The state shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government. - The Constitution of India. Panchayati Raj is the fulfillment of this directive principle of State policy enshrined in the constitution. It aims at bringing the democratic method of functioning into the day-to-day activities of the village community. It is a system of grass- root democracy, which seeks to link the individual family in the remotest village with the Central Government.

The basic unit of self - government is, of course, the family. But the spheres of social activity, which demand collective action of the entire village community, have to be left to an organisation - the village panchayat. The basic philosophy of the Panchayatee Raj system is that the Panchayat must draw its strength and sanction from the village people as a whole working in cooperation with self-government bodies at higher levels in an organic setup. The Panchayat constitutes the basic of a three-tier system of self-governing institutions located at block and district levels. The Panchayatee Raj system has been making steady progress throughout the country and by the end of 1961, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mysore, Madras, Orissa, and Punjab and Utter Pradesh had implemented the necessary Panchayatee Raj legislation and Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra had enacted it. It is expected that all the states of the Union would have implemented the scheme by the middle of 1963.

The village Panchayat, the basis of the three tier system, is a statuary body elected by the entire adult population of the village constituting what is known as Gram Sabha. Village Panchayates or the village councils have functioned effectively in the village for times immemorial and Panchayati Raj seeks to give this traditional form a new content and a new vitality to make it an effective instrument for the tasks of the present. The village Panchayat is vested not only with the responsibility of self-government in municipal sense, but also with the responsibility of implementation at the village level of all the development programmes. Responsibilities and activities, which fall outside the scope of the village panchayat, are taken care of by the Panchayati Samiti at the Block level. All the money provided in the Community Development Block budget and the moneys made available by different development departments, are pooled at the level of Panchayat Samiti, which is the effective unit for planning and development.

It draws up the plans and ensures their implementation in collaboration with and through the village Panchayat in jurisdiction. The Panchayat Samiti is linked to the Zila Parishad, which at the district level provides the necessary guidance in technical and administrative matters. The Zila Parishad is, in effect, the co-coordinating and supervising body. It also prepares the development plans for the entire district on the basis of the plans prepared by the Samitis. Panchyati Raj is the means to community development. In concrete terms, this development programme means increasing agricultural production, promotion of rural industries and co-operative institutions, and utilization of all available resources in different development programmes, to the maximum extent. Panchayati Raj aims at providing adequate assistance to the economically weaker sections of the village community, dispersal of authority, and initiative with special emphasis on the role of voluntary organizations, progressive improvement in the ability of both officials and non-officials to handle problems of rural development, the creation of understanding and harmony between the people's representatives and the people's servants and the spirit of co-operative self-help in the community.

The community Development programme which was started in October 1952, as a programme of aided self-help has now become an integral part, in fact the operational philosophy of Panchayati Raj. The Posts and Telegraphs Department will mark the progress made by this national movement by the issue of a special postage stamp on republic day 1962. The stamp symbolises the basic philosophy and aims of Panchayati Raj. It shows a Panchayat meeting being conducted under a banyan tree, which typifies rural life in India. Above the trunk and the branches of the tree is shown the Parliament House with the national flag hoisted on it. An outline of the map of India is shown in the upper half of the stamp over-lapping Parliament House and banyan tree.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India