Panchayat Development Index:
The Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj informed Lok Sabha about the Panchayat Development Index.
- Panchayat Development Index is a multi-domain and multi-sectoral index that is intended to be used to assess the overall holistic development, performance & progress of panchayats.
- It takes into account various socio-economic indicators and parameters to gauge the well-being and development status of the local communities within the jurisdiction of a panchayat.
- It would play a significant role for performance evaluation and progress assessment in achieving the localization of Sustainable Development Goals in rural area.
- Under this the Local Indicators Framework on nine themes of Localization of Sustainable Development Goals was prepared.
- The nine themes taken into account are 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, and women friendly village.
- This Index ranks panchayats on the basis of scores, and categorises them into four grades.
- Those with scores under 40 per cent fall in grade D, 40-60 per cent in grade C, 60-75 per cent in grade B, 75 to 90 per cent in category A, while those scoring above 90 per cent will be categorised as A+.
