Every village in India is governed, in part, by people who live in it. That is the whole idea of panchayati raj. It is often described as the third tier of government, below the Union and the states, but a better way to think of it is as the layer that decides the things you can see from your own door — the hand pump, the approach road, the anganwadi, the drain, the list of who gets a house under a scheme. This guide explains how the system is put together and, more usefully, where an ordinary villager can actually get a hand on it.

Where the system comes from

Village councils are old in India, but the modern system dates from the 73rd amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1992 and in force from April 1993. Before it, panchayats existed in most states but at the pleasure of the state government, which could postpone their elections or supersede them at will. The amendment inserted a new part into the Constitution dealing with panchayats and made three things compulsory: elections every five years, reservation of seats, and a state election commission independent of the state government to run those elections. It also added a schedule listing twenty-nine subjects — agriculture, minor irrigation, drinking water, roads, primary education, health, housing, social welfare and more — that states may devolve to panchayats.

The three tiers

Rural local government has three levels. At the bottom is the gram panchayat, covering one village or a group of small ones, headed by a sarpanch. Above it is the panchayat samiti or block panchayat, at the intermediate level, covering a development block of several dozen panchayats. At the top is the zila parishad, the district panchayat. States with a small population are allowed to skip the middle tier. The names differ across the country — mukhiya, pradhan and sarpanch all mean the head of the village panchayat, and the samiti and parishad go by various local titles — but the structure is the same everywhere.

What each tier does

Broadly, the gram panchayat handles what is inside the village: internal roads and lanes, street lighting, drinking water, sanitation, minor works, maintenance of common property, some records, and the village end of most welfare schemes. The panchayat samiti works at block level, where most government line departments actually sit, and coordinates schemes across the panchayats under it. The zila parishad plans and supervises at district level and handles the larger works. In practice the division depends heavily on how much a particular state has been willing to devolve, and states differ a great deal. Two neighbouring states can give their panchayats very different amounts of real authority.

What a sarpanch actually does

The sarpanch presides over the panchayat, but is not a small mayor with executive power of their own. The panchayat is a body — the sarpanch plus elected ward members, usually called panch — and decisions are meant to be taken by that body in meeting, recorded in a resolution register. The sarpanch convenes meetings and the gram sabha, signs on behalf of the panchayat, is a joint signatory on the panchayat's accounts, oversees works sanctioned to the village and is the person the block office deals with. Day-to-day paperwork is handled by an appointed secretary, who is a government employee, not an elected one. The two positions together are where a village's development money is actually handled, and where most disputes arise.

The gram sabha is the real thing

The most powerful body in the system is the one people attend least. The gram sabha is not a committee: it is the assembly of every registered voter in the panchayat area. The panchayat is answerable to it. Depending on the state, the gram sabha approves the annual plan and budget, receives the accounts, approves the list of beneficiaries for welfare schemes, and conducts the social audit of works carried out. A panchayat that spends without placing the matter before the gram sabha is acting irregularly, and a resolution passed in a properly convened gram sabha, entered in the register, is a document with weight. The practical problem everywhere is attendance, which is exactly why an interested villager who does attend has disproportionate influence.

Elections, terms and reservation

Panchayats at all three levels are elected for five years. If a panchayat is dissolved early, a fresh election must be held within six months, so that a state cannot simply leave a village without a council. Elections are run by the State Election Commission, not by the state administration. Seats and the offices of chairperson are reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their share of the local population, and at least one third of all seats and chairperson posts are reserved for women — a floor, not a ceiling, and more than twenty states and union territories have raised it to half. Reserved seats rotate between constituencies, so a ward reserved this term may not be next.

Where the money comes from

Panchayats have three sources. The largest is transfers: grants that come down from the Union Finance Commission and from the state, most of it tied to particular purposes. The second is scheme funds, such as those for rural employment, housing or water supply, which pass through the panchayat with rules attached. The third, usually the smallest, is the panchayat's own revenue — taxes and fees the state has authorised it to levy on property, markets, water, vehicles or common land. Every state must also appoint a state finance commission every five years to review panchayat finances and recommend how state revenue should be shared with them.

Scheduled Areas and PESA

In the Fifth Schedule areas, where Scheduled Tribes form the majority population, a separate law of 1996 extends panchayati raj with important modifications. Under it the gram sabha is given powers it does not have elsewhere: over minor forest produce, minor minerals and minor water bodies, over the selection of beneficiaries, over land acquisition and the resettlement of displaced people, over the regulation of intoxicants, and over the safeguarding of customary law and community resources. The gram sabha there is defined around the habitation and the traditional community, not merely the revenue village.

How to take part

Four things are worth knowing. First, attend the gram sabha and ask for the item you care about to be recorded in the resolution — a written resolution is far harder to ignore than a complaint. Second, the panchayat's accounts, works list and beneficiary lists are public documents and can be asked for, and if they are refused, a right to information application to the panchayat or block office generally produces them. Third, works carried out in the village are subject to social audit, where a villager can question measurement, cost and quality. Fourth, the block development office is the next step above the panchayat, and the district panchayat above that; complaints have a path.

Panchayati raj works unevenly. Some panchayats do very little; some have transformed their villages. The difference is rarely the law, which is much the same everywhere. It is usually how many people in the village turn up when the gram sabha is called.