The Truth about panchayats

IS the Indian village becoming more inclusive after the introduction of panchayati raj? Professor BS Baviskar and Dr George Mathew of the Institute of Social Sciences, (ISS), New Delhi, embarked on a mission to find out. They got 17 serious researchers to spend a lot of time in villages, interacting and observing. The outcome, published in a book, Inclusion and Exclusion in Local Governance: Field Studies from Rural India is remarkably insightful.

The book, comprising 16 studies from 14 states, captures the ground reality in India's villages. Yes, there is some dismal news but inexorable change is also taking place. Baviskar and Mathew spoke about their work to Milindo Chakravarti.

What was the motivation for the book?

The idea was concretised in 2000, seven years after the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution was passed. These years were a very important and critical period. By that time one election for panchayats in each state was over. We were closely watching what was happening at ground level. We had another compulsion to do such a study since we were the first institute to publish a 'Panchayati Raj Update' that provides a record of what is really happening at ground level in each state.

We found horrible things were taking place as far as the practice of democracy at the grassroots is concerned. Nobody is bothered about the practice of democracy at the national level. The percentage of voting in the panchayat elections is far higher than that recorded in Parliament or for that matter, even in the Assembly elections.

But the reality was terrible, for example, in Madhya Pradesh. All that they did was conduct the election. There was eerie calm outside but within villages women were molested, Dalits were beaten up, people were killed. One has to understand that any social change has a conflict dimension. It is not an evolutionary process. The introduction of panchayati raj institutions also triggered the conflict dimension of a democratic polity in India. Such atrocities are taking place even today.

To put the record straight, more than 50 per cent of the Indian population is still excluded from local level democratic governance and exclusion is still the norm of the day. The socio-economic-political reality, after the floodgates for institutionalising local democratic governance system were opened, motivated us to go for the study. Not to forget, the concerns, conviction, experience and sensitivity of ISS in strengthening the system of local governance and empowering the excluded.

Your study is unique. What was the methodology used?

Several studies have been done on panchayats in India. But the issues were different. The present study is unique in its attempt to understand the impact of panchayati raj institutions on the social fabric of India at village level. Methodologically also we diverted from the traditional way of carrying out research in a hierarchical manner involving researchers, consultants and investigators. Generally, researchers identify the questions and prepare structured questionnaires. Then, investigators collect the desired information. Consultants and researchers analyze the data and arrive at conclusions.

For our study, researchers spent more than two months in rural settings, attended at least one monthly meeting of the village panchayat and not only heard but observed the SC, ST and women representatives participating in the meetings. The degree of inclusion or the lack of it could be captured in a more realistic manner than what could have been understood through canvassing of structured questionnaires. Moreover, the researchers were so chosen that they had prior experience of carrying out socio-economic research in those regions and they were all conversant with the local language.

How did you gauge exclusion?

The motivation of the study was to ascertain if the underprivileged sections of rural India have really been empowered or not after the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution and if, yes, to what extent? For the purpose of the study, we defined empowerment as the ability to influence decision-making in a community level action despite the opposition of others. You are powerful in a community action when others oppose you but you still succeed. You are then considered empowered. So we were to find out if those belonging to SC/ST or the women were successful in influencing the decision making process.

What are some of the key findings of the study?

The process of inclusion is happening at a very slow pace. There exists considerable variation across states. However, the whole country has got a signal that the process of inclusion is here to stay and will grow at a faster pace in the days to come. But some basic issues like poverty and social security need to be seriously addressed as a precondition for empowerment to happen. It is interesting to note that the results of the Assembly elections in many states have been influenced by the attitude of the incumbent governments towards empowering the process of rural governance in general and sections of the underprivileged group in particular.