IN 2022, we took a pledge to remove poverty from our village by 2030 and ensure employment of all residents. With our efforts, women in the village now work with self-help groups, while men earn through self-employment schemes," says Vinayak Gaikwad, sarpanch of Khandobachi Wadi, a village in Maharashtra Sangli district. In 2023, the National Panchayat Performance Assessment Committee awarded the village the first prize under "Poverty free and enhanced livelihoods" category. The award allows the panchayat to undertake works worth up to 1 crore in the village.
These were India's first National Panchayat Awards and will be an annual feature. The official dashboard of the panchayat awards says that its primary aim is "to assess the performance" of panchayats in meeting the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030.
India has been chasing SDGS since the UN adopted them in 2015. To this end, the Niti Aayog releases an SDG Index Report every year since 2018. But in 2019, the country's apex public policy think tank asked the government to focus on Localisation of Sustainable Goals (LSDG). The task went to the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj. In May 2021, the ministry set up a highpower committee, which submitted a report in October 2021. The report forms the basis of the awards.
Acting on the report, the ministry divided the 17 UN SDGS into nine themes, while also incorporating the 29 panchayat subjects under the XIth Schedule of Constitution of India (see 'Thematic integration').
The ministry then asked villages to prepare their Gram Vikas Panchayat Plan (GPDP) on the basis of nine themes. The top three panchayats are awarded in each category.
This story is from the October 16, 2024 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the October 16, 2024 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
CLIMATE SHAPES SPECIES
Gradual changes in a population that lives in a region with environmental shifts give rise to new species
LEAFY GOODNESS
Leaves of the bottle gourd can be a healthy green addition to the plate
'Story of human origin is still not figured out or over'
Fifty years ago, the discovery of a partial skeleton amid the barren desert landscape of northern Ethiopia transformed our understanding of where humans came from, and how we developed into Homo sapiens. \"Lucy\" was first spotted on November 24, 1974, by the American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson and his student assistant Tom Gray. Named after the Beatles' Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, a popular song in the their team's camp at the time, it was immediately clear she was a female, because of her small adult size, and that she had walked upright, unlike chimpanzees. Lucy was also very old-at almost 3.2 million years, she was anointed as the then-earliest known (distant) ancestor of modern humans. Over the following decades, rather fittingly given her name, she became a \"paleo-rock star\", going on a US tour from 2006 following a deal with the Ethiopian authorities.
Deadly discharge
Residents of an industrial cluster blame effluent and sewage treatment plants for discharging poorly treated water that contaminates the area, causes skin diseases
US drug regulator faces Trump heat
FAILED REPUBLICAN presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is making more news now than during his doomed attempt to get the party nomination for president. Ramaswamy's decision to throw in the towel and back Donald Trump after his campaign went nowhere showed acumen, the kind he is famous for in the investment world.
Distorted picture
India's groundwater recovery may be misleading, as new assessment methods inflate annual recharge figures and discontinue on-ground verification
A MAKE OR BREAK YEAR
Expect some stiff targets, radical policy measures and rapid innovations as polycrisis reaches a crescendo this year
Commons in crisis
A landmark 2011 Supreme Court ruling to protect shared resources deepens struggles for India's marginalised communities
Europe faces Russian natural gas supply cuts
UKRAINE'S PRIME Minister Denys Shmyhal said on December 16, 2024, that its gas transit agreement with Russia will expire on January 1, 2025, and will not be renewed. The agreement was to allow transit of natural gas to Europe amid the RussiaUkraine conflict.
Preserving a voice
Non-profit in Madhya Pradesh documents Korku language, makes education accessible for the tribal community
