What is the issue?
- Panchayati Raj institutions in its present form and structure have now completed 25 years of existence (73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992).
- But a lot remains to be done in order to further decentralisation and strengthen democracy at the grassroots.
What is the 73rd Constitutional Amendment?
- The 73rd constitutional amendment, passed in 1992 mandated the creation of a 3 tier panchayat structure in rural India.
- Even political parties that vehemently opposed the 73rd Amendment 25 years ago are presently celebrating the current occasion.
- This indicates a univocal consensus towards the local-self governance as per the provisions that were ingrained in the constitution.
- Notably, there were panchayats before too, but it functioned largely at the State government’s discretion and elections weren’t held for them regularly.
- The 73rd Amendment specificed provisions for devolution through the 11th schedule and provided for financial self sustainability for panchayats.
What are the significant milestones achieved?
- All states have ensured the full and diligent implementation of the mandatory provisions provided in the 73rd amendment.
- Moreover, states have also provided statutory safeguards for many devolution provisions, which have considerably empowered local governments.
- Successive (central) Finance Commissions have, so substantially, increased fund allocations for local bodies and grants have also been increased.
- Currently, 15th Finance Commission is considering to further increase allocations for local governments to match international standards.
- There are about 2.5 lakh panchayats in India, which are represented by about 32 lakh people.
- This is greater than the sum total of elected representatives from all other countries.
- Uniquely, SC/ST representation in elected bodies is another big push towards their empowerment. There are about 1 lakh SC/ST sarpanches.
- Also, about 14 lakh women elected representatives and heads have now got political representation as the constitution has mandated 33% reservation for them.
- More significantly, some states have enhanced women representation to about 50%, thereby furthering their voices.
What are some actions that can be done?
- Progress across states has been highly uneven with some states like Kerala and Karnataka leapfrogging, while others like UP crawling.
- District planning should increasingly be made bottom-up, based on grassroots inputs received from gram sabhas.
- Like in Karnataka, all states should create a separate bureaucratic cadre for Panchayats that will work in a subordinate capacity to the elected authorities.
- This is because, it has been observed that officials who work on deputation to Panchayats often lord over the elected representatives.
- Activity maps need to be incorporated in all centrally sponsored schemes for poverty alleviation in order to directly transfer funds to the local governments.
- The centre also needs to financially incentivise states to encourage effective devolution to the panchayats in functions, finances, and functionaries.
Source: Indian Express
