gitanjali Mahipat Kadam
President
Panchayat: Pimpali Khurd
Block: Chiplun
District: Ratnagiri
I have studied up to Class x and am 38 years old. I run a small tailoring
business from home. My husband is a retailer and we own a small shop in
the village. Ours is a small family of five members, a son, a daughter,
my husband, and my mother in law. I belong to the Maratha caste, which
comes under the general category. My husband met with an accident,
which resulted in a broken backbone. The total treatment cost was Rs.1, 40,000.
The State Transport Corporation granted Rs. 40,000/- as compensation.
I disputed the compensation and filed a case, winning an amount of
Rs. 2,25,000 which paid all the hospital bills. It is while my husband had
been bedridden, that I had started accepting tailoring work to support the
family. My husband’s illness and subsequent long-term disability completely
altered the structure of our family and day-to-day expenses were difficult
to meet.I have never been connected with politics, yet from childhood I have
always felt an attraction towards it. I wished to help people with their
problems and had a strong desire to exercise my leadership. Presently, I am
the Secretary of Mahila Sangh, Chiplun. When the 2005 Panchayat elections
were announced in my village, I willingly decided to contest. I was elected
unopposed from my Ward, while the other Wards had elections. After the
elections, it was decided that Sunanda, another EWR in my Panchayat and I
would share the President’s post. Therefore, for the first two and a half years I
was the President.I attended the Women’s Leadership Workshop conducted by The Hunger
Project-Parivartan, in which I learnt about keeping records for the gram
Panchayat office, about budget, audits etc. I also learnt about the Mahila
gram Sabha and support structures.After I returned to my village, I organized seven SHgs and this helped me turn
the Mahila gram Sabhas into a successful reality. I disseminated information
on government programmes & Schemes to the members of the SHgs. I
also motivated them to help the needy women and the elderly. A village level
Sangh of about 200 women was also formed in the village.