Women Leaders in Village Panchayats

I originally belong to Dharkali village of Varmalai Panchayat in Khandwa

District. As a consequence of the river Narmada dam, the village was

likely to submerge; the government paid my family Rs. 2.50 lakhs as

compensation to shift somewhere else. My family, my husband, our six

children, and I settled in Charuva Panchayat in 2001 and bought a plot of

land. I worked on our 1.25 acres of agricultural land and as a daily wage

laborer in different places to earn between Rs.50-Rs.150 per day, depending

on the work required. The Panchayat elections were announced around

that time. One of my neighbors wanted to file her nomination for the

post of Ward Member, so she asked me to accompany her to the Panchayat

office. Later on, she decided to not contest the elections as she had to take

care of her child and she felt that she would be unable to regularly attend

meetings and devote so much time to the village. She along with others

from our Ward then urged me to file my nomination instead. Initially I

was hesitant, but I went ahead. A lot of my hesitation was because I was

the sole earning member in the family, but I saw this as an opportunity to

become a part of the village. I had seen my husband working as a Ward

Member earlier, so I had a brief idea of the work involved. There was just

one more contender for the post, but the election was a tough fight and I

won by a small margin of three votes.

During my tenure, I got roads and wells constructed in the Ward, which

provided employment to 42 persons for 98 person-days each. I got the

names of two eligible candidates under the OAP and three candidates got

benefits under the Widow Pension Scheme. I have submitted an application

for the inclusion of 32 eligible families in the BPL list. Earlier, the school

in the ward was only till Class x, so I tried to expedite the process of

expanding the school till Class xII, so that the village children, especially

girls could study within the village itself. The Education Department

has sanctioned the extension and made provisions for construction of

additional school buildings.

Whatever work I have been able to do would not have been possible without

the trainings and inputs I have received. I remember my initial experiences

Samota Bai
Ward Member
gram Panchayat: Charuva
Block: Khirkiya
District: Khandwa