Amid low participation in the country’s local self-governance system — Gram Sabhas — a report by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj has called for line departments at the state level to present status updates on service delivery and schemes at the sabhas to instil confidence among voters to attend the meetings.
According to the research conducted by the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, many participants in Gram Sabhas felt that the meetings serve as platforms to raise issues about service delivery, schemes and infrastructure, but emphasised the need for the presence of line departments and responsible officials to make the exercise meaningful.
NITI Aayog member R Balasubramanian — who launched the report with officials from the Ministry of Panchayati Raj — said that recommendations made to improve local self-governance need to be built into a government programme to make the panchayat system more robust in districts.
The report suggests strengthening convergence between Panchayati Raj Institutions and line departments to improve service delivery, grievance redressal and responsiveness to community concerns. Moreover, it also recommends institutionalising Action Taken Reports (ATRs), grievance-tracking systems, public review mechanisms and follow-up processes to improve transparency, accountability and public trust.
Moreover, more than 55 per cent of the respondents to the nationwide survey said that attending the meetings became difficult as they clashed with agricultural work and daily-wage labour timings.
“Participation patterns were found to be closely linked with local occupational conditions and scheduling practices. The findings indicate that economically vulnerable households often face practical difficulties in attending meetings conducted during working hours or peak agricultural periods,” the report said.
Open-ended citizen responses repeatedly emphasised the need for evening meetings, holiday/Sunday meetings, avoidance of agricultural seasons, and flexible scheduling arrangements.
The report found that a large majority of people attend fewer than five Gram Sabha meetings a year.
