Ongoing Projects

Prof. Udai Bhan Singh, Professor and Head, Department of Sociology, Feroze Gandhi College, Rae Bareli (Project Director) and five other faculty members/social scientists/domain experts representing different institutions or organisations including Dr. Animesh Rai, V.V. Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow (Project Director & Coordinator), Prof. Harsh Kumar Sharma, Director, V.V. Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow (Project Director), Dr. Nagendra Kumar Maurya, Department of Economics, University of Lucknow (Project Director), Dr. Sushma Mishra, Department of Sociology, University of Lucknow Project Director), Mr. Devendra Gandhi, Samarth NGO, Hamirpur (External Consultant) and Mr. Manish Kumar Singh, Sahbhagi NGO, Lucknow (External Consultant) have successfully obtained the award of Research Project from the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) under the category of ‘ICSSR Longitudinal Studies in Social and Human Sciences’ with a total research project grant of Rs.1.20 crore to support their proposed research study entitled “Panchayat Governance and Gender Equity: A Longitudinal Study of Aspirational and Non-Aspirational Districts of Uttar Pradesh”. The proposed study would cover the entire State of Uttar Pradesh- the most populous State of the country that exhibits wide variation in social, economic and political scenarios across its major economic and geographical regions: Eastern, Western, Central and Bundelkhand. Strikingly, it is these variations that virtually produce differences in the final social outcomes in the form of differences in local governance, leadership styles, equity and participation of men and women at the grassroots level. Hence, in order to illustrate and elaborate on these variations in terms of causes and causalities, the proposed study will specifically concentrate on all the four major geo- economic regions of UP and conduct the primary survey based research study. The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992, which mandated the reservation of one third of seats in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) for women, proved to be the watershed year in India’s progress towards the goal of democratic decentralisation. This defining reform aimed to ensure political empowerment of women at the grassroots level by improving local governance and fostering gender equity. Notably, the goal of local governance has further been fortified by Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of bringing about transformational changes through in less developed areas through the ambitious of ‘Aspirational Districts Programme’ (ADP) launched in 112 backward Districts across the country in 2018. The ADP aims to improve the overall quality of human wellbeing through interventions in five key areas: (a) health and nutrition (b) education (c) agriculture and water resources (d) financial inclusion and skill development and (e) infrastructure. This proposed study will be carried out by trained technical personnel under the monitoring of Project Directors over a period of tye next four years. Using the mixed method and repeated observations of the same set of sample population under the study, the main focus will be on (1) unveiling the trajectories, challenges and ground realities of elected women representatives (EWRs) (2) comparing men led and women led Panchayats on developmental scale and (3) making a comparison and contrast between aspirational and non- aspirational Districts on the given parameters.