The panchayat at work: tiers, officials and exemplary panchayats

Detail

1. The three tiers: the legal frame

• Three-tier Panchayati Raj: the 73rd Amendment (1992) added Part IX (Articles 243–243O) to the Constitution. It came into force on 24 April 1993. Panchayats are set up at three levels [8]:
• village level: the gram panchayat
• intermediate level: the panchayat samiti (block)

• district level: the zila parishad

• Article 243B: every state must constitute panchayats at these three levels. A state whose population is not more than 20 lakh does not have to set up the intermediate tier [8].

• Article 243C (composition): this article fixes who sits in each tier [8].
• All seats are filled by direct election from territorial constituencies, called wards (243C(2)).
• A state law may add other members (243C(3)). These can be sarpanchs in the samiti, samiti chairpersons in the zila parishad, and MPs and MLAs whose constituencies fall in the area.

• The chairperson of a village panchayat is chosen in the way the state law says (243C(5)(a)). The chairperson of the intermediate and district panchayats must be elected by and from among the elected members (243C(5)(b)).

• Background: the Balwantrai Mehta Committee (1957) first proposed the three tiers of village, block and district. The Ashok Mehta Committee (1978) later proposed two tiers instead: the mandal panchayat and the zila parishad.

• Each state passes its own Panchayati Raj Act inside this frame. Examples:
• Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act, 1961 [10]
• Karnataka Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj Act, 1993, which sets up elected bodies at the grama, taluk and district levels [9]

2. Gram panchayat: the lowest tier

• Gram panchayat (GP): the elected council for one village or a group of villages. It is the tier closest to the people.
• Gram sabha: all adults whose names are on the electoral roll of the village (Article 243(b)) [8]. Panchs are elected from among these voters. The GP answers to the gram sabha, which checks its work and approves plans and the list of people who get scheme benefits.
• Panchs (ward members): members elected ward by ward by the voters.
• Sarpanch (pradhan / mukhiya): the elected head of the GP. A deputy sarpanch (up-sarpanch) helps the sarpanch.
• In many states the voters elect the sarpanch directly.
• In other states the panchs choose the sarpanch. For example, Karnataka's GP president and vice-president are elected by the members from among themselves [9].

• Article 243C(5)(a) leaves this choice to the state [8].

• What a GP does:

• drinking water and sanitation
• village roads and street lights
• upkeep of school buildings
• choosing the people who get benefits under government schemes

• These match subjects in the Eleventh Schedule (29 subjects that states may hand to panchayats under Article 243G), such as drinking water, rural roads, sanitation and education [8].

• Class 6 exercises:

• writing a letter to the sarpanch about plastic bags
• a school next to a busy highway, as a problem to raise with the panchayat
• "What kind of person should be a panchayat member?"

3. Officials who help the gram panchayat

Official	Who appoints	Main work	Other names
Panchayat secretary	State government (not elected)	Calls meetings of the GP and gram sabha; keeps the minutes, records and accounts	Gram sevak, VDO (differs by state)
Patwari	State revenue department	Keeps land records and village maps that go back generations; measures land; records who owns it	Lekhpal (UP), talati (Maharashtra, Gujarat), karnam (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana)

• Why the difference matters: elected members (the sarpanch and panchs) decide. Appointed officials (the secretary and patwari) keep the paperwork running. This mix of elected and appointed people appears again at every tier.

4. Panchayat samiti: the block tier

• Panchayat samiti: the middle tier, at the level of the block, mandal or taluk. It links the gram panchayats to the zila parishad.
• Members:
• directly elected members (Article 243C(2))
• possibly sarpanchs, and the local MLAs and MPs, if the state law adds them (Article 243C(3)) [8]

• The exact mix differs from state to state.

• Chairperson (pradhan / sabhapati): elected by and from among the samiti's elected members (Article 243C(5)(b)) [8].

• Functions:
• collects the GP plans and passes them up to the district and the state

• channels scheme money down to villages. NCERT's example is all-weather rural roads under PMGSY (Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana).

• Block Development Officer (BDO): a state government officer who serves as the samiti's executive officer and carries out its decisions.

5. Zila parishad: the district tier

• Zila parishad (ZP): the top tier. It plans and coordinates development for the whole district.
• Members: directly elected members, plus samiti chairpersons, MPs and MLAs if the state law adds them [8].
• Adhyaksha (chairperson): indirectly elected, meaning chosen by the ZP's elected members and not by the voters (Article 243C(5)(b)) [8].
• Chief Executive Officer (CEO): usually an IAS or state civil service officer. The CEO heads the ZP's administration.
• Class 6 activity: compare the ZP with the Union government. In both, elected bodies make decisions and permanent officials carry them out.

6. How many panchayats?

Body	NCERT figure (c. 2005)	Present figure
Zila parishads (district)	600+	about 665
Intermediate bodies (block)	about 6,000	about 6,700
Gram panchayats	about 2.4 lakh	about 2.6 lakh

• Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) 2.0 (assessment year 2023–24, report released in 2026): 2,59,867 gram panchayats and traditional local bodies from 33 states and UTs sent validated data. This was a 97.30% participation rate [2].

• Traditional local bodies: village councils in some Sixth Schedule and north-eastern areas where Part IX does not apply.

• PAI: described as the world's first nationwide framework to measure GP progress with objective indicators [2][3].

• PAI 2.0 cut the indicators from 516 indicators / 794 data points (PAI 1.0) to 150 indicators / 230 data points [2][3].
• GPs are graded as Achiever (90 and above), Front Runner (75 to below 90), Performer (60 to below 75), Aspirant (40 to below 60) and Beginner (below 40) [2].
• 3,635 GPs were rated Front Runners in PAI 2.0 [2].

7. Exemplary sarpanchs (Class 6)

• Popatrao Pawar, Hiware Bazar: the village is in Ahmednagar district, now renamed Ahilyanagar, Maharashtra.
• The village was prone to drought.
• He used watershed development, rainwater harvesting and the planting of lakhs of trees. He followed Anna Hazare's Ralegan Siddhi model.
• The village became green and prosperous.

• He received the Padma Shri (2020) for Social Work (Maharashtra), listed as "Shri Popatrao Bhaguji Pawar" [4][5].

• Vandana Bahadur Maida, Khankhandvi (Madhya Pradesh):

• A Bhil (Scheduled Tribe) woman and the village's first woman sarpanch.
• She brought women into gram sabha meetings and worked on education and sanitation.

• Her case shows the effect of Article 243D: at least one-third of seats and sarpanch posts are reserved for women, and seats and posts are reserved for SCs and STs in proportion to their population [8].

• Dnyaneshwar Kamble, Tarangfal (Solapur, Maharashtra):

• A transgender person elected sarpanch in 2017.
• Their motto was lok seva, gram seva ("service to people, service to village").

8. Child-friendly panchayats

• Child-friendly panchayat: a GP that puts children's rights first. This means safe schools, nutrition, health, and ending child labour and child marriage.
• Bal sabha: a children's assembly where children raise their own problems for the panchayat to act on.
• Bal panchayat: a children's council elected by the children themselves. In Maharashtra, bal panchayats campaigned against child labour and child marriage.
• Sangkhu Radhu Khandu GP (West Sikkim): built school compound walls and midday-meal kitchens.
• Children's Parliament, Barefoot College (Tilonia, Rajasthan; founded by Bunker Roy):
• Children aged 8–14 from night schools took part.
• They held their own elections and formed a "cabinet" that checked how schools were run.
• It received the World's Children's Honorary Award (2001).

9. Women-friendly panchayats

• Women-friendly panchayat: a GP that increases women's role in decisions and improves their health, safety and livelihoods.
• South Manubankul GP (Rupaichari block, Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), Tripura; Class 9):
• It was recognised by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) as a model women-friendly panchayat.
• It worked on women's decision-making, health, sanitation, self-help groups (SHGs) and livelihoods.

10. Link to the national awards

• LSDG (Localisation of Sustainable Development Goals): the UN SDGs grouped into nine village-level themes [6]: 1. Poverty-Free and Enhanced Livelihoods 2. Healthy Panchayat 3. Child-Friendly Panchayat 4. Water-Sufficient Panchayat 5. Clean and Green Panchayat 6. Self-Sufficient Infrastructure 7. Socially Just and Socially Secured Panchayat 8. Panchayat with Good Governance 9. Women-Friendly Panchayat

• National Panchayat Awards: the award framework was changed in 2023 to match these nine themes [6].

• The Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar (DDUPSVP) honours the top 3 GPs in each theme [6].

• Prize money ranges from ₹50 lakh for a GP to ₹5 crore for a district panchayat [6].

• April 2023: during National Panchayat Awards Week, MoPR held a national conference on Child-friendly Panchayat, Women-friendly Panchayat and Panchayat with Self-sufficient Infrastructure [7].

Prelims Hooks

• Article 243B: the three tiers are compulsory, but the intermediate tier is optional for states with a population of up to 20 lakh [8].
• Article 243C(5)(b): chairpersons of the intermediate and district panchayats must be elected indirectly, by and from the elected members. The sarpanch's mode of election is left to state law [8].
• Article 243C(3): MPs, MLAs and sarpanchs may sit in the higher tiers only if a state law provides for it. It is not automatic [8].
• Match the official to the tier: panchayat secretary → GP (records and accounts); BDO → panchayat samiti; CEO (often an IAS officer) → zila parishad.
• Patwari = lekhpal (UP) = talati (Maharashtra, Gujarat) = karnam (Andhra Pradesh). This official keeps land records.
• PAI 2.0 (2023–24): 2,59,867 GPs/TLBs, 97.30% participation, 150 indicators, five grades from Achiever (90 and above) down to Beginner (below 40) [2].
• DDUPSVP honours the top 3 GPs in each of the 9 LSDG themes. "Child-Friendly" and "Women-Friendly" are two of these themes [6].
• Popatrao Pawar (Hiware Bazar): Padma Shri 2020, Social Work [4]. Dnyaneshwar Kamble (Tarangfal): transgender sarpanch, 2017. Vandana Maida (Khankhandvi, MP): first woman sarpanch, Bhil.
• Barefoot College's Children's Parliament (Rajasthan): children aged 8–14, World's Children's Honorary Award 2001.

Mains Points

• Elected heads versus appointed officials: the sarpanch and ZP adhyaksha are elected, but real control often sits with the panchayat secretary, BDO and CEO, who answer to the state.
• This weakens the "three Fs": transfer of funds, functions and functionaries to panchayats.

• A remedy is to place the staff under the panchayat's control, so that the officials answer to the people's representatives.

• Overlapping members in the samiti and ZP (Article 243C(3)): MLAs and MPs can sit in these bodies.

• This helps tie local plans to state and central schemes such as PMGSY.

• But MLAs and MPs can crowd out elected local leaders. Composition varies by state, so the quality of local democracy also varies.

• Exemplary panchayats show what is possible:

• Hiware Bazar's watershed work shows what an active sarpanch and gram sabha can do.
• Vandana Maida and Dnyaneshwar Kamble show how reservation (Article 243D) and open politics bring marginalised groups into power [8].

• Such success depends on individuals. To scale it, panchayats need the capacity and money to do this on their own, not just award-winning examples.

• Measuring and rewarding results: PAI 2.0 scores and the LSDG-linked National Panchayat Awards push GPs towards planning based on evidence [2][6].

• Child- and women-friendly themes, bal sabhas and SHGs widen participation beyond adult male voters.
• Risk: GPs may chase their scores and data entry instead of real outcomes.