Volume 18, No. 6, 2021
Role Of Panchayati Raj System In Transforming Rural India
BIRAJ DAS
Abstract
The Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) got constitutional status in 1992. These institutions have served as chief institution of providing local self governance by taking crucial role in implementing major plans and programs of the government. PRIs have been playing vital role in creating people’s involvement for successful implementing of various mega schemes of the central government as well as the state government. It can be asserted that the earlier conventional political and economic environment and structure of the villages have been transformed into an advanced and more progressive structure by strengthening and decentralizing powers to the panchayats in India. The 73rd amendment Act of 1992 is a breakthrough in the evolution of grass root democratic institutions in India. It brings active participatory democracy in the place of representative democracy. The Panchayati raj system brings extensive transformation in empowering rural people through facilitating active participation in policy formulation and implementation and other functions relating to the nation building process. It ensures holistic development of the rural India. Panchayats provide governance to rural people for ensuring safeguard of their own socio-political and economic interests. It represents both collective will and collective wisdom of the entire rural community. The father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi considered panchayats as the foundation of India’s political system where decentralized form of governance structure is established at grass root level. This paper aims to uphold the understanding and representation of the changes brought about by the Panchayats in rural India with the use of the historical, analytical and descriptive methods and secondary sources of data. This paper traces the role of the panchayats in empowering India’s rural societies through successful implementation of welfare schemes and projects.
Pages: 1495-1502
Keywords: Panchayat, rural development, participatory democracy, empowerment, local self-governance