Women Leaders in Village Panchayats

This is the first time I have been elected to the Panchayat. This seat was reserved

for an SC woman and two of us contested for it. I won.

I have studied until Class x. I live with my husband, two sons, and a daughter.

My brother-in-law has been involved in politics for some time now. He has

been elected as a Ward Member and then as a member of the Panchayat

Samiti.

My family and the Panchayat Mandali encouraged me to contest the Panchayat

elections. People in my village organised a meeting where they decided that I

should be elected unopposed. My husband was not in the village at that time

and when the people called to tell him their decision, he agreed. The next

day, however, those opposing my candidature asked another woman to stand

against me. This upset the dynamics in the village and an election became

inevitable. The Panchayat Mandali and some others pushed me to file my

nomination. There are 226 voters in my village and I won the election by

eleven votes.

Soon after I won, I participated in a training workshop organised by the

government followed in quick succession by The Hunger Project-SUTRA

wherein I received a lot of information and knowledge about PRIs. I realised

the significance of my designation and soon after begun pushing for regular

meetings of the Panchayat. I started organising Up-gram Sabhas at the Ward-

level.

In the early gram Sabhas, the President and the Secretary used to write the

report after the people and other Panchayat members would leave. They

would delay the process of recording the requisitions and would later sit

among themselves and record the requisitions. After the workshops, we took

the male Ward Members into confidence and decided to fix the timings of

the gram Sabha before the President and the Secretary. We fixed the timing

from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. and said that proceedings would close after that.

This enhanced our significance in the Panchayat. Because all the Panchayat

members were united, there was a change in the behaviour of the President

Mukesh Lata
Ward Member
Panchayat: Koon
Block: Nahan
District: Sirmaur