ROLE PEIRCEPTION AND ROLE PERFORMANCE OF FORMAL LEADERS WORKING UNDER PANCHAYATI RAJ SYSTEM IN KHEDA DISTRICT OF GUJARAT STATE
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Date
1999
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AAU, Anand
Abstract
The Government of India has made continuous, conscious development of villages and for the upliftment of the rural people through different development programmes like, Community Development, National Extension Service, Panchayati Raj System, Intensive Agricultural Development Programme, Training and Visit System, National Rural Employment Programme, Integrated Rural Development Programme etc. Democracy in India created and promoted socio-political climate for the autonomy of the rural people. The concept of Panchayati Raj emerged of such thinking for rural India. The community development programme gives rural leadership a dynamic form. It is performed by providing opportunities for their talents to satisfy the felt needs of the people. The introduction of Panchayati Raj System, provides a real framework for activities of rural leadership. The varied scope of activities of the Panchayati Raj System has given opportunity to the so far neglected people of the society to develop the position of leadership, the talent of the emerging leaders and their devotion to work for the development of the country have given them a place of supremacy in their group. The Panchayati Raj has introduced its own "Rural leaders" in the form of sarpanch and panch and other elected/nominated members on their executive. With the formation of Panchayati Raj it is hoped that the democratic progress of administration and welfare schemes for the total rural development and for community well being would take place more rapidly than what is used to happen with the efforts of other leaders. There are three layers/stages of Panchayati Raj System namely district panchayat at district level, taluka panchayat at taluka level and village panchayat at village level. The Panchayati Raj System or local self government formed by the representatives elected by people can carry out the programmes of administration and rural development on the basis of the felt need of that particular area. Thus, a more precise knowledge on the formal leaders, regarding different leadership roles, how they perceive and perform and what personality traits are crucial towards the role perception and role performance need to be studied carefully. Kheda district is being considered as one of the progressive districts of Gujarat state. The irrigation facilities has led to intensive cultivation of all the commercial and food crops which facilitated more income and high standard of living. The Panchayati Raj System is also existing since 1961 in the district, so far no systematic efforts have been made in this region to assess the role perception and role performance of formal leaders working under three tier system of Panchayati Raj in the district. Taking this in view, the present study entitled "Role perception and role performance of formal leaders working under Panchayati Raj System in Kheda district of Gujarat State" was undertaken with the following specific objectives: 1. To study the personal-social, economic, psychological and communication characteristics of formal leaders. 2. To determine and describe the leader's perception of different leadership roles to be played by them. 3. To study the extent of leadership roles actually performed by the leaders. 4. To find out the association between personal-social, economic, psychological and communication characteristics and role perception, role performance of the leadership roles by the leaders. 5. To predict the variation in leader role perception and role performance caused by independent variables. 6. To study the constraints experienced by the leaders while performing various roles. 7. To seek suggestions from the formal leaders to over come the constraints. The study was conducted in Ten talukas of Kheda district namely, Anand, Petlad, Khambhat, Borsad, Nadiad, Balasinor, Kapadvanj, Matar, Mahemdabad and Thasra. On the basis of total number of villages all the talukas of Kheda district were classified into two categories, Big and Small taluka. Each taluka was divided into two categories, Big villages and Small villages, in big village category (above 5000 population) and small village category (upto 5000 population). From big taluka 6 villages (2 big and 4 small villages) and from small talukas 4 villages (1 big and 3 small villages) were randomly selected. Among total villages, 15 big and 35 small villages, total 50 villages were selected for the present study on random basis. From each village 3 formal leaders (sarpanch, Deputy sarpanch and Chairman of social justice committee) were selected at village level. Thus, the total sample of formal leaders at village level was constituted 150. From each taluka president, deputy president, chairman of executive committee and social justice committee were selected. Thus, the total sample of formal leaders at talukas level was constituted 35. At district level 9 formal leaders i.e. president, deputy president and chairman of different committees were selected. Thus, the total sample of formal leaders was constituted 194 formal leaders for the study. For the purpose of present investigation, the total number of respondents were categorised into two categories viz., grass root level (sarpanch, deputy sarpanch and chairman of social justice committee) and upper level (taluka panchayat and zila panchayat president, deputy president and chairman of different committees). The data were collected from the respondents by arranging personal interview with 194 formal leaders of 50 selected villages with the help of interview schedule. The dependent variables were : role perception and role performance and independent variables namely age, education, caste, social participation, socio-economic status, occupation, size of land holding, level of income, cosmopolite-localiteness, opinion leadership, attitude towards Panchayati Raj System, exposure to mass media and extension participation were measured by using suitable scales and procedures adopted by various researchers. The collected data were then transferred to master table and analysed in order to make the findings meaningful. For analysis of the data, the statistical measures such as percentage, co-efficient of correlation, multiple regression analysis and path coefficient analysis were used.
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Extension Education, Agriculture, A CASE STUDY