TRIBAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PANCHAYATI RAJ SYSTEM IN ODISHA

Indian democracy, like all other democracies of the Western World, believes in sharing of power that necessitates the popular participation of these poor, illiterate and culturally deprived communities of the County. As most of the people in this County live in villages, so democracy in India can be successful with the progressive involvement of these Tribes in the institutions at the grass-roots level (Panchayati Raj Institutions). This noble goal can only be achieved with the emergence of the development-oriented institutional leadership from among these communities who make the rural people conscious of participating in developmental activities in villages. Accordingly, it is the aim of this study to know the attitude of the tribal people and elected tribal leaders (of Panchayati Raj Institutions), their level of political awareness, the factors of motivation for their political participation and to perceive how these leaders participate in various political activities especially relating to the rural self-governing institutions. Planning for promoting socio-economic development of marginalised people has emerged as a key function of Panchayats in India. This scenario is also found in the case of the scheduled areas of Odisha. This article argues that institutional arrangement and functioning of Panchayats have paved the way for formulation of decentralised development plans in these areas. The Panchayats have been playing a key role in the ways of formulating decentralised development plans and fostering the participation of tribal people in planning process. Many important issues related to socio-economic development of tribal people have been discussed in the meetings involving planning. Despite this, the goals of promoting socio-economic development of tribal people through formulating decentralised development plans have not achieved the desired results. Inadequate infrastructure and poor data management system at the Panchayat level and weak coordination among the various tiers have created hurdles in the path of formulation of decentralised development plans in the districts of Odisha. It is on this basis, that this article suggests decentralised planning as a systemic process in the scheduled areas under the guidance of the Panchayats. This article also says some conservative attitudes of tribes push them back because they feel that the election has harm to their culture and tradition, if the people get away from politics their society will be saved.