India is the biggest democratic county in the world. The Indian democracy is a vivacious democracy too. However, it is more structural in form and lacks participatory content. Will it hold long in the midst of the rural poor, who form a sizeable chunk of the rural population, getting frustrated once in every five years? Even then, it survives in an environment of undemocratic conditions. It remains more at the level of a system of government than at the level of the deep-routed values among the toiling and moiling masses of rural India.
Democracy is based on the principles of equality and liberty. However, they do not find expressions in our traditions and social structure. The Panchayat system, an age-old system of local self-governance, is meant for upholding democratic values and encouraging people’s participation at the grassroots levels. Even though it existed in India even before East India Company came to India, the age old concept of local self-government has become a reality with the 73rd Constitution Amendment for local bodies on December 22 and 23, 1992.
The pressure exerted by the concerted campaigns and various efforts of civil society organisations; intellectuals and progressive political leaders forced the Central government to come out with the 73rd Constitution Amendment. Finally, it helped India to move towards ’multi-level federalism', and thus widened the scope for grass root democratic process in the Indian polity.
The purpose of the new amendment was to open up new vistas for strengthening human rights, gender equality, decentralisation, development, social justice, accountability, transparency, integrity, access to information, people’s participation, civil society empowerment, communal harmony, secularism and democracy at grassroots.
However, nearly 600 districts, about 6,000 blocks and 250,000 village panchayats covering nearly 75 percent of India's rural population have not yet so far fully served the purpose for which they were originally intended to. There are a sizeable number of excluded groups and communities in the villages that do not enjoy an equal and inclusive representation in the decision-making bodies.
Participation, in terms of identification of problems and solutions, involvement of people in the decision-making, implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes, is vital to promote a healthy society. “Health” WHO says “is not merely absence of disease, but a state of physical, mental and social well-being…”
However, the present system of self-governance does not encourage people’s participation. It gets activated once in five years, especially during elections, and remains dead rest of the time. It is the “big people” with “big voices” get elected and they run the show of self-governance to fulfill their own self-interests. These forums, even at the ward level, are too big for “small men” to handle them to their likings.
Human rights violations in India take place at different levels. However, here we mention only two major areas. They are the poor socio-economic conditions that deny their rights and the right to livelihood and decent living and that in turn lead to indignity and lack of self-respect for a majority of the people.
The caste system represents the worst forms of human rights violations in India even today. It denies basic education to the lower castes and women. It has made a significant impact on the lives of the rural masses. Lower castes are forced to live mostly in the outskirts of villages. It is unique to India that breeds social hierarchy and inequality.
The human rights violations against the dalits are common even after strengthening the local bodies to a limited extend. The democratic process has not given the needed strength and power to them. Therefore, they are still at the receiving end. Fox example, four gram panchayats reserved for dalits in Tamil Nadu could not face elections due to threats from upper-caste people in these villages.
Atrocities and human rights violations against the lower castes can be controlled only through a culture of equality of human beings. This can be achieved by human rights education and eradication of illiteracy. The panchayats have a crucial role in this.
In the economic front, the people are divided into rich and poor. Here the castes and classes are inter-connected and the class struggles at times turned into caste conflicts between communities. In this context, it is the dalits, marginalised and women who are basically the victims of the social and economic systems prevailing in the country.
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In rural India 26% live below poverty line. The literacy rate is below50%. The illiteracy among rural women is 60%. The health system in India is almost sick. The Infant mortality rate is 63.19%. Population with access to sanitation is only 31 per cent. More than half of the children between one to five years in rural areas are under-nourished and 60 per cent of the rural households do not have electricity connection.
One of the stated objectives of the 73rd amendment was to empower dalits and marginalised groups through ensuring their participation in the election process. However, the ground reality reflects some negative trends. The election process in India is marred by factors like violence, corruption, and muscle and money power. Even though rule of law is the basic principle of democracy, but it is a myth in real life.
Women got political representation at the grassroots thanks to the 73rd Constitution Amendment Act. It provided the rural women with opportunities to actively involve in the decision-making processes. There are now more than one million elected women representatives, who have become as spokespersons, give more meaning for democratic representation of the local community. The political empowerment of women since then broke several myths, like submissive spectators and disinterested in political institutions; women were 'name-sake' politicians, they did not participate in the administrative processes, etc. Today the catchphrase is that 'women can do it'.
However, women in general and the dalit and the marginalised women members in particular face double oppression. They are restricted to exercise their positions of power. They are at the receiving end of upper caste atrocities.
Communalism and obscurantism are two sides of the same coin threatening the very existence of democracy in India. Communal forces and the fundamentalists are up in arms to flare communal divide and hatred between communities. They pose a fatal threat to democracy by perpetuating internal violence and mutual suspicions. There is a need for India to remain as secular in the midst of non-secular conditions prevailing in most of the areas.
The civil society organizations and the state have been taking up corruption in the local bodies. The prevailing check and balance system and social audit have not yet become effective tools in the hands of the masses due to lack of scope for participation and therefore the rich corner the benefits and the poor remain where they are. The democratic process at the village level has not yet given the strength and power to the participants in the process of participation.
