Women’s Voice is Now
being Heard through the Panchayats
Gram Sabha is the
deepest form of Decentralized Governance where every
voter of a Gram Panchayat is a member and can participate in
decision making, approval of plans, rejection of
plans and selection of beneficiaries.
The Gram Sabha is
being increasingly modelled to be the ideal institution for social audit. The reason is that the Gram Sabha consists of people who are
beneficiaries of schemes and programs and are at the spot when a program or a
work is taken up and are the best judges of the quality of implementation of
schemes and works. Therefore,
Gram Sabha should be the best agency for social
audit.
A problem with Gram Sabha has
been that in many places, the attendance is poor. To begin with the agenda items are
often limited to works taken up by the Panchayats and
therefore many people have no interest to participate in the meeting. There is the question of wage loss for
a day. In order to increase
participation in Gram Sabha, it should have the time and wherewithal to take up a
wide range of subjects. These
subjects should be of interest to the majority of population. Examples of such subjects are: primary
schools, mid-day meals, drinking water systems, sewerage systems, primary
health care, child and mother care programs including Anganwadi and immunisation. Most of these problems are faced by
women and not by men in the villages. Therefore,
these subjects can be discussed only if there is sufficient participation of
women.
Another set of subjects which affect women are cash
income for management of household and food security. Public Distribution System is one part
of food security. The other
part of food is cash security, economic activities like agriculture,
horticulture, dairy, fisheries, handlooms etc. Some of the activities incidentals to these
activities are irrigation,
land management and soil conservation. Again, effective supervision over
these programs by Gram Sabha is
possible only if women participate sufficiently in the Gram Sabha meetings since they are witness to
these activities and have to manage food security more often than men. It has not always been possible to
ensure women’s participation in many parts of the country where women do not
speak before men. Sometimes,
the men would like women to attend to household chores and not attend meetings
which they would consider wastage of time. As a result of this vicious cycle,
participation of women becomes negligible in Gram Sabhameetings,
Gram Sabha does not take up issues which affect
most of the people, and then the participation further declines. To stem these problems, Ministry of Panchayati Raj has been taking up with the States
to have special Gram Sabha meetings
with a wider range of subjects.
Special Gram Sabha meetings to discuss nutrition were
held in August, 2011 and again in August, 2012. These meetings were attended by functionaries’ in charge of women and child care, health,
sanitation, drinking water, PDS, education, mid-day meal, agriculture, horticulture,
dairy and fisheries. These
meetings have seen greater participation of women and have also taken up issues
which benefit a larger number of people and particularly women.
During
October, 2012 special Gram Sabha meetings
relating to women were held. The
issues which had been flagged are Anganwadi Centres, health, sanitation, drinking water, prevention of
violence against women & children, prevention of dowry and female foeticide. States have also been advised to have
separate quoram for women in Gram Sabha in order to raise the attendance as
well as participation of women. Among
others, the States of Haryana, Gujarat , Uttar
Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Rajasthan and Odisha have responded on special Gram Sabha on women issue.
However, in addition to these efforts, it is necessary
to have Mahila Gram Sabha meetings
for various reasons. First,
in a Mahila Gram Sabha meeting,
presence and participation of women is much better than in a Gram Sabha meeting. Second, the Mahila Gram Sabha meeting
also takes up more sensitive topics such as dowry, domestic violence, substance
abuse, violence in public space, female foeticide and trafficking of women and
children. Some States like Maharashtra have
been holding Mahila Gram Sabha meetings
before Gram Sabha meetings. We have been advising the States to
constitute Mahila Sabha meetings in addition to Gram Sabha meetings. Recently, States like Rajasthan, Odisha and Karnataka have notified for
holding Mahila Sabha meetings. Our experience shows that with
increased participation of women in Gram Sabha meetings
or Mahila Sabha meetings, for example, expenditure
from MGNREGS is going for activities like irrigation and creation of water
bodies which helps in raising income through agriculture, horticulture and
fodder and also helps in improving drinking water supply.
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj
had advised the States to have Special
Gram Sabha and Mahila Sabha meetings
to discuss gender issues with special focus on female foeticide
and the social impact of having a larger number of men than women. It was advised that these meetings should also
be organised to discuss the issue of adverse Child Sex Ratio and female
foeticide. In the areas
whereMahila Sabhas has
not been constituted, they should be constituted and Mahila Sabhas should take up the matter of
CSR. Since the monitoring
committee of Anganwadis have been put under the control of Panchayat /
Ward member and Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Committee (VHSNC) has
been made a sub-committee of GP, Panchayats will
have access to information on registration of pregnant mothers, birth of boys
and girls and IMR/CMR. Therefore, Panchayats will
be able to monitor sex ratio at birth and prenatal sex determination. I have
attended several meetings of Gram Sabhas, MahilaSabhas and
workshops of elected Panchayat Representatives
and seen how women are able to take up the problem of female foeticide upfront,
discover the real reasons behind this mindset (violence against women in public
space is a major concern) and how to face this.
Accordingly, Special Gram Sabha on gender issues were held in various states. In Haryana, in a programme 1500 women
participated, at Julana Block
on 1st September
2012. This programme was
represented by people from seven Gram Panchayats. They
took a solemn oath that they will make all efforts support to eradicate the
social menace of female feticide. The women of these seven villages largely discussed the impact of having
a lower number of women on public order and the well being of adults.
Special Gram Sabha on
Gender issues was organized by Namunaghar, South Andaman on 30th October 2012 which was attended by 30
women and young girls. Among other issues, prevention of violence against women
and children, prevention of dowry and female feticide were
discussed. During this meeting, the people decided to organize Mahila Sabha to discuss women issues was
emphasized.
A meeting in Mararikula South
Gram Panchayat,
district Alappuzha,
Kerala was organised on 5th March,
2012 on “Mapping of violence against women”. About 2000 people, most of them
women, attended this meeting. During this meeting, the findings and
recommendations of the Mararikula South
Gram Panchayat regarding crimes against women were
discussed. This Gram Panchayat had undertaken a mapping of crimes
against women, particularly in public space and educational institutions. The Gram Sabha found a few solutions too : keeping
men engaged in gainful activities, particularly marine fishermen who remain
inactive during their stay on shores, ensuring cash earning activities for
women like dairy, establishing helplines and,
providing counselling in schools to address confidence building measures so
that students are able to stand up to violence. The Government of Kerala has
adopted this concept and is in the process of replicating this in the state
under a programme called NIRBHAYA.
The reservation for women among the elected
representatives to Panchayats has
increased the number of elected women representatives after 1993. This has helped in great extent in
increasing political leadership of women in Local Self Government. The efforts of the Gram Sabha to take up issues which affect women
and the constitution of Mahila Sabhas are
empowering of women irrespective of whether they are elected or not. The enthusiasm of women in Mahila Gram Sabhameetings in some parts of the country where their
participation earlier had been next to nothing is something to be seen to be
believed.
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