Rural Action Component

Village Fieldwork Segment (VFS)         PRM 2018-20

Rural Action Component

Village: Warlyapani

Gram Panchayat: Kanpuri         Block: Niwali

District: Barwani  State: Madhya Pradesh

Prepared by:

Vivek Garg (Roll No. P39175), Suraj Rajak (Roll No. P39171), Ritwik Trivedi (Roll No.         P39097)

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the VFS         of the

Post Graduate Programme in Rural Management

INSTITUTE OF RURAL MANAGEMENT ANAND         November 2018

About Panchayati Raj in Madhya Pradesh:

In India, the Panchayati Raj generally refers to the system of local self-government in India

introduced by a constitutional amendment in 1992, although it is based upon the traditional

panchayat system of South Asia. This Panchayati Raj system was formalized in 1992, following a study conducted by a number of Indian committees on various ways of implementing more decentralized administration. The modern Panchayati Raj and its Gram Panchayats are not to be confused with the extra-constitutional Khap Panchayats (or Caste Panchayats) found in northern India.

In India, the Panchayati Raj now functions as a system of governance in which gram panchayats are the basic units of local administration. The system has three levels: Gram Panchayat (village level), Mandal Parishad or Block Samiti or Panchayat Samiti(block level), and Zila Parishad (district level). It was formalized in 1992 by the 73rd amendment to the Indian Constitution.Currently, the Panchayati Raj system exists in all states except Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Mizoram, and in all Union Territories except Delhi.

The Panchayats receive funds from three sources:

•   Local body grants, as recommended by the Central Finance Commission

•   Funds for implementation of centrally sponsored schemes

•   Funds released by the state governments on the recommendations of the State Finance         Commissions

Governance and Welfare Programmes In Our village :

Warlyapani doesn't have a separate gram panchayat. It comes under the Kanpuri gram

panchayat. The Kanpuri gram panchayat consists of only 2 villages viz. Warlyapani and Kanpuri. The panchayat bhavan is also located in Kanpuri. From the last 15 years the Sarpanch has come from Warlyapani. Before that the Sarpanch used to be from Kanpuri. There are 17 wards in the Kanpuri gram panchayat out of which 7 wards are in Warlyapani. Each ward has one panch who is responsible for the developmental work in the ward and for raising the voice of the ward's people in the gram sabha and in front of the Sarpanch. A government official called the "Village secretary" or " Mantri" or "Sachiv" is also there to guide the sarpanch in doing developmental work in the village. The election for the gram panchayat is held once in every five years. The Sarpanch is from the Patel Falia and has already completed 4 years of his tenure. The next election will happen in January, 2020. The people usually vote in favour of a person if he is from their Falia but if a single candidate is representing the village then they vote accordingly. Lots of malpractices are being followed during the elections like bribing the voter or liquor distribution

to gather the support. BJP and Congress also support the candidates from outside i.e. without having them contest on their symbol.

Gram Sabha : According to the Sarpanch of the village 3 gram sabhas were conducted last year. These were conducted on the occasion of Republic Day, Independence Day and on Gandhi Jayanti. In general the no of participants in these gram sabhas was around 30-35. The male participants were more than the female participants. Only 5-6 female participants were present in the gram sabhas. As the panchayat bhavan is in Kanpuri, people of Kanpuri participated more than the people of Warlyapani in these gram sabhas. This also got reflected when we collected data from the households, either they were not interested in the Gram sabha or they didn't know about the timings of the gram sabha. One major reason that was found behind the less participation of villagers from Warlyapani was that whenever they had any problem they directly went to the Sarpanch instead of attending the Gram sabha because Sarpanch belongs to Warlyapani itself.

Participation of villagers in last 3 gram sabha :

30

25

20

15        ■ mare

• fearnle

10

January 27        2018        August 15 ,        2018        ortobe r 2nd        2018

Issues discussed in the Gram Sabhas :

The major problems that were discussed during these gram sabhas according to the Sachiv were :

1. Water for irrigation (Kapil Dhara)

2. Water for drinking

3. Construction of Roads in Falias

4. Mid-Day Meal

5. PMAY-G

As we probed further we came to know that the only issues that were actually discussed were that of availability of water for irrigation and drinking.

Voting does not happen in the gram sabha. Only problems raised by the villagers are noted and assurances given. When we discussed with the Sarpanch about the functioning of the gram sabha he said that people didn't speak much in the gram sabha. Therefore, the Sarpanch had to make decisions for them. This we observed to be questionable when the Sarpanch often faced criticism for developmental work that happened in the village. For example, when we were in Kanpuri and a CC road was under construction, the villagers were protesting against it.