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Society
Women Presidents Pack a
Punch
by Ambujam Anantharaman
A widowed
woman who was beaten up and thrown out of the village for 'bad
character' could return home and live peacefully. The Dalits of the
village fought and won a legal battle to gain road access to a cremation
ground. Dramatic as these changes are, they are only two of the many
that a Dalit woman panchayat (local village council) president (sarpanch)
has brought about in Eechampoondi village in Cuddalore district, Tamil
Nadu.
L Amudha was sarpanch twice consecutively (each term is for five years),
from 1996 to 2006. When she was first elected, Amudha found herself
facing enormous opposition - and discrimination, on the basis of both
her gender and caste. It was, in fact, her unrelenting stance on the
cremation ground issue that won her acceptance and recognition. When
Amudha became sarpanch, an 'upper caste' individual decided to prevent
access to the cremation grounds by fencing off access to it through his
land. He filed a case against Amudha in her official capacity for
trespassing, and in her individual capacity for land-grabbing. She
fought the cases and won.
She credits the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), Chennai, with much of her
success. "When I was elected in 1996, I knew nothing about how to
function as a panchayat president. HRF's training programs gave me
courage and self-belief," says Amudha.
The HRF is coordinator for a programme called the Tamil Nadu NGO
Alliance for Empowering Panchayat Government, which organizes about 10
leadership training programs for women sarpanchs every year.
Oscar Fernandes, President of the HRF, explains why his organization
decided to work with women sarpanchs. "When 33 per cent reservation for
women in local body elections was first granted, most women who came
into the administration had no prior experience. Many of those elected
had studied only up to Standard 10. Training was the immediate need -
explaining what a panchayat was, tackling discrimination, enforcing
gender rights, preventing domination by powerful people in the village,
budget planning, right to common resources and so on."
HRF realized that the best way to disseminate all this was to form an
organization of women sarpanchs, and so the Federation of Panchayat
Presidents came into being. About 60 to 70 NGOs across Tamil Nadu play
an active role in the Federation's activities, with HRF acting as the
coordinator.
Of the 4,600 women sarpanchs in the state, 1000 are members, and
Fernandes hopes that more will join after the new sarpanchs take over
this month following the October 13 and 15 local body polls in 2006. The
Federation has 200 state committee members and 30 district heads.
District leaders, like V R Suganya, play a crucial motivating role in
bringing other women sarpanchs together for district-level meetings and
to become members of the Federation.
Suganya, sarpanch of the Velimalaipattinam panchayat, about 20 km from
Coimbatore, explains how the programme works. "These programs help us
understand our work as panchayat heads better. We meet and assist other
women panchayat heads, attend workshops on government welfare programs
and conduct investigations in problem areas. We would not have been able
to do any of this on our own - either financially or in terms of
logistics."
Suganya's story is very different from Amudha's. Her late husband was
the village head. So, when it came to electing a woman sarpanch in 1996,
she was the automatic choice of the villagers. Unlike Amudha and many
others, Suganya had mass support. But there was still a lot of work to
be done. "There was only one water tank for 2,800 people in 1996. Now we
have built seven. We have also laid roads, introduced other
conveniences, like sanitation facilities, and formed 20 self-help groups
(SHGs) working with dairy products and breeding livestock." She has
already completed two terms and is now beginning her third term.
Suganya attends at least six HRF events a year - whether training,
workshops or investigations. Recently, she was part of an HRF
investigation team that visited four panchayats in Madurai and
Virudhunagar districts. Although these villages fall under the reserved
category, Dalits were either not contesting posts or resigning
immediately after the election. So a team consisting of HRF and partner
NGO members, including the women sarpanchs, visited the four villages.
They interacted with villagers, local politicians and officials like the
collectors and police and found that reasons varied from harassment by
upper castes to intimidation by local heavyweights. After the
investigation, the NGOs continued working in these villages, assuring
Dalits of support to function as panchayat heads without fear. Thanks to
this initiative, after the October 2006 elections, all four panchayats
have had Dalit sarpanchs sworn in.
The Federation has also helped the women work together as a united
force. In 2001, for instance, when J Menaka, the president of Urapakkam
panchayat in Kancheepuram was murdered while carrying out her duties,
other women sarpanchs immediately got together. They conducted an
investigation and submitted the results to the government, leading to
the arrest of the culprits. In March 2006, after the state-level
convention of the Federation in Chennai, a human chain was formed to
highlight the various issues facing women sarpanchs.
HRF, meanwhile, has long-ranging plans. One of the most important
changes they seek to bring about is the striking down of the law that
permits district collectors to remove sarpanchs from their posts. "In no
other country can an officer of the executive remove an elected person
from office," says Fernandes. HRF has filed a case in the Madras High
Court on this.
M Shanti, HRF's coordinator for the women panchayat presidents
programme, says, "In the run-up to the elections, I worked to try and
ensure that women interested in village welfare - rather than those with
political clout - were put up as candidates."
That these efforts are bearing fruit can be seen in the words of M
Ezhilarasi, 24, sarpanch of Thottikalai panchayat in Tiruvallur
District: "I was elected in 2001 and have completed my first term. I am
proud that we have been able to construct a building for the SHGs in our
village. I did not contest this time as I am just finishing my Bachelor
of Law course but I will definitely be back next time!"
November 12,
2006
By arrangement with
Women's Feature Service
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Society
The Week of November 12, 2006
Ekla Chalo: Any Point Talking to President Hu?
by Rajinder Puri
Chinese President's Visit to India: Much Ado
about Nothing by Dr. Subhash Kapila
History grants Nitish Kumar an opportunity in
Bihar by Ramesh Menon
Pakistan's Military Dictator Besieged by Dr.
Subhash Kapila
Status: Nemesis of Fools, Smarts and Nations by
Gaurang Bhatt, MD
Reaping the Peace Dividend in India's North East
by Col. Rahul K. Bhonsle
A Panoply of Orchestrated Fraud by V.
Sundaram
Buddhism and Quantum Physics by Christian
Thomas Kohl
Are We Really Civilized? by TA Ramesh
Anger of Varunavrat by VK Joshi
Shaking up the Structure by Zofeen T Ebrahim
Wanderlust by Attreyee Roy Chowdhury
Khat e Kabuliwala: Inside an ancient temple near
Mazar-e-Sharif by Rajesh Talwar
Following the Coast by Naiya Sivaraj
Pachmarhi, Nature's Gift to Madhya Pradesh by
Anil Gulati
If You Can't Slap 'Em, Snap 'Em by Elayne Clift
Women Presidents Pack a Punch by Ambujam
Anantharaman
The Politics of Hair by Nilanjana Biswas
Murky Meat Factories by Alka Arya
Sex Workers' Bank - Healthy Returns by
Nilanjana Bhowmick
A Louder Voice by Rodrick Mukumbira
Reneging the Blue Billion by Priyadarsi Dutta
Strange are the Ways of God by Arya Bhushan
The Witty Side by Melvin Durai
How to Deal With - Analytical Physiologist Disorder
by Michael Levy
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