Women Leaders in Village Panchayats

I am thirty-five, non-literate and contested from a seat reserved for women.

I have five children - four daughters, and a son. We are from an EBC

communitys

I have contested twice before but only won the election this time round. I was

an SHg member before I won the election and remain as member until today.

This time before I contested the election, I participated in the pre-election

campaign organized by The Hunger Project-NIRDESH.

I filed my nomination against four other women candidates who all were from

the upper caste community. I went door to door campaigning whereas those

standing against me (who were Rajputs) distributed chicken and money to

buy votes! In the end, I was declared the winner by 126 votes. After winning

the election, I participated in the WLW and the Federation Building Meeting

organized by The Hunger Project-NIRDESH.

I feel that I have worked very hard for my community and have achieved a

lot in the last two and half years. I have asked the Block Development Officer

to inspect and recheck the list of names for the Mukhyamantri Aawas Yojana

(MAY). Earlier there were fewer families of my community in the BPL list.

I personally conducted a survey and submitted the revised list to the Block

office. Now more EBC families fall in the BPL category. I distributed flood

rehabilitation materials (one quintal of cereal and Rs. 200 each) to the people

who were most needy. Nine people benefited from the OAP and IAY, and five

have been sanctioned money under the MAY.

I have planned to focus on housing, sanitation (toilets), OAP and NREgS for

the rest of my tenure.

The greatest challenge that I face is that the concerned Departments do not

share with me the different Schemes, which are available for my community.

gayatri Devi
Ward Member
Panchayat: gamasra
Block: Madwan
District: Muzaffarpur