NCERT Book Class 6 Social Science (Exploring Society India and Beyond) Chapter 11 Grassroots Democracy - Part 2 Local Government in Rural Areas

11
Grassroots Democracy – Part 2

CHAPTER
Local Government in
Rural Areas

The real India lives in its villages.
– M.K. Gandhi

1. What are Panchayati Raj
institutions?
The Big 2. What are their functions?
Questions 3. Why are they important in
governance and democracy?

Let us now see how the government functions at the local
level. In this chapter, our focus will be on local government in
rural areas; we will move to urban areas in the next chapter.
India is a country of enormous size and diversity. We have
about 600,000 villages, 8,000 towns and over 4,000 cities.
Our population has crossed 1.4 billion, almost two-thirds of
which live in rural areas. How do we govern ourselves in this
complex society?
Let us take a trip to Lakshmanpur, a small village in the
11 ― Grassroots Democracy – Part 2

foothills of the Himalayas. It has 200 houses and a population
of about 700, most of whom are farmers. People cultivate

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