NATIONAL PANCHAYATI RAJ DAY

1. Context

2. What was the context of Gandhi's Quote?

• “Independence must mean that of the people of India, not of those who are today ruling over them… Independence must begin at the bottom. Thus, every village will be a republic or Panchayat having full powers. It follows, therefore, that every village has to be self-sustained and capable of managing its affairs even to the extent of defending itself against the whole world.”
• In his various experiments against colonial forces and creating an alternative to their model of governance, Gandhi put forth values like ahimsa (non-violence) and Satya (truth).
• But apart from ideology, he also gave practical steps for achieving true self-rule or swaraj. He said India must have panchayats, a set up where the adults of the village elect a council of five people and head among them, as local representatives.
• Although, Gandhi clarifies this does not mean not taking any help from the outside world, but simply that each person must be so capable as to take care of their own basic needs in life in harmony with nature and those around them.
• This would mean contributing labor for public work like sanitation, growing food locally, creating a rotational force for guarding the village, ensuring education for all, wearing hand-spun khadi to promote local artisans, shunning intoxicants, etc.

3. Gandhi's values and ideologies with respect to Village

• Gandhi put forth values like ahimsa (non-violence) and Satya (truth).
• But apart from ideology, he also gave practical steps for achieving true self-rule or swaraj.
• He said India must have panchayats, a set up where the adults of the village elect a council of five people and a head among them, as local representatives.
• This does not mean not taking any help from the outside world, but simply that each person must be so capable as to take care of their own basic needs in life in harmony with nature and those around them.
• This would mean contributing labor for public work like sanitation, growing food locally, creating a rotational force for guarding the village, ensuring education for all, wearing hand-spun khadi to promote local artisans, shunning intoxicants, etc.
• Gandhi pressed for democratic decentralization. The idea also reflects his larger inclination towards preserving Indian traditions and resisting external forces.

4. Importance of Democratic Decentralisation

• Gandhi's concept of democratic decentralization bears the stamp of his passionate belief in non-violence, truth, and individual freedom.
• He calls it Panchayati Raj or village Swaraj. He wants to see each village a little republic, self-sufficient in its vital wants, organically and non-hierarchically linked with the larger spatial bodies, and enjoying the maximum freedom of deciding the affairs of the locality.
• Gandhi wanted political power to be distributed among the villages in India. Gandhi preferred the 'Swaraj' to describe what he called true democracy.
• This democracy is based upon freedom. Individual freedom in Gandhi's view, could be maintained only in autonomous, self-reliant communities that offer opportunities to the people for fullest participation.

5. Village Panchayats

• The vehicle that was most ideal to initiate both political and economic democracy at the grassroots level was the Panchayat Raj system.
• Mahatma Gandhi's tours all across the country reinforced his convictions that India would benefit if the villages were governed by Village Panchayats based on the principle of "simple living and high thinking".
• These were village republics that were self-contained and self-reliant and had all that people want.
• These were the institutions where a minimum standard of living could be accorded to all human beings.
• An individual had maximum freedom and opportunity to develop his personality to the greatest extent. In these republics, there would be a diminution of the state and the roots of democracy deepened.
• According to him, centralization cannot be sustained as a system without adequate force. The affairs are to be managed by Panchayats consisting of five persons elected annually.
• Gandhi aimed the individual at the center of the local administration.
• People are expected to take a personal interest and turn up in large numbers at the meeting to deliberate problems of common interest such as village industries, agricultural production, obligation, and planning.

6. What was the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act of 1992?

• Before the act, India’s Constitution only mentioned a two-tier form of government and local institutions found a mention only in Directive Principles of State Policy which is not enforceable by courts or bound to be followed, only meant as a guiding document for governments.
• With a lack of focus here, absence of regular elections, insufficient representation of marginalized sections like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and women, inadequate devolution of powers (transfer from a higher level of government to the lower levels) and lack of financial resources from the state and the Centre were some issues plaguing village-level governance.
• Several committees were constituted for studying these issues, such as the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee and the Ashok Mehta Committee, which gave important recommendations.
• In the late 1980s, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi Prioritised the issue and after cross-party support, the measure was finally passed.
• Being enshrined in law and an amendment to the Constitution meant these provisions could no longer be easily ignored.
• The 74th Amendment Act passed in the same year, sought to look at local governance in urban areas and constituting municipal bodies. 

7. What did the Act Change?

• It said the state government may develop powers for such bodies to implement schemes for economic development and social Justice, authorize a Panchayat to levy, collect, and appropriate taxes, duties, and tolls, and provide for making such grants-in-aid to the Panchayats from the Consolidated Fund of the State a major move to help fund them.
• It mandated women's representation in one-third of the seats. Women now constitute more than 45 percent of the nearly three million panchayat and gram sabha representatives in the country, standing in contrast to their representation in the current Lok Sabha, at 14 percent. Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes groups were also mandated to be assigned seats in proportion to their presence in the population.
• A five-year term was fixed for representatives, with a procedure given for conducting timely elections.
• It also noted that the Governor of a state would constitute a Finance Commission to review the financial position of the Panchayats and then recommend to her what their requirements are, how they can be met, etc.

8. Evaluation of the Act

• The act has been instrumental in involving more and more people in the democratic processes at a grassroots level.
• Decentralization generally results in more transparency between the government and the people, better grievance redressal, and better information flow.
• Civil servants can gain timely news about developing health concerns or outbreaks in rural areas, for example, to suggest intervention.

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