This report analyses the experience of the Indian state of Maharashtra regarding rural decentralised planning and recommends measures for improvement.
See Full PDF See Full PDFThis report assesses a particular programme initiated by the Government of Maharashtra, India, to converge various rural development programmes at the grassroots level in rural areas. This is a significant experiment in decentralised planning.
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The report analyses the rural local government system of Maharashtra, India, and identifies the gaps in policy and practice.
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We were requested by Government of Bihar, India, to study the rural local government (panchayati raj) system of the state and suggest what can be done in the present situation. This document is the result of that study which took place from July 2015 to December 2017. The report was submitted to Government of Bihar in December 2017. The study was supported by UNICEF India.
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This report examines the panchayat system of Bihar, India, and tries to understand the gaps related to planning process at the Gram Panchayat level.
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This report examines the panchayat system of Madhya Pradesh and identifies crucial gaps in policy and practice.
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This study looks at the problems related to strengthening Gram Panchayats (rural local governments) in a backward district of India, namely Gaya, in the state of Bihar. In the concluding chapter, the study offers certain recommendations to improve the system.
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This is a report on decentralized planning by rural local governments in West Bengal, India. The field work was carried out in November-December 2016. The report is aimed at developing better understanding of the gaps that need to be addressed in order to improve human development and reduce rural poverty through local level planning. The report was funded by National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, India.
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The study was commissioned to get a holistic understanding and perspective on the status quo of the microfinance industry in Maharashtra, in order to develop a comprehensive implementation plan to achieve the objectives of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). The study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of people’s organizations, assessing their institutional quality for organizational, managerial and financial sustainability, developing a typology of people’s collectives and identifying opportunities for partnership and/or convergence with the NRLM. The study covered 674 Self Help Groups (SHGs), 29 SHG federations, and 58 people’s collectives from 12 districts under 6 divisions in Maharashtra for data. The study contains a comprehensive analysis of SHGs, SHG federations and business collectives at the SHG or federation level.
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Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA)
Panchayat Raj in Maharashtra has its own progression path. It was among the first few states to implement the Balwantrai Mehta Committee recommendation of establishing a three-tier Panchayat Raj structure. It constituted a committee on the subject in 1961 under the chairmanship of the then revenue minister Vasantrao Naik. Maharashtra already had the Mumbai Gram Panchayat Act, 1958 for governing Gram Panchayats. However, on the basis of recommendations of the Vasantrao Naik Committee report, the State enacted the Maharashtra Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad Act, 1961. Consequently, the three-tier Panchayat Raj system was established and became functional in the State on 1st May 1962. The Maharashtra government constituted several committees in the following decades to improve the functioning of the Panchayat Raj and strengthen PRIs. In 1970, the LN Bongirwar Committee was formed to evaluate the functioning of PRIs. The committee stressed the need for strengthening PRIs financially and provide more autonomy to them in planning. One of the main recommendations of the committee was the constitution of District Planning and Development Boards. Such boards were established in 1972 and began formulating district level plans from 1974. Similarly, the P B Patil Committee was constituted for the evaluation of the Panchayat Raj system in 1984. The committee emphasised involving people and gave 184 recommendations for reforming the system and enabling greater participation. Despite all these efforts, PRIs in Maharashtra were weak and the 73rd Amendment was as much necessary as the rest of the country to infuse real life into them.
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