What Does the New Panchayat System Guarantee?

This paper makes an attempt to understand the working of the panchayat system under the constitutionally guaranteed system. The case study here is of Pappapatti village in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu where dalits elected as panchayat presidents are not allowed to function. This study began by following the dynamics of elections for the post of panchayat president in Pappapatti from October 1996 to April 2005. It illustrates the implementation or non-implementation of the process of transfer of the local governance to the local dalit community.