Participation of rural peoples in the planning process - a case study of hailakandi development block of Southern Assam, India

Abstract

Introduction: The 73^rd Amendment of the Indian Constitution has given immense power to Panchayati Raj Institution to address various village level economic and social development issues by preparing their plan covering 29 subjects under the 11^th schedule of the Indian Constitution in a participatory approach. The state of Assam also adopted the Assam Panchayati Raj Act in the year 1994, and a systematic planning approach has been included in the system through Gaon Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) from the year 2015-16.

Objective: The main objective of the research work is to identify various issues and problems that are faced by the rural people of the selected region to involve themselves in the planning process in rural areas.

Methodology: Total 140 samples were randomly collected from the Hailakandi Development block of Hailakandi District of Southern Assam and the Ordinary Least Square regression model has been used to study the impact of the selected variables on People’s Participation.

Results: The study find that there is a significant impact of Sex Ratio, Age, Occupational Structure, Family Income, Knowledge, Skills, Attitude, and most importantly Organizational Defects on Peoples Participation. The most important finding is that People with Skills and Positive Attitude restricts themselves to involve in this holistic planning process due to various types of Organization Defects.

Conclusion: The Panchayat Raj System in Assam needs to improve its governance system at the local level by strengthening the quality of Gaon Sabha and the State or Central Government needs to adopt some policies to address the requirements raised by the local people during the planning process with the help of other departments working at village level with some budgetary support.