Malawi'’s agricultural sector is critical to its economy, employing around 77% of the population and accounting for 23% of gross domestic product (GDP). The majority of workers in agriculture are smallholder farmers, many of whom cultivate less than one hectare of land. Despite its importance, the sector faces significant challenges, …
The need of the hour is to amend the 73rd Amendment to promote women's equal participation in three tiers of panchayats. All women's organisations and civil society organisations should form a common platform with a single agenda.
Local self-government in the form of panchayats and municipalities in our country are two grassroots democratic institutions msndated by the Constitution of India. They are neither any agencies of the government nor any sort of departments in the conventional sense within the framework of the government.
Is the Indian village becoming more inclusive after the introduction of panchayati raj? Professor BS Baviskar and Dr George Mathew of the Institute of Social Sciences, (ISS), New Delhi, embarked on a mission to find out. They got 17 serious researchers to spend a lot of time in villages, interacting …
In order to decentralise the planning process, Article 243ZD of the Constitution of India directs states to constitute District Planning Committees which are responsible for formulating draft district plans by consolidating the plans of the panchayats and municipal bodies. This provision of the Constitution however, does not cover certain parts …
Conflicts will increase in the next two decades but we have what it takes to keep going The next decade or two are going to be rough. Conflicts of all kinds will increase. These will be over water, land, technologies, energy sources, geopolitical power, religion and science. We will lurch …
This paper examines how political institutions and local power structures interact with and influence local public resource allocation in the Indian state of Karnataka. It use data from 80 village councils and 225 villages to examine how this local political economy influences the allocation of public resources. The empirical strategy …
Maharashtra is the first state in the country to launch state-wide reforms by empowering communities represented by Village Panchayat and VWSC to plan, design, execute and manage investment in drinking water and sanitation sector. This has entailed moving from top driven to bottom driven decision-making and involving beneficiaries at all …
This paper seeks to contribute to the literature on village governance and local public goods provision. Using data from 144 village-level governments in India's Tamil Nadu state, the paper examines whether the gender and caste of village government leaders influence village public goods provision. In particular, it examines: whether public …
This comparative study of panchayat elections in West Bengal and Punjab focuses on the broad objective of studying the process of institutionalisation of panchayati raj institutions. What forms they take in different contexts? What factors facilitate or retard the process? In particular, it is argued that the institutionalisation of the …
Ministry of Panchayati Raj will be responsible for the work of advocacy for and monitoring of the implementation of Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 and the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, hereinafter refer to as said Acts to ensure that the State Panchayati Raj …
Afghanistan has signed a near-identical MoU with three institutions in India - Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) and Institute of Social Sciences (ISS) for collaboration to promote the cause of local government. The Independent Directorate for Local Governance (IDLG) of Afghanistan and …
Decentralization is broadly defined as transfer of power to the lower level of government (PRIs). It mainly takes three forms, namely political, administrative and fiscal. The legitimacy of the centralized system of governance is on a decline because of various factors including lower participation by people, lack of accountability, weak …
Akhil Bhartiya Vidarthi Parishad activists wave the national flag during a protest in Jammu. JAMMU: Protesters blocked traffic and fought pitched battles with police here as the BJP-Shiv Sena sponsored shutdown demanding removal of Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra over the Amarnath Shrine land row entered the second …
Despite substantial decentralisation of power through panchayati raj institutions in West Bengal, the presence of an entrenched centralised party in power in the state has meant the use of such institutions as instruments of patronage. Violent battles have invariably taken place during panchayat elections, as these are seen as necessary …
Decentralisation of power and the institution of the panchayati raj system in West Bengal have been expected to aid the disappearance of subalternity (or a state of powerlessness) by way of caste, class and gender. On the contrary, an ethnographic investigation in a village panchayat reveals that divisions between the …
The national goals of removal of all forms of social injustice, inclusive development and removal of income and non-income poverty will remain elusive unless we enrich the practice of local democracy.
This paper makes an effort to provide a framework for good governance in India by identifying its essential features and shortcomings in its working. No theory of governance could be intelligible unless it is seen in the context of its time.
New institutions created through decentralisation policies around the world, notwithstanding the rhetoric, are often lacking in substantive democratic content. New policies for decentralised natural resource management have transferred powers to a range of local authorities, including private associations, customary authorities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Scholars see such transfers as detrimental …
a proposal to bring urban and local bodies under one head has been mooted once again. Mani Shankar Aiyar, Union minister of panchayati raj, has asked for urban local bodies to be put under his ministry "for effective planning to bridge the divide between urban and rural areas' and "better …
This report describes and analyses human development in the State of Tripura and its constituent districts and blocks. Tripura is a State of three million persons located in the North East of India and surrounded on three sides by Bangladesh.
