Women Leaders in Village Panchayats

I always dreamed of doing my higher studies but due to my poor family

background and the general bias against educating girls, I had to discontinue

my education after completing Class III. I also dreamed of getting married into

an economically well off family but that dream was not to be either. I married

Rangappa of Siddarahalli village,is 12 kms from the Block headquarters and

52 kms from the District headquarters. I have two children and manage not

only my family but also work for people who are in trouble.

I became member of Siddrahalli gram Panchayat when the seat was reserved

for a woman belonging to a Scheduled Tribe (ST). I did not have any

experience of politics. After I was elected, I received a very effective training

from The Hunger Project-VIKASANA as well as Satellite-based training from

the government.

One of the reasons that I was elected was due to my active role in mobilising

eight women’s SHgs, one of which I am also the President of. These SHgs were

then federated into the Bhuvaneshwari Women Federation. The Federation is

working effectively to date.

This Federation-platform has given me the strength to discuss many women

issues in the Panchayat: including leadership, gender, political involvement,

resource mobilization from the government, etc. With the strength of the

SHg women with me, I worked against excessive alcohol consumption in the

village.

We fought to stop the vehicle which was supplying alcohol sachets to our

village; this became a police case and a complaint was lodged against me and

some other women by the alcohol contractor. We had to make many trips to

the court to fight the charges against us. Recently with the intervention of the

local MLA, these cases were settled and for some time there was a complete

stop to the selling of the alcohol sachets in the villages of my Panchayat.

After some months through the influence of local political leaders, the selling

of alcohol has started again. This time again with support of SHgs members

Netramma
Ward Member
Panchayat: Siddrahalli
Block: Tarikere
District: Chikmagalore