Women Leaders in Village Panchayats

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INTRODUCTION

This publication by The Hunger Project is a continuation of its earlier effort to profile the work done by elected
women leaders of Panchayati Raj Institutions*. The need for this is two-fold.

Firstly, there is a need to document and archive the work of these pioneers – who are eagerly availing of the
opportunity provided under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment to contest and work for their communities as
elected leaders. This collection of the profiles of one hundred and eighteen women leaders demonstrates that they
are exercising their leadership skills across the country and are transforming themselves, their villages, and their
communities. The profiles vary in length, structure, and content. This is deliberate, as women leaders themselves
are not homogeneous. They are from different regions, castes, communities, and classes. Some are educated, some
neo-literates, some barely literate and some have never been to school. Yet, across all the profiles, the problems they
face are similar: an ineffective and indifferent bureaucracy, a patriarchal bias, a hostile work environment and over
and above, the constant need to reiterate that they, as women leaders in Panchayat Institutions, are working towards
holistic development.

As one reads the profiles, one realises that the elected women leaders are enthusiastic, eager to learn and proud
of their achievements. All they need is support, guidance and training to help them realise their potential. It is
definitely not their gender that holds them back but support which has been denied to them through their social
conditioning. This is the major deterrent and not their ability to govern. This fact is what this collection effectively
brings out. They are the first to admit that they have a lot to learn. Others would have weakened and given up,
but not these women leaders. They are aware that they are under scrutiny, that there is a different yardstick used to
measure their success, simply because of their gender. They are their own harshest critics and are surprisingly aware
of their own shortcomings; some freely admit that they only contested because they were asked to by their male
relatives. They admit that their husbands/brothers/sons help them with their work. They are equally candid about
the fact that they had limited understanding about what they were taking on, what was expected of them, and how
they would achieve what they wanted to. Most are first-time contestants who had never taken a step outside their
homes before they filed their nomination papers.

• ‘Women Leaders in Village Panchayats’ was published in 2006, which profiled 51 elected women leaders achievements; ‘No Short Cut to
  Leadership’ by S. Jothimani published in 2007, an autobiography of a Tamilian elected women’s struggle to bring water to her village.