Hyderabad: A nationwide study by the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (NIRDPR) has found that while awareness of gram sabha meetings is high, participation in Telangana remains uneven, with men dominating proceedings and women, youth and elderly citizens underrepresented.
In Telangana, 93.41 per cent of respondents were aware of gram sabha meetings and over four‑fifths attended in the past year. Yet only 52.30 per cent knew their rights, and active participation stood at 55.09 per cent. Awareness of quorum provisions was particularly poor at 19.16 per cent.
Men were the most active participants, followed by women SHG members, SC/ST communities and OBCs. Despite women sarpanches heading several Panchayats, 82 per cent of respondents felt Gram Sabhas were not women‑friendly. Youth and elderly citizens also emerged as the least represented groups.
The survey covered 501 respondents from 29 gram panchayats across 14 districts. OBCs and Scheduled Castes formed the largest social groups, while farmers and daily wage workers dominated occupations. Men and women were almost equally represented in the sample, but participation patterns showed clear gender imbalance.
On infrastructure, Telangana was found to have adequate halls, seating, drinking water and toilets. Digital preparedness, however, was weak, with poor internet connectivity, few digitised records and almost no video‑conferencing facilities. Social media and WhatsApp were noted as key mobilisation tools.
Daily wage employment, agricultural work and inconvenient timings were cited as major reasons for poor participation. Other concerns included lack of awareness, inadequate communication, unsafe environments for free expression, dominance by individuals, favouritism, political interference and delays in implementing decisions.
Issues most frequently discussed included sanitation, welfare schemes, health, literacy, infrastructure, gram panchayat development plans and social audits. Meetings were generally modestly funded, between Rs 1,001 and Rs 5,000, mainly from panchayat and finance commission grants.
Respondents strongly favoured awareness campaigns, door‑to‑door mobilisation, convenient timings and avoiding agricultural hours to improve participation. They also called for stronger grievance redressal, Ward Sabha processes, greater official presence and visible implementation of decisions. The report recommends strengthening internet connectivity, digitising records, introducing video‑conferencing and audio‑visual facilities, upgrading infrastructure and expanding technology‑enabled governance to make gram sabhas more participatory.
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