Women Leaders in Village Panchayats

A political leader is a person who shares the joy and pain of her people and

one who is kind-hearted to all. I am a simple woman from Jagatpur village. I

believe I should respect those who have elected me as a Ward Member more

than I do my own family. Keeping this definition of leadership in mind let me

describe the agony suffered by my constituents during the floods in 2007.

The entire District of Madhubani was covered with water, including my village.

I could see water flowing everywhere. People had nowhere to go; the poor

specially, because they did not have enough food stored at home. Unlike other

times, the 2007-floods also brought various sicknesses. Diarrhea was one of

the devastating sicknesses, which spread in Jagatpur Panchayat. The sick were

taken to the near by hospital and around 50 to 60 people needed saline water

immediately. However, the doctors refused to take care of the patients. There

was enough medicine in the hospital but they completely refused to give any

to our patients. At that moment, I felt like crying and beating up the doctors.

Instead, I confronted the doctors and got the medicine for the patients.

In 2006, I attended the Women’s Leadership Workshop conducted by The

Hunger Project-Bihar Sewa Samiti. It provided me with a lot of information.

Hence, when I got a chance to attend an issue- based training, I attended it

with great enthusiasm. With this workshop, I got some ideas on how to take

up issues and find solutions for them. In my gram Panchayat, there is no

Primary Health Centre. Due to this, people have to walk very long distance to

access health care. Several times people have died because they could not reach

the city hospital in time. I took the initiative to go to the gram Sabha and put

forward the issue of constructing a Health Centre for the villagers. Now the

government is constructing one! I am delighted.

I will always struggle for better health facilities for my Panchayat. Being a

woman from a high Caste, my family opposed my involvement with the poor

and lower Caste families. But I never gave up the struggle. The family did not

allow me to go out from the house because of the so-called ‘untouchables’.

Even then, I frequently went out to meet with Muslim and Dalit families. I

really want to break these old traditions. I believe that we are born alone, we

Naina Devi
Ward Member
Panchayat: Jagatpur
Block: Rahika
District: Madhubani