I was born in a joint family and I am married to R. Narayana Swamy, a
businessperson. I am 50 years old, am SSLC pass, and have been an Aanganwadi
teacher for the last 15 years. I belong to the Kuruba caste and have three
daughters - the first two are xIIth pass and married, while the youngest one is
currently in class xIIth. I am the first person from my family to participate in
politics. My first experience with politics was back in 1994, I contested the
Panchayat elections and was selected as Ward Member of Dodda Hasala gram
Panchayat, and I was the Panchayat President for 3 years. In the next elections,
due to the reservation rotation system, my ward was reserved for some other
caste and hence I was unable to contest elections. The seat was again reserved
for my caste in 2005 and my ward people unanimously selected me because
of my work during my previous tenure. I am also a member convener of the
Aanganwadi Workers Federation and work for their rights.I attended the Women’s Leadership Workshop organized by The Hunger
Project. I am also involved in the Aanganwadi federation. Since I have an
interest in theatre,I performed a street play along with the other Elected
Women Representatives (EWRs) who took part in the WLW.A physically challenged person did not send his daughter to school, since
nobody was there to feed him lunch as his wife used to work as a labourer.
I convinced him that I would take the teacher’s consent for 10 minutes in
the lunch break so that the girl could get him his lunch after having her own
in the school, and after that he admitted his daughter to school. I am also
trying to convince the parents of the children who dropped out of school.
My vision is to provide education to all in the community and I am trying to
convince people to get their children admitted to school. I personally started
a night school and taught many people. My daughter is currently working as
prerak in Saksharatha School. A widowed woman was facing a financial crisis,
I encouraged her to join a women’s Self-Help group and helped her purchase
a milch animal.Lakshmidevamma
Ward Member
Panchayat: Dodda Hasala
Block: Kolar
District: Kolar