. It can restore democracy by reducing
the influence of big businesses on politics and holding rep resentatives
accountable to people, not corporations. It can reverse the concentration of
wealth by fostering the creation of more small businesses and keeping
money circulating locally. It can minimise pollution and waste by providing
for real human needs rather than desires manufactured by the consumer
culture, and by shortening distances between producers and consumers.
localization redistributes economic and political power from global
monopolies to millions of small producers, farmers and businesses. It
thereby decentralises political power and roots it in community, giving
people more agency over the changes they wish to see in their own lives.
The exponential growth in localization initiatives from food -based efforts
like community gardens, farmers’ markets, community -supported
agriculture schemes and urban agriculture, to local business alliances,
decentralised renewable energy schemes, tool lending libraries and
community -based education projects, attests to the fact that more and more
rural people are arriving at localization as a systemic solution to the
problems they face.
Rurbanisation is the process of rural areas taking on urban characteristics,
whether through conscious government policy action or gradual dispersal
of economic growth. Rurbani sation refers to the process of providing urban
amenities to rural areas. The ‘rurban’ design seeks to integrate the elements
of the urban in the rural by providing rural areas the opportunities and
infrastructure hitherto restricted to urban areas. In a n utshell, as also
articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rurbanisation seeks to
connect the rural to the urban “where the rural soul is bent with a touch of
urban”.
The most prominent policy measure to promote Rurbanisation, was
launched in 2016 in t he form of the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban
Mission or National Rurban Mission (NRuM) under the Ministry of Rural
Development. The Mission aims at developing villages by ensuring access
to equitable and progressive services, which would ultimately reduce the
gap between rural and urban areas. The initial goal of the Mission was to
develop approximately 300 rurban clusters over a period of three years. A
‘rurban cluster’ would be classified based on population — 25000 to 50000
people in plain areas and 5000 to 15000 in tribal, desert or hilly areas. But
the status of work in the approved clusters has also been slow and skewed.
A major consequence of Rurbanisation, intended or otherwise, is that it can
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72 Rural Governance in India
72 reasons, particularly in a country like India. The unequal distribution of
development outcomes has been a key driver of the movement of working -
age individuals to urban areas. In many cases, this movement is forceful,
also known as distress m igration. According to Census 2011, most working -
age males move to urban areas because of employment -related reasons.
Underpaid work, poor housing, and low access to services characterise the
life of rural migrants in cities, making them one of the most vu lnerable
groups during civil emergencies such as natural disasters and epidemics.
Rurbanisation, as a process and a policy measure, has the potential to reduce
rural-to-urban migration by bridging the gap between the urban and the
rural.
The major problem s with the Rurbanisation are that the private sector
organisations need to be encouraged to invest in rural areas; it may not
always be profitable for businesses to invest in underdeveloped markets and
so they may choose to not participate. . Hence there i s a need for better
coordination among the central, state and local governments in order for
implementation of PPP models to take place more effectively.
Another hindrance is the governance structure prevalent in villages. There
is a difference in the adm inistrative structure of statutory towns (or cities)
which are administered by Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and villages which
are administered by village councils or Gram Panchayats. This difference
plays a decisive role when it comes to providing urban serv ices to rural or
semi-urban areas. Village clusters have a higher combined population and
density as compared to a single village. Providing networked urban services
in clusters might require greater resources as well as planning, for which a
gram panchaya t might not have the necessary capacity.
There is also the issue of replicating the current urban development model
for the development of village clusters. The Rurban Mission seeks to
develop rural clusters by taking the urban figure as an example. But u rban
infrastructure development in India still faces issues of finance and
investment. Thus, using the urban spending figure as a model to prepare
development plans for villages might lead to under -funding.
A holistic approach needs to be adopted towards t he development of rural
clusters based on their characteristics and specialities instead of replicating
urban financing models. The governments at the centre and the state level
need to identify the roadblocks and there needs to be robust monitoring and
evaluation mechanisms at the district and state level.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS - Exercise 2:
1) What do you understand by People’s participation in rural
development and why is it important?
____________________________________________________________
__________ __________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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73 Rural Governance: Contemporary Issues 2) What is the role played by NGOs in rural development?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
_______________________________________ _____________________
3) What is the role of SHGs in rural development and increasing
people’s participation?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
_________________________ ___________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
4) Explain Globalisation, Localisation and Rurbanisation.
_________________________________________ ___________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________ ___
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DUTTA, B. (2015). Rural Development Through Selp Help Groups (Shgs):
An Overview. INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH , 5(4).
e-governance . (2022, January 17). YOJANA. Retrieved November 6, 2022,
from http://rural -e-governence -yojana -january -2013.pdf
H, P. (2016). Capacity Building for Effective Local Governance in India;
Some Issues. INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH , 6(6).
JADHAV, D. (n.d.). Role of NGO in Rural Development. BVDU IMRDA,
SANGLI .
JHA, V. (2016). Decoding Rural Governance in I ndia. Journal of
Management & Public Policy , 8(1).
NEGI, A. (2020). INDIA’S URBAN TRANSITION: RURBANISATION
IN POLICY AND PRACTICE. Social and Political Research Foundation ,
1(3).
Rafiqi, S. (2020). People’s Participation In Rural Local Governance In
India . Our Heritage , 68(1).
SAHOO, A. (2021). GLOBALIZATION TO GO - LOCALIZATION – AN
AGENDA FOR REJUVENATION OF THE INDIAN ECONOMY. GAP
iNTERDISCIPLINARITIES , 4(2).
SETTY, E. (n.d.). PEOPLE'S PARTICIPATION IN RURAL
DEVELOPMENT: A Critical Analysis.
Value Added Material . (n.d.). Vision IAS. Retrieved November 6, 2022,
from http://www.visionias.in/resources/vam.php
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