ROLE AND PERFORMANCE OF THE WOMEN REPRESENTATIVES OF PRIs AND ULBs: A CASE STUDY OF BALASORE DISTRICT OF ODISHA.

Local self-government has always been considered as a means to good governance and 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments were made in the hope that they would lead to better governance and provide political space to the disadvantaged sections of the society like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and specially women. This paper discusses about the comparison between the role performance of lady representatives of rural and urban local bodies during the period from 2012 to 2017.This paper is the result of a doctoral research carried out on the basis of stratified random sampling in the urban and rural areas of the district of Balasore. A higher percentage of Urban Local body members is found to attend all municipal meetings. A preponderant majority of the respondents of the Urban bodies vis-?-vis rural bodies is found to participate in all discussion. More number of them in the urban bodies claims to be competent in conflict resolution. However, most of the representatives of both the bodies admit to have depended on their husbands and family members.