New Perspectives on Rural Local Government in India: The Asoka Mehta Committee Report

Abstract

INDIA HAS BEEN UNDERGOING industrialization and urbanization in an impressive way since independence, but is still predominantly rural. Four out of every five citizens live in villages and there are about two hundred times as many villages as towns and cities575,936 villages and 2921 towns, according to the 1971 census. importance of village or rural local government is thus obvious, and needs no elaborate justification. This is well recognized by the 1950 Constitution, which in its directive principles of state policy states: The State shall take steps to organize village panchayats [councils] and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self government.1 rural local government in India seeks to look after the needs and welfare of no less than 450 million people, and this task requires an added effort in view of the greater economic vulnerability of the rural population.2 Local government constitutionally falls directly under the control of the state governments, which enacted legislation setting up village panchayats. Attention to villages became more marked in the 1950s when India launched its first five year plan. plan document itself emphasized: We believe that the panchayat will be able to perform its civic functions satisfactorily only if these are associated with an active process of development in which the village panchayat is itself given an effective part. Unless a village agency can assume responsibility and initiative for developing the resources of the village, it will be difficult to