Empowering rural local bodies: Fully in letter, partially in spirit

The landmark 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution, which empowered the rural and urban local bodies, respectively, have completed 25 years of their existence. The amendments and subsequent Acts in various state legislatures in the last 25 years — yes, the change was gradual and not yet complete — established and empowered institutions of local self-governance, namely the gram (village) panchayat, block panchayat, and district panchayat in the rural, and the municipalities (councils and corporations) in the urban.

The amendments and Acts gave them taxation powers and powers to finance basic services that the populace needed. But have they really transformed governance in India? We look at the rural aspect in the first part.

The strengthening of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) was categorised in three aspects, or three Fs: Functions, funds, and functionaries. As many as 29 functions were recommended to be carried out by PRIs, while 11 more functions were added by various state Acts.

In terms of functions, Kerala and Karnataka have made changes in state Acts for almost all subjects devolved in the 73rd amendment. However, Maharashtra, which has the maximum own tax revenue per person from PRIs, has made changes in only three of the 40 subjects identified by the committee. In terms of funds, Maharashtra earns the highest tax per capita at all three levels of rural local bodies, while Haryana earns the highest non-tax revenues from rural local bodies among states. Majorly rural states like Chhattisgarh and Odisha earn no revenues from PRIs.

With regard to functionaries, Maharashtra has about 5,500 people working in rural local institutions per million population (2015), followed by Tamil Nadu at 4,000, and Kerala at 3,500 (in 2015). But Jharkhand and Bihar have less than 500 people to independently serve a million rural people.

The second part on urban local bodies will appear tomorrow

1: Union Finance Commissions (FCs), since the implementation, looked at decentralisation with an evolving focus and recommended special funds to PRIs, which were devolved from the Centre and states. There was a gradual increase in funds provided, while the actual expenditure in the FC tenure has been marginally below the fund availability

2: However, the amendments also recommended for the formation of state finance commissions (SFCs), in which only some states have succeeded. Even a relatively developed state like Gujarat, which has devolved most of the recommended subjects to PRIs, has not constituted its fourth SFC

3: Further, special funds are demarcated for capacity building in gram, block, and district panchayats, especially for having basic infrastructure, and training the functionaries for enhanced responsibilities. But in the last five years, there has been a poor utilisation of capacity building funds

4: However, in the aspect of participation of women in rural local politics has seen a substantial improvement. As of 2017, almost half of the elected representatives in rural local bodies are women. About 1.5 million women have been elected to gram panchayats across the country, after many states mandated reservation of 33%, and later 50%, seats to women
 

Source: Ministry of Panchayati Raj