The early 1990s had two momentous decisions, at least in spirit. The democratic spirit. 1992 saw the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution of India, and then ’93 saw the 74th; the former empowering rural local bodies (the panchayats) and the latter empowering urban ones (municipalities). The decisions came from upstairs, rather than some insurmountable grassroots pressure from the people, it came from the magnanimity and benevolence of the Government of India. They were of the opinion that democracy needed to be more effectively established at the hyper-local level beyond the state government.
Fast forward thirty-odd years, their opinion could be most charitably described as cold indifference. As for the public they sought to empower? Well, it depends on whether you’re in town or country. The panchayats and the municipalities find themselves on different floors of the building on desolation row. While much ado, excitement, panic and hysteria grab hold of the country when it comes to general elections, and a no-nonsense business-minded seriousness takes hold of people during state elections, local-level elections continue to be relegated to something akin to an amateur league of indulgence.
To be fair, panchayat elections have been a mixed bag, and the good in the mix is heartwarming. The 73rd Amendment mandated a third of the seats in village councils to be reserved for women, along with reservations for SCs and STs. And so, the country finds itself having some of the highest levels of women representation at the local level across the world. The electorates also have an earnest disposition in taking ownership of their franchise, participating with diligence in panchayat elections. The 2021 Andhra Pradesh panchayat elections saw a turnout of 81.78%, and the 2023 West Bengal panchayat polls had a turnout of 80.71%. Of course, at times enthusiasm gets lacklustre as with the 60% turnout in the 2021 Gujarat panchayat elections, but as far as track records go the ghosts of general elections past can only dream of some of the numbers that get touched.
However, Panchayati Raj is crippled with inequities and inefficiencies still. To start with, representation for the majority of women remains nominal where the actual power of deliberation and decision-making is usurped by their husbands or male relatives. A survey by the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) in Jharkhand found that only 11 out of the 95 women sarpanches answered calls directly, more often it was a male relative, their tone hinging more on the authorial side rather than the secretarial. Most panchayat meetings were observed to be attended by the husbands of the women sarpanches, and most decisions are made by them too. A similar story can be viewed unfolding in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, as probably most places. The entrenched practice casually finds itself as part of a plot played for humour in the TVF series Panchayat (2020), when in the season finale of its first season we learn that the eponymous ‘Pradhanji’ isn’t the sarpanch and that it’s been his wife all along.
Panchayati Raj also remains cucked with severely limited powers. As Prabhat Kumar Datta and Inderjeet Singh Sodhi point out in their 2021 article for the Indian Journal of Public Administration, the panchayats are given transfers of functions without the transfer of funds, the funds are released by the charity of the government bureaucracy, or the MLA, or the MP of the area, undermining genuine representation and devolution of power to the people. Even the functions and responsibilities are given out to local bodies are asymmetrical across the country, since it is up to the state governments to decide how much power and resources they want to give local representatives.
Once again, like with panchayats, municipalities are denied direct control over finances, including in the matter of taxation, which falls under the purview of the state government, thus limiting their effectiveness. Cities often have a bureaucrat appointed by state government (especially in mega cities) who holds the executive power of decision making. Perhaps this lack of genuine democratic power of municipalities is of the many reasons we witness the anaemic enthusiasm of urban voters during elections, with municipalities essentially have to compete with multiple other bodies, including the state government and the bureaucracy.
The 2022 Delhi municipal elections were reported to have only roundabout a 50% turnout, and affluent areas had significantly lesser; the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Elections in 2020 had around a 40 % turnout despite of the high-pitched shrill campaigns. In general, that apathy reflects in the low voter turnout in urban areas even during assembly and general elections, but the apathy is particularly acute during municipal elections.
All the while the conditions of Indian cities with regards to quality life continues to decline, with increasing infrastructure, traffic and population congestion, high levels of pollution, strained resources (as witnessed in Bengaluru water crises). The poor and the middle class often bear the brunt of these civic dysfunction, and without proper local level representation they have to run laps around the labyrinth of a sluggish bureaucracy or higher levers of politics to have their needs and concerns addressed.
If the last decade of the 20th century saw the genuine impulse to extend democratic franchise to the local levels, the second decade of the 21st century has witnessed neglect and even obstruction of local democracy. The blatant tampering in the vote counting during the Chandigarh mayoral elections earlier this year was perhaps a singular case of corruption at the municipal level, rather than an institutionalised one. Perhaps. However, repeated delays in holding panchayat and municipal elections across the country are signs of democratic backsliding, whether by design or by accident.
The Bengaluru municipal elections were supposed to be held in 2020, but were delayed due to the delimitation of wards in the city. However, four years since they still have not been held, although have been announced and postponed repeatedly. A 2022 News Minute three-part story explored in its second-part how MLAs have been lobbying to delay the municipal elections, exerting greater control in the city administration. The Mumbai municipal elections were last held in 2017, and have also been repeatedly delayed due to delimitation.
On the other hand, in 2022, the Supreme Court directed the Madhya Pradesh government to hold elections in over 2,300 panchayat bodies and 321 municipal bodies that were delayed since 2019-2020; the elections were held later that year. As Justice Khanwilkar was quoted saying, the constitutional mandate to conduct elections periodically in “inviolable”.
The scientific method is based on correlation (not causation). To that effect, a 2019 meta-analysis study on the effectiveness and efficiency of local government by Aiello and Bonanno found that effective local governance had significant correlation with a higher average GDP per capita, with lower levels of (perceived) corruption, and higher level of integration of legal/justice system. Making a Place for Community: Local Democracy in a Global Era (2002) by Thad Williamson, David Imbroscio and Gar Alperovitz is another work putting down a solid case for localized community empowerment in the era of hyper-capitalism and transnational political-economic initiatives. Or perhaps we could just look to Gandhi's championing of the village republic.
Delimitation, logistical challenges like the pandemic, and whole platter of reasons local body elections may be delayed. However, the inertia, the lethargy and lacklustre enthusiasm for local body polls and also strengthening grassroots democracy is evident in the miasma of issues that can be observed today. Hysteria over the circus of national level general elections and the asinine mudslinging rhetorical narratives they fount almost appears like a destiny we cannot escape. But deep down everybody knows democratic decentralisation is the only way forward, the constitutional way forward to justice to the ideals of this republic.
