Women Leaders in Village Panchayats

My father-in-law is known for all kinds of welfare activities in the village

and he has been a member of the traditional Panchayat. My husband is

also a member of the Panchayat. When the seat was reserved for women,

the traditional Panchayat, decided to field me as the President, I contested

elections against another woman from the village.

The first challenge that I faced as President was that my village is divided into

two areas; each area is settled around two hills and separated from the other

by almost a kilometre. Due to the distance between both villages and the hilly

terrain, I find it difficult to attend common meetings or the gram Sabhas.

I have to run from one village to another to pass a message and to keep the

village together. My block is 14 kilometres away from my village. It is fine

when my husband accompanies me on my visits. Otherwise, I have to trek

alone.

I am very fortunate to have supportive villagers, who are ready to help and

understand. As people trusted my father in law, I was able to bring about many

changes in the village. The most important area of my work has been water

management in the village. Our life revolves around water, and women know

this, though men do not. Therefore, I diverted funds for the construction of a

small water canal of 15,000 meters and many other mini check-dams for the

irrigation of fields. I also convinced people to stop sand mining, which was

making holes in the riverbed and causing an irregularity in the water flow.

Another issue I have taken up, closely related to water conservation, is forest

management. Through various awareness programmes and workshops, I have

started to understand that the survival of the village depends on the welfare

of its surrounding environment. I have brought other women and men to

workshops on this issue and invited people from organisations to my village

to raise awareness.

I managed to organize and convince people to work on forest management. I

called a gram Sabha on the issue and unanimously everyone agreed on new

laws demanding that people not cut live trees from the forest. Instead, it was

decided that each family would adopt a tree; from which they could collect

Maya Bhakuni
President
Panchayat: Chanauda
Block: Takula
District: Almora