In recent times, the government is focusing on e-governance to catalyse rural development. It is important to set the agenda of e-governance in rural areas, since India is predominantly a rural country with two-third population and 70% workforce residing in the rural areas. Further, rural economy constitutes nearly 50% of the National Income. In this context, the government has taken several initiatives such as e-Panchayat, e-Gram, e-Choupal, e-Sanjeevani, Bhoomi, e-Sewa, etc., which have added significant value to the governance process. However, the success of any e-governance initiative is based on citizen participation and engagement. It is required due to the democratic setup and diversity of India. Also, it is essential in all public policies, especially in e-governance designed for rural areas, in the following ways:

• Citizen participation ensures that citizens are treated as valued customers in public service delivery, as it ensures that programmes and policies are designed after understanding social-cultural factors, affordability as well as other expectations of the people.
• It will reduce the conflicts and confusion with regard to the policies/schemes and make it more coherent since it is people-driven. Local people can state their needs and the government can make them aware of the technological alternatives available to them in order to find the best fit for the community.
  • The apprehensions of impact of digitisation on repetitive jobs in rural areas can be minimised by making the involved members aware of the opportunities.
  • It would reduce the trust deficit between the government and the people.
• Citizens can be the most effective partners in improving the quality and timely delivery of services by proper and timely feedback.
• Involving citizens would empower certain people as “Digital Champions”, which would then provide thrust to the e-governance agenda, as association of community members would increase the accessibility and adoption rates of e-governance services through peer learning.
• It makes citizens more accountable and responsible in the formulation and implementation of public policies by developing a sense of belongingness and ownership.
• It will help in improving the position of marginalized and vulnerable groups that are often neglected, since their voice would also be heard in the process. .
• It will help in developing long-term sustainable e-governance and outcome-focused initiatives owing to superior monitoring by the people, as the results and sustainability aspect would directly impact the citizens themselves.

Interestingly, rural India has a 20% higher presence of Internet users than urban areas in the country. Moreover, growth in Internet users in rural India has also been significantly higher than in urban centres since 2019. Thus, the government’s focus to bring e-governance in rural areas has come at an opportune time. The higher the citizen participation, the better is the overall governance and its effect on the socio-economic outcome and well-being.