The Role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in Rural Women's Political Participation and Leadership Development

Abstract

The decentralisation of power with the introduction of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) through the formal process of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992 is one of the most important experiments in participatory democracy in independent India. One third reservation of seats and offices for women is the main feature of this experiment, which was later increased to fifty per cent of the seats and offices by the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Act, 2020, and earlier the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994. This paper discusses the level of reservation and its manifestation in terms of substantive political participation and leadership development in the case of rural women of Haryana state. The paper is based on secondary literature, government data and illustrative field-based statistics brought together from published studies to examine the legal and institutional landscape of PRIs in the state, patterns of women's representation in various tiers of government, and socio-cultural, economic and administrative barriers, particularly the "Sarpanch Pati" or proxy leadership, limiting women's autonomous political voice within the PRIs. The authors conclude that the presence of women on these three boards has significantly increased and is approaching or surpassing the 50 percent mark in some districts, but old patriarchal norms, low literacy, narrow eligibility criteria and limited financial independence constrain the extent of women's leadership. The study ends with policy suggestions prioritizing capacity building, financial literacy, legal measures against proxy representation, and ongoing civic education, framing Haryana's experience as a cautionary tale for other efforts to achieve gender-equality in local governance in India.