In the early hours of a humid May morning, Gundamma, the president of Gonuru Gram Panchayat, stepped out of her house and walked towards the village’s main drain, her sandals squelching in the damp soil left behind by the night’s storm. The rains had been relentless, and by dawn, floodwater had poured into nearby homes, forcing families to scramble for higher ground.

For years, overflowing drains had been an accepted nuisance. A problem too big and too bureaucratic to fix. But this time was different.

The residents had data in hand, a structured, visual breakdown of governance gaps, service delivery challenges, and priority areas. This information came from Panchayat Pulse, an organisation mapping tool introduced by Anode Governance Lab, which helped the Gram Panchayat map its strengths, identify service delivery gaps, and plan more effectively.The tool had been guiding Gonuru’s elected leaders for the past two years. The data confirmed what residents already knew: the drainage system was failing, and it was not the only problem.

A panchayat at a crossroads

Nestled in Chitradurga Taluka, Karnataka, Gonuru Gram Panchayat is home to 8,640 residents spread across seven villages. Like most Gram Panchayats in India, Gonuru is responsible for providing essential services in education, healthcare, sanitation, and water management. Yet, until recently, it lacked the systems and tools to monitor its own effectiveness. Decisions were reactive, triggered by complaints rather than guided by structured planning or evidence-based review.

That changed in September 2022, when Gonuru’s elected members signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Anode Governance Lab, agreeing to undergo a full-scale governance self-assessment. The process triggered a shift in mindset, from short-term firefighting to long-term institutional strengthening.

All elected members participated in a structured rating exercise, using a four-point scale to assess their performance across nine governance areas, ranging from planning and budgeting to service delivery and citizen engagement. This forced leaders to assess their own effectiveness and confront the limits of their current systems.

The results were sobering. While community participation was relatively strong and financial management showed improvement, serious gaps persisted in education, water supply, sanitation, and the panchayat’s ability to follow up on citizen petitions.

“We had always known we had problems,” said C. Jayamma, Vice President of the panchayat. “But this was the first time we saw everything laid out in front of us. We had to act.”

From data to action

The self-assessment triggered a structural shift in how Gonuru functioned. With ongoing support from Panchayat Facilitators (PFs) working across 15 panchayats under Anode’s governance programme, Gonuru reactivated its Standing Committees, including those for education, health, water, and sanitation.

Previously seen as procedural formalities, these committees became working bodies, using Panchayat Pulse data to track actions and link citizen petitions to actual service delivery responses.

The first real test of this system came in early 2023, when teachers from Mallapura Government Primary School approached the panchayat about a familiar issue. The school’s compound wall had been demolished during a road expansion, leaving children exposed to traffic hazards. In the past, the issue had languished in bureaucratic limbo. This time, with the Education Standing Committee tracking school infrastructure gaps identified through Panchayat Pulse, the panchayat redirected MGNREGA funds, assigned labour, and rebuilt the wall within weeks.

The same process unfolded across Gonuru’s villages. In Muttayyanahatti, the self-assessment revealed that the primary school lacked separate toilets for boys and girls. The GP quickly resolved the issue. The panchayat also installed an RO water filter in the school, ensuring students had access to safe drinking water.

In Bachaboranahatti, a long-standing problem with cow dung pits encroaching on school land had gone unresolved despite repeated complaints. With the issue formally documented through Panchayat Pulse and the Education Standing Committee, the GP enlisted police and education department support to clear the encroachments.

“Before, we had no process to follow up on these problems,” said Sakamma Muttayyanahatti, ward member overseeing education. “Now, the data tells us what to focus on and we see it through.”

Citizen health and sanitation take centre stage

The visioning process facilitated through Panchayat Pulse identified health as one of the community’s top concerns. In February 2024, the GP organised a comprehensive eye health camp in partnership with Shankar Eye Hospital. Residents from all seven villages attended. At the event, 160 people were screened, eight received corrective spectacles, and another eight underwent sight-saving surgeries.

Later in 2024, as dengue cases rose, the GP partnered with the District Health Department to organise a dengue awareness session for 60 self-help group (SHG) members. These SHG members then led ward-level awareness campaigns, ensuring accurate information reached households across all villages.

Sanitation was similarly overhauled. For the first time, the GP introduced a fixed solid waste collection schedule, ensuring regular waste pickup across all villages. After petitioning the Revenue Department, the GP also secured land for a permanent waste segregation centre, fulfilling a long-pending community demand.

Facing the water crisis with data

Water scarcity had long been Gonuru’s most intractable problem. Each summer, villages like Gonuru, Myserahatti, and Bachaboranahatti faced acute shortages, leaving families reliant on costly private water supplies or forced to walk long distances.

When Panchayat Pulse data highlighted the scale of the problem, the GP used it to successfully secure emergency funds from the District Collector and MLA funds to:

• Repair five existing borewells and dig five new ones.
• Negotiate with private borewell owners to regulate prices.
• Arrange water tanker supplies during peak shortages.

The GP also introduced a quarterly cleaning schedule for all 36 water tanks and secured annual maintenance contracts (AMCs) for 23 borewell motors and two RO filters, ensuring preventive maintenance became routine.

“We don’t wait for taps to run dry anymore,” said Gundamma, the GP president. “We track the system, and we plan ahead.”

A model panchayat in the making

Across all 15 panchayats participating in the programme, including Gonuru, citizens have filed 154 petitions over two years, covering issues ranging from malfunctioning streetlights to mismanaged ration shops. In Gonuru, every petition is now linked to Panchayat Pulse data, allowing Standing Committees to track, review, and follow up on each case.

This shift in culture and process is perhaps Gonuru’s biggest transformation. Ward members no longer arrive at meetings with anecdotal grievances. They come with structured data, documented priorities, and clear action logs. In just two years, Gonuru has initiated 475 ward-level actions, replacing informal complaint management with a systematic governance process.

With a renewed MoU extending through November 2025, Gonuru’s leaders say they are no longer governing in the dark. They have the tools to see, plan, and act before a crisis forces their hand.