Attitude of Panchayat Leaders towards Panchayati Raj Institutions as Influenced by their Socio Personal Characteristics

Attitude is “a mental and neural state of readiness, organised through experience, and exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related”. While attitudes are basically learned over the years, some inherited characteristics do affect such attitudes. Our personal experiences with people and situations develop our attitude towards such persons and situations. During the implementation of the panchayati raj system Chhattisgarh has faced several opportunities and difficulties. The institutionalising panchayati raj. What, then, are the circumstances under which panchayat can improve the work effectiveness of their members through influences on individual choices about the level of effort and about strategy? The interview schedule was used as a tool for collecting the raw information from the panchayat leaders. In all 263 respondents from 9 janpads were interviewed personally to obtain the requisite data. It was found that majority of the janpad and jila panchayat leaders (58.73%) had moderately favourable attitude towards panchayati raj institutions. Majority of the janpad and jila panchayat leaders were middle-aged, belonged to other backward classes, most of them were educated up to higher secondary, they belonged to large size families with more than five members each and most of them had membership in one or more social organizations signifying high social participation.