Published Paper Details:

The idea of development, today, covers varied dimensions, significant among them being economic, social, political and human development. These development goals can be achieved only when changes happen in the lives of the poor at the grassroots level. For it is these people who could never take the centre-stage in the process of development and languished only in the peripheries. The idea is to bring these hitherto excluded people to the centre of development process and thereby empower them. A significant section of people believes that a way to actualizing the development paradigm in India is to achieve it through democracy and democratic decentralization. Good Governance marks a paradigm shift in the sphere of governance and the relationship between government and society. Decentralization of governmental power may be understood as a change in the organizational model; a change that could bring efficiency at the delivery end by improving inclusion through increased participation. It is also a process by which governance could be brought nearest to those who live at the lowest rungs but have continued to remain in the periphery in the whole process of development. In India local bodies and local self-governing institutions are functioning at this end. Although their efficiency level needs marked improvement it is equally true that without them one cannot think of implementing these development parameters in such huge States as ours. The proposed paper will look into the various dimensions of participation that may be considered sine qua non for development through local bodies and the potentials of and challenges to participation at the local levels pertaining to rural India and the resultant inclusion or exclusion thereof.