The Constitution of India defines Panchayats as institutions of local self-government in rural India. The 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts, 1992 have Constitutionalised the Panchayats and Municipalities and is a step in the direction of speeding up the process of decentralisation and giving strength as well as stability to local institutions. They are historic in nature as they have got the potential to transform the existing character of our democracy.

The unique features of the act are mentioned below:

• Gram Sabha - Gram Sabha refers to a constitutional village body that Article 243 (b) of the Indian Constitution has the power to perform the functions that are bestowed to this body by the State Legislature.
• State Election Commission - State Election Commission is the body that takes care of the independent elections which are conducted every five years, for electing the panchayat bodies in different territories of the state government. The responsibility of controlling, maintaining and preparation of the electoral rolls lies in the hands of the State Election Commission.
• Three-tier system - With this, Panchayati Raj Institutions would be set up at three levels of a particular state, village level, the intermediate level and the district levels. This provision is passed on through Article 243-B of the Indian Constitution.
• Composition of the Panchayats - With accordance to the Article 243-C of the Indian Constitution, the power of deciding the composition of the panchayat raj bodies will be decided by the State Legislature. The members in a particular body would depend on the population of that particular area.
• Manner of Election - Direct elections are to be conducted for electing the bodies at the village, intermediate and the district levels. However, the responsibility of the election and the choice of the chairman from that elected body is indirectly in the hands of the body elected through direct elections.
• Reservation of the Seats - The problem of non-representation of the weaker sections was also removed with this Amendment and thus, now these sections of the society had an equal representation in the PRIs of the various villages. It is Article 243-D that provided for the provisions related to the reservation of the backward classes of the society. Notably, the act has given or reserved 1/3rd seats in the Panchayat bodies for the women who belongs the the category of SC’s and ST’s.
• Duration of Panchayats - With Article 243E of the Indian Constitution, it is decided that the panchayat bodies are elected by direct elections for every five years. In fact, if a new panchayati body is elected in between the tenure of the existing panchayat body, then the new ones will work for the remaining tenure of the existing panchayati raj body.
• Duties of the Panchayats - The State authority has the power to bestow various responsibilities that it thinks as fine to the local self-government. Further, the panchayat bodies makes and takes detailed care of the economic development and the social justice of the area which is accorded to it. The legislations made by the central and the state government are taken into consideration by the panchayats, who implements these policies at the ground level, thus increasing the reach of the policies.
• Finance Commission - The Governor of the state holds the responsibility of setting up a State Finance Commission to look after the finances of the local level areas. Further, it is this body, which decides the proper and necessary division of the taxes between the state authorities and the panchayat bodies. It is the Consolidated Funds of the State that funds the activities of the State authorities and the village level bodies under the state.

Marginalised sections in the local bodies

• Social inclusion: It is an important planning approach regarding the minimization of the traditional feeling of SCs & STs in our society, particularly in terms of keeping them away from society
• Issues of human rights brought into focus: With the new generation of local bodies starting to function there are several issues which have come to force having a bearing on human rights
• Welfare of people: The elected representatives of Scheduled caste and Scheduled Tribes are actively participating in the decision-making and implementation of different pro-poor programmes at the local level
• The leaders have accorded priority to the developmental activities which would lead to the benefit of the community
• Benefits of Article 243D: the article specifies the mandatory rotation that is the structural constraints of reservation of streams from constituencies from one election to the next election, it has benefited the same group or community to contest in the neighbouring constituency under reservation
• Empowerment of women: the political empowerment has enhanced the social status of women enabling them to participate in all matters concerned with the society on an egalitarian basis

Challenges

• Lack of meaningful stakes: many chairperson and members of local bodies feel deprived not because of their direct or indirect elections but due to lack of meaningful stakes in the local governance
• Continuance of traditionally dominant groups: the continued dominance of traditional groups especially in the rural India and the constitutional provisions of the amendment have further intensified the conflict ridden rural situation resulting in in violation of human rights on mass scale including violence ,bloodshed and loss of life
• There have been instances when widespread violence preceded or followed elections in most of the states and many seats were won without being contested.
• This shows that tussle of power exist not just between states and local bodies but also between traditionally dominant power structure and emerging new leadership from the marginalised groups at the grassroots
• The dominant groups vehemently oppose the weaker sections particularly Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes to exercise their constitutional rights by participating in the process of voting, campaigning, lobbying their own representatives etc
• Institutional barriers: rotation of seats, no confidence motion and two child norm are some of the major institutional barriers to the effective participation of marginalised
• The instances of bringing no confidence motion against the scheduled caste leaders were common
• The two child norm for Panchayat members is likely to discourage women, particularly those belonging to the marginalised sections from being candidates
• Participation in decision making: as the members of Gram Sabha the participation of dalits and other excluded sections has been nominal and proxy, it is mainly because of two reasons-
• Existing social realities and power equations
• Lack of awareness among the marginalised sections

Looking ahead

• Social justice committee: it should be legislated to be an integral part of each tier Panchayati Raj institutions in all states of the country to fulfil the twin purposes of economic development and social justice
• Training of government officials: the efforts should be made for sensitization and training of government officials especially at district and block levels to the constitutional requirement of the obligations to work for the elected representatives from the marginalised and excluded sections of the society

The marginalised sections themselves are participating in the decision-making and implementing process particularly in developing their communities and also their localities, though there are some issues which need to be addressed. A positive step in this direction would give more impetus to the empowerment of the excluded sections of the society.