Participation of Elected Women in Panchayati Raj System in Bihar

The present study was undertaken to know the extent of participation of elected women members in Panchayati Raj institutions. Atotal of seventy five women representative randomly selected from all the panchayats of Pusa and Kalyanpur block of Samastipur district in Bihar from forty villages selected randomly from two blocks. An interview schedule was used to collect the necessary data. In order to determine the conditions governing the participation of women, the data were subjected to multiple correlation, regression and path analysis. Participation was taken as dependent variable. The findings revealed that maximum 8.0 per cent of these elected women village members “Always” participated in “Construction, repair and maintenance” of public property. More than ninety per cent respondents spoke positively with respect to different life situation as a consequence of their association with Gram Panchayats. The results of correlations and multiple regression analysis between participation and socio-economic and psychological variables of elected village panchayat was positively and significantly correlated with caste (r = 0.668) and interaction style (r = 0.353) at 1 present level of probability and value of social linkage was negative but significant at 5 present level of probability.