Panchayati Raj - How india's villages work
Subscribe to Epified Here: ****** The smallest unit of governance in India is the Gram Panchayat. On the occasion of Panchayati Raj Diwas, Epified gives you a brief introduction to the idea of local governance. Hit Like for More Videos!!!! Don't forget to Comment & Share..!!! Follow us on Facebook ******
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Imagine a community of people in need of administrative leadership.
A small community of, say 20 people,
can have one leader. But what about a hundred people? What about a thousand people? What
about millions? In short - what about an entire nation?
The larger a group or community, the more difficult it becomes for a single point of
authority to govern it effectively. A country as large as India can't be ruled from one place.
This is why we have many States, each with its own Government. These States are
divided into districts, townships, and villages.
The smallest unit of governance in India exists on the village level. It is known as the Panchayat.
It is composed of five elders of the village who dispense justice and resolve disputes.
Though Panchayats are a part of how modern India functions, their history stretches back
to ancient times. Panchayats are the oldest system of local self-governance in the Indian
subcontinent. After India gained its independence, Mahatma Gandhi wanted Panchayati Raj to be
the foundation of India's political system because he believed that villages contained
the essence of India.
In 1993, the seventy-third and the seventy-fourth amendments to the Constitution of India created
more streamlined structures for Panchayats on the village and district levels. However,
Gram Panchayats as they exist today are markedly different from both Gandhi's vision and the
way they functioned traditionally.
The Gram Panchayat is now led by a Sarpanch who is democratically elected by the people
of the village. The five elders of the council are elected by the Gram Sabha, which is made
of every member of a village above the age of eighteen. Together, the Sarpanch and the
other elected members, constitute the Gram Panchayat.
In recent times, there have been proposals made to give the Sarpanch the power to look
into some civil and criminal cases as well. Different States have different rules and
regulations in place to decide the extent of the Panchayat's powers.
In 2005, Bihar became the first state to offer 50 per cent of the Panchayat seats to women.
Many other States followed soon after. In Odisha, March 5 - the birth anniversary of
the State's former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik - is celebrated as Panchayati Raj Diwas.
Village-level administration can take politics from being something far removed from everyday
existence, to something that is very present in the life of every citizen and every voter.
