Gram Panchayat Reservation Histories Across the Indian States

The purpose of this page is to disseminate information about Gram Panchayat reservation rules across the Indian states and, where possible, to post data on reservation histories. While studies of the consequences of quotas for women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and other groups in India have recently proliferated, the rules for assigning quotas to Gram Panchayats are poorly understood; these rules can differ markedly across the Indian states, with important consequences for empirical studies (for instance, those that attempt to study the effects of reservation by constructing regression-discontinuity designs). We also lack comprehensive data on reservation histories for individual Gram Panchayats, in part because these are often compiled by bureaucrats at the block or district level and are sometimes not centrally collected or computerized by the relevant State Election Commissions.

The data posted here have been collected from the staff of State Election Commissions and/or other bureaucrats. Data collection is ongoing; the page is thus under construction and will be updated as feasible. Contributions and updates from other scholars are very welcome. Please email thad.dunning@yale.edu to contribute data and/or corrections or supplements to information on reservation rules.

Karnataka. Reservation status of the Gram Panchayat president 1993, 2000, 2002, 2005, and 2007 is available in Stata 10 format here. The unit of observation is the Gram Panchayat. Also in the file are census variables merged from revenue village to GP level and information on the membership of each Gram Panchayat.