The 1992 amendment to the West Bengal Panchayat Act of 1973 did two things: It empowered villagers to choose their path of development and guaranteed representation for women. Previously, gram sabhas existed only in name and the people did not have any democratic decision-making powers. Priorities -- whether electricity or education was more important for the village -- were invariably thrust on them by higher administrative authorities.

By empowering the gram sabhas (general body meeting of the village), the act seeks to put into practice the Gandhian ideal of gram swaraj (village-level self-rule) and bottom-up planning. From now on, in every mouza (village), a gram sabha will be held twice a year. Development work priorities will be decided at these meetings and then forwarded by panchayat officials to the district authorities, who will in turn pass them to the state planning board for inclusion in the state plans.

All planning will be done jointly with the villagers. Thus, if a village thinks irrigation channels or drinking water is more important than building roads, it can ensure its priorities are implemented. The work of panchayat officials will also be evaluated and they will have to present budgets and accounts to the villagers.

With this amendment, West Bengal's villagers are not only expected to come up with development plans, they are also expected to debate the panchayat system itself and remedy its flaws.