Women Leaders in Village Panchayats

This is the first time I have entered politics. My Ward was reserved for an SC

woman. Members of the ‘Panchayat Mandali’ (body) and SHgs encouraged

me to contest. There was no other woman who contested against me. Nobody

in my family has ever been in politics before. However, I had always felt the

need to work for the community.

I have studied until Class xII. My husband is employed with the government.

We do not have any agricultural land and that is why I work within the house. I

have participated in five training workshops organised by The Hunger Project-

SUTRA and in addition have participated in meetings organised by SUTRA

on Nyaya Panchayats.

The immediate result of participating in these workshops has been the strength I

found in myself to speak out and the knowledge I gained working on Panchayat

issues. I have also built my capacity to understand issues concerning the social

fabric of our community, which has helped me in undertaking development

work.

My village, Mashobra, would get very dirty in the rains with water collecting

everywhere. Along with the Panchayat Mandali, I sanctioned a requisition

to construct drains to allow the flowing out of dirty water. I have worked

with National Cadet Corp (NCC) students of the Senior Secondary School to

clean up the entire Ward and keep encouraging people of the village to clean

the spaces around them.

I have initiated awareness meetings with women in the village on the

significance of participating in gram Sabhas. In addition, I have, along with

members of the Panchayat Mandali, raised questions and discussions in the

gram Sabha on the declining sex ratio: explaining to people the negative

implications of sex selective abortions. With the help of SUTRA, I have been

able to put up a board outside the Panchayat Bhawan indicating the current

sex ratio of the village.

I have also pushed a requisition to organise health camps in the village and

have called doctors to speak to the people about reproductive health and

Lata Panwar
Ward Member
Panchayat: Nahri
Block: Kasauli
District: Solan