Panchayat is the ‘First Government’. Its power is based on people’s power and participatory democracy. The gram sabha (assembly) is the central institution for the promotion of inclusive and participatory democracy, providing opportunities for the exploited and marginalised communities to raise their voices against continued inequalities, denial of freedoms, discrimination and social injustice.

The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments are the cornerstones for the empowerment of people and building grassroots democracy. The Constitution 73rd and 74th Amendment gave a political signal that decentralisation had come to stay in India. 33% reservation for women in elected bodies and also reservations for Dalits and Adivasis according to the proportion of their population were guaranteed.

Despite good intensions, there are certain critical gaps in the constitutional architecture and legal ecosystem that prevent the fulfilment of the promise of grassroots democracy. They are presently more nominal than functional, and are sometimes even subservient to the bureaucracy.

The Constitutional scheme however did not go all the way; it stops short of ensuring that state legislations on Panchayat government and urban local government would mandatory have to translate the constitutional scheme of decentralization into the state specific legislations. There was no compulsion to infuse the constitutional scheme of governance with a parallel List-IV for Local Government similar to the distribution of powers listed in List-I, II & III for State List, Union List and Concurrent List. The failure to clearly delineate this has contributed to various state governments opting for devolution of powers to the extent thought necessary and safe by the ruling Government.

A corollary of not instituting a List-IV in the scheme of Governance in the Constitution also left the Local Government system with no powers to legislate or adjudicate in important legislative matters concerning self – reliance dispute resolutions etc. Hence all law including Government Orders is made by the State or Central Government on behalf of Local Government. Consistent with the spirit of the 73rd Amendment of the Constitution the Panchayat Government structure needs to be radically restructured towards local self-governance and strengthening of women and other oppressed peoples in grassroots democracy.

Hence constitutional amendments and fine-tuning the institutional mechanisms are necessary for the devolution of critical powers to the gram sabhas so that they can become the foundation of grassroots democracy and local governance. They should be empowered to function as independent decision making bodies, sovereign in their sphere as articulated in our freedom struggle as ‘gram swaraj’ and as envisaged in the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments for rural areas and urban areas respectively.

To strengthen local government, specifically PRIs, amendments to Part IX of the Constitution of India, specifically Article 243 A (Gram Sabha), 243G (Powers, authority and responsibilities of Panchayats) and 243H (Powers to impose taxes by, and Funds of, the Panchayats) are required. Article 246 (matter of law made by Parliament and by the Legislatures of States) should be amended to include List IV (Local Government) for detailing powers vested with PRIs for different tiers to ensure clarity in separation of powers.