The 73rd Amendment, 1992 — Part IX

The 73rd CAA added Part IX (Panchayats), in force 24 April 1993. It turned PRIs from statutory bodies into constitutionally-recognised institutions of self-government — Articles 243–243-O + Eleventh Schedule (29 subjects).

Key articles

Constitutional architecture — three-tier rural & categorised urban local government. RURAL — PRI (Part IX): Gram Sabha (all adult voters · direct democracy) → Gram Panchayat (village) → Panchayat Samiti (intermediate / block) → Zila Parishad (district). URBAN — ULB (Part IX-A): Municipal Corporation (larger urban area) · Municipal Council (smaller urban area) · Nagar Panchayat (transitional area) — + Ward Committees · DPC (243ZD) · MPC (243ZE).

Compulsory vs voluntary — a national floor, real devolution left to states

“introduces just a skeleton; flesh and blood have to be added to make it successful”

on the Act

“until and unless some issue becomes a matter of public discourse, governments will not respond”

Amartya Sen

Empowerment of marginalised sections

“a tremendous widening of the democratic base of the country”

George Mathew

Article 243D reserves seats for SC/ST in proportion to population, not less than one-third for women, and chairperson posts. Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Esther Duflo — villages headed by women “invest more in drinking-water infrastructure”; SC heads invest more in public goods in SC hamlets.

Criticism — a “half-baked cake”

• real devolution left to states
• Gram Sabha powers unclear in state laws
• centrally-sponsored schemes bypass Panchayats
• functions transferred without funds/staff
• dependence on grants
• bureaucratic dominance persists

“the objectives of democratic decentralisation are not only to bring governance closer to the people but also to make it more participatory, inclusive and accountable to the weaker sections of society…”

K. Krishna Murthy v Union of India

“this epoch-making Seventy-third Constitution Amendment — a turning point in the history of local self-governance with sweeping consequences in view of decentralisation, grass-root democracy, people’s participation, gender equality and social justice”

Bhanumati v State of Uttar Pradesh

The 74th Amendment, 1992 — Part IX-A (Urban)

The 74th CAA constitutionalised urban local government — Part IX-A, in force 1 June 1993, Articles 243P–243ZG + Twelfth Schedule (18 functions). Spur: rapid urbanisation; the Charles Correa-chaired National Commission on Urbanisation (1988).

Three municipality types

• Municipal Corporation — larger urban area
• Municipal Council — smaller urban area
• Nagar Panchayat — transitional area

Twelfth Schedule (18 fns)

• urban planning
• water supply
• sanitation
• fire services
• land-use regulation
• public health
• solid waste
• slum improvement

Core provisions

• direct ward elections; nominated experts (by law)
• reservation: SC/ST & not less than 1/3 women + chairpersons
• 5-year tenure; SEC; State Finance Commission
• Article 243W — economic development & social justice
• Ward Committees (larger cities)
• DPC (243ZD) · Metropolitan Planning Cmte (243ZE)

Why ULBs stay weak — the “unfulfilled dream”

“Democratic decentralisation is barely alive… local governments remain hamstrung and ineffective; mere agents to do the bidding of higher-level governments.”

T. R. Raghunandan

“unwillingness of the system to devolve responsibility and funding to the city level”

Isher Judge Ahluwalia

Reforms: 3Fs + subsidiarity; property-tax reform, GIS assessment, municipal bonds (Pune’s INR 200 crore water-supply bond), user charges; JNNURM (65 cities); convert 3,784 Census Towns to statutory ULBs; municipal ombudsman, public hearings, social audit. China paradox: India is democratic yet municipalities lack power; the Mayor of Shanghai holds status comparable to the Mayor of London.

Democratic Decentralisation & Deepening Democracy

Democratic decentralisation = devolution of functions and resources to elected representatives at lower levels for direct citizen participation. The 73rd & 74th Amendments created India’s third tier of federal democracy.

Nirmal Mukarji and Balveer Arora call PRIs a “third layer of federalism”; the system is described as “getting grass to the roots.”

Evidence & studies

Limitations

• incomplete 3Fs — funds, functions, functionaries
• parallel schemes: MPLADS, MLALADS, CSS
• social hierarchy: casteism, patriarchy, elite domination
• local bodies function at the mercy of states
• bureaucratic dominance; staff accountable upward
• proxy leadership, corruption

Paul Brass — PRIs are “made to fail”: legislators hesitate to devolve to the district and below, fearing rival centres of patronage. Rajni Kothari — without deeper social transformation, local institutions reinforce hierarchy.

“Decentralisation can democratise, but it can also entrench dominance.”

Christophe Jaffrelot

UPSC 2015 · UPSC 2021 · 15m — Role of PRIs & ULBs in deepening democracy; have PRIs strengthened democratic decentralisation despite limitations?

Good Governance & Grassroots Democracy

Good governance = participatory, consensus-oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective, equitable, inclusive and rule-bound. Local bodies are the first point of contact between government and people.

Grassroots democracy strengthens good governance — scholar map

Jessica Green supports local governance in sustainable resource management; the World Bank’s voice and accountability and the 2nd ARC’s citizen-centric governance both fit decentralisation. The Gadgil Committee’s guiding line: “Develop sustainably, conserve thoughtfully”.

PRIs & district administration — from controller to facilitator

S. N. Mishra — the elected–administrator relation is often strained. Mani Shankar Aiyar — advisories and “unambiguous orders” did not embed grassroots planning; Panchayats were not significantly vested under Article 243G.

Gandhi’s oceanic circles — ever-widening, never-ascending; the outer gives strength to the inner, never crushing it. Individual (self-rule) → Village (centre of power) → Block → District → State → Nation

“ever-widening, never-ascending circles … the outermost will not wield power to crush the inner circle, but will give strength to all within and derive its own strength from it.”

Mahatma Gandhi

“Functions shall be carried out closest to citizens at the smallest unit of governance possible and delegated upwards only when the local unit cannot perform the task.”

Second ARC — the subsidiarity principle

“the main gains arise not from competition, but from cooperation between levels in decentralized systems.”

James Manor

Recent support: the Fourteenth Finance Commission recommended Rs. 2,00,292 crore (2015–2020) directly to Gram Panchayats; ≈10 lakh engineers/technicians to be trained for plan-making; ≈300 “rurban” clusters (up to 30 villages / 50,000 population).

Political · Administrative · Fiscal Decentralisation

Three dimensions — political decentralisation creates bodies; administrative + fiscal make them functional (India: high political, low admin). POLITICAL (elected bodies · elections · reservation) → ADMINISTRATIVE (planning · staff · implementation) → FISCAL (taxation · grants · expenditure autonomy)

Fiscal-federalism theory: Wallace E. Oates (foundational link to efficient service delivery); Mancur Olson (smaller groups — fewer free-rider problems); M. Govinda Rao (second-generation fiscal federalism — agency, corruption, elite capture); Pranab Bardhan (addresses heterogeneous local preferences); Vito Tanzi & Rémy Prud’homme (caution: macro-instability, local corruption); Bardhan & Dilip Mookherjee (fiscal gaps → elite capture).

Issues in fiscal decentralisation

The mismatch — political done, administrative weak

“Democracy is not just a form of government but a dream for the empowerment of millions.”

Pratap Bhanu Mehta

States retain planning/budgeting; DPCs often not constituted; many GPs lack full-time secretaries; parastatals control services; MPLADS/MLALADS bypass Panchayats. Scholar cluster: Richard M. Bird (financial autonomy), Anirudh Krishna (dominance of state officials), Jean-Paul Faguet (official resistance), Arun Agrawal & Robert Chambers (local capacity), Merilee Grindle (overlapping jurisdictions), Larry Diamond (lack of political will), D. L. Sheth (services held by higher departments).

Women’s Representation & Empowerment

The 73rd & 74th Amendments reserve not less than one-third seats for women (membership + chairperson, reserved & unreserved). Many states — Bihar, Haryana, MP, Odisha, Uttarakhand, HP, AP, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tripura — raised it to 50%.

“No less than 10 lakh women are in our Panchayati Raj institutions, comprising 37 per cent of all those elected and rising to as high as 54 per cent in Bihar, which has 50 per cent reservation for women” — State of the Panchayats 2006–07, Ministry of Panchayati Raj

“Woman is the architect of a nation’s destiny.”

Rabindranath Tagore

“As long as women of India do not take part in public life there can be no salvation for the country; the dream of decentralization could never be fulfilled. I would have no use for the kind of Swaraj to which such women have not made their full contribution”

Mahatma Gandhi

Positive effects

Social-reform examples: all-women Panchayats (Haryana) on sex ratio; anti-liquor drives (MH, MP); Arati Devi (Ganjam, Odisha) literacy; Mamta Devi — Swachh Bharat.

Barriers & impediments — formal entry ≠ substantive empowerment

“the suppression of women from participation in social, political, and economic life hurts the people as a whole, not just women. The emancipation of women is an integral part of social progress, not just a women’s issue”

Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen

Theory: Pateman (democratic citizenship), Iris Marion Young (challenges male “neutrality”), Nancy Fraser (affirmative vs transformative remedies), Mill (participation → development), Nivedita Menon (household–politics boundary), Raewyn Connell (labour, power, cathexis).

Multi-Level Governance & Local Federalism

Indian federalism is not only Union-State — it is multi-level governance. The 73rd & 74th Amendments gave constitutional status to Panchayats & Municipalities (minor irrigation, local health, primary education, community assets, roads, sanitation, urban services, welfare).