PANCHAYATS AT THE FRONTLINE

The battle against deeply entrenched social norms, including gender inequality, violence against women and distorted ideas of masculinity, cannot be won by laws, police action, or public awareness campaigns alone. Real change begins in villages, in gram sabhas, and in panchayats where communities decide what is acceptable, what must change, and whose voices are heard. That is why the panchayats and local leadership matter significantly.

As the institutions of governance closest to people’s everyday lives, panchayats can shape not only how women are treated and how men understand masculinity, but also whether at the village level public health systems respond to real community needs. As demographer Srinivas Goli notes, India already has over 3.2 million elected local representatives, including nearly 1.5 million women, a scale of democratic participation that Parliament cannot match. If representation is the concern, strengthening this tier must be central to the solution.

When panchayats are effective, they can help ensure that women access quality health services without fear or stigma, that adolescent girls don’t face exclusion, and that issues such as child marriage, sex-selection, domestic violence, and discrimination are addressed before they become lifelong social, economic and health burdens. In many villages across Rajasthan, womenled panchayats have already demonstrated how local leadership can bring these concerns into health and development planning.

The 73rd Constitutional Amendment gave constitutional status to panchayats and entrusted them with responsibility over health, sanitation, nutrition, water, education, and women and child development. It brought governance closer to people as the village knows its own realities best though the fiscal devolution of power did not take

The 15th Finance Commission has reinforced this role with real financial commitment. Between 2021 and 2026, it has earmarked Rs 70,051 crore for health grants to local governments as part of a larger Rs 4,36,361 crore allocation for local bodies. These funds support diagnostic infrastructure in sub centres and primary health centres, block-level public health units, health and wellness centres, and stronger rural health infrastructure. Forty percent of these funds are untied, allowing gram panchayats to spend according to priorities identified in their Gram Panchayat Development Plans. This is a significant shift. It recognizes that public health cannot improve unless local governments are trusted and empowered to lead.

But resources without representation often do not reach the people who need it most. One of the most powerful democratic changes in India has been the rise of women in local governance. Today, nearly half of all elected PRI representatives are women. In several states, including Bihar and Rajasthan, women’s reservation in panchayats has reached 50 percent. These numbers matter. But they only matter if elected women can actually lead, not just hold a seat while someone else speaks for them.

When women enter governance, they bring with them issues that were long invisible in public decision making. They raise concerns about maternal health, nutrition, menstrual hygiene, school dropout among girls, gender-based violence, sanitation, and safety. They bring women’s lived realities into planning spaces. This matters because health is deeply shaped by gender norms. This is where women leaders in panchayats can be transformative. They are not only administrators. They are and can be norm changers.

In Rajasthan, women PRI leaders have played an important role in public campaigns against child marriage. In several gram panchayats in districts such as Bikaner, public resolutions against child marriage have helped shift community attitudes. Population Foundation of India’s Zero Teenage Pregnancy campaign in Rajasthan is a strong example of how local action can connect gender norms with public health. Launched in 2020 with support from the Government of Rajasthan, the campaign brought together elected representatives, government officials, and community leaders to create urgency around ending early marriage and teenage pregnancy. When a panchayat declares that no girl should be married before eighteen, silence begins to break, laying the ground for change.

This potential is equally evident in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where Population Foundation of India has worked on strengthening community platforms such as Jan Arogya Samitis. Such platforms have PRI representatives as members and help bring public into public health. They ensure that governance listens to women, adolescents, and marginalized communities, not only to officials.

Evidence and field experience show that changing gender norms requires engaging men. In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Population Foundation of India worked with Sarpanchs, including pradhan patis, the husbands of elected women representatives, encouraging them to become supporters and champions of women’s leadership rather than proxies who speak in their place. This matters because women’s reservation can only transform governance when elected women exercise real authority.

India has already laid the foundation for decentralisation of governance. The constitutional framework exists. The finances are stronger than before. Women are entering leadership in unprecedented numbers.

Going forward, we need to deepen this change. Women PRI leaders must receive stronger training, digital inclusion, greater institutional support, and total freedom from proxy control. Untied funds must reach panchayats on time. And local governance must be treated not as the last mile of delivery, but as the first line of leadership.

When a woman sarpanch stands before her village and says that violence against women will not be tolerated, or that every girl must stay in school, she is enabling transformative change. She is reshaping the future of public health and equality.

That is where real change begins. In the village. In the panchayat. In women’s leadership.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Poonam Muttreja, The writer is Executive Director, Population Foundation of India