In Odisha, women panchayat members are becoming effective leaders and are mostly backed by Self-Help Groups cutting across caste and class.
These leaders addressing the issues of basic services like drinking water, sanitation and other schemes of the Government. Sometimes lack of proper educational background pulls them behind to prove their mettle, while experts say leadership quality cannot be judged by qualification.
Rajani Hans, the Naib Sarpanch of litisargi Panchayat in Boden block in Nuapada district, is popular and appreciated by her community, mostly by womenfolk. The reason, she understands the need of the villagers and tries to fulfill basic services. “In my panchayat when I became the Naib Sarpanch, around 90 per cent families were used to open defecation. Due to this problem, the women, especially adolescent girls, were regularly harassed by anti-socials. When this issue came to my notice I discussed with the Sarpanch, who is a male person. But he couldn’t understand the situation, so I took the issue to Block Development Office. Today in the entire panchayat, around 40 per cent people have constructed toilets at home availing Government schemes,” says Rajani, adding by the end of this year, there will be no open defecation in her panchayat. Rajani is just a five-class pass-out.
She also tried to solve the drinking water crisis of her panchayat. “In Dahanapalli village, women had to walk 4-5 km everyday to bring safe drinking water for their families, but after setting up stand posts at various spots, women are now getting water near home,” she explains.
Even though in 2012, 50 per cent seats were reserved for women candidates, when they won the electoral battle and took charge of the office, they were hardly accepted by the male members of the panchayat and community. If the woman candidate was from Scheduled Caste or Dalit community, her condition was more vulnerable. She had to serve as the proxy Sarpanch of the high caste people.
This happened with Ranjita Sethi, Sarpanch of Baligorada Panchayat in Kamakhyanagar block of Dhenkanal district. She was not even allowed to attend the office and sit on the Sarpanch seat for 6 months after she won the election. “When I attended leadership and capacity building training for women panchayat leaders I got to know about the power and responsibility of a sarpanch. Then one day I gathered confidence and went to panchayat office. On that day I was overwhelmed. Actually, the seat was reserved for Dalit woman but the male members of higher caste in the community wanted me to serve as proxy Sarpanch,” she said.
Being a Dalit Sarpanch and having just studied up to 7th class, Ranjita’s major attempt was setting up an ANM center at her panchayat. She explains, “Being a Dalit woman, I was harassed by the ANM Didi of our village, who was operating from her home, in the absence of ANM centre. In our community, Dalits are not allowed to enter the house of any higher caste. When I went to ANM Didi’s house to seek her treatment for my daughter, she did not allow us to enter her home”.
This incident inspired Ranjita to construct an ANM centre where everyone from the community can get the treatment equally. She adds, “land for ANM centre has been selected. Once RI (revenue inspector) approves, the construction work will start. After this ANM centre, people of adjacent 10 villages will be benefitted.” Apart from this, she has also installed tube wells to solve drinking water crisis, provided IAY, PDS and other schemes to the beneficiaries of her panchayat.
The important thing is that most of the women panchayat members are aware of the development programmes such as MGNREGS, IAY, NRHM and other social security schemes. Besides, due to their presence other works like-immunization, mid-day meals, anganwadi centres and schools are better managed, which is equally important for the development of a panchayat.
Project Director, DRDA, Nuapada, Pradip Kumar Nayak, has a different view on this. He says, “Though women leaders are now able to understand their role and responsibilities, but their number is very sporadic. In many areas women Sarpanchs are still ruled by their husbands or other male members of the family. Even the husbands are seen attending meetings and asking about various schemes.” He continues, “lack of education and understanding of budgeting and planning creates hurdles in the path of implementation of Government schemes. If there will be minimum educational qualification, say for example matriculation, fixed for the Sarpanchs, it will help them in better implementation of schemes.”
Project Advisor, State Resource Centre for Women, Dr Amrita Patel says, “When a woman becomes a Sarpanch, she tries to focus on solving the basic needs of womenfolk of that particular panchayat. But the Government should play a proactive role to provide them training in regular intervals.”
(This article is a part of Government of India-UNDP media fellowships on decentralised planning-2015)