In a geographically and culturally diverse country like India , a system of accountable, efficient and transparent local government is indispensable for development and public service delivery at the grassroots level of society. Majority of the population lives in rural areas and out of the rural inhabitants around a quarter are conspicuously below the poverty line (BPL) and under extreme deprivation. Even after more than six decades of independence, many rural areas still lack basic infrastructure such as roads, water, electricity, hospitals, schools and so on.

India has established one of the largest systems of local governance of the world through the 73^rd Constitutional amendment in 1993. It has adopted a decentralized strategy based on the principles of subsidiarity with a more active and area-based approach to rural development. Rural local governments (henceforth referred to as Panchayats) have been given a wide range of powers and duties related to rural development, implementation of anti-poverty programs, job creation, rural marketing, social and political empowerment of weaker sections of the society, and so on. Panchayats are also instrumental in mobilizing the dwellers and other agencies for designing and implementing rural development initiatives that are more adapted to local needs. Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in rural areas signify India ’s experiment with direct democracy at the grassroots level. The landmark 73^rd Constitutional amendment has brought a paradigm shift in the system of local governance. PRIs have become the nodal agencies for inclusive development in rural areas.

After a more than a decade and half, there is a growing realization that the system of Panchayati Raj needs to be re-energized and strengthened to address persistent development challenges more effectively and also to be responsive to emerging problems such as climate change, water scarcity, natural disasters, etc. Globalization and the information revolution have changed the nature of local polity through increasing competition and awareness among the villagers. The technology that is most transformative in today’s society is Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Information and Communication Technology does not impact physical objects directly; instead, it moves and processes information. ICTs enable decisions to be taken, assemble data, store information, and pass messages around efficiently. Because ICT’s focus is on information, it has a different layer of significance in society. ICTs produce content or information that has meaning, or at least an interpretation, and can inform all sorts of decisions.[1] Therefore, ICTs have the potential to transform the system of governance.

Realizing the transformative potential of ICT, the Government of India and various state governments have initiated the process of applying ICT measures to reform rural local governance for improving the delivery of public services through greater transparency and accountability. Recently the President of India, in her address to both Houses of Parliament on 4^th June 2009, mentioned the government agenda for expanding broadband coverage to connect every Panchayat to a broadband network in the next three years. She also stated that the scheme for Common Service Centers or e-kiosks under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) will be suitably repositioned to become a network of Panchayat-level Common Services Centers to citizens in rural areas.[2]

ePanchayats: Idea and Initiatives across the Country

Technically speaking, ePanchayat system is web-based and n-tiered; and functions like an Application Service Provider enabling Panchayat level digital services for all stakeholders. The stakeholders are citizens, elected representatives, Gram Panchayat officials, the governments and the knowledge workers.[3] But it should not be merely perceived as an ICT enabled system of governance that provides public services on demand. It promotes virtues of good governance and deepens democratic values in society. It creates an environment in which people feel empowered, establishes a system that ensures people can easily avail their fundamental rights to information, and broadens the scope of local government.

The process of e-governance has already been started and Government of India has decided to open one lakh common services centers across the country under NeGP in order to make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, and ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man.[4] Now the Government of India has initiated the process to equip all Gram Panchayats with computers, or provide access to computers with broadband connectivity. All Panchayats at all levels need to be equipped with computing hardware and connectivity over the next three years. The approach would be to first use the kiosks being set up under the NeGP’s Common Services Centres initiative. For the remaining Panchayats, it is proposed to engage independent service providers who would be selected on the basis of a bidding process. It has been also planned to equip all Panchayats with necessary software and skills to handle e-Governance for better delivery of services to citizens. The other major component of ePanchayats would be that of capacity building of functionaries of Panchayati Raj Institutions. The infrastructure that is proposed to be created through e-PRI would be utilised for training of elected representatives about their responsibilities and for giving them functional knowledge of the schemes that are implemented through the Panchayats or their statutory committees.[5]

Several state governments have also taken initiatives to set up the ePanchayats to facilitate the development process and provide easy access to information to citizens. States such as Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Himanchal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kearla, Karnataka, Haryana and Goa have set up Panchayat portals to provide information regarding development schemes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, organizational/departmental set up, developmental policies, annual reports, notification, evaluation reports of development programmes, status of development schemes, revenues etc. The common feature of the portals is that they give information in local languages like Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada, etc. and about issues concerning the local people. These portals also act as a platform for users to know whom they have to approach for the processing of their applications and resolution of grievances. These portals are generally intra-linked with other state government departments that make them more service oriented.               

The Potential Benefits of ePanchayats: A Development Perspective  

The system of ePanchayat can provide tangible benefits to people of rural India in many ways:

§         Efficient Public Service Delivery: ePanchayats will be able to provide many people-centric services easily and efficiently under one roof. Birth and death registration and issue of certificates, payment of property tax, water tax and other utility services, grant of licenses, grant of building permissions, grievance handling and other services can be provided at minimal cost and with minimal delays. e-PRI will not only make the process of services delivery more efficient but also minimize malpractices and corruption.

§         Monitoring Development Programmes: Monitoring and evaluation of development programmes is another area where usage of ICT is essential. Online connectivity of each district with central ministries and departments would make transmission of data easy and most importantly, timely. It would also help to create a database of all development programmes being implemented in a particular district.

§         Financial Management: Through the 73rd amendment, the Government of India has devolved financial resources to Panchayati Raj Institutions to a considerable extent. Recent trends show that demand for more financial resources is growing. Panchayats are allowed to levy, collect and appropriate taxes, duties, tolls and fees in accordance with state laws to generate their own revenues.[6] Therefore, a proper system of financial management is required at the grassroots level to ensure transparency and accountability. The Comptroller and Auditor General has prescribed simple formats for preparation of budgets and accounts by PRIs. These are proposed for adoption by PRIs. An application “PriaSoft” developed by the National Informatics Center will be deployed in e-PRIs. This would also help Panchayats in collection of revenues and enable tracking of the expenditure by funding agencies.[7]          

§         Facilitating Planning at the Grassroots level: Article 243G of the Constitution of India provides the provision for decentralized planning. Panchayats would have a major role to play in the process of planning at the grassroots level of society. To facilitate the process of planning Panchayats should be provided with relevant data. The Ministry of Panchaayti Raj has developed an application “PLANplus”, which is used in many backward regions of the country. It has also been planned to enable Panchayats with GIS tools to facilitate planning at the grassroots level. Therefore, e-PRI would certainly strengthen the process of planning at the grassroots level.[8]      

§         Information Dissemination: Easy access to information about the internal functioning of Panchayats and other services would be another distinguishing feature of the e-Panchayati Raj system. Internal functioning of Panchayats such as agenda of meetings, decisions taken and voting records can be kept and made accessible to citizens. Information regarding development programmes and beneficiaries of the programmes such as the BPL, pensioners and Census data can be provided. Information dissemination would certainly bring transparency in the development process. As reported in the Indian Express, the old age pension scam which has recently surfaced in several districts of Uttar Pradesh highlights the story of empowerment of ordinary villagers through information technology.[9] It will also speed up knowledge and information across all tiers of Panchayats and other governmental departments. 

§         People Participation: People participation, particularly participation of weaker sections and women in the development process is essential for equitable and inclusive development. Information dissemination and awareness generation can help to increase the interest of isolated and disadvantaged sections of society in the development process. ePanchayats make information available to all without any bureaucratic hurdle and help them become aware about services and schemes for development. This would certainly help to bring them in the mainstream of development.

§         Addressing New Development Challenges: New emerging challenges, such as climate change, water scarcity and natural disasters are posing serious threats to humanity. Since Panchayats are the institutions that are closest to the people, they can easily inform people in case of emergency. Thus, they must be made capable of performing such duties. People also need to be informed about the process of adaptation, mitigation, water conservation, and so on, so they can cope with upcoming and potential threats of climate change.

Problems and Prospects

Establishment of the ePanchayat in every village across the country is an elaborate process. ICT intervention should not be understood in isolation. ICTs function in a socio-cultural, political, and economic milieu. Their efficacy is contingent on the various forces and realities that coalesce to shape the environment into which they are introduced. To equip every Panchayat with a computer and to provide it with Internet connectivity would not be an easy task, if we look at the current status of Internet connectivity and other prerequisites for ICT enabled system of governance in rural areas. A workable system of ePanchayats warrants financial resources, computer applications, skilled human resource and political will.

The primary technological factors that can impede the reach of ePanchayats are the lack of infrastructure and trained human resources. Despite India being called the Information Technology capital of the world, its computer and Internet penetration (at 2.7 per cent and 4.9 per cent, respectively) are among the lowest in the world.[10] Teledensity in rural areas is around 14 per cent.[11] Slow progress in rolling out common services centers would delay process of ePanchayats. 100,000 common services center were to be opened up in rural areas by March 2009, but only 50,008 have been rolled out until now. Some states, namely Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat , Sikkim and Haryana have already operationalized more than 75 per cent of common services centers while others such as Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh , Jammu and Kashmir , and Uttarakhand lag far behind in the process.[12]

If we think about other prerequisites for meaningful and workable ICT intervention, the issue of electricity comes first. More than half of the rural households are still not connected with electricity. Human resource is another challenge which can be a factor not only at the implementation level but also at the user level. Most Gram (village) Panchayat representatives and villagers are not computer-literate; even a simple computer application would be difficult to handle for them. Content creation in local language is another challenge. English is still an alien language in rural areas. The local population needs information in their local language and computer applications should also be in local language and simple. To a great extent, deployment of ICT in rural areas is still a top-down and supply driven approach. Application of ICT is a political issue because it has the potential to transform the socio-political dynamics of national and local polity. Therefore, its deployment largely depends on how the political elite of the nation take it. 

Despite the genuine problems of infrastructure and other prerequisites for ePanchayats in rural India , prospects do not seem all that grim. Governments at both the central and state levels have the vision and strategies to bridge the digital divide and provide supporting infrastructure in rural areas to enhance the capacity of Panchayats. Under the Bharat Niram programme, the Government of India has emphasized connectivity and other basic facilities. The Ministry of Power has introduced a scheme that aims at providing electricity in all villages and habitations within four years, thereby providing access to electricity to all rural households.[13] It has been also proposed to achieve a rural tele-density of 25 per cent by means of 200 million rural connections by the end of the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The Eleventh Five Year Plan has also targeted providing broadband connectivity for all secondary and higher secondary schools, all public health care centers and Gram Panchayats.[14] The cost of hardware and software could be higher in the first phase of installation, but it will come down substantially once the system is deployed.

To sum up, ePanchayats are the need of the hour as people in rural areas are still deprived of basic facilities for a decent life. Common wisdom says that poverty and deprivation exist not only due to lack of resources but also persist because of inefficient and malfunctioning institutions. In the emerging knowledge society and information revolution, Panchayats should not be left in isolation. They should be provided with adequate technological resources in order to be able to play a meaningful role in the course of development.