NEW DELHI: A new report from the Central Government reveals that southern states have outperformed northern states in rural local governance across various indicators, including health, education, poverty alleviation, water and sanitation, and development focused on women and children. Notably, West Bengal did not participate in this study.
In the top category, labeled ‘Achiever,’ most of the successful panchayats are from states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Odisha, with the northeastern state of Tripura leading the chart. This indicates that a majority of panchayats in these states have made significant progress in overall development.
Conversely, states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan are at the lower end of the ranking.
This new report, titled the Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) 2.0 for 2023–24, documents rural and social development based on 112 indicators aimed at strengthening grassroots governance.
Released by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR), the report covers a total of 3,313 panchayats that fall under the 'Achiever' category for poverty reduction and livelihood generation. Additionally, 1,015 panchayats are recognized for exemplary achievements in promoting healthy living conditions.
The report offers a detailed analysis of more than 250,000 panchayats across the country. Each panchayat is assessed based on over 150 parameters spanning sectors such as health, water, infrastructure, and sustainability. However, the previous report, PAI (1.0) for 2022–23, was based on a much larger set of 516 parameters, making direct comparison difficult.
Moreover, the government revised the assessment parameters, reducing the number to 150 across nine themes. These include poverty reduction and livelihood enhancement, healthy panchayats, women- and child-friendly panchayats, water sufficiency, clean and green panchayats, self-sufficient infrastructure, socially just and secure panchayats, and good governance.
“We considered 112 parameters in our evaluation. Data for seven parameters was questioned, and the rest overlapped with other indicators,” said Sushil Kumar Lohani, Additional Secretary at MoPR.
This report, based on the new parameters, is claimed to be the world's first nationwide framework for measuring rural development progress using verifiable indicators. It has also been presented to the United Nations as part of India’s efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
PAI 2.0 saw record nationwide participation, with 27 out of 28 states participating (excluding West Bengal), along with six out of eight Union Territories. This represents 97.30% of the total panchayats, compared to a participation rate of 80.79% for the 2.67 lakh panchayats in PAI 1.0.
The Ministry has directed all panchayats to display their scorecards outside their offices to promote transparency and accountability.
“Discussion of the PAI scores will be included as a regular agenda item in Gram Sabha meetings,” Lohani added.