Information and Communication Technology in Panchayati Raj of Bihar

Social Science

The panchayati raj represent democratic decentralized governance in India and state of Bihar. The lowest tier of the Panchayati raj. In today’s time, Panchayati Raj are local governmental bodies of grass-root governance in rural Bihar and forms the third layer of the federalism in India. 73rd Panchayati Raj Act (1992) came into existence in 1993 and it cemented the way for a strong and effective decentralized administrative system in India and state of Bihar. The Indian Constitution added 11th schedule to it detailing 29 matters which are devolved to the local government . Bihar was the first state in the nation to bring in 50 % reservation for women in Panchayati raj. This was made operational through the Bihar Panchayat Raj Adhiniyam, 2006. Accordingly,elections to Panchayati raj which were held in 2006 had 50 % reservation for women and thus the total elected representatives had more women than men in the final tally. These institutions of grass-root government are playing an necessary role in humanizing the living standard of rural peoples in Bihar. In the current tech savvy scenario, the concept of e- governance and usage of Information and Communications technology (ICT) in offering services to the community have gained momentum. In order to move from governance to good governance with the assist of ICT, the Government of India has initiated many projects such as National e-Governance Plan, e- Kranti, Bharat Net etc. This paper portray the use of ICT by Panchayati Raj in given that effective people service delivery to the rural masses. The objective of this paper is to explore the use of Information and Communication technology (ICT) tools in the panchayati raj specially at the elementary level for enhanced governance, participation and development.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.