Women become force to reckon with in panchayats
March 07, 2007 12:36 IST
Last Updated: March 07, 2007 13:27 IST
rediffmail.com

Women panchayat leaders have succeeded in enlarging their
representation beyond the 33 per cent seats reserved for them in the
local bodies with Bihar leading with over 54 per cent representation
of women in the village bodies.

As International Women's Day celebrations focus on the issue of
empowerment of women, according to latest statistics, the fairer sex
has increased its involvement in decision-making at the village level
with 9.7 lakh of the 28 lakh elected panchayat representatives being
women.

A total of 36.7 per cent of the panchayat representatives are women,
according to `The State of the Panchayats,' a mid-term review and
appraisal of the panchayati raj system.

Bihar has the highest number of women panchayat leaders at 54.1 per
cent, followed by Karnataka where 42.9 per cent of the elected
representatives at the village level are women, as on December 1,
2006.

In all states except Goa, where the percentage of women panchayat
leaders was recorded at 30.2 per cent, women formed more than 33 per
cent of the elected representatives in the villages.

"With every succeeding panchayat election, women have been able to
considerably enlarge their representation beyond the minimum 33 per
cent prescribed by the Constitution," the report said even as the Bill
for 33 per cent reservation of seats for women in Lok Sabha and Vidhan
Sabhas has been hanging fire.

The report said while earlier reservations for women were a matter of
ridicule, now stories of women being puppets in the hands of male
relatives and similar anecdotal accounts have become rare.

"Women have begun to take full charge of their official
responsibilities in panchayats," it said.

The selected women representatives have been increasingly ensuring
their effective participation in budget preparation and the
identification of criteria to guide panchayats to specially prepare
gender-sensitive budgets.

"In several states, the impact of two parallel developments, that is,
the political representation of women in panchayats and the women's
self-help group movement, have dramatically altered gender equations
and given women a new sense of self-confidence and self-worth," the
report said.