About the Book :

Acquiring a Constitutional status in 1993, the Panchayati Raj Institutions in India gave the vision of a democratic governance down even to village level (the Gram Sabha) by decentralizing State’s developmental functions, finance and functionaries to PRIs, granting them autonomy so that they function as institutions of self-government, securing people’s participations in local development and ensuring accountability and transparency of the government to the people. It is not only a system of participative self-governance but it ensures political empowerment to the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed. The Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act has made Panchayats instruments of local governance with potential space for women and marginalised groups in the federal set‑up. It has perceptually widened the democratic base providing the potential for local level planning and implementation of development programmes. These potentialities include the participation and self-governance by ensuring political empowerment to the poor, marginalized and oppressed — Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women — at the grassroot level. The present volume attempts to address the issues pertaining to rural governance, people’s participation, financial inclusion, environmental sustainability and watershed development initiatives. The volume contains twenty two research papers and articles contributed by senior academics, administrators and rural development activists with rich experience on the core areas of the study. In their submissions, the authors have tried to explore the existing problems faced by rural development in the aforesaid areas and present solid suggestions to revamp the system.

About Author :

M. R. Biju, currently working as Dean, School of Social Sciences, Dean, School of Legal Studies and Head of the Department of Public Administration and Policy Studies, Central University of Kerala, Kasaragode. He is the Chairperson of the PG Board of Studies and also serving as Member of the Court of the University. Dr. Biju is the Editor of South Asian Journal of Socio-Political Studies (SAJOSPS) and Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Political Science (IJOPS) is a prolific writer on socio-political and developmental issues. He has published over twenty-nine (29) books, one hundred and sixty (160) research papers, seventeen [17] book chapters, and reviewed over nine hundred books for South Asian Journal of Socio-Political Studies. His teaching and research experience, spanning more than 25 years, includes several achievements such as completion of three major research projects funded by Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India and University Grants Commission, New Delhi and the post-doctoral fellowship awarded by the UGC in 2004. He has also successfully guided doctoral students of the University of Kerala.
Dr. M.R. Biju is one of the widely cited writers in the field of Social Sciences with 161 citations and H-index of 6 and i10 index of 3. As per UGC Regulations of 2010, 2013 and 2016 Dr. Biju possess a total API Score of 3914 with API Cap of 3739 as on 1.1.2017.