Under the banyan, a quiet revolution: how 2.6 lakh Gram Panchayats are rewriting India's development story
An exclusive ground report from villages where Gram Sabhas, women Sarpanches and digital governance are turning Panchayati Raj into India's most ambitious democratic experiment.
In the courtyard of a centuries-old banyan tree in Sitapur district, 412 villagers raised their hands to approve a ₹4.2 crore development plan — the kind of decision that, a decade ago, would have been taken in a district headquarters 60 km away.
Across India, 2.6 lakh Gram Panchayats now control budgets, design schemes and audit their own spending through the eGramSwaraj platform. Women hold 46% of all seats, and in 21 states, more than half of all Sarpanches are women.
This report visits six villages across Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha to document what is, by any measure, the largest decentralised democracy experiment in human history.