Elected women leaders in Bihar hail the 50% reservation as a landmark judgment

Report to the Global Board

April 2006 – September 2006

Written by Sriparna Chaudhiri

In April 2006, The Hunger Project completed five years of its Panchayati Raj Campaign in India. The campaign strengthens the leadership of elected women leaders in Panchayats (village councils), and has proven to be an effective strategy for ending hunger, poverty and injustice in the villages of India. Using a multi-prong strategy of Strengthening Women's Leadership, Gram Sabha (village assembly) Mobilization, Influencing Public Opinion and Advocacy and Building Alliances, we have trained more than 50,000 elected women representatives in the last five years.

Our work with the elected women has unleashed a new debate in the country on the importance of investing in the leadership of elected women as the key change agents for the end of hunger and poverty. We now need to gather more data, information, research and documentation to be able to advocate for our case. Therefore, the prime focus in the last six months has been to build a body of knowledge and document the changes that have taken place in the last five years of THP's work with the elected women representatives. We are developing a plan to track and measure the impact of THP's work.

In this last semester, the focus has also been on Bihar, where our team has generated data to track the recent events and their consequences on the elected women representatives. This team has brought to light the sordid realities that despite Constitutional guarantees, women still pay a heavy price to assert their rightful place in grassroots democracy.

The whole country has many expectations from the women leaders of Bihar. Several important events have taken place to give these women leaders a prime place of importance in the area of local governance. The newly elected government mandated 50% reservations for women at Panchayati Raj. Though the women leaders, civil society and the media have all been expecting this change, we were still greatly surprised by the swiftness with which the Bihar Government amended the law.

But in these last six months, the women of Bihar have been subjected to intimidations, assaults and even murders. Three innocent children were killed because their mother intended to contest the Panchayat elections. The mother, Uma Devi, did not withdraw her nomination and contested the elections. Despite the agony and the anguish, these women have bravely moved ahead to file their nominations demonstrating their will and commitment to democracy.

The elections are over in Bihar and the results are slowly coming in. Women leaders across all three levels of Panchayati Raj (village, block and district) have unanimously supported women's reservation and hailed this 50% reservation in Bihar as a landmark victory in women's rights.

India – Five-Year Cycle of Empowerment

Panchayat elections are held every five years in every state. Working in 13 states, THP's interventions in each state have been at different stages of the election cycle since 2000. While strengthening women's leadership has been the core strategy, in some states emphasis has been on creating federations and networks while in others it has been to lobby for better policies to create a favorable environment for women leaders in the grassroots. In states going in for elections, THP has encouraged the participation of women as voters and contestants carrying out a massive pre-election campaign called SWEEP (strengthening women's empowerment in electoral processes).

It is only in 2006 that THP itself has completed its five-year empowerment cycle having had a thorough understanding of the requirements of the women leaders in each year of their five year tenure. Every year requires a focused intervention.

Year 1 – Stepping Forth as Leaders

On winning the elections, elected women representatives have an urgent requirement for training and capacity building. Women leaders need to be aware of their roles and responsibilities as Panchayat functionaries and develop ways to build their constituencies.

In the first year after election, elected women participate in a three-day Women's Leadership Workshop that helps them to gain confidence. This is reinforced three months later by a follow up workshop and a need-based workshop, based on the needs identified by the women themselves. Prior to these workshops, THP organizes 'Training of Trainer' (TOT) Workshops, where the leaders of the WLWs are trained.

In all, 1,745 elected women representatives (EWRs) participated in 87 Women's Leadership Workshops (WLWs) from April to September 2006. In this period the state of Bihar held Panchayat elections and the newly-elected EWRs have started to participate in WLWs. Bihar conducted a TOT on 28 – 31 August 2006 to train 47 persons to conduct WLWs in every district of the state.

Year 2 – Leadership for Development

In year two, though strengthening leadership continues to be important, there is emphasis on working with the elected women leaders to create a vision for their Panchayats and plan to meet basic needs. Micro plans for each village are prepared by the women themselves in consultation with the Gram Sabha. The women undertake a social audit to map the needy and the vulnerable families in the village. The micro plans address issues and needs of all such families and have proven to be well respected by district officials.

In the Tsunami affected areas of Nagapattinam, the micro plans prepared by the 17 Panchayats in THP's area of operation are being used to generate livelihood activities for village people, start PDS shops (where subsidized food is distributed), building libraries and access government schemes to desilt village ponds.

The states of Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh are in their second year of elections. Both states are planning for Gram Sabha Mobilizations in consultation with their partners. They are also getting specific expert inputs from states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in microplanning.

The collective strength of elected women in Karnataka

Year 3 – Creating Federations for a Greater Voice

By the third year of elections, women face various obstacles – most of which are from the bureaucracy and the government officials. The women realize the need of collective strength and voice if their leadership is to sustain. THP's intervention in this year of a state's operation has been to facilitate the formation of federations of elected women representatives. These federations are formed at the block level, district level and the state level.

Even though Karnataka and Rajasthan are only in their second year of election, they have initiated the process of federation building.

Year 4 – Changing Policies / Delivering Results

This is clearly the year of results and the time for advocacy. Women leaders have spent three years exercising their leadership and enhancing the quality of the lives of her fellow villagers. The community is now able to implement their plans. By now women leaders face major obstacles and are powerful enough to demand better policies, which positively affect their working environment.

In Bihar, elected women representatives have been lobbying for reservation for the post of the Chairperson. The Hunger Project had been advocating this issue for the last two years and had even initiated a study 'Building Knowledge to Support Women's Leadership – A Study of EWRs in Chairperson's Post in Bihar' to understand and showcase the need for reservation in mainstreaming women's role in local governance. The newly elected government in Bihar gave 50% reservation to women in Panchayats for all posts. This single gesture of the state government of Bihar gave a big boost to women's leadership in the state. The elections are now over, and the latest results show that women leaders constitute about 63 % of the total winners.

This year is also the year of consolidation and documentation. Both Uttaranchal and Arunachal Pradesh states are preparing to hold state wide women's conventions and seminars. In Uttaranchal the women leaders have a charter of demands called the 'Uttaranchal Declaration' asking for policies positively affecting their leadership. In Arunachal Pradesh, THP has been collaborating with SIRD to conduct one-day sessions with women EWRs.

Year 5 – Increasing Women's Participation in Elections and Impacting the Electoral Process

The planning for SWEEP starts in the fifth year of Panchayat Elections. Three months before the elections, THP carries out an extensive campaign in each state to increase women's participation in the electoral process both as voters and contestants. Women members of Self Help Groups are encouraged to contest elections from the reserved posts. Women leaders who have already served for five years are encouraged to contest from General Seats. In addition, THP's campaign focuses on the need to select the right candidates; ensuring that the candidates are elected for their integrity and commitment to the development of the community.

The states of Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) are going into elections in 2006 or early 2007. Bihar just completed elections in June 2006. In the Mahila Sammellan held in Assam early this year, the women leaders have declared that they will contest 100% of the seats, even seats which are not reserved. In Tamil Nadu –  which goes into elections in October 2006 – The Hunger Project, in partnership with more than 21 organisations, is carrying out SWEEP in 1000 villages. The early reports from the field show that more than 50% women trained earlier by THP will contest the elections from seats which have now been de-reserved.

KEY PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS

I. Aagaz Academy – Centre for Women's Leadership

The last batch of the first year students of Aagaz Academy, Nasik finished their course in July 2006. In all, 224 graduates have completed a year of co-learning from all six Academies. Of the graduates, 80 are literate and 144 illiterate, 179 belonging to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) category and 45 of them to the General Category.

There has been a marked difference in the attitudes and personalities of the women leaders from the time that they just joined to the course completion. 'Himmat Aa Gayi', 'Vishwas Badha Hai' - I have the confidence now – was the common refrain that one heard from the women leaders in these academies.

Moving across boundaries of class, caste, tribes, religion and geography, the women leaders have built a separate identity for themselves in their own villages and districts. They are known as 'Aagaz ki Mahila' – Aagaz Women. Each academy has documented each participant's journey through this one-year process. A self-scoring by the women themselves reveals that the high scorers have taken ownership of their own learning and started to

Literacy still remains an area of challenge to them. Opening a bank account in their name and opposing any instance of violence against women are also low scorers which deeper levels of self analysis can cure. Four more academies are planned in the coming years, starting with Bihar in 2007.

II. SWEEP - Pre Election Campaign

In May 2006, a national level workshop of state coordinators for states going to Panchayat elections was held in New Delhi. The workshop was a sharing of pre-election campaign activities in the states of Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Rajasthan. The participants of the workshop arrived on a set of common principles for SWEEP.

Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Orissa and J&K are five states which launched SWEEP in this period. SWEEP in Bihar started in April 2006 in partnership with 10 partner organizations across nine districts. The Bihar SWEEP campaign having taken the learnings of the Rajasthan and MP Campaigns, focused their attention exclusively on women and their leadership. In addition to this, given Bihar's socio-cultural-political mix, SWEEP was also used to enhance THP's understanding of women's political participation in the context of caste/ power relations and party politics. An area of alarm for THP was the number of cases of violence that were being perpetuated against the women candidates. These cases were closely monitored by a team 'Panchayat Praheri' bought together by THP. Cases were followed up and reported to relevant authorities in the state as well as to the media.

In Tamil Nadu, the focus of SWEEP has been to ensure the participation of dalit (low caste) and Tribal women in the upcoming Panchayat elections. In all 21 partners have been identified to work in approx 1000 villages. Assam too has launched SWEEP. Three TOTs have been launched for SWEEP in Orissa, Assam and Tamil Nadu.

III. Research and Advocacy

This year the prime focus has been to build a body of knowledge and undertake issue based research studies. The idea is also to compile powerful, well articulated case studies where changes have been tracked and highlight processes operating on the ground that have been transformed through women's leadership. This would allow us to document our learnings as well as break ground for new initiatives.

For instance, working papers coming out of the Panchayat elections document instances of women being denied reservation, and also facing violence. Documenting the experience of potential women candidates will highlight the social dynamics and challenges that women face while seeking to contest elections. Lessons from this documentation will help us plan our SWEEP intervention in other states effectively.

Again, our work on mapping hunger and Panchayats involvement in various governmental food schemes will help us in developing manuals for the Panchayats to work effectively on such schemes. Engagement with the Supreme Court appointed Commissioners to monitor food schemes will not only support the process but also permit a powerful advocacy instrument for effective devolution to the Panchayats.

Research on 'Common Property Resources and Panchayats' already indicate the significance of Panchayats as governance units rather than project implementation agencies, a perspective which has been maintained by most state governments as well as bilateral and multilateral donors. This research will permit us to argue strongly that local resources in the villages must be effectively under the control of Panchayats rather than Panchayats undertaking just a monitoring role. The research will support the broader civil society campaign against large-scale displacement and appropriation of natural resources.

Engagement on 'exclusion faced by dalit elected women representatives', a theme which is increasingly visible, will help highlight those issues while building knowledge bridges with dalit organizations. We will focus on dalit women candidates in the Tamil Nadu elections as well as broader case studies in states with a high number of atrocities against SC populations – MP, Bihar and Rajasthan.

Work on the following themes has been initiated:

 IV: Tsunami Rehabilitation

Post the completion of the micro plans in the Tsunami villages and their subsequent approval by the Gram Sabha, copies of the approved plan was presented to the District administration and was followed up by a workshop for dissemination on June 13, 2006. In the period from April – September 2006, several Panchayats have initiated action to implement these plans:

1) A ration shop (PDS) has been opened at Gounder Street in P R puram Panchayat

2) Building for a Library has been constructed in Pudupalli Panchayat

3) Camps for aged in Vettaikaraniruppu Panchayat has been organised

Elected Women Leaders in Tsunami Affected Villages

4) Livelihood training for reviving the coconut farms affected by tsunami at P R Puram Panchayat and an awareness program on personal hygiene for adolescent girls in Pudupalli Panchayat has been conducted.

5) A Farmers' Information Center has been established by THP at Kameswaram

6) Training in dairy and rearing goats, credit linkages with banks were arranged for subsidized loans for buying buffalos and cows to encourage families to undertake alternate livelihoods.

7) Training in tailoring was organized by THP and sewing machines were arranged through an NGO (Anarde Foundation Mumbai)

8) Training in knitting with coconut palm leaves was organized by THP at Pudupalli

9) Using Casuarina saplings, a Bio shield is being created on the coast with the help of Tamil Nadu Forest Department

Most importantly, the Tsunami affected Panchayats are being trained in 'Disaster Preparedness' and are creating Bio shields.

 

More than 432,000 saplings have been planted in 150 hectares of the coast.

Our field staff is actively engaged in motivating the women of these Panchayats to participate in the Gram Sabha meetings for the last one year and it has finally started yielding results.

V: Actively Engaging the Media

All states were urged to organize Media workshops between April and July 2006.  

All the leading media houses, like The Hindu, The New Indian Express, The Deccan Chronicle, Dinamalar, Dinathanthi, Dinakaran, UNI, and PIB along with a host of local news media attended the media workshop in Tamil Nadu. Senior journalists holding positions like Assistant Editor, Principal Correspondent, Chief of Bureau, and Chief Reporter were among the participants.

The media workshop in Assam was attended by 25 journalists. Assam has a higher literacy rate of around 65%, but because of geographical distribution and economic conditions it has a readership of only 500,000. There are 16 Assamese newspapers. This has made the competition very keen, resulting in each and every newspaper stationing a local journalist in rural areas so that they can be the first with news.

The Karnataka workshop focused on Right to Information and provided tips to EWRs in handling media. The Rajasthan media workshop focused on women's rights and Dr. Girija Vyas, Chairperson of The National Commission for Women was the key speaker.

A result oriented dialogue with mainstream journalists was organized in Pachmari from 26-28 August 2006.

The workshop tried to identify some of the reasons for non participation of the print media. The participants of the workshop unanimously decided that an informal peer-group of journalists would be formed and the group would meet once a month to take up issues of women and local governance.

Most of the states were able to organize a second media workshop to tackle specific issues:

VI: Sarojini Naidu Prize (SNP)

Preparations are in full swing for Sarojini Naidu Prize 2006. 2006 has seen a tremendous response taking the total number of entries to 1517 articles. Article entries from even Kerala, Manipur and Nagaland were received, three states where THP does not work with the EWRs.

The highlight for SNP 2006 is the generous offer of Shri Mani Shankar Aiyer, Hon. Minister of Panchayati Raj, to host the SNP award giving ceremony at his residence on 14, Akbar Road, New Delhi. Ms Shiela Dixit, Chief Minister of Delhi has agreed to be the guest of honour.

This year there have been a few changes to the last year's jury. Mr N Ram, Editor in Chief, The Hindu has graciously accepted to be a jury member. Ms Meenakshi Dutta Ghosh, Secretary Panchayati Raj has also consented to be a member of the jury. Ms Mrinal Pande has sent in her regrets due to extreme pressure at work.

The Sarojini Naidu Prize Winners

The jury met on the September 15, 2006 to decide on the Prize Winners. After much discussions and debate, the Jury has awarded Sarojini Naidu Prize for the year 2006 to the following:

Hindi Category

English Category

Other Indian Languages – Assamese

Both the English Category and the Other Indian Language Category prizes have gone to journalists in Assam writing for Assamese Dailies. The jury members read and selected the winning articles keeping in mind the consistency of writing, level of analysis of the issues dealing with governance, development and social justice. The jury debated that the articles while talking about the achievements of the EWR should also bring out issues of governance, leadership and the collective will of the Gram Sabha. The jury was emphatic that each article should be seen as an agent of change, and not just focus on success stories.

The Jury has awarded a special mention of Shuriah Niazi's contribution in an Urdu Daily from Bhopal, as being a very good piece of journalism, carefully researched, well organised, tightly written and emphatic. The article helps to bring to life the ordeals of elected women representatives to the members of the Urdu reading community.