PANCHAYATI RAJ INSTITUTIONS AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT: Narratives on Inclusion of Excluded

The 73rd Constitutional Amendment provided space for the first time to the invisible and excluded categories in the society to participate in the decentralized democratic institutions like Panchayati Raj, which works at the grassroots level for the development of these people and let alone the society at large.

The papers presented in this volume review through narratives the micro-macro ground realities on a broad canvas of interdisciplinary approach. It also offers a comprehensive account of development dynamics, participatory governance and empowerment of excluded categories.

B.C. Barik is Director, School of Social Sciences, Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded. During the last two decades of his academic career, he has published four books and more than four dozen research papers in national and international journals. His research interest areas are Agrarian Structure, Migration, Weaker Sections and Irrigation and Water Management.

U.C. Sahoo is Reader, School of Social Sciences, Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded. He has published a number of research articles in select social science journals.