Comment in 150 words: New Panchayat Raj is an effective instrument for women empowerment. (2018, 10 Marks)
“New” Panchayati Raj is the constitutional system created by the 73rd Amendment (1992), as distinct from the Mehta-era bodies of 1959–92. The claim is best tested by asking what kind of instrument it is: a strong one for bringing women into public life and training them in it, a weaker one for giving them power.
Old and new compared
- The Balwantrai Mehta Committee (1957) proposed co-opting two women “interested in work among women and children” to each panchayat samiti; Ashok Mehta (1978) proposed two reserved seats. Women entered by nomination, as welfare auxiliaries.
- Karnataka’s 25% quota (1985) and the National Perspective Plan for Women (1988), which sought 30%, pointed the way; Article 243D made one-third of seats and chairperson posts a constitutional floor, and Article 243E ended the supersession that had let states switch panchayats off.
Why it works as an instrument
- Scale — about 14.5 lakh elected women, 46% of representatives; Bihar’s move to 50% in 2006 was followed by over twenty states. The quota within the SC/ST quota brings Dalit and Adivasi women, doubly excluded before 1992, into office.
- A school of political capacity — J. S. Mill argued in Considerations on Representative Government (1861) that local institutions train citizens in public business. Chairing meetings, handling muster rolls and facing block officials gives first-generation women skills no training course supplies.
- A pipeline — women first elected from reserved seats, often under a “pradhan pati”, have shown stronger will when they return to contest. Lori Beaman and co-authors found that after two reserved terms voter bias fell and women won more unreserved seats in West Bengal.
- Voice beyond the elected — gram and mahila sabhas let village women put water, health and electricity on record.
- State backing — the Sashakt Panchayat-Netri Abhiyan trained 7.18 lakh women representatives in 2025–26 and identified 744 model women-friendly gram panchayats.
Where the instrument is blunt
- Rotation of reserved seats breaks the pipeline after one term.
- Proxy rule, caste and patriarchy still mediate how far elected women act.
- Panchayats hold few funds or staff, so the power transferred is small. As Maharashtra sarpanch Majah Wankhede put it, getting elected was easy; dealing with officials afterwards was hard.
Conclusion
New Panchayati Raj is an effective instrument of women’s political socialisation and leadership formation — far more than the co-optive model it replaced. Its effect on substantive empowerment is real but conditional: longer reservation cycles and genuine devolution would sharpen an instrument that is already working.