Tag: rural

Panchayati Raj

The term “Panchayati Raj” in India signifies the system of rural local self-government. It has been established in all the systems of India by the Acts of the state legislative to build democracy at the grass root level. It is ensured with rural development. It was constitutional through 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992.

Ø A three-tier structure of Indian administration for rural development is called panchayati Raj. The aim of the panchayati Raj is to develop local self government in districts, zones and villages.

Ø Rural development is one of the main objectives of panchayati Raj and this has been established in all states of India except Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram. In all union territories except Delhi and certain other areas. These areas include:-

a) The scheduled areas and the tribal areas in the states.

b) The hill area of Manipur for which a district council exists and

c) Darjeeling district of West Bengal for which Darjeeling Gorkha Hill council exists.

Evolution of Panchayati Raj

Ø The panchayati system in India is not purely a post-independence phenomenon. In fact, the dominant political institution in rural India has been the village panchayat for centuries. In ancient India, panchayat were usually elected councils with executive and judicial powers.

Ø The evolution of the Panchayati Raj system, however, got a trip after the attainment of independence after the drafting of the constitution. The constitution of India in Article 40 enjoined, The state shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government.

Ø There were member of committees appointed by the government of India to study the implementation of self-government at the rural level and also recommend steps in achieving this goal.

Ø The committee appointed are as follows:-

a) Balwant Rai Mehta Committee

b) Ashok Mehta Committee

c) G V K Rao Committee

d) LM Singvi committee

A. Balwant Rai Mehta Committee and Panchayati Raj

The committee was appointed in 1957, to examine and suggest measures for better working of the community development programme and the national extensions services. The committee suggested the establishment of a democratic decentralised local government which came to be known as panchayati Raj.

Recommendations by the Committee

Ø Three tier panchayati raj system: Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad.

Ø Directly elected representatives to constitute the gram panchayat and indirectly elected representative to constitute the panchyat samiti and zila parishad.

Ø Planning and development are the primary objectives of the panchayati raj system.

Ø Panchayat Samiti should be the executive body and zila parishad will act as the advisory and supervisory body.

Ø District collector to be made the chairman of the Zila Parishad

Ø It also requested for provisioning resources so as to help them discharge their duties and responsibilities.

v The Balwant Rai Mehta committee further revitalised the development of panchayati in the country, the report recommended that the panchayati raj institutions can play a substantial role in community development programmes throughout the country.

v The objectives of the panchyat, thus was the democratic decentralisation through the effective participation of locals with the help of well-planned programme. Even then prime minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, defended the panchyat system by saying, “authority and power to the panchayats”.

B. Ashok Mehta committee and Panchayati Raj

Ø The committee was appointed in 1977 to suggest measures to revive and strengthen the declining panchayati raj system in India.

The key recommendations are:-

Ø The three-tier system should be replaced with two-tier system: Zila parishad (District-level) and the mandal panchayat (a group of villages).

Ø District level as the first level of supervision after the state level.

Ø Zila Parishad should be the executive body and responsible for planning at district level.

Ø The institutions (zila parishad and the mandal panchayat) to have compulsory taxation powers to mobilise their own financial resources.

C. G V K Rao committee and Panchayati Raj

Ø The committee was appointed by the planning commission in 1985. It recognised that development was not seen at the grass root level due to bureaucratisation resulting in panchayat raj institutions being addressed as “grass without roots”. Hence, it made some key recommendations which were as follows:-

Ø Zila Parishad to be the most important body in the scheme of democratic decentralisation. Zila Parishad to be the principal body to manage the development programmes at the district level.

Ø The district and the lower levels of the panchayati raj system to be assigned with specific planning, implementation and monitoring of the rural development programmes.

Ø Post of district development commissioner to be created. He will be chief executive officer of the zila parishad.

Ø Elections to the levels of panchayati raj system should be held regularly.

D. L M Singhvi committee and panchayat raj

The committee was appointed by the government of India in 1986 with the main objective to recommend steps to revitalise the panchayati raj system for democracy and development. The following recommendations were made by the committee:-

1. The committee recommended that the panchayat raj system should be constitutionally recognised. It also recommends constitutional provisions to recognise free and fair election for the panchayati Raj system.

2. The committee recommended reorganization of villages to make the gram panchayat more viable.

3. It recommended that village panchayats should have more finances for their activities

4. Judicial tribunals to be set up in each state to adjudicate matters relating to the elections to the Panchayat Raj institutions and other matters relating to their functioning.

Ø All these things further the argument that panchayat can be very effective in identifying and solving local problems, involve the people in the villages in the development activities, improve the communication between different levels at which politics operate, develop leadership skills and in short help the basic development in the states without making too many structural changes. Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh were the first to adopt panchayati raj in 1959, other states followed them later.

Ø  The act is a very significant step in creating democratic institutions at the grassroots level in the country. Art has transformed representative democracy into participating democracy.

Salient features of 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act , 1992

1. Gram sabha

2. Three-tier system

3. Election of members and chairperson

4. Reservation of seats :-

a) For SC and ST

b) For Women

c) The state legislatures are also given the provision to decide on the reservation of seats in any level of panchayat or office of chairperson in favour of backward classes.

5. Duration of panchayat

6. Disqualification

7. State election commission

8. Powers and functions

9. Finances

10. Finance commission

11. Audit of accounts

12. Application to union territories

13. Exempted state and areas

14. Continuance of existing law

15. Bar to interference by courts.

In India, the panchayati raj system is not a post-independence development. For decades, the village panchayat has been the most powerful political entity in rural India. Panchayats were elected councils in ancient India that had administrative and judicial authority. Panchayat Raj is a three-tiered administrative framework in India that focuses on rural development. The panchayati Raj is a system of local self-government that is used to build districts, zones and villages.

The Problem with Online Education in India

With Covid-19 disrupting all the hitherto establish modes of living, studying, and working in our society, more activities are being moved online. This is aimed at continuing our stream of activities but in a different mode so as to ensure that no business or endeavour is fatally suffering from this pandemic. While this might not be fully possible for every aspect of existence, it is a method to try and maintain a semblance of normalcy in our everyday activities. Most IT companies have moved completely online and allow all their workers to work from home. Restaurants and hotels rely highly on apps that deliver food to continue their business, and even education is now gearing to completely move online. This seems well and good at first glance but the question of whether this can ever be successful in a country like India is a serious one.

woman working at home using her laptop
Photo by Vlada Karpovich on Pexels.com

Our country is a developing one, where the majority of the population still lives in rural areas and the internet is not a luxury that everyone can afford nor have access to. While the need to continue education is important, one might ask at what cost this is being done. Even when we talk about work from home, we are all aware that a very narrow part of the population has this privilege. Daily wage workers do not get to work from home and they have no option but to risk their lives in the midst of the pandemic if the government itself fails to take care of them. Small scale industries and shops all close down. We have a massive economic crisis on our hands but alongside this, we need to understand that there will be a widening of the educational gap, a crisis whose effects we will start to fully comprehend in a couple of months.

Most middle-class and upper-class households are able to comply with the needs of online learning since they own laptops and smartphones. They also have enough money for data and internet connections. However, it is still a stark reality that education in rural India and amongst lower-class households is extremely limited owing to factors of economy and access, as well as gender and caste. India supposedly houses 430 million persons below the age of 18 many of whom come from rural settings. Only 47% of households in India have electricity for more than 12 hours a day according to a survey that the Ministry of Rural Development conducted in 2017-18. It is an eye-opener to the urban citizen that only 24% of Indians own a smartphone. And one must remember that in a household with more than one child, there has to be multiple gadgets for all of them to receive their education.

66% of India’s population lives in villages and an extremely minuscule portion of them will even be able to attend classes of any sort. The development of our country and much of its economy is reliant on these villages but if we forget them in this hour of need, the consequences will be hazardous for the whole country. If we do not take aggressive measures to tackle these problems and provide materials resources to those in need so that their children can access classes, the current online education system will create a massive digital divide that will cause a majority of the Indian population to suffer. It will impair their access to a better life and opportunity, any attempt to get on par with their privileged peers would largely result in failure and this will drive many to lives of low economic value, toil, suffering, and access. This will be carried forward into their coming generations. Unless addressed, it will lead to a systemic denial of the fundamental right to education and opportunity, and hence, while attending our own online lectures, we should take this very seriously and implement measures to better this situation in every possible way. This is not the only problem that online education creates but it is by far the most important.