Context:
Recently, the Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj released Report on Panchayat Development Index at National Workshop on Panchayat Development Index.
About Panchayat Development Index (PDI):
- The government had constituted a committee for preparation of the Panchayat Development Index which included members from different ministries and departments of Union and state governments.
- Launched by: Ministry of Panchayati Raj
- Statistics: PDI has 144 local targets, 577 local indicators on 9 themes of LSDGs.
- The PDI ranks panchayats on the basis of scores, and categorise them into four grades
- Nine themes:
- Poverty free and enhanced livelihood in village
- Healthy village
- Child friendly village
- Water sufficient village
- Clean and green village
- Village with self-sufficient infrastructure
- Socially just and socially secured villages
- Village with good governance
- Women friendly village
- Objective:
- To enable the process of Localization of Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs) in PRIs.
- To play a pivotal role in the process of quantified evaluation and mechanism for computation of the composite score on 9 themes of LSDGs
- To pave the way for outcome oriented development goals at Panchayats.
- Significance:
- PDI will act as a baseline for Panchayat for setting local targets & local action points with measurable indicators in preparation of thematic Gram Panchayat Development Plan.
- The PDI will help to reflect the current status of the Panchayats to take concerted actions to achieve development goals through building institutional mechanisms.