Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Vinay Kumar on Sunday said that there was a growing need to make Gram Kachaharis more effective, as it could not only deal with petty offences at the local level to take the load off the law enforcement agencies, but also help in making policing more productive through proper coordination with the village-level arbitrators as sarpanches and panches who are elected through the Panchayati Raj system.
He was speaking at the orientation training programme for Sub-Divisional Police Officers (SDPOs) and DSPs, organised by the Office of the Chair Professor, Panchayati Raj, Chanakya National Law University (CNLU), Patna and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
There are 8,463 Gram Kachaharis in Bihar, one within each Gram Panchayat area. Each one of them is headed by a sarpanch and provides legal services to rural people. They focus on amicably settling both civil and criminal disputes in villages.
The DGP said that Bihar is the only state that has a functional alternative dispute resolution mechanism in the form of Gram Kachaharis and it could be very useful in tackling small critical and criminal cases as well as keeping tabs on the changing contours of crime involving children and juveniles, viz. drug abuse and cyber crime by taking the help of sarpanches, up-sarpanches, nyaya-mitras, who enjoy personal contact with the people and families in their respective jurisdictions.
“This could take the concept of community policing to a new level and prove very useful considering the demography of our state, which has a youth bulge. Drug menace is a big challenge and it requires a comprehensive campaign. Few seizures alone cannot suffice. The members of Gram Kachaharis can keep a close eye on a population of around 500 under their jurisdiction and that can be invaluable intelligence to save those youth. The same applies to cyber crimes, in which youth have been found to be involved at the village level. The mindset also needs to change towards Gram Kachaharis,” he added.
The DGP said that the fall in the cases of rioting from over 14,000 a decade ago to barely 1,500-2,000 now can be attributed to the proper use of Dial 112 and intervention of Gram Kachaharis at the local level.
Panchayati Raj secretary Manoj Kumar said that the Gram Kachaharis could play a crucial role in timely intervention for prevention of crime under the POCSO Act and JJ Act and also bring down the load from the police and courts significantly, but the local police station would need to contribute in strengthening the system.
“This is a system functional only in Bihar and points to judicial penetration down to the panchayat level, while other states are still trying to do it at the block and sub-divisional level. In Bihar the Sarpanch and up-Sarpanch are elected and can impose fines up to ₹1,000. There is also a portal egramkachari.bihar.gov.in, through which disputes are resolved.
There are 40,000 reported cases, and 14,000 cases have already been resolved. Many cases may be unreported,” he added.
The Gram Kachaharis is empowered to act under 40 bailable sections of the Bhartiya Nyay Samhita (BNS), the Bengal Gambling Act, 1867 and sections 24 & 26 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1871, though they have not been able to act in the desired manner due to lack of desired acceptance within the administration.
Prof SP Singh, Chair Professor, Panchayati Raj, CNLU, Patna said a study in 2023 had shown growing acceptability of the Gram Kachahari system for resolving local disputes with the involvement of local people. “Bihar set up Gram Kachahari in every panchayat for the purposes of discharging the mandated judicial functions to resolve local disputes without the involvement of the police and the courts. The study pointed out that 87% of ‘diwani’ (civil) and ‘fauzdari’ (criminal) cases filed in the Gram Kachaharis were resolved between 2021-23,” he added.
