Ahalya Patel of Khasbahal village of Nuapada district was jailed for eleven days a few years ago. Her only fault was that she organised rural women to fight against illegal selling of liquor in her panchayat.
“Women of Khasbahal, Ranimunda and Tukula gram panchayats had also fought a lot to stop liquor selling in villages. They have faced opposition both at home and from liquor traders, but the effort is continuing,” said Ahalya.
Illegal trade of liquor has not completely stopped in the district, but the women’s movement against the traders has brought confidence within women to raise voice and participate in decision making. “We were able to organise the women for greater participation in the Panchayat poll,” added Ahalya.
Ahalya was sharing her experience in a block level programme entitled “Strengthening Women Empowerment through Electoral Process” (SWEEP) organised by the NGO Ayauskam at Khariar on Friday to create awareness among women for greater participation in the oncoming Panchayati Raj election process. It was an opportunity for many other women as well to share their experiences and views on Panchayati Raj election. Most of the participants wanted a complete ban on selling of liquor during election process.
“liquor distribution becomes rampant during Panchayat election. Police and the Excise departments remain silent spectators. The male members of the villages run after liquor and the women face hard times. Domestic violence increases during this time, but everything goes un-noticed,” said the participants.
Dr Ajit Kumar Panda, Director of Ayauskam, encouraged the women to contest Panchayat election in greater number. “Reservation for women in Panchayat election is 50 per cent, but greater number of women can be elected through participation in unreserved posts,” said Panda. He criticised the Government for bringing out the faultless reservation list of Panchayats.
“The reservation list published by the Government shows that there is reservation for males, which is creating a lot of confusion within villagers. This mistake has been made for the third consecutive time,” said Panda.
Elected women representatives of different Panchayats, who were present in the meeting said that their participation in election was not easy. “My villagers tried to suppress me when I filed nomination for Ward Member, because it was an unreserved seat, but I contested and won,” said Dhanmati, a Ward Member of Chindaguda village. “The Opposition party people threatened me and my husband of dire consequence; they gathered in huge number in front of my house when I was declared winner. Apprehending trouble, I had sent my husband and in-laws to a relative’s house and faced everything without fear,” said Jharana Panda, Ward Member of Kotipadar village.
Many other elected representatives like Babita Baghel, Pramodini Bhoi, Rumi Tandi and Mathura Gahir etc, also narrated how they had been harassed for contesting election five years back. All of them were in high spirit in spite of the trouble they faced. The elected women representatives have formed a forum called AlIBHA.