What type of local government is there in your city? Does it work comprehensively to address the issues raised by the residents?

What is local government and why is it important?

Since the late 1980s, we have been witnessing a wave of decentralisation globally, which is founded upon the idea of making governance more participatory and inclusive. In 1992, India too embraced this wave and amended its constitution with the intent to strengthen grassroots-level democracy by decentralising governance and empowering local political bodies.

The objective was to create local institutions that were democratic, autonomous, financially strong, and capable of formulating and implementing plans for their respective areas and providing decentralised administration to the people. It is based on the notion that people need to have a say in decisions that affect their lives and local problems are best solved by local solutions.

“People need to have a say in decisions that affect their lives and local problems are best solved by local solutions.”

Though traditional forms of local governance have existed in India for centuries, the post-Independence period saw a shift towards building a system of local government, in no small part due to the influence of Mahatma Gandhi. The passing of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments, made it mandatory for each state to constitute rural and urban local governments, to establish mechanisms to fund them, and to carry out local elections every five years. The creation of this new three-tier system of local governance provided constitutional status to rural and urban local bodies, ensuring a degree of uniformity in their structure and functioning across the country. Provisions of these two amendments are similar in many ways, and differ mainly in the fact that the former applies to rural local government (also known as Panchayati Raj Institutions or PRIs), while the latter applies to urban local bodies.

Currently, there are more than 250,000 local government bodies across India with nearly 3.1 million elected representatives and 1.3 million women representatives.