Rural Transformation undergoes a metamorphosis after the introduction of new governance at grassroots through the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution of India. Newly created institutions for governance have teething problems and yet they picked up momentum in their dynamics. New concientization takes place in the minds of the people about their role and responsibility and feverish socio-economic activities have been initiated by the institutions and a new kind of relationship has been established between the State Government and the grassroots institutions as established between the Central Government and State Government. Problems which had not been so far noticed have come to the surface while deepening democracy in the society. A new participatory culture comes to governance at the grassroots and thereby it indicates that it would move towards the other realm of governance. Variety of institutions both evolved and imposed over a period of time have come to synergise their activities for effective delivery of services. Thus it seems the concept ‘governance’ provides a new meaning and explanation as activities are centering around people by relegating the concept government to the background. It does not mean that the process is smooth and positive. Decentralization process has its own obstacles as it breaks many hurdles. Strategies have been evolved then and there to overcome such obstacles and barriers and it moves towards the people to empower them. The whole process of the transformation has been captured in this work from the experience of the provinces. Key issues have been highlighted for further understanding of the dynamics of village voice. This volume provides statewise outlook of the devolution of powers. It aims at providing analysis of the performance of the institutions interms of the powers assigned to them.
Indian Administration is a critical and analytical guide to all the important aspects of public administration in India. Based on books, journals, notes, files and government reports in the field, it examines the government and the administration at every level and tier. Its wide coverage includes all the major landmarks in the evolution of Indian administration, panchayati raj and urban local government after the constitutionalization of local government in India, as well as district planning and the District Planning Committee. It also addresses the issues plaguing our bureaucracy, making fu.
Since the mid-1980s, the presence of women in governance has become a major marker of successful democracy in global and national discourses on the democratization of society. A diverse set of nation-states have legislatively mandated gender quotas to ensure the presence of elected women representatives (EWRs) in various rungs of governance. Since 1993, the Indian state has legislated a massive program of democratization and decentralization. As a result, more than 1.5 million EWRs have taken office within the lower rungs of governance or the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI). This book is an ethnography of the Indian state and its policy of legislated entry of women into political life. It argues that political participation of women is necessary to change the political practices in society, to make institutions more gender, class and caste representative, and to empower individual women to negotiate both formal and informal institutions. Its locus is the everyday life contexts of EWRs in the southern Indian state of Karnataka who negotiate their own meanings of politics, state, society, empowerment and political subjectivity. Analysing three factors – structural boundaries, sociocultural divisions and conjunctural limitations imposed on the participation of EWRs by political parties – the book demonstrates that the social embeddedness of PRIs within everyday practices and social relations of identity and power severely constrain and shape the political participation and empowerment of EWRs. Providing a valuable insight into contemporary state and feminist praxis in India, this book will be of interest to scholars of grass-roots democracy, gender studies and Asian politics.