Comrades Editorial · 07 Sep 2026 (PDF)
In this edition
- Democratic Decentralisation in India: From Devolution to Self-Governance Polity & Governance
Polity & Governance
Democratic Decentralisation in India: From Devolution to Self-Governance
Source This editorial is based on “India needs a second generation of decentralisation reforms” published in the Hindu on 05/09/2026. The article highlights that despite robust electoral representation, local bodies suffer from structural bottlenecks, requiring urgent second-generation reforms to achieve true fiscal and administrative autonomy. The 16th Finance Commission’s (2026–31) historic ₹7.91 lakh crore allocation for rural and urban local bodies has revived debates on strengthening India’s local bodies. Despite constitutional status under the 73rd and 74th Amendments, 1992, panchayats and municipalities remain hobbled by the incomplete devolution of funds, functions, and functionaries. This calls for strengthening the vision of democratic decentralisation envisaged by Mahatma Gandhi, who advocated Gram Swaraj, a system where villages become self-governing, empowered units of democracy with citizens actively participating in decisions affecting their lives. How has India Deepened Democratic Decentralisation and Strengthened Local Self-Government?- Evolution From Administrative Decentralisation to Local Democracy:
- The Community Development Programme, 1952 and National Extension Service, 1953 initially promoted rural development through government officials, but lacked popular participation.
- The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee, 1957 recommended democratic decentralisation through a three-tier Panchayati Raj system.
- Rajasthan inaugurated Panchayati Raj at Nagaur in 1959, followed by Andhra Pradesh. The Ashok Mehta Committee, 1978 later emphasised political-party participation, regular elections and stronger district-level planning.
- Constitutionalisation of Local Self-Government:
- The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts, 1992 transformed Panchayats and Municipalities from discretionary State creations into institutions of self-government.
- Part IX and Part IX-A, regular five-year elections, reservations, State Election Commissions and State Finance Commissions gave local democracy institutional continuity.
- The Eleventh Schedule contains 29 subjects for Panchayats, while the Twelfth Schedule contains 18 functions for Municipalities, covering agriculture, health, sanitation, water supply and urban planning.
- Deepening Electoral Democracy at the Grassroots:
- India now has more than 2.5 lakh Panchayats and approximately 24 lakh elected Panchayat representatives.
- Periodic local elections have produced a vast cadre of grassroots leaders and converted villages from passive administrative units into political decision-making spaces.
- The Gram Sabha, comprising all registered voters in a village, represents India’s most extensive mechanism of direct democracy. It approves plans, questions representatives and monitors expenditure.
- Social Democratisation Through Political Reservations:
- Articles 243D and 243T mandate reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and at least one-third of seats for women in local bodies.
- More than 20 States and 2 Union Territories have raised women’s reservation in Panchayats to 50%.
- The Sashakt Panchayat Netri Abhiyan now seeks to strengthen women representatives’ leadership and decision-making capabilities.
- Transition From Top-Down Planning to Participatory Planning:
- The Gram Panchayat Development Plan, or GPDP, enables communities to identify local priorities relating to drinking water, sanitation, roads, livelihoods and nutrition.
- During 2025–26, more than 2.55 lakh Gram Panchayats uploaded their development plans on eGramSwaraj, indicating the growing institutionalisation of bottom-up planning.
- Kerala’s People’s Plan Campaign devolved a substantial share of plan expenditure to local bodies and demonstrated how participatory planning can link local knowledge with public investment.
- Extension of Self-Governance to Tribal Areas:
- The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, or PESA, recognises tribal Gram Sabhas’ authority over customary resources, minor forest produce, land alienation, local markets and traditional dispute resolution.
- PESA promotes community sovereignty over Jal, Jungle and Jameen, adapting decentralisation to indigenous governance traditions.
- By December 2025, 8 of the 10 PESA States had framed rules.
- Digitalisation of Grassroots Governance:
- eGramSwaraj integrates local planning, work monitoring, accounting and digital payments.
- Meri Panchayat provides citizens access to Panchayat plans, budgets and development works. It received the WSIS Champion Award 2025.
- SabhaSaar, integrated with Bhashini, uses artificial intelligence to generate Gram Sabha minutes in 13 regional languages.
- Technology-Based Property and Spatial Empowerment:
- The SVAMITVA Scheme uses drones and GIS technology to map village inhabited areas and provide rural households with legally recognised property cards.
- Gram Manchitra supports GIS-based planning of roads, drains, water bodies and public infrastructure.
- Shift to Performance-Based Governance:
- The Panchayat Advancement Index evaluates local performance across themes such as poverty reduction, health, child welfare, water security, gender equality and good governance.
- The Panchayat Devolution Index 2024 assesses States on the transfer of Functions, Finances, Functionaries, capacity building and accountability, encouraging competitive improvement.
- Incomplete Devolution of the 3Fs:
- Articles 243G and 243W authorise State Legislatures to devolve powers to local bodies but do not make such devolution mandatory. Consequently, subjects listed in the Eleventh and Twelfth Schedules frequently remain under State departments.
- The Panchayat Devolution Index 2024 found that overall devolution to Panchayats increased only from 39.9% in 2013–14 to 43.9% in 2021–22.
- Fiscal Dependency and Unfunded Mandates:
- Local governments are expected to provide sanitation, drinking water, roads and public health services without corresponding taxation powers or predictable State transfers.
- The 16th Finance Commission observed that local bodies’ aggregate Own-Source Revenue is only around 0.4% of GDP.
- Although the Commission recommended ₹7.91 lakh crore during 2026–31, these grants supplement rather than replace State-level fiscal devolution.
- Excessive dependence on tied grants restricts local discretion and creates an agency-without-autonomy problem.
- Dysfunctional State Finance Commissions:
- Articles 243I and 243Y require the constitution of a State Finance Commission every five years. Several States constitute them late or fail to table their reports and Action Taken Reports promptly.
- The 16th Finance Commission found many SFC reports delayed, methodologically inconsistent and unsuitable for comparison.
- State governments also frequently accept recommendations selectively, weakening the constitutional fiscal chain of SFC Assessment → State Devolution → Local Fiscal Autonomy.
- Bureaucratic Supremacy Over Elected Representatives:
- Panchayat secretaries, engineers, health workers and revenue officials generally belong to State-controlled cadres and remain accountable to departmental superiors.
- In cities, the State-appointed Municipal Commissioner often exercises greater executive authority than the elected Mayor.
- This produces authority–accountability mismatch, as citizens hold elected representatives responsible for functions over which they possess limited administrative control.
- Weak Gram Sabhas and Tokenistic Participation:
- Gram Sabhas frequently experience low attendance, inadequate prior notice, poor documentation and domination by local elites.
- The Ministry of Panchayati Raj released a dedicated National Study on Low Participation in Gram Sabhas in 2026, confirming that this is a structural governance concern.
- Development plans may therefore become contractor-driven or bureaucracy-prepared documents, instead of expressions of deliberative grassroots democracy.
- Delayed Elections and Constrained State Election Commissions:
- Local elections are sometimes postponed on grounds of delimitation, reservation revision, litigation or administrative preparation.
- Despite the Supreme Court’s emphasis on the institutional independence of State Election Commissions in State of Goa v. Fouziya Imtiaz Shaikh (2021), many SECs remain dependent on State governments for staff, funding, and electoral rolls, which undermines their functional autonomy.
- Weak Implementation of PESA:
- Despite Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 recognition tribal Gram Sabhas’ authority over Jal, Jungle and Jameen, yet state forest, mining, excise and land-acquisition laws frequently conflict with PESA’s community-centred framework.
- Gram Sabha consultation in mining and infrastructure projects is sometimes reduced to procedural approval, creating legal decentralisation without resource sovereignty.
- Digital Divide and Portal-Based Compliance:
- Platforms such as eGramSwaraj, AuditOnline, Meri Panchayat and SabhaSaar have improved transparency, but connectivity and digital skills vary across Panchayats.
- Online uploading of a Gram Panchayat Development Plan does not necessarily establish that it emerged from informed Gram Sabha deliberations.
- Excessive emphasis on dashboards can produce technocratic recentralisation, where local priorities are subordinated to standardised indicators designed by higher authorities.
- Representation–Empowerment Gap:
- The practice of proxy representation or “Sarpanch Pati” continues in some areas, where male relatives exercise the authority of elected women.
- Frequent rotation of reserved constituencies weakens continuity and discourages long-term leadership development.
- India has therefore achieved impressive descriptive representation, but substantive political empowerment remains uneven.
- Legally Guarantee Activity-Based Devolution:
- States should prepare legally enforceable Activity Mapping Frameworks that clearly allocate each subject among Gram Panchayats, Block Panchayats, District Panchayats and State departments.
- Every activity should be accompanied by corresponding funds and staff through a Function–Finance–Functionary Matrix.
- Kerala’s activity mapping and participatory planning and Karnataka’s first position in the Devolution Index provide replicable models.
- Revitalise State Finance Commissions:
- State Finance Commissions should be constituted on a fixed national calendar with standardised terms of reference, professional staff and access to audited local-government data.
- Their reports and Action Taken Reports should be compulsorily tabled before State Legislatures within six months.
- Non-constitution or delayed implementation of an SFC report should be disclosed through a State Fiscal Devolution Dashboard.
- Establish Dedicated Local Government Cadres:
- Panchayats and Municipalities require permanent cadres of engineers, accountants, planners, public-health experts, data managers and social-development professionals.
- Staff working under local governments should be administratively accountable to elected councils rather than exclusively to State departments.
- Training should shift from one-time orientation to continuous, role-specific certification linked with local development responsibilities.
- Restore the Gram Sabha as a Deliberative Institution:
- Gram Sabha meetings should follow a publicly announced annual calendar with convenient timings, adequate notice and accessible agenda documents.
- A minimum social-diversity quorum can ensure the participation of women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, persons with disabilities and marginalised hamlets.
- Budget proposals, beneficiary lists, audit observations and project-completion reports should be placed before the Gram Sabha in plain language.
- Strengthen Women’s Substantive Leadership:
- States should penalise unauthorised interference by “Sarpanch Patis” and provide elected women with leadership training, legal assistance, digital access and peer-support networks.
- The Sashakt Panchayat Netri Abhiyan should be institutionalised through State training institutes and district mentorship centres.
- Proxy governance should be monitored through attendance and digital verification mechanisms, including biometric/e-authentication for key Panchayat proceedings and financial transactions.
- The Model Women-Friendly Gram Panchayats Initiative should serve as a catalyst for institutionalising women-led local governance by ensuring elected women representatives exercise real decision-making authority
- The Ministry of Panchayati Raj’s collaboration with the “Panchayat” web series is a positive step towards using popular culture to raise awareness about grassroots governance and women’s leadership.
- Make PESA Operational, Not Merely Symbolic:
- All PESA States should harmonise their laws relating to mining, excise, markets, moneylending, minor forest produce and land acquisition with the PESA Act, 1996.
- Gram Sabha consent and consultation should be digitally recorded, independently verified and conducted in tribal languages.
- Convergence between PESA, the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and District Mineral Foundation funds can establish real community control over Jal, Jungle and Jameen.
- Integrate Rural, Urban and Peri-Urban Planning:
- District Planning Committees and Metropolitan Planning Committees should be professionally staffed and empowered to integrate Panchayat and municipal plans.
- Rapidly urbanising Census Towns should receive timely statutory recognition and transitional financing.
- Odisha’s Rural–Urban Transition Policy, 2023 offers a useful model by preparing peri-urban areas for urban-level infrastructure before their formal conversion into municipalities.
- Universalise Social Audits and Local Ombudsmen:
- Independent social audits should be extended to local expenditure on housing, sanitation, nutrition, water supply and Finance Commission grants.
- Every district should have an independent Local Government Ombudsman empowered to investigate corruption, conflict of interest and administrative obstruction.
- Audit findings should include time-bound recovery and corrective-action provisions.
- Kerala’s Ombudsman for Local Governments offers an institutional model for accessible local-level grievance redressal.
- Ultimately, while the 73rd and 74th Amendments successfully institutionalized grassroots democracy, true self-governance remains constrained by bureaucratic control and fiscal deficits. The 16th Finance Commission’s historic grants offer a crucial financial window, but money alone cannot fix structural bottlenecks. Moving forward, India’s next-generation reforms must transcend token electoral existence. True democratic decentralisation requires a holistic framework ensuring functional autonomy, predictable devolution, administrative capacity, and absolute accountability at the grassroots.