Profile and constitutional governance knowledge of women sarpanch: An empirical study of Navsari district of Gujarat

Introduction

India is the world's largest democracy, where power lies with the people through their right to vote and elect their representatives. Balwant Rai G. Mehta (1957) realized that people's participation is crucial for successful implementation of programs like Community Development Program and National Extension Services (Harikrishna et al., 2023). The state of Madras had started democratic decentralization as an experimental measure in his own way as early as 1957, which was further followed by other Indian states like Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. Nagaur in Rajasthan became the first district to fully adopt democratic decentralization in India (Anon., 2003). The concept of "democratic decentralization" was difficult for the general public to understand during that period. Therefore, the three-tier administrative structure was later termed as "Panchayati Raj," referring to a decentralized system of local self-government. In this framework, the Zila Panchayat functions at the district level, Panchayat Samiti operates at the block level and Gram Panchayat serves as the village-level governing body. (Parmar et.al.,2025) [5] . As a result of this constitutional amendment in 1992, whole world witnessed a significant development in the realm of Indian democracy. The greatest feature of new Panchayati Raj Act 1992 is 33 per cent reservation seats for women. Article 243-D says that "Not less than one-third of total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every panchayat shall be reserved for women". Strong leadership at the grassroots level plays a vital role in ensuring effective governance in rural communities. The success of local self-governance in India largely depends on the performance of elected representatives in the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), which serve as the backbone of rural administration (Parmar et.al.,2025) [5] Status of woman can be assessed in different ways like the extent of a women's access to social and material resources within the sphere of www.extensionjournal.com family, community and society. The extent to which women have access to knowledge, economic resources and political power as well as the degree of autonomy she enjoys in decision-making and making personal choices at crucial points in her life-cycle also determines her status. The role performance of women panchayat leaders is very important in developing agricultural, social, economic and political level of rural mass. The success of any gram panchayat largely depends upon how well the selected members and sarapanch perform their roles within the framework of Panchayat Raj constitution. It is necessary for the sarpanch and member of the gram panchayat to have knowledge and clear understanding of their roles and its effective implementation for the development of village. Political participation of women not only using the right to vote, but also power-sharing co-decision-making and copolicy-making at all levels of governance of the state. Now, women slowly moving towards the leadership scale and changing the face of village politics by giving new directions to the empowerment, highlighting their problems and finding solutions to make it successful. Elected women representatives are slowly bringing change in the rural countryside and urban areas, by bringing social development.

Although several studies have examined the socio-economic characteristics, leadership roles, empowerment and performance of elected women representatives in Panchayati Raj Institutions, limited empirical evidence is available regarding their knowledge of the fundamental functions of constitutional bodies. Most existing research has focused on participation and decision-making aspects rather than assessing constitutional governance awareness among women sarpanch. Furthermore, studies investigating the influence of personal, socio-economic, communication and psychological characteristics on constitutional knowledge are scarce, particularly in the context of South Gujarat. The present study addresses this gap by systematically evaluating the knowledge level of women sarpanch regarding constitutional bodies and identifying the factors associated with such knowledge, thereby contributing to a better understanding of governance capacity at the grassroots level. Objectives 1. To study the profile of women sarpanch 2. To study the knowledge level of women sarpanch about fundamental functions of constitutional bodies 3. To study the association between profile of women sarpanch with knowledge level about fundamental functions of constitutional bodies

Research Methodology

The study was conducted in Navsari district of South Gujarat. In Navsari district, there are six talukas viz. Navsari, Gandevi, Chikhli, Jalalpore, Vansda and Khergam. All six talukas were selected for present study. The list of gram panchayats headed by women sarpanch was collected from district panchayat, Navsari. Total 168 gram panchayats of Navsari district are headed by women sarpanch.

According to the number of gram panchayats headed by women sarpanch in each taluka, 100 villages were selected with proportionate random sampling. Thus, total 100 villages were selected from Navsari district. The data collected using pre tested interview schedule was compiled, tabulated and analysed using Microsoft Excel according to the objectives. Statistical tools such as frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and coefficient of correlation were used to derive meaningful conclusions. It is apparent from the table 3 that about 58.00 per cent of the respondents had secondary level of education followed by 29.00 per cent of the respondents had high level of education and only 13.00 per cent had low level of education.

In general, slightly more than half of respondents (58.00 per cent) had secondary level of education. The main reason behind this is supposed to that now a days people understand the important of education for girl child also so it would increase from secondary to college level education. It is clear from the data indicated in the table 4 that 57.00 per cent of the respondents were living in joint family and 43.00 per cent of them were living in nuclear family It showed that respondents were living in joint family. Main reason for this is supposed to our traditional culture. The data presented in table 5 revealed that 60.00 per cent of the respondents belonged to category of medium family followed by 26.00 per cent and 14.00 per cent who were in small and large family categories, respectively. In general, from the above finding it could be said that majority of the respondents (86.00 per cent) belonged to medium to small family categories. The table 6 show that half of the respondents (51.00 per cent) were having farming + animal husbandry as major occupation and nearly same 45.00 per cent had farming alone as occupation and 04.00 per cent of them had farming + animal husbandry + service. In general, the half of the respondents (51.00 per cent) had farming + animal husbandry as major occupations. The probable reason may be that the respondents have considered these two as helpful to sustain their livelihood and lack of other opportunity may restrict them to go for any other supplementary income. It is evident from table 7 that majority of the respondents (75.00 per cent) belonged to small land holding category followed by 20.00 per cent belonged to medium land holding category and only 05.00 per cent were belonged to large land holding category. In general, it could be said that majority (75.00 per cent) of the respondents were having small land holding. The possible reason of this finding might be due to more land fragmentation among family members. The data presented in table 8 indicated that 48.00 per cent of the respondents belonged to medium annual income category nearly same 44.00 per cent and belonged to low annual income category and only 08.00 per cent belonged to high annual income category. In general, it could be said that the respondents were having medium as to low annual income. This might be due to less land holding due to www.extensionjournal.com fragmented land. From the table 9, it is evident that the slightly more than half of respondents (55.00 per cent) belonged to moderate mass media exposure, followed by higher (28.00 per cent) and lower (17.00 per cent). In general, it could be said that the majority of respondents (83.00 per cent) belonged to moderate and high mass media exposure. This might be due to rapid changing technology. Data presented in table 10 revealed that majority 62.00 per cent of the respondents had moderate political contact, whereas, 20.00 per cent and18.00 per cent of them had lower political contact and higher political contact, respectively. In general, it could be said that the majority of the respondents (62.00 per cent) had moderate political contact. The probable reason may be that all women sarpanch doesn't have contact with higher political leaders like Minister, MLA and MP. The data presented in table 11 revealed that 100.00 per cent of respondents were holding the position in respective social organization ranked first, as a women sarpanch were purposively selected for the study followed by 67.00 per cent of the respondents had membership in more than one organization ranked second and 23.00 per cent of them had membership in one organization ranked third. Similar findings on socio-demographic profile of panchayat leaders were reported by Batra (2016) [2] , Kumari et al. (2016) [4] , Patel et al. (2017) [7] and Parmar et al., (2025) [6] . It was revealed from table 14 and fig. 14 that majority 71.00 per cent of the respondents possessed moderate management orientation followed by 18.00 and 11.00 per cent had lower and higher management orientation respectively. In general, the majority of respondents (71.00 per cent) had moderate management orientation. The probable reason for the above finding might be that the respondents had good perception about the importance of managerial aspect in their panchayat after their active participation in different activities of extension institutions. It was revealed from table 13 that majority of respondents (61.00 per cent) had medium level of knowledge followed by 27.00 per cent and 12.00 per cent had lower and higher level of knowledge about fundamental functions of constitutional bodies, respectively. In general, majority of respondents (61.00 per cent) had moderate knowledge about fundamental functions of constitutional bodies. The probable reason for the above finding might be medium level of education level. The finding is in concurrence with findings reported by Batra (2016) [2] and Singh et al. (2016) [8] .

Knowledge level of respondents about fundamental functions of constitutional bodies

Association between profile of women sarpanch with knowledge level about fundamental functions of constitutional bodies

The association between the personal profile of the respondents viz. age, education, caste, occupation, family www.extensionjournal.com size, family type, land holding, annual income, mass media exposure, political contact, social participation and management orientation with knowledge about fundamental functions of constitutional bodies was worked out by using coefficient of correlation. and management orientation (0.328**) were found positively and highly significantly associated with knowledge about fundamental functions of constitutional bodies and family type (0.211*), annual income (0.221*) and political contact (0.214*) were found positively and significantly associated with knowledge about fundamental functions of constitutional bodies. Whereas, caste (0.088) and land holding (0.005) had positively non-significant association. While, occupation (-0.015) had negatively nonsignificant association with knowledge of respondents about fundamental functions of constitutional bodies. This finding was in conformity with the findings of Parmar et al., (2025) [6] .

Conclusion

The study concludes that women sarpanch in Navsari district possess a moderate level of knowledge regarding the fundamental functions of constitutional bodies. The majority of respondents were middle-aged, educated up to the secondary level, engaged in agriculture-based occupations and had moderate exposure to mass media, political networks and management-oriented activities. Significant positive relationships were observed between knowledge level and variables such as age, education, family size, family type, annual income, mass media exposure, political contact, social participation and management orientation. Among these, education and mass media exposure emerged as particularly influential factors. The findings suggest that enhancing educational opportunities, strengthening information dissemination mechanisms and promoting active social and political engagement can improve constitutional governance awareness among women sarpanch. Targeted training and capacity-building programmes are therefore essential to empower women leaders and enhance the effectiveness of local selfgovernance institutions in rural areas.

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementAuthors are thankful to Navsari Agricultural University for providing the resources to conduct this study and to all the panchayat leaders who took out their valuable time to participate in this study and share their experience with us.

References

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