According to the 73rd amendment to the Constitution of India, there is a statutory requirement that elections to the local bodies must be held. It further stated that 29 lists have to be devolved to the gram panchayats. Education is one such item. There is reluctance on the part of the government at the state level towards greater decentralization. Therefore, it is necessary to build capacities of groups to press for far greater devolution of powers.

The Gram Panchayats are important institutions to take up the twin tasks of abolition of child labour and strengthening of schools. The Gram Panchayat must review, monitor and support all child related institutions. This will help them participate and take up the responsibility in planning and implementing the programme of abolition of child labour through universalisation of elementary education at the village level. By getting involved in the functioning of schools and supporting the school committees they can prevent school dropouts.

The Gram Panchayat has an added advantage of being able to mobilise local resources for the school and also generate resources by bringing pressure on the higher-level education bureaucracy.

The efficiency of the Gram Panchayats can be increased if they are provided with more information on the financial allocation made towards the child related institutions in their area. They are to be trained to utilize all the projects addressing the child rights as implemented by the various departments such as Social Welfare, Women and Child Welfare help education and so on. They also are to be given training to network with other Gram Panchayats and form a Federation at Mandal level to draw up a comprehensive mandal level plan for abolition of child labour and strengthening of the school system.

Recently the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has invited a select few Gram Panchayats from MVF project areas from Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to share their strategies to review child related institutions in their Gram Panchayat.