The Gaon Buras
- Recently, the Assam Cabinet announced that Gaon Buras, village-level functionaries of the district administration, will be called ‘Gaon Pradhans’.
- The government has reasoned that a number of young men (and women)become Gaon Buras, and thus, the word ‘Bura’ (meaning old in Assamese) is no longer appropriate.
Key Points
About:
- Gaon Buras are the village headmen. They are the eyes, nose, ear of thedistrict administration at the village level
- There are about 6,000 Gaon Buras in Assam. Women ‘Gaon Buras’ are not very common and they take over, if their husbands die.
A brief History:
- It belongs to the colonial era, when the British appointed the oldestperson in the village as the head, who would oversee matters relating to land and revenue in a particular
- Post-independence,the government continued with the institution and made the Gaon Bura a formal part of the Assam Revenue and Disaster Management department, increasing his responsibilities, and eventually introducing a small honorarium for the role.
- In Arunachal Pradesh, too, the Gaon Buras (and Buris) are the mostimportant village-level functionaries.
Duties:
- Maintaining a population register of the village, maintaining landrecords, helping police investigate crime, etc.
- It involves now maintaining a log of Covid-19 cases in the village,organising vaccination camps, functioning as booth-level officers during elections
- To issue a ‘Gaon Bura certificate’, a certificate that determines the permanent residency in a particular etc.
- It became crucial during the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for women to establish linkages with their husbands and parents.