Abstract

The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals depends substantially on the capacity of local institutions to translate global development priorities into locally relevant actions. In rural India Panchayati Raj Institutions occupy a particularly important position because they operate close to communities and are directly connected with issues such as poverty reduction health education sanitation livelihood development gender equality environmental sustainability and social protection. This paper examines the role of local governance in advancing Sustainable Development Goals in rural India with particular emphasis on decentralised planning community participation institutional capacity accountability and localisation of development priorities. The study adopts a qualitative research design based on secondary sources including government reports policy documents scholarly literature and institutional publications. The analysis indicates that effective local governance can strengt