NewzVille Desk
National Panchayati Raj Day is being observed today. The day commemorates the enactment of the landmark 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act that gave constitutional status and legal recognition to Panchayati Raj Institutions across the country.
On April 24th in 1993, the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution was enacted. This introduced the extraordinarily detailed Articles 243-A to 243-O in the Constitution to vastly empower panchayats and make them the foundations of our polity.
Today there are about 2.6 lakh gram panchayats, over 6,700 intermediate panchayats, and 673 zilla parishads. This truly transformational initiative was due wholly to the insistence and persistence of the former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi. Gandhi ensured that one-third of the elected seats in Panchayati Raj institutions would be reserved for women, including for women belonging to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities.
It was entirely his contribution that today there are around 32 lakh elected representatives in panchayati raj institutions, of whom about 15 lakh are women.
