Since the passing of the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992, the institution of the gram sabha has assumed signifi cance as a basic unit of self-governance but there area lot of misconceptions about its nature, and it is merely understood as a “meeting of village people.” However, in the Scheduled Areas of Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, the gram sabhas are demonstrating how they could function as “bodies corporate,” a fact recognised only by a few of the state panchayat acts. This has got a great transformative potential not just in ushering participatory democracy but also in livelihood generation, conservation and management of natural resources.
