About National Panchayat Awards:
- It is awarded by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj annually to recognize and incentivize best-performing Panchayats.
- Background: These awards have been revamped and launched during the year 2022 aligning them with 9 Localization of Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs) themes aggregating 17 SDGs.
- Objective: To assess the performance of Panchayats in attainment of SDGs, promote competitive spirit among them and catalyze the process of LSDGs through Panchayati Raj Institutions for attaining LSDGs by 2030.
- The awards are given under the Incentivization of Panchayats (IoP) scheme, a central component of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA).
- All the Panchayats are ranked based on their performance under each of the following 9 LSGD themes :
- Poverty free and enhanced livelihoods Panchayat
- Healthy Panchayat
- Child Friendly Panchayat
- Water Sufficient Panchayat
- Clean and Green Panchayat
- Self-sufficient infrastructure in Panchayat
- Socially Just and Socially secured Panchayat
- Panchayat with Good Governance
- Women-Friendly Panchayat
- The awards are conferred under two distinct categories.
- Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar (DDUPSVP): Recognises outstanding Gram Panchayats for their performance across 9 LSDGs themes.
- Nanaji Deshmukh Sarvottam Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar (NDSPSVP): It is conferred to the best-performing Panchayats at the District, Block, and Gram Panchayat levels on an overall basis.
