Essays

"for India to build a broad-based, solid foundation for  economic and social progress, it must uproot the vestiges of feudal- ism and instill democratic values and practices. Tile people who live in India's 750,000 villages must become the authors of their own lives and women must be respected and supported as equal partners in the process of development. 

During the days of Aryans, Indian villages have a unique institution called Panchayats, very powerful, well accepted and almost independent institutions. After 1 independence all possible measures were taken to revive the Panchayati Raj Institutions in order to involve the rural people not only in their own development but also in the development of the nation as a whole. Gandhiji’s was of the opinion that for actual development of the country, every village has to be self reliant and capable of managing its affairs. According to him, Gram Panchayats should be entrusted even with the dispensation of justice. The poor villagers need not go into the courts, spend hard earned money and waste weeks and months in towns for litigation.

 "India is poor because its villages are poor. India will be rich if the villages are rich. Panchayats should be given greater power; for we want the villagers to have a greater measure of real swaraj |self-government| in their own villages", Ja'vaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister of India.

 Recognizing the importance of Panchayati Raj, Article 40 (Directive Principles of State policy of our Constitution states, "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 Local Self-Government. 

April 24,1993 is a red-letter day in the history of Panchayati Raj in India as on 1 this day the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act.1992 came into force to provide constitutional status to the Panchyati Raj institutions.

The salient features of the Act are :-

To provide 3-tier system of Panchayati Raj for all States. 

To hold Panchayat elections regularly every 5 years.

To provide reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women (not less than 33%)

To appoint State Finance Commission to make recommendations as regards the financial powers of the

Panchayats.

To constitute District Planning Committee to prepare draft development plan for the district as a whole.

Powers and Responsibilities

According to the Constitution, Panchayats shall be given powers and authority to function as institutions of self-government. The following powers and responsibilities are to be delegated to Panchayats at the appropriate level:—

Preparation of plan for economic development and social justice.

Implementation of schemes for economic development and social justice in relation to 29 subjects given in Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution.

To levy, collect and appropriate taxes, duties, tolls and fees.

The history of Panchayati Raj has been one of success and failure in different states. A phase of success during 1959-64, a phase of stagnation during 1965-69 and a phase of failure during 1969-77. In the State of Maharashtra and Gujrat. The Panchayati Raj has shown good scene of success and took planning and development scheme sincerely.

This Act gives constitutional status to the Gram Sabha. According to Article 234 B of the Constitution, Gram Sabha means a body consisting of persons registered in the electoral rolls of a village within the area of Gram Panchayat- As per Article 243 A. a Gram Sabha may exercise such powers and perform such functions at the village as the legislature of a State may. by law, provide. Accordingly all villagers over 18 years of age, have an inherent right to determine their own destiny. This is the forum where even a poor villager can make his presence felt.

 Gram Sabha plays very important role in functioning of the Gram Panchayats in ensuring transparency in the working and equitable distribution of benefits in creation of community assets and bringing about social involvement in the developmental process.

On Dec. 24, 1996, the Panchayat network has been extended to the tribal areas of the country. The provisions of the Panchayats (extension to the schedule areas) Act 1996, extends Panchayats to the tribal areas of Andhdra Pradesh, Chhatisgarh,  Gujrat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan. A conference of Minister of Panchayati Raj of the States was held on July 11, 2001, in New Delhi, to discuss and analyze the progress in respect to devolution of power upon Panchayats and to find out the steps needed to make the Panchayats emerge as real "Institutions of self-Government". The necessity of time bound and regular election to Panchayats, completion of devolution of powers with regard to the 29 subjects listed in the eleventh schedule and the Constitution of the District Planning Committee was felt.

On an average a Panchayat covers two to three villages and a population of approximates 2400. There are 4526 Panchayat Samittee at the Block / Tehsil level. There are 330 Zila Parishads covering about 76% of the district in the country and each Zila Parishad has on an average 13-14 Panchayat Samities and about 660 Gram Panchayats. If all these units become active and sincerely plans for the real development of the villages, there is no reason that the villages do not make rapid progress. The institution of Panchayati Raj, enshrines the villages as model units for the development. It is the foundation on which lies the fortress of democracy. Success of Panchayati Raj depends much upon the enlightenment of the rural people, real support and involvement of the general mass.

As expected the experience of women in Panchayati Raj has been varied. Many are surrogates for husbands and fathers who could not contest because of the reservation. Some were put in place by the wealthy and powerful for their malleability— a kind of puppet to serve the vested interest while appearing to be an elected representative. This has led to many problems.

There have also been many efforts to train the women who have been elected. Interestingly enough, the State government has undertaken some of these. In Kamataka, the Department of Women and Child Development co-operated with professionals in what has come to be known as the Gramsat Programme. This had two parts. The first was an interactive session, using satellite technology to link the different district headquarters to Bangalore. This session used material generated through meetings of women elected to Gram Panchayats. The impact was immediately visible, and even today, its role in giving these women self-confidence to face a big challenge cannot be underestimated.

As a part of this programme, these women were taken to visit the Vidhana Sabha, the seat of the State Government and to the Legislative Assembly. They were awed by the Council chamber. They saw where the Speaker sits and conducts the proceedings. They saw where the Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition sits for the debates. This was found to be an immensely empowering experience. In meetings in their GPs (Gram Panchayats), they often ended an argument, especially with men—"What do you know? Have you seen the Vidhana Sabha? I have!".

The second part was training material developed as an extension of the first, including issues of concern to women—nutrition, water, primary education, basic health services, immunizations, common property resources, etc. which were used in training programmes across the state. The objective here was twofold—to raise Certain questions in their minds on these issues and also to provide them with some basic information that would enable them to play their roles in the GPs. The impact of this has yet to be assessed.

Yet it must not be forgotten that this experiment in local self-government is being undertaken in a society that is predominantly illiterate. Many of the people elected, especially those in the reserved categories are very poor. In attending meetings of the GP, they often have to give up a day's wages. To use terms popularized by  Amartya Sen, the entitlements of the actors in this great drama of democracy are way below what they should be As a result, their capabilities to play these roles are low as these are in uncharted territory. In conclusion, for fundamental changes in society, much more than PRIs (Panchayat Raj Institutions) are required; but that does not mean PRIs are not important. PRIs as they are now limited does not mean that they cannot be improved. PRIs as grass roots democratic governance institutions are a necessary, but not sufficient condition in the transformation to a better social order. And in that transformation, enabling women's participation through reservations is a first and

Important step. In this process of social transformation, there may be some negative unintended consequences—sub-optimal utilization of resources, weakening of other bodies of governance...not all these will automatically mean empowerment of women or engendering of the PRIs. Much more will be needed if gender justice is to become the norm. And it will take time. We must not be impatient. But it is important to support this fledgling experiment in every way we can—if we believe in democracy at the grass root. A very peculiar thing is being observed that in spite of lot of powers given at grass root level, the actual development work is not being carried out. Corruption and groupism at village level, casteism, nepotism, in creating community assets is gradually becoming rampant. A lot in the field of education, health, family planning, land improvement, minor irrigation, sanitation, animal husbandry etc. are to be done, but instead of concentrating on development activities the elected representatives are found busy in cornering the money for their personal interest, and benefitting to their caste men or other fellow s which directly indirectly serve their vested interests. If the evil of corruption, casteism, groupism be allowed to penetrate to grass root level, the whole system of Panchayati Raj be collapsed one day and it shall be most disastrous to the democratic values envisaged in adopting the Panchayati Raj Institutions.

 Vocabulary

1. vestiges—dust, powder, cinders, slag, embers, charcoal. 2, instil—infuse, suffuse, transfuse, intermix, imbue. 3. revive—reawaken, awaken, resuscitate, refresh. 4. reliant—subject, subservient, secondary, lesser. 5. endow—enrich, provide, supply, invest. 6. delegated—selected, chosen. 7. implementation— requirement, enforcing, carrying out. 8. stagnation—sleep, case, quiet, quietude, quietness. 9. assets—holdings,  possessions, capital. 10- devolution—assignment, giving our appointment. 11. fortress— stronghold, fort. citadel. 12. malleability—tractability, obedience, submissiveness. 13. awed—confused. Puzzled, perplexed, baffled. 14. immensely—greatly, much, enormously, immensely, mightily. 15, empowering—designation, election, selection, nomination. 16. immunisations—freedom, privilege, license. 17. uncharted—not mapped, not explored, not described. 18. envisaged—visualize,  imagine, conceive, envision. 19. disastrous—calamitous, ruinous, unfortunate.