AHMEDABAD: Gujarat’s grassroots governance presents a striking contradiction: the State ranks sixth among 18 general-category States in the Panchayat Devolution Index with a score of 58.26, but its performance is uneven across the six pillars of decentralisation.
Gujarat is in first position in Functionaries (90.94) and in third position in Capacity Building (83.96), yet slips to fourteenth in Finances (41.63) and twelfth in Accountability (47.90).
At the Gram Panchayat level, the Panchayat Advancement Index shows that 82.3% of Gujarat’s 14,534 panchayats are in B grade, while only 75 are in A grade and none in A+.
The data point to a clear Gujarat paradox: the State has built administrative capacity, but financial devolution, functional autonomy and accountability remain the weak links.
According to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj’s Devolution Index, Gujarat ranks sixth among 18 general-category states, with an overall score of 58.26, against the national average of 43.89.
However, a closer look at the six parameters shows a wide gap in the State’s performance. Gujarat ranks first in Functionaries with 90.94 and third in Capacity Building with 83.96, indicating a strong institutional workforce and training ecosystem.
Its scores for Framework and Functions stand at 61.65 and 41.23, respectively.
The figures point to a clear structural weakness: Gujarat’s Panchayats have comparatively strong administrative capacity, but much weaker financial autonomy and accountability mechanisms.
The Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) provides another revealing snapshot. Of the 14,534 Gujarat Gram Panchayats assessed under PAI 2.0 for 2023-24, as many as 11,963, or 82.3%, were graded B. Another 2,471 were in C grade, while 25 were in D.
Only 75 Panchayats achieved A grade and none secured A+. The distribution means that while Gujarat has very few Panchayats at the bottom, it also has an overwhelmingly large middle band and an extremely small pool of top performers.
The challenge, therefore, is not merely to lift poorly performing Panchayats but to move thousands of B-grade Panchayats towards higher performance.
The training data reinforce Gujarat’s capacity-building strength, although the annual figures are uneven. The state recorded 40,020 participants in thematic training in 2024-25, compared with 32 in 2023-24 and 266 in 2025-26 up to July 10, 2026.
The Centre’s Devolution Index, however, is based on an assessment covering 2013-14 to 2021-22, while the PAI data relate to 2023-24, so the two should not be treated as a single-year performance report. According to data tabled by the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj in the Lok Sabha on August 4, Gujarat trained 1,16,682 participants under the revamped RGSA between 2022-23 and July 10, 2026.
Yet against 109 approved Panchayat Learning Centres (PLCs), not a single one has been developed in the state. The gap becomes sharper when the wider Panchayat training architecture is examined.
Gujarat has one functional State Panchayat Resource Centre (SPRC), but zero functional District Panchayat Resource Centres (DPRCs) and zero Block Panchayat Resource Centres (BPRCs) under the scheme. Nationally, the Centre has sanctioned 28 functional SPRCs, 447 DPRCs and 2,844 BPRCs across states and Union Territories.
Gujarat has one functional SPRC, but no DPRC and no BPRC under the revamped Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA). This means the state's approved training architecture has not translated into a comparable district- and block-level institutional network.
That is significant because the RGSA itself is designed to create a learning ecosystem for elected representatives, Panchayat functionaries and other stakeholders through training, exposure visits, training modules and resource centres.
The national comparison makes Gujarat's gap clearer; the contrast with several other states is striking. Karnataka, for example, has one State Panchayat Resource Centre (SPRC), 30 District Panchayat Resource Centres (DPRCs) and 216 Block Panchayat Resource Centres (BPRCs), while Rajasthan has one SPRC, 41 DPRCs and 365 BPRCs. Uttar Pradesh has one SPRC and 25 DPRCs, while West Bengal has one SPRC, 26 DPRCs and 345 BPRCs.
Gujarat's corresponding figure is 1-0-0. Taken together, the datasets suggest that Gujarat has built the institutional machinery of Panchayati Raj, but the next challenge is converting that capacity into greater financial powers, functional autonomy and accountability at the village level.