On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold a video conference with hundreds of sarpanches from across the country to mark the celebration of
Panchayati Raj Diwas. Calling panchayats as vital links of development and democracy, Prime Minister launched a slew of important schemes including unified e-GramSwaraj portal and mobile application and Swamitva Scheme. While e-GramSwaraj would help prepare and implement Gram Panchayat Development Plans, e-portal is a major step towards digitisation of Gram Panchayats. In applauding the sarpanches for their critical roles in ensuring social distancing and providing vital information related to COVID-19 on daily basis, the Prime Minister further exhorted them to make each panchayat “self-sufficient enough to provide for its basic needs.”
With panchayats emerging as front warriors in the collective fight against COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister’s address to key members of rural self-government institutions cannot be overemphasised. As has been reported, panchayats across the country have been playing extremely critical roles in containing coronavirus spread. One of the most talked about example is
Kerala. With its long history of decentralisation and both primary and secondary healthcare having placed under the purview of the third-tier institutions, panchayats in Kerala are on the forefront of coordinating government in tracing, organising health checkup camps, sanitation, social distancing messages among others. This apart, panchayats have been playing lead role in sustaining agricultural activities by ensuring the labour supply and availability of critical food supply chains in villages.
With its long history of decentralisation and both primary and secondary healthcare having placed under the purview of the third-tier institutions, panchayats in Kerala are on the forefront of coordinating government in tracing, organising health checkup camps, sanitation, social distancing messages among others.
Other states have delegated a lot of responsibilities to their panchayats as well. Recognising their importance in containing the spread of virus, recently Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik delegated sarpanch with the powers of a
district collector. Using Section 51 of the National Disaster Management Act, 2005, Odisha Chief Minister has empowered sarpanch to ensure quarantine of returnees and their families. To ensure a decentralised way of tackling pandemic, Odisha government has ensured every Gram Panchayat with registry facility and mechanisms for community-based monitoring. In short, panchayats have emerged as frontline institutions to stem the spread of virus. The roles of these institutions are going get even strong in the post-lockdown stage requiring considerable mitigation efforts.
Neglected institutions
From a top-down two-tier large democracy for many decades, the passage of crucial 73
rd constitution amendment in 1992 at one stroke created a third tier and opened the space for more than 250,000 new institutions called “panchayats.” Plus, the mandatory reservations for women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes that the 73
rd Amendment enumerated has brought up more than a million new representatives from these sections to the democratic spaces. This is arguably
India’s most transformative affirmative action for women in democratic politics. Compared to a measly 9% representation in Parliament and State Assemblies, a staggering 49% of elected representatives are women. There are 14 lakh elected women representatives now. Out of this, 86,000 women chair their local bodies.
Beyond these numbers and occasional heroics as in the case of COVID-19, Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) continue to play a subservient role notwithstanding the 73
rd Constitution Amendment entrusting them as critical “self-governing institutions” or little republics. The progress with regard to decentralisation and panchayats having modest degree of autonomy is slow due to numerous systemic bottlenecks and institutional challenges. This is largely because while most Indian states appear to have met the necessary conditions, such as enactment of the State Panchayat Act, setting up of the State Finance Commission, the State Election Commission and the District Planning Committee, still several of them have not devolved funds and functions to these local bodies.
The progress with regard to decentralisation and panchayats having modest degree of autonomy is slow due to numerous systemic bottlenecks and institutional challenges.
While some States like Kerala, West Bengal, Karnataka have devolved as many as 26 departments to Panchayats, several States have devolved only as low as three functions. In large number of cases, states that have devolved these departments to PRIs do so on paper. It is respective line departments and bureaucrats who call the shots. Many states have created parallel bodies to take over the functions assigned for panchayats. For instance, recently the Haryana government created a Rural Development Agency under the chairmanship of the chief minister to oversee the works of local bodies.
Yet, what is more troubling is the fact that despite 27 years of their existence, there have been little efforts to strengthen the capacities of these institutions. Not only very few States have done some work on internalising the planning process (mapping core activities) of panchayats, several States have not even paid any attention to build the capacities of the newly elected representatives, many of whom are first-timers and belongs to the most vulnerable sections particularly the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and women. So, lack of capacity raised plenty of doubts about efficacies of these institutions and has rightly challenged their credibility as self-governing institutions. Thus, it is not surprising that many elected representatives remain totally depend on officials to perform even basic works like file noting and budgeting and often become subjects of ridicule. This is more evident in the poorest and backward areas wherein the elected representatives find it tough to perform well in implementing rural development schemes. Ironically, such lack of capacity is being used as a smart pretext by the political and bureaucratic leaderships to not devolve many functions to these bodies. This situation is more precarious in the case of
Scheduled Areas with large Adivasi population.
Lack of capacity raised plenty of doubts about efficacies of these institutions and has rightly challenged their credibility as self-governing institutions. It is not surprising that many elected representatives remain totally depend on officials to perform even basic works like file noting and budgeting and often become subjects of ridicule.
Beyond issues of capacity, there are crucial roadblocks particularly the inadequate financial powers which has kept these self-governing institutions at the mercy of state governments and central largesse. Despite the
14th Finance Commission having recommended a significant portion of transfers for these bodies, the PRIs have received scant resources from the respective state governments. Further, their power of taxation has been very restricted. No panchayat is allowed to raise taxes on property. Even the judiciary has not come to their rescue on this. A case in point is the famous Dabhol incident where a Gram Sabha that tried to impose tax on the Enron project lost its case in the court of law. Thus, the key area of strengthening the reach and legitimacy of PRIs remain a distant dream.
Finally, while Prime Minister brought national attention by announcing the launching of e-GramSwaraj portal and mobile app for lakh panchayats, e-governance has moved at snail pace for all these years. While launching of e-GramSwaraj can address as much as 1.25 lakh panchayats, still another 1.25 lakh will wait for many years to leverage the benefits of new age technologies for improving accountability, transparency and effectiveness of their works.
To conclude, the crisis surrounding COVID-19 pandemic has clearly established the critical importance of panchayats in mobilising resources, managing intricate tasks and shouldering responsibilities that no other institution can replace. Post-pandemic, both Centre and States should not forget to ensure their legitimate constitutional status. A substantive transformation of panchayats requires political statesmanship from the States and the Centre.
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