Women Leaders in Village Panchayats

I belong to the Hindu Kunabi caste and am originally from Rai village in

Ratnagiri District. I have studied up to Class VII and am 39 years old. My

husband came to Shivane on work. We have two children, a girl, and a

boy. Initially our financial condition was not very good. Since we did not

belong to the village, we had no agricultural land. I pursued tailoring to

supplement the family income. Meanwhile, a teacher asked me to run a

canteen for him; I accepted the job to earn some extra money to meet our

daily needs. Then I got a job in a school to cook daily meals for the students.

My husband and I asked for a loan and we have built our own house in

Shivane. We have permanently settled in Shivane and we are as attached to

it as our native village.

My family and I have never had any connection with politics whatsoever.

When the President’s post was reserved for women in the 2005 elections, no

woman in our village was ready to stand for it. However, people from my

hamlet insisted that I contest the election; they wanted to see me as their

‘President’. Initially I was not ready for this, but then I accepted it as an

opportunity to work for the betterment of my village. I made up my mind

to work for all those things that have always annoyed me as a common rural

homemaker. My family has been supportive of me.

Even though I was not that active in the Panchayat before, I used to attend

all the gram Sabhas in our village. The previous President was not disciplined

at all, he used to remain absent from most of the gram Sabhas and stay in

Mumbai half the time attending to his personal affairs. Therefore, at the start

of my tenure itself, I decided to regularly hold and attend gram Panchayat

meetings and carefully listen to the demands of the villagers.

Meeting The Hunger Project-Parivartan activists for the first time instilled

a new enthusiasm in me, I felt as if I had found an easy way to complete

my goals for the Panchayat. However, I was a little cautious in attending

the first training alone, so I requested another gP member to accompany

me. After I attended the first program on the roles and responsibilities of a

President’, I made sure not to miss any future training programs. Attending

Sushama Ramachandra
Raikar
President
Panchayat: Shivane
Block: guhagar
District: Ratnagiri