Panchayat: Foundation stone of the Indian growth story

New Delhi, June 8 (SocialNews.XYZ) In the long history of the Indian civilization, villages and rural setups have played a vital role and are often synonymous with the culture and the traditions of our communities. Therefore it is understandable why Mahatma Gandhi repeatedly emphasized his desire to identify India with its villages and advocated the concept of Gram Swaraj.

In his idea of Gram Swaraj, Mahatma Gandhi underlined rural development and village self-sufficiency inspiring the collective society to pave the way from Gramodaya to Rashtrodaya (Nation-building and development through rise of villages).

Throughout the last half a decade, there have been constant endeavors from the government to move towards a more representative setup involving as many stakeholders as possible in the route towards effective governance. To that effect, the government has attempted to involve the grassroots leadership and interact with more than 31 lakh public representatives of 2.5 lakh gram panchayats over the last few years. As part of these interactions, the emphasis has been clear - that representatives of the panchayat (including Pradhan, Mukhiya and other members etc) have adequate authority and are well within their rights to demand certain things of the state representatives, in order to build a model village.

Since most of these representatives were unaware of the extent of their authority, it was a welcome change to have the top leadership re-empower them with the same. In the ever-expanding role, panchayat officials have now set about taking decisions and prioritizing their projects for the development of the village.

There has been a renewed focus on the Samras Gram Panchayat (Inclusive Village Council) concept that was adopted in Gujarat, wherein maximum strength and growth comes from villages that have been bestowed with utmost importance. Therefore, it becomes important to give these villages some amount of freedom and self-sufficiency in order to carry all developmental works as per their needs.

As the nation has been celebrating the 75th anniversary of independence (Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsava), it provides for an opportune moment to bring Gandhi's dream of rural development to fruition. Even though capitalism and liberalization of the economy in the past three decades have moved the nation further away from its villages in search of better opportunities, it is significant to recognise and appreciate the connect and the firm footing that these villages have within our culture.

At the forefront of our peoples' progress and culture, the nation can only prosper if the villages are catered to properly. Therefore, it becomes all the more necessary for the panchayats' roles to be expanded to provide for modern villages and efficient setups.

Over the last few years, there has been a renewed focus on health services, education, women empowerment, water sanitation facilities, toilets, affordable housing, micro-financing and village as self-reliant unit. In the next few years, the government aims to focus on digitizing land ownership schemes, providing high-speed Internet, building more roads in villages as well as a common service centre in every village.

In the last 3 years alone, water has been supplied to nearly twice the number of households compared to the number of tap connections that were installed in the last 70 years. In fact, India has largely become open defecation free with the ODF, ODF+ and ODF++ status being granted to villages, towns and cities as per their performance and stringency with which these activities have been stopped. The aforementioned are merely examples that attest to the fact that the rural areas of India and its population have often received the short end of the stick and been ignored for years, though the same seems to changing for the better now.

Additionally, unlike previous years where the discussion revolved around the budget being allocated for the development of the village, the discussion presently has less to do with the amount that is released but how the sanctioned amount would be used for the development of the people.

However, plaguing the system is the improper implementation of reservation for women at the panchayat level. Though women make up 49 per cent of the electorate, the representation at village level, street level and the national level is approximately 1/7th of that figure. At the village level, there is the social evil of husbands ruling the roost in the names of their wives (Sarpanch Pati culture). There is an urgent need to eliminate this culture so that women are truly empowered to take decisions on their own and manage villages with their inclusive approach in the direction of Gram Swaraj.

Now, it is well conceived that despite multiple challenges, India has done a good job ensuring advancement for the society at the rural level, with numerous social sector schemes and women-centric empowerment as well. The greater the strength of the system, the better it is for democracy, and the benefits of such development would percolate to the people at the rock bottom in the society.

Numerous schemes like the e-NAM as well as the Svamitva scheme would help villages attain self-sufficiency at a larger scale with the advent of sufficient employment opportunities at the village-level. These schemes are directly benefiting in ameliorating the condition of the poor, dependents and marginalized sections of village society. They are carried out in several aspects such as community empowerment in strengthening village government institutions, community empowerment in the economic, social, education, health, renewable energy and sustainable development.

Public awareness through development participation is the main capital for the success of these schemes. Hence it is necessary to optimize community participation in these emancipatory activities so that the dream project of self-reliant India can be realized through empowered villages and villagers at the core.

Source: IANS