Notes

Empowering Panhayaths for strengthening democracy in India
(National panchayat raj day celebrations on 24 th April, 2018)

• Mahatma Gandhi advocated panchayat raj as the foundation of India's political system. It would have been a decentralised form of government where each village would be responsible for its own affairs. The term for such a vision was Gram Swaraj ("village self-governance").
• There are significant differences between the traditional panchayati raj system, that envisioned by Gandhi, and the system formalised in India in 1992.[1
• The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act
• The idea which produced the 73rd Amendment was not a response to pressure from the grassroots, but to an increasing recognition that the institutional initiatives of the preceding decade had not delivered, that the extent of rural poverty was still much too large and thus the existing structure of government needed to be reformed. It is interesting to note that this idea evolved from the Centre and the state governments. It was a political drive to see PRIs as a solution to the governmental crises that India was experiencing. The Constitutional (73rd Amendment) Act, passed in 1992 came into force on April 24, 1993. It was meant to provide constitutional sanction to establish "democracy at the grassroots level as it is at the state level or national level".
• PRI to some extent worked well in States like Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Sikkim. Specially in Andhra Pradesh(AP) and Telangana States(TS), devolution of powers, finances and personnel is yet to be made operational. Take a look at the development schemes implemented at the village level.

• For Farmers :

• Soil testing cards, land preparation for SC/ST farmers, free power for pump sets, hybrid seeds, irrigation, micro irrigation, Fertiliser subsidies, Direct transfer of benefits(Rs 4000to each farmer) through Rytu Bandhu scheme in TS, farm machinery on subsidised costs, custom hiring centres,(Govt of Andhra Pradesh went a step ahead to farm machinery hiring services through online – Uberisation),Link MGNREGS to some agriculture related activities, subsidised credit, loan waivers at the time of Elections, Minimum support price to many crops, agriculture market centres,(e-NAM), crop insurance(PM fasal bhima yojana) ,cold storage faculty and extension services.
• Farmers growing horticulture crops, fisheries, poultry are also entitled for subsidised loans and power.
• Despite of so many initiatives taken up by govts, agrarian crisis is a reality. Can we learn lessons from villages like Ankapur in TS, Hivre bazaar in Maharastra and many other villages in which farmers co-operatives and PRIs work together and find local solutions to local problems by making Gram sabha as an effective institution for local governance.

• Clean and green villages

• The present govt laid lots of emphasis on clean India (Swach Bharath) and built millions of Toilets for households. Many Sarpanches took up this program as top priority and constructed millions of units but due to implementation problems and delay in release of funds, most of sarpanches and women self help groups were made to spend their own funds first and wait for reimbursement from Govt later. Utilisation of toilets still remains a task for PRIs and women PRIs need to play an active role.
• Dry and wet waste segregation in Panchayats is taken up on a mission mode under the leadership of sarpanches and many villages creating wealth out of waste and building financial resources to panchayats is a welcome step.
• Street lighting with LED bulbs to save power and AP got targeted to install 27 lakh LEDs by October, 2018 is laudable.
• Water harvesting structure in farms under MGNREGS to save crops from drought in drought areas, sunken pits for collecting rain water at the household level will have slow but long lasting benefits.
• Many panchayats had the first phase coverage under Rural water supply schemes and planning to provide piped water to households on a mission mode in TS.
• Govt of AP is planning to provide good drainage system to panchayats having more than 5000 population.

• Road connectivity to a village and cement roads to streets

• Under, PMGSY, many villages have BT Roads and under MGNREGS, 20,000 kms long cement roads are constructed in the habitations through convergence of programs and funds in AP.BT road to cement road connectivity to all villages is planned.

• Creation of Social Infrastructure

• In many villages, school buildings are taken up in the past. Now additional class rooms, toilets with water facility, maintenance of toilets in schools, compound walls and play grounds, quality food under mid day meal scheme , improved educational standards, digital class rooms, biometric attendance of teachers is rightly prioritized.
• Construction of anganwadi centres, Stree shakti bhavans (for SHGs), panchayath buildings, burial grounds, veterinary centres, and compound walls to public buildings Under MGNREGS gives a big face lift to villages

• Energy security for all

• Provision of safe cooking fuels(LPG) to all households in AP and TS is a matter of pride for women.
• Free electricity to agriculture pump sets and round the clock power supply to households besides providing 75 units of free electricity to SC/ST households
• Subsidised food to poor through PDS and Introduction of e-pos (Adhaar enabled) provision to get ration and check wastage and thereby savings to govt exchequer is well implemented in AP and TS

• Social security

• In poor families, persons above 60 years get a monthly pension of Rs 1000/ and amounts are credited into the bank accounts (adhaar enabled). In case of persons with disabilities, they receive a monthly pension of Rs 1500 to all disabled persons in a family without any limitation.
• In AP, all workers in the informal sector are covered under an Insurance scheme with a provision for a relief of Rs 5.0 lakhs to the legal hire of the deceased in natural and accidental death of the bread winner.

• Housing for all

• Both in AP and TS, Housing for rural poor families is well implemented in the last 4 decades under various State and central govt schemes

• Women empowerment

50% of seats in local bodies are reserved for women
• At least one member in each eligible family is a member of a self help group (SHG).All the women SHG members are supported with an investment capital of Rs 10,000 linked to an annual credit provision of Rs 10-15,000 cr covered under interest free loans as backend provision.

• Role Of PRIs
• In the last 25 years in TS and AP, there was no effort on the part of state govt to strengthen PRIs. Devolution of powers, finances and staff did not take place.
• In many panchayats, link between SHGs and PRIs was not properly established though 10-15% women PRIs are elected from SHG stream.
• Training of PRIs, especially women PRIs did not get its due attention from Govt.
• In TS, Govt provides a monthly honorarium of Rs 5000 to sarpanch while in many other states, such provisions are not available.
• SC/ST sarpanchas, especially women face humiliation from upper caste people and local staff.
• In some cases, all decisions are taken without the knowledge of sarpanch in a panchayat if she is a SC/ST woman.

Empowerment of Panchayat Raj Institutions

• Needless to state that strengthening of PRIs is the key for Development of any country so also India.
• Panchayath should be made as a unit for infrastructure development and funds should be provided directly to panchayats for all development works.
• Effective and transparent functioning of gram sabha is vital.
• PRIs, SHGs, Artisans, village level co-operatives should work together to maximise benefits to communities.
• Social audit, ranking of panchayats by third party evaluators should be taken up annually.
• Panchayats with good performance and unanimous elections to sarpanch and other members should be incentivised. Such a system will reduce election expenditure b contestants and reduce corruption.
• Elections should be fought purely on non party lines as per constitutional provisions
• Elections should be conducted in every 5 years without delays
• Strong and empowered panchayaths are the bed rock for Indian democracy!!!