Women Leaders in Village Panchayats

Tighra is situated in a big village with a total population of 1900 of which there

are 1000 voters. The Panchayat has one school till Class x. The Panchayat

has no Health Centre, the nearest Primary Health Centre, is located seven

kilometres away. We do not own any cultivable land and are dependent on the

1.5 acres of land that we take on ‘adhiya’ (lease of land for cultivation on the

basis of sharing half its produce with the land owner). Besides this, I work as a

wage labourer at the rate of Rs.40 per day on the lands of other farmers.

I am 26 years old and have studied till Class V. When the Panchayat elections

were announced in January 2005 and the President’s seat was reserved for

women belonging to the Scheduled Tribe, some of the villagers asked me to

file my candidature.

I went to each household in the village to campaign, accompanied by my

younger sister-in-law and some women supporters. Initially, people scoffed at

me when I asked them to vote for me. They said I was a mere daughter-in-law

of the village; married only for three years, and never visited any of the houses

in the Panchayat. They wondered how I could possibly work as a President. I

used to tell them that if I won, I would show them, how I would work for the

development of the village. The men asked me for alcohol and money when

I went to them for votes. On the last day for filing nominations, one of my

family elders also filed her papers, but I was determined not to give in without

a fight. I won by a narrow margin of three votes. Immediately after the poll

results were declared, a fight broke out between the opposition factions, and

they beat my brother-in-law in retaliation to my victory.

The problems increased after joining office. Due to internal feuds in the past

term, there was no Panchayat Secretary for the first two years of work. I was

unable to withdraw any money from the Panchayat account and no work could

be done in the absence of the Secretary, as he was the co-signatory. Around that

time, I got in touch with The Hunger Project’s partner organisation Anupama

Education Society. In the first WLW, the local Chief Executive Officer of the

Block Panchayat came to address the participants. When I told him about

the problem in my Panchayat, he assured me that my financial powers will be

Sunita Adivasi
President
Panchayat: Tighra
Block: Simariya
District: Rewa