Active Participation and Provision of Reservation for SC/ ST/ Women in Panchayath Raj Institutions

Abstract

The panchayats are expected to play an important role in rural development in India, particularly after independence. They were empowering the rural population to participate in rural development programs for improving their quality of life. The study was conducted in the Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh, where a total of 100 rural respondents were selected through simple random sampling technique. The objective of the study is to know the socio-economic status of the respondents, involvement of respondents in party politics and reservation status of SC&STs in panchayat raj institutions. Results indicated that half (50%) of the respondents have belonged to the age group of 18-25 years, illiterates (68%), males (56%) and nuclear family type (67%). The majority (72%) of the respondents possessed 1-3 acres of land, 49 per cent of the respondent's occupations were agriculture and (71%) monthly income was from 1rs to 25,000 rs. Most (88%) of the respondents were not involved in party politics. While 60 per cent of the respondents accepted, to some extent, the provision of reservations for SC/ST/Women. The result of the study concluded that the majority of the women were not interested in participating in party politics and also any rural development activity because of the patriarchal society.