Panchayati Raj Institutions in India

Sanjib Kumar Sarma 

(sanjibsarmabajali@gmail.com)

Panchayati raj is unquestionably Indian in origin. Panchayati raj bodies, which are genuine and effective democratic decentralised institutions, provide ample opportunities for a large number of rural people to take genuine and effective participation in development and democratic decision-making processes and to infuse in the minds of the rural people a spirit of self-help, self-dependence, and self-reliance and to obtain the experience in the art of local self-government. The concept of panchayat raj, since its inception, has faced various interpretations from both its protagonists and antagonists. On the one hand, the emphasis was on maximum local autonomy and minimisation and control by higher authorities, especially the state government, as some considered it to be ruination for the country. The panchayat raj system is really an effective instrument of participation. In order to make the panchayats an edifice of democracy, they should be given more powers, more autonomy, and financial resources. It also means to overcome the prevalent socio-economic deficiencies in rural society. The panchayat raj institutions are statutorily elected bodies at the village, block, and district levels with powers of local government. There are village panchayats at the village level, panchayati samitis at the block/taluka level, and the zilla parishads at the district level. The primary objective of panchayati raj is to strengthen the base of democracy at the grassroots level and to enable the people of each village to achieve intensive and continuous development in the interests of the entire population, irrespective of the caste, class, creed, and religion. The panchayat raj is different from all other government as a whole; it is not an administrative arm of the government but a part of the whole government.

Rural development is generally conceived as a multi-sectoral activity that includes, besides agricultural development, rural industries, the establishment or improvement of social overhead facilities or infrastructure, such as schools, clinics, roads, communication, water supply, markets, welfare sources, improved nutrition, literacy, adult education, etc. The primary objective of rural development is to enrich the quality of the rural masses, particularly the poorer and the weaker sections. The implementation of democratic decentralization through the Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) was meant to give an opportunity for local initiative and participation in the developmental activities. India’s vast majority of people live in rural villages. They are largely dependent on remote and unresponsive government (the Central and the State), historically characterised as centralised, bureaucratic, corrupt, and nontransparent. In most parts of rural India there had been a continuous and deep rift between the people and the government. The people do not have proper access to the information regarding the developmental plans, schemes, and actions of governments. Further, they have no effective means to influence the policies, programmes or resource allocations for their development.

The Constitution of India has given a place of pride to the attainment of the ideal of securing justice to all citizens. The Preamble speaks of the resolve to secure for all the citizens of India justice, which is defined or elaborated as social, economic, and political. More significantly, the Preamble places justice higher than the other principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity. The concept of justice in the Preamble is indeed very wide. It is not confined to the narrow legal justice as administered by the courts. Again, the juxtaposition of words is important in as much as it gives precedence to social and economic over political justice. Article 38 especially embodies the preambular concept of justice where it speaks of social order in which justice, social, economic, and political shall inform national life.

The Constitution provides a clear mandate for democratic decentralisation through the institutional framework of self-governing local elected bodies, i.e., the Panchayats (Panchayati Raj Institutions: PRIs) and the Municipalities (Urban Local Bodies: ULBs). The local bodies are critical to inclusive governance as they facilitate direct participation of people, particularly the marginalised, in governance. They also ensure transparency and accountability of the public institutions and functionaries through processes such as social audit. They can prepare context-specific plans to address poverty, local infrastructure, and socio-economic needs. The Eleventh Plan document recognises PRIs as “the primary means of delivery of essential services that are critical to inclusive growth.” Strengthening of the local bodies is, therefore, critical to improving governance across the country and ensuring that the benefits of the huge funds routed through the Central/State Schemes reach the people in full measure. The rural and urban areas represent a political, social, economic, and geographical continuum. However, in the present system, there is an artificial divide between rural and urban local governments, which has several shortcomings. First, the planning and management of socio-economic development, including basic public services, are artificially segmented. Second, in a rapidly urbanising society, the boundaries between rural and urban territories keep shifting. The peri-urban areas around cities have dual characteristics of both the village and the town. Finally, as a democratic body representing the whole district does not exist and the District Collector continues to be the symbol of authority in the district, democratic decentralization is undermined. In all, the artificial separation of rural and urban local governments leads to fragmented planning and implementation, suboptimal utilization of resources (manpower and financial), and vital gaps.