Panchayati Raj and the Empowerment of the Disadvantaged

Political Participation of the Disadvantaged sections was advocated to make the mainstreaming of the Socially Disadvantaged sections like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to experience partaking in decision making process and also to experience Empowerment in the real sense of the term. The 73 rd Amendment to the constitution paved way for the reservation for SCs, STs in Local Self Government. This paper focuses on the emergent leadership at Gram Panchayat level, their entry, perceptions, Political attitude and their Performance appraisal so as to examine the empowerment they experience as heading the Gram Panchayats. This paper draws the conclusion that the SC & ST Sarpanches though hailing from poor economic and illiterate background, could emerge within a short span of time as Sarpanches manifesting fair levels of Political awareness and Attitude. Given the constraints, the strides made and the achievements registered by these Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Sarpanches through Panchayat is certainly commendable and also indicative of their Empowerment.