George S. Everly Jr. - From Oppression to Assertion: Women and Panchayats in India

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From Oppression to Assertion

From Oppression to Assertion

Women and Panchayats in India

Nirmala Buch

First published 2010
by Routledge
912915 Tolstoy House, 1517 Tolstoy Marg, New Delhi 110 001

Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2010 Centre for Women's Development Studies

Typeset by
Star Compugraphics Private Limited
D156, Second Floor
Sector 7, Noida 201 301

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-415-59631-2

To

The women in rural India who entered the panchayats braving all odds to show leadership and who shared their experience with us frankly and with confidence

Contents

Sarpanchpati/pradhanpati	Spouse of a woman chairperson of village panchayat. She is called Sarpanch in Madhya Pradesh and Pradhan in Uttar Pradesh
Janpad Sabha	A unit of local self-government at the intermediate level between a district and a village created under the Central Provinces and Berar local Self Government Act 1948
Zila Panchayat	District panchayat
Panchayat Samiti	Panchayat at the intermediate level, between the district and the village
Pancha Parmeshwar	Panchayat member as God
Gram Sabha	The general assembly of the village consisting of its registered voters
Gram Swaraj	Village self-rule as propagated by Mahatma Gandhi
Pradhan	Elected chairperson of the village panchayat
Sathin	lit. woman friend. A Sathin is a honorary worker in the WDP who works as a friend of women and helps in awareness generation and conscientisation
Thakurs	Kshatriya Rajput, the warrior caste; also a title adopted by them
Gond	Name of an ethnic group; a tribe in central India included in the list of Scheduled Tribes in the Indian Constitution for special attention
Bhil	A tribe of central India who speaks the Bhili language
Bhilala	A small tribe found in central India; commonly considered to be a mixed group which had sprung from the alliances of immigrant Rajputs with the Bhils
Amin	A local official responsible for revenue collection and keeping accounts
Panchas	Members of the village panchayat
Farman	A royal edict
Kshetra Samiti	lit. area committee; refers here to a panchayat body at the intermediate level of a development block in Uttar Pradesh
Mahila Samakhya	lit. women speak for equality. Name of a programme of education for women's equality
Satnami	lit. true name. Refers to the socio-religious movement in Chattisgarh founded by Guru Ghasidas. Its followers are almost exclusively from a particular scheduled caste and limited to Chattisgarh plains
Bhaiya Raja or Munna/Munni	lit. royal brother and little prince/little
Raja	princess; used to address feudal family members with royal suffix even for children
Praja	Subject people of rulers
Bhil Meenas	Name of a tribal group of Rajasthan
Garasias	A tribe said to be of Rajput descendant mainly living in southern Rajasthan
Pramukh	lit. Chief or principal person. Here chairperson of district Panchayat
Janpad Panchayat	Block level panchayat
Adhayksha	Chairperson
Pooja	worship
Up-Sarpanch	Vice chairperson of the village panchayat
Sarpanchi/Sarpanchai	Exercise of powers and performing the duties of the post of Sarpanch
Patwari	Village Land Records Officer.
Pracheta	A woman field worker above the level of Sathin in WDP who is appointed for raising awareness
Mukhya Sevika	Head female village level worker.
Jeevan Dhara scheme	Jewan Dhara scheme meaning water as life line has been part of a bigger rural wage employment programme of JRY (Jawahar Rozgar Yojana) in which irrigation wells were constructed on lands of persons belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Nyaya Panchayat	A panchayat performing judicial functions.
Jajam	Big cotton carpet spread on the ground used for sitting in village common meetings. Sometimes refers to such a common meeting.
Zila Pramukh	District panchayat chairperson
Parti-bazi	Party politics
Para-teacher	A less qualified teacher who is paid lower remuneration
Shikshakarmi	lit. education worker/teacher. Appointed on special, fixed contract terms

T he Constitutional Amendment in India in 1992 introducing reservation of not less than one-third of all panchayat positions, chairpersons as well as members, for women aroused unparalleled curiosity, interest and anxiety in the outcome of this public policy. This indicated the need of major empirical studies to look at its experience and also capture the voices of the new women entrants. This book is based on such a study started immediately after the 19941995 elections in the three northern states Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. These states are seen as low on social and gender indicators and have been subject of most of the critical comments and doubts about elected panchayat women's participation and performance. We had continued our exploration with women who were elected in the next two five-yearly panchayat elections in these states.

The book explores two dimensions of these reservationsthe effectiveness of this public policy instrument in bringing women in the public sphere and their participation and its empowering impact on women. It interrogates the myths of rural women's disinterest in politics, reservation bringing only well-to-do and kinswomen of influential politicians in these institutions and the widespread belief in the proxy-ism and namesake membership of elected women in panchayats expressed in the terms of Sarpanchpati, Pradhanpati (spouse of a woman chairperson of village panchayat) made part of the panchayat lexicon. While not denying existence of some women who are examples of these practices as are some men, our exploration shows how patriarchal these myths are and how unfair these are to numerous women who have shown leadership, recognition, participation, confidence, aspirations and changes in attitudes and social practices as voiced by them and by members in the community.

These women could not have contested panchayat elections without these reservations and that is the situation even today when these reservations are being reluctantly increased to one-half. A woman has to give way to male family members or other male members in the community if the seat is not reserved. That represents the context and the constraints in women's leadership in the public sphere and its acceptance. We hope that our narrative of women's experience started with their one-third presence after 19941995 elections and of women who succeeded them, will be as exciting to readers as it was for us to capture. We need to put women neither on the pedestal nor on the floor. We need to see them effortlessly occupying positions earned by election and not by nomination or co-option and be objective and unbiased in our assessment. We hope that our narrative helps in this process, particularly now that the debate and discourse is again in the forefront with the Women's Reservation Bill for women's presence in the Parliament and state legislatures.

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