Governance At The Very Base: Panchayati Raj | News World India

Panchayati Raj is a system of governance in which gram Panchayats are the basic unit of administrations

Since the beginning of recorded history Panchayats have been the founding units of Indian villages. The word Panchayat literally means governance by a ‘council of five’. An apt remark by Mahatma Gandhi was made in 1946 by saying that Indian Independence must begin at the bottom or grassroot levels while advocating for Gram Swaraj (“village self-governance”). He was in favour of a decentralized form of Government where each village is responsible for its own affairs, as the foundation of India’s political system.

The Panchayat rule is not new to India. There is ample reference about the Panchayats in Manusmriti, Arthasastra and the Mahabharata. During the Muslim rule also the system continued to work unhindered.

Panchayati Raj is a system of governance in which gram Panchayats are the basic unit of administrations.
It has 3 levels: Gram Panchayat (village level), Mandal Parishad or block samiti or Panchayat samiti (block level) and Zila parishad (district level). It is the  decentralized form of Government in which the powers are redistributed and functions are dispersed away from the central location or authority.

The term “Panchayati raj” is an ancient concept that has been adopted by the people of Bharat for their local administration of a village. Raj means “rule”. The leader of the Panchayat was generally called the Mukhiya or Sarpanch, which of course will be an elected post.

Mahatma Gandhi, during the 1920’s made a strong appeal to the British Government for introduction of self-government in the villages with a view to improve their economy. According to him, greater the power of Panchayats, the better for the people it would be. But, the British Government disregarded his proposal.

In 1937 when the Congress Ministry came into power, the government paid attention and establishment of the Gram Panchayats and their reorganisation began. But soon India was made to become the part of World War II which prompted Congress Ministers to resign. It led to the collapse of all the moves that were made to revive Panchayats.

After the war was over, Congress returned to power and it started the revival of Panchayats by passing several acts. At the time of Independence in 1947, almost one-third of the villages of India possessed traditional Panchayats and were doing fairly good.

Stringent efforts by Congress government promoted the creation of Panchayats to make them effective units of local government.

Article 40 of the Constitution of 1950 declared: “The State shall take steps to organise Village
Panchayats and to CON endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary Anal’ to enable them to function as units of Self-government”.

The ministry of Union Panchayati Raj celebrates the ‘Panchayat Divas’ or National Panchayati Raj Day every year on 24th April. This day was celebrated for the first time on the 24th of April, 2011. To mark the achievement of the constitution being passed in 1992 and then subsequently bringing it into force from 24th April, 1993 it is celebrated all across the India.

The 73rd Amendment Act, 1992 had altered the Panchayati Raj through different levels of Panchayats that are village, intermediates and district level. The 73rd Amendment to the Constitution has given constitutional status to the Panchayats, provided it a complete framework and also imparted its certainty.

It envisions the Panchayats as the institutions of local self governance and also the universal platforms for planning and implementing programmes for economic development and social justice. It has deepened the democracy and ensured social and political empowerment of the people, particularly the dis-advantaged through 2.4 lakh Panchayat and 2.8 million elected representatives, over 30% of whom are women, 19% SC, 12% ST and also OBCs in most States.