People’s perception about panchayati raj system in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand
Loading...
Date
2016-08
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
Panchayati Raj System (PRS) is identified as an institutional expression of democratic decentralization in India. It is a system of self-governance for rural people electing their own leaders to look after the village administration (Bhandari, 2013). In the year 1993, the Government of India took a revolutionary step by making Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) a part of the constitution. The introduction of constitutionally mandated panchayat system through the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act was the most significant experiment in reforming governance in India. The main objective of the 73rd amendment was to create a new system of PRIs with People’s participation providing good governance at grassroots level. Since the 73rd Amendment came into force, panchayat elections have been regularly held in all the States and Union Territories, reservations have been provided to the women, SC, ST and OBC in proportion to their share of the population in each panchayat area. Panchayati Raj (PR) in its initial phase of implementation did succeed in the empowerment of rural people by ensuring their participation in decision making process but there are reports that the PR because of poor implementation has failed to realize the dreams of its architects (Rao, 2009).The ground reality of the working of PRS indicates very weak and ineffective implementation leading to little progress on the path of rural development.
Though this system has brought some significant changes in the lives of rural people and has been instrumental in bringing women in political arena; it has not been effective up to expectations in building the reputation of being a democratic development agency among rural people (Gandhi, 2015). The system suffers from miscellaneous difficulties like mass illiteracy, class consciousness, in egalitarian attitude of officials, ignorance, party strife and limited financial and administrative autonomy and lack of faith in grass roots democracy etc. (Sharma, 1997).Perception of rural people towards PR has not been favourable due to these lacunae so the present situation poses serious questions on the implementation of the PRS. Thus there is a strong need to study the villagers’ point of view towards the PRIs and analyse the perception of people about PRS. Therefore, keeping in mind the researchable gaps the study entitled “People’s perception about Panchayati Raj System in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand” was undertaken.
The exploratory research design was used to meet out the objectives of the study. Two blocks namely Gadarpur and Kashipur were selected randomly out of seven blocks of the district. Two Gram Panchayats (GPs) namely Vijaynagar (GP1) from Gadarpur block and Khadakpur-devipura (GP2) from Kashipur block, were selected randomly. Further two villages from each selected GP were selected through simple random sampling method. Thus in all four villages, namely Vijaynagar and Kalinagar (from GP1), Khadakpur and Shyampuram (from GP2) were selected. Those who are registered as the voters in their respective village panchayats, were targeted as the respondents of the study. A total sample size of 120 respondents, 60 each from Vijaynagar and Khadakpur-devipura GPs were selected. The data collected was coded, tabulated, analysed and interpreted with the help of appropriate statistical tools like mean, frequency, percentage, standard deviation etc.
Findings of the study revealed
that the majority of respondents were of middle age (26 to 48 years), male, general caste, had educational qualification up to graduate/above and major family occupation was farming and service. Majority of them were landless, belonged to medium family size and above poverty line (APL). Majority of respondents had medium level of cosmopoliteness, social participation, information seeking behaviour, achievement motivation and leadership ability. Total 50 per cent respondents had medium level mass media exposure and most of the respondents were having medium level of awareness towards PRS. Another important finding was that the overall perception of majority of the respondents was ambivalent towards PRS and huge majority of the respondents took part in last panchayat voting. Most of the respondents had regular interaction with Gram Pradhan and other elected representatives. Majority of the respondents had visited the GP office at least once. It was disappointing that majority of the respondents thought they did not play important role in panchayat activities. Majority of the respondents get prior information about meetings of Gram Sabha and used to attend Gram Sabha meetings. Distribution of money and alcohol in the society by nominated candidates during and prior to elections, False voting/proxy voting in panchayat elections, Proxy representation of women Pradhan and representatives by their husband or any family member in discharging duties/functions/role performance, Lack of higher education and political experience among elected representatives etc. were major problems under PRS.
Description
Keywords
null