Panchayat, the rural local government in India, is now part of the governance structure of the contrary. The Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992 defines it as mandatory for states to set up and hold regular elections to the three-tier panchayats. Panchayats have emerged as a third stratum of government in India’s federal system. Panchayats’ roots date back to the distant past. During the colonial period, it acquired some kind of formal structure. And in the formal structure. And in the post-independence period, there have been several attempts to institutionalize them. This volume traces the history of rural local governments from the colonial period up to the present day. The first publication in this series by the Institute was titled Status of Panchayati Raj in the States of India, 1994 which recounted the story up to the adoption of the 73rd Constitution Amendment. The second in the series was Status of Panchayati Raj in the States and Union Territories of India, 2000 which continued detailed analysis of the working of panchayats at state, district and block levels. The present volume Status of Panchayati Raj in the States and Union Territories of India, 2013 Provides an in-depth analysis of the structures and functioning of the Panchayati raj institutions since 2000/ Apart from an introduction which gives an overview of the Panchayati raj system, the volume has special articles such as An Appraisal of Panchayats in Fifth Scheduled Areas, Panchayats and Women and Fiscal Decentralization. What is unique about this encyclopedic publication is that it provides exhaustive data on Blocks/Talukas/Mandals and Districts based on the 2001 and 2011 Census along with maps, demographic data on the Districts and Blocks as also the socio-economic profiles of each State and Union Territory.
