Exploring the Dynamics of Deliberative Democracy in Rural India: Lessons from the Working of Gram Sabhas in India and Gram Sansads in West Bengal

Abstract

Deliberative democracy has gained considerable momentum in India in recent years in the wake of a new drive for decentralisation and democratisation to promote good governance. The constitutional amendment made in India in 1992 sought to institutionalise this concept in villages through a body called Gram Sabha (village assembly). The amendment mandates the constitution of this institution at the Gram Panchayat level (usually a cluster of villages), the functional details of which have been left to the hands of the states. The Gram Sabha is now in place in all the states though it varies from state to state in location and functions. Some states like West Bengal, have taken a step further by creating another body down the line at the level of the electoral constituency. This article presents a case study of Gram Sansads, as known in West Bengal against a general review of the working of the Gram Sabhas in India.