Village Studies Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Panchayati Raj is a system of governance in which gram (village) panchayats are the basic units of administration. It has three levels: village, block and district. Mahatma Gandhi advocated Panchayati Raj, a decentralized form of Government, where each village is responsible for its own affairs, as the foundation of India’s political system.
India's oldest available Granth “Rigveda" also refers to such local committees and gatherings as autonomous, democratic institutions. Historically, despite periodic political upheaval and changes in power centres on various occasions, these autonomous democratic institutions (Panchayats) continued to work in various forms.
In 1994, All gram panchayats of the country were considered as constitutional unit and to establish them as independent institution, to make them similar, to conduct the elections on a fixed time, to empower them financially, 72nd constitutional amendment was presented in Lok Sabha and the same was implemented as the 73rd constitutional amendment in the entire country.
In the case of Uttar Pradesh, the Panchayat Raj Act was signed into law by the Governor General on 7th December 1947, and with this 35000 panchayats representing a population of 5.40 crore came into existence. In addition to this, about 8 thousand panchayat courts were also established. Later on, a provision of the establishment of a comprehensive system of Panchayats was also made in the constitution of India. In 1951-52, the number of panchayats increased to 35943 and the panchayat courts also reached to 8492. In 1952, the Panchayats in rural life planned to start the nation-building work and the first five-year plan also started this year. In 1952-53, the tradition of Zamindari was abolished and the powers of panchayats were further extended. Since then the general election for the panchayats has continued to be held every five years. During the second phase of development of panchayats (1953-54, 1959-60), the name of the panchayat courts changed to Nyay Panchayat. In the continuation of development steps regarding panchayats, the panchayat act was amended in 1961 in the provisions related to the election of Gram panchayats & Nyay panchayats. In addition to this, the District Council Act, 1961 was adopted based on the Shri Balwant Rai Mehta Committee’s recommendations for the decentralization of power.
In 1988, the sixth general election of gram panchayats was held and in the same year, the Panchayati Raj Act 1988 was amended to ensure 30 per cent representation for women. In addition, provision was also introduced to ensure that each gram panchayat provided representation to at least one female SC member.
In keeping with the Seventy-third Constitutional Amendment 1992, Uttar Pradesh Kshetra Panchayat and Zila Panchayat Adhiniyam, 1961 was amended in 1994 to establish a three-tier Panchayati Raj Institution system of elected bodies. The amended act envisaged decentralization of power to rural self-governing bodies, viz. Gram Panchayat (GP) at the village level, Kshetra Panchayat (KP) at intermediate level and Zila panchayat (ZP) at the district level. The system of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) aimed at increasing the participation of people in local governance and effective implementation of rural development programmes. The overall supervision, coordination, planning and implementation of developmental schemes were vested with the ZP.
The total rural population as per Census 2011 (Provisional) was 15.51 Crore (13.71 Crore as per Census 2001). At the end of March 2011, there were 72 ZPs, 821 KPs and 51, 914 GPs in the state.
The last election to the elected bodies of the aforesaid PRIs was held during October-November 2010, in which 51,914 Gram Pradhans for GPs, 821 Pramukhs for KPs and 72 Adhyakshas for ZPs were elected.
On 28th September 2011, three new districts namely Prabuddha Nagar, Panchsheel Nagar and Bhim Nagar were created. With these new districts, the total number of districts has gone up to 75 in the state. All these 75 districts have District/Zila Panchayats. At subsequent levels, there are 821 Block/Kshetra Panchayats and 51,914-gram panchayats.