73rd Amendment: Panchayati Raj and rural local self-government explained

Why panchayats needed constitutional status

Village panchayats were not new in 1992, but they were weak. Article 40, a Directive Principle, had long directed the state to organise village panchayats and endow them with powers to function as units of self-government, yet panchayats existed only under state laws, with irregular elections, uncertain powers and no guaranteed funds. The L. M. Singhvi Committee in 1986 recommended that Panchayati Raj institutions be constitutionally recognised, and that recommendation paved the way for the 73rd and 74th Amendments.

The 73rd Amendment turned a policy aspiration into a constitutional requirement. By writing panchayats into the Constitution itself, it made their structure, elections and basic powers uniform across states and protected them from being dissolved or starved at a state government's convenience.

The three tiers and the Gram Sabha

The amendment mandates a three-tier system of Panchayati Raj in states with a population above 20 lakh: the Gram Panchayat at the village level, the Panchayat Samiti at the intermediate or block level, and the Zila Parishad at the district level. Each tier is an elected body, so that decisions about local development are taken by representatives chosen in the area itself rather than by officials posted from above.

At the base of the system sits the Gram Sabha, a body of all persons registered in the electoral rolls of a village within the area of a village panchayat. The Gram Sabha is the foundation of the system: it is the forum where villagers can directly discuss plans, raise grievances and hold their panchayat to account, making it the most direct form of democracy in the constitutional scheme.

Elections, reservations and tenure

Every panchayat has a fixed tenure of five years, and if one is dissolved earlier, fresh elections must be held within six months of dissolution, so that a gap in local government cannot be stretched indefinitely. A State Election Commission is constituted in every state for the superintendence, direction and control of electoral rolls and elections to the panchayats, keeping local elections out of the direct control of the state government.

Representation is built into the design. Seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population, and not less than one-third of seats and of chairperson offices are reserved for women. That reservation is one of the amendment's most far-reaching effects: it brought lakhs of women and members of disadvantaged communities into elected office at the grassroots for the first time.

Powers and money: 29 subjects and finance commissions

The Eleventh Schedule, added by the amendment, lists 29 functional items that fall within the purview of panchayats, including agriculture, land improvement, minor irrigation, animal husbandry, rural development, education and health. States are expected to devolve powers and responsibilities over these subjects so that panchayats can prepare and implement plans for economic development and social justice in their areas.

Money follows a parallel channel. The Governor of each state must constitute a State Finance Commission every five years to review the financial position of panchayats and recommend how taxes and grants should be shared between the state and the panchayats. As with municipalities under the 74th Amendment, the honest caveat is that real power still depends on how much each state actually devolves; the Constitution guarantees the institutions and the elections, while the depth of devolution varies by state.

Editorial disclosure

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