Women Leaders in Village Panchayats

Being the oldest daughter among four brothers and two sisters, I could not

complete my graduation. I had to help my father, a farmer, to earn a livelihood

for the family. After completing Class xII, I began teaching in 1987. I

continued teaching in various schools till 2001 and nurtured my unfulfilled

dream of gaining more knowledge. I did not want anybody around me to

suffer due to a lack of education. I wanted to be the last victim of illiteracy

due to poverty.

In the 2001 Panchayat elections, I was elected as the President of Haldhi

Bari Lachit gram Panchayat, a Panchayat with many forest villages, on the

disputed border of Assam and Nagaland. All kinds of insurgent groups operate

here, including the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) and United

Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). Most of the recruits for the insurgent cadres

are school dropouts, unemployed, frustrated and delinquent youths. I know

that only a good education can be a permanent solution to bring the youth of

my locality back onto the right path.

The major crisis in education today is the lack of adequate schools in proportion

to the population. Secondly, the accessibility of schools from the Panchayat is so

difficult that many parents make their children, especially girls, opt out of school.

Thirdly, I feel that the curriculum followed in our schools is rigid and structured,

making it difficult for different kinds of children to adapt and fit in.

After becoming the Panchayat President, I worked on improving the quality

of the schools and education. With Panchayat funds, I facilitated the up-

gradation of three existing schools and set up six new schools, out of which

five are Lower Primary Schools and one is a Middle School. I also successfully

initiated the convergence of funds from the Member of Legislative Assembly

Local Area Development Scheme (MLA-LADS), Member of Parliament Local

Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) and funds from the Oil & Natural Gas

Cooperation (ONgC) Ltd. to set up two more schools.

To cater to the needs of those children who did not have an opportunity

to go to school and are now too old to start at the primary level, I started

Mary grace Tirky
President
Panchayat: Haldhi Bari
Lachit
Block: Sarupathar
District: golaghat