Women in Decentralized Governance and Development a study of Political Participation of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Women and its Impact on Development in two Selected Blocks of the District of Alipurduar

Abstract

Democracy is considered as one of the best forms of government because it ensures newlineliberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, equality of status and newlineopportunity, fraternity as well as the right to participate in political decision-making. newlineParticipation and control of governance by the people of the country is the essence of newlinedemocracy. Such participation is possible only when the powers of the state are newlinedecentralized to the district, block and village levels where all the sections of the people newlinecan sit together, discuss their problems and suggest solutions and plan execute as well as newlinemonitor the implementation of the programmes. It is called the crux of democratic newlinedecentralization. newlineDecentralization and democracy are the most significant themes in any discussion newlinein the realm of development and polity. The early age of the 21st century, in any way, newlinemarks the emergence of an era where the futility of centralized experiments of newlinegovernance has unequivocally been advocated, both as a strategy and philosophy of newlinebringing about reforms and changes in democracies which should invariably lead to newlinevirtues of transparency, responsiveness and accountability and ensure good governance. newlineDecentralized governance has been a popular theme in the realm of the newlinedevelopmental discourse in thinking and practice for last few decades. In recent years newlinethere has been a dramatic flowering of decentralization initiatives among the developing newlinecountries. India is one of them who adopted the decentralized governance system after its newlineindependence. Decentralized governance as a system of governance at the grass roots newlinelevel in rural India, has rightly been conceived as most viable and proper mechanism of newlinerealizing the goals of democracy and decentralization. The current debate is not on its newlinedesirability but on strengthening it by identifying its weaknesses and taking care of the newlinelacunae which are still there in spite of its constitutional reorganization by the historical newline73rd Constitutional Amendment Act.