India’s long history of grassroots governance gained credence when the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) were set in place in by the 73rd Amendment. Since then the three-tiered system has undergone numerous changes. From a body that hardly held any sanctity in the Indian administrative set-up barely 30 years ago to one that in charge of all local level rural developmental projects—the nature of responsibilities that local leadership is bearing has undergone a swift and radical change.

The panchayat, the local level governance has ahead of it three foremost challenges. The first deals with leadership. Women and leaders from other backward communities have proved their mettle in garnering more development works than their predecessors. The requisite reservation for providing people from these communities with a voice, proved worthwhile. The stumbling block, amongst others, is to deal with the shift of the reserved constituency, that has been noted to dilute the endeavour of the grassroots leader.  The second deals with fund related concerns, where leaders find themselves cash-strapped, unable to ferret a way forward. Apart from building capacity to raise revenues under various state and central schemes, the local government can formulate plans to raise revenue from within their communities too. This activity could be incentivised to plump up the local economy. The third, though by no means the last, entails proficiency in technology, especially the digital kind.  The E-enablement plank can be used by one an all to usher in a transparent and efficient work scenario where all development and online consultancy output can be envisaged to provide need based solution.

The issue would be incomplete without thanking the Ministry of Panchayati Raj for their deft steering that helped G’nY gain direction and perspective.