FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
India is celebrating its National Panchayat Day on April 24, 2022. Former Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh had declared the first National Panchayati Raj Day on April 24, 2010. The annual celebration is done to commemorate the day on which the 73rd constitutional amendment was passed in 1992 which came into force in 1993. This year we are completing 30 years to the 73rd Amendment act which was passed in 1992. In Goa the 73rd amendment act was introduced by passing the Goa Panchayati Raj Act in 1994.
A democratic country like India lives in its villages and the development of India is not possible without the development of villages. Hence Panchayat becomes important as it is close to the heart of the villages. The development of the villages depends upon the effective functioning of the panchayats and the panchayat functions effectively only when the people from all the segments of the society are participating which includes men, women and youth of the village.
After independence the Panchayati Raj Institution was introduced in India on October 2, 1959 at Nagour in Rajasthan which was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The first elections under the Rajasthan Panchayat Samitis and Zilla Parishads Act, 1959 were held in September-October 1959. Various studies on participation in local self-governance shows that the percentage of adult male population is always high and it is a male dominated panchayat. The other issues the panchayats face are like absence of elections, no representations of women’s etc. To solve these issues 73rd amendment passed in 1992 with various features strengthening grassroots governance and one such provision was the 33% reservation for women which raised the percentage of women representation and with awareness their participation in gram sabhas was also increased. But when it comes to the youth their number is still very less in both ways politically as well as non-politically.
A major proportion of India’s population is made of youth which constitutes 28% and 34% of the youth contribute to the national income of India. To quote the 11th President of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam who rightly said that the hard work and sweat of the youth will transform India into a powerful nation.
Unfortunately, the participation of youth in strengthening local governance is not happening and the reasons could be for their less participation in local self-governance is lack of inclusive policy of administration of panchayat. Youth can be considered as the medium of change of local governance mainly for the reasons that youth are enthusiastic, creative, energetic and innovative who can bring change as per the changing time and circumstances of this technologised world.
Therefore, here it is a need for mainstreaming youth in local governance becomes important. Mainstreaming youth in local governance is referring to promoting the activities for empowering youth to play an active role in local governance. This can be done by giving them space and responsible positions in different committees of panchayats. Youth should be involved in decision making forums like village development plan and equipping them with personal and social skills to function as change agent in the society.
Mainstreaming of youth in local governance can be achieved by emphasising on four Es which includes Engage, Enable, Ensure and Empower. Engage implies including youth in panchayat deliberations, Enable implies giving the authority or means to do something innovative in the panchayats, Ensure implies making it sure that youth are engaged and enabled in panchayat activities and Empower implies making youth strong and confident by giving them space and responsibility in functioning of the panchayats.
However, participation of youth in the panchayats is not just limited to political activities that is to contest elections and get elected. In fact, it is more non-political. Youth have to be more active by participating in gram sabhas, members of various committees of panchayats and contribute to the preparation of village development plan. Similarly, the panchayat and its administration also have the inclusive policy of adjusting the views of youth while making its plans for the village. If there is a positive response received from both youth and panchayats then we can see a synergy developing between youth and panchayats which certainly help to strengthen the grassroots democracy.
