The Hunger Project in Himachal Pradesh

  Districts: Solan, Sirmaur

Blocks: Nahan, Dharampur and Nalagarh

Total Number of Gram Panchayats: 46

The Hunger Project works in Himachal Pradesh in collaboration with a partner organization called the Society for Uplift through Rural Action (SUTRA). SUTRA has been working in three blocks in two districts and 31 Gram Panchayats since the 1970s, focusing primarily on rural development and health. Since 2005, this partnership has strengthened The Hunger Project's aim in engaging effectively on issues of community health through the involvement of panchayats. This is the third year of the election cycle as elections were last held in 2005.

Federation of Women Ward Members

Being the third year of the election cycle, SUTRA has begun work on building a federation of Elected Women Representatives (EWRs). SUTRA and The Hunger Project organized a two-day workshop on federation building. Ninety-three women ward members from two districts of Himachal Pradesh participated in this workshop. Even though women have been elected into the panchayat for eleven years, they continue to be excluded from the decision making processes. One also has to view participation and leadership of women in governance vis-à-vis gender-based violence like female foeticide, domestic violence and lack of rights of single women (one out of every seven women is single in Himachal Pradesh). These forms of gender-based violence are the most prominent in the state.

The workshop was organized to understand the present status of the participation of women in the panchayat and their role in addressing issues of gender-based violence. The panchayat does not take such issues seriously and cases of physical and sexual violence are trivialized and ignored or women themselves are held responsible for such acts.
Elected women gathering to discuss federations.

Women ward members also face a range of other problems, including being ignored by the sarpanch, not being supported by the male members of the Panchayat and not being shown the budget.

On sharing their experiences, women leaders felt a sense of solidarity in the fact that everyone faced the same discrimination. The feeling of being the "only one" disappeared and they came together to create a forum where they could support each other and give direction to their work.

Current Advocacy Issues

Nyaya Panchayats

SUTRA conducted a research study on Nyaya Panchayats to make the Nyaya Panchayats instrumental in the implementation of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 (PWDVA). This study was supported by THP and UNIFEM.

Nyaya Panchayat was first conceptualised in 1952 with the aim of providing affordable and accessible justice to people. It was seen as independent of the Gram Panchayat and continued to do so until 1978. In 1978, the Nyaya Panchayat was merged with the Gram Panchayat as its judicial wing. In this merger, although the institution became more accessible to the people, problems soon started to emerge. As elections to the Gram Panchayat became increasingly competitive, the justice system became diluted and marginalized.

In the study, people perceived the Nyaya Panchayat as a justice system that is accessible, affordable, easy and quick; settles matters within the village; avoids the difficulties of engaging with the police; and conforms to the socio-cultural norms of the community. At the same time, inadequacies of the Nyaya Panchayat became visible especially as women’s understanding of gender rights has grown and taken a firm root in the state of Himachal Pradesh. The study was to not only assess the Nyaya Panchayat for their structural and functional inadequacies but also to ensure that members of the Nyaya Panchayat are made aware about gender rights on the one hand and delivering justice with gender sensitivity and rights-based approaches on the other. The latter would be achieved by recommending people-oriented, gender-just solutions and strategies for using Nyaya Panchayat to implement the PWDVA.

The proposed outcomes of the study will pave the path for advocacy at the state and national levels, by incorporating the results into and contributing to the debate on the Gram Nyayalaya Act that has been proposed by the Government of India. This study will also help draft a Charter of Demand for people-centric advocacy and will help mobilize Mahila Mandals (women’s groups) and single women’s collectives to demand that the state empowers Nyaya Panchayat to deliver gender-just and rights-based justice. This will further enable the Nyaya Panchayat to deal with cases under the PWDVA.

The study will also provide information on the current situation of the Nyaya Panchayat and make recommendations to improve the development of a training manual that is used to train members of the Nyaya Panchayat and Protection Officers to effectively implement the Domestic Violence Act.

The study was undertaken over a period of eight months between January and August 2007. It was conducted in seven districts, covering 19 blocks and 200 Gram Panchayats. The sample represents people from the old, new and tribal cultural belts of Himachal Pradesh.

The study has been consolidated and recommendations are being prepared. A workshop was organized to prepare a training manual. This manual will be field tested before being presented before the state government. It is expected that the state government takes up this manual and uses its resources to sensitize the members of the Nyaya Panchayat.

Mahila Gram Sabha (Women’s Village Assembly)

Hunger Project partner SUTRA has been working with women ward members since the 1990s and the announcement of reservation for women under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act advanced their work on gender-just governance. The Himachal Pradesh Panchayat Act made provisions for ward sabhas and made it mandatory that 33.3% women from ward sabha should participate in Gram Sabha. The present scenario is such that the Gram Sabha is being conducted in the absence of women.

Given this situation, SUTRA turned its attention to the state of Maharashtra whose Act declared that a part of the total number of Gram Sabhas in a year will be especially assigned for all women’s Gram Sabhas. Taking inspiration from this, SUTRA mobilized people to discuss the possibility and the merits of demanding of having two out of the total four Gram Sabhas which are held in a year to be exclusively for women. The support was enormous, especially from women who had organized themselves into self-help groups, which was a total of 10,000 women.

Before starting an advocacy campaign there was a spate of awareness building workshops with women’s groups and women elected representatives of the panchayat. During the two months of awareness building, women organized themselves and collected signatures on a demand letter asking for "All Women’s Gram Sabha." Some of the issues that emerged during the awareness building sessions were as follows:

In one incident, a woman related how, when she asked for help from others to complete Khaddi work, she was informed by the male representatives of the panchayat that women should look after cattle at home and not get involved in public works.

When men react this way, women feel hesitant raising their issues. Many a time women attending Gram Sabhas are sent back on the pretext that it is a forum only for men.

Women believe that a separate Gram Sabha for women would help address and resolve some of these problems. They believed that a separate Gram Sabha would help women put forth their issues and concerns with confidence. Most importantly, they felt that their participation would help expand the definition of "development" to include issues that have been perceived as trivial for years.

Following these workshops and sessions, women decided to take out a rally that will march to the block administration office, where they would submit their demands.  

Panchayat Mandali

Panchayat Mandalis are groups comprising women, especially elected women representatives, who are also members of Mahila Mandals (women’s groups). These groups focus on strengthening women’s leadership in panchayats. They:

Mahila mandals, Panchayat mandalis, and single women’s collectives under the banner of “sarva shakti sangam” (“collective strength of women”) from each block held a rally to to their respective block administrations. They demanded that women Gram Sabhas should be recognized by law and by the Constitution. Though, women may have started attending the Gram Sabha they continue to be excluded from decision-making processes. The environment has been such that it is difficult for them to put forth issues before the panchayat and the village as a whole. Issues like domestic violence and female foeticide continue to be cast as trivial and unworthy of discussion.

In 15 blocks in five districts, there were a total of 2,588 participants in the rallies and 9,777 signatures collected on the demand letters. The media extended their full support. The demand letter reached the Chief Minister and he sent a notification declaring the first "All Women’s Gram Sabha" to be held on 23rd September 2007. This has been a big achievement for SUTRA and The Hunger Project’s work in Himachal Pradesh. Once the notification was made public, SUTRA and The Hunger Project decided to work intensively with four Gram Panchayats to mobilize women such that they could present it as a model women Gram Sabha.

An average of 70-80 women participated in the Gram Sabhas and raised issues of female foeticide and other forms of gender-based violence, reproductive health, widow pension, correction of BPL list, rights of single women and of people with disabilities, need for trained midwives and health camps, and alcohol prohibition.

The indicators of success were an increase in the participation of women and the strength and confidence with which women raised their issues and concerns. They openly asked questions and clarified what they did not understand.

The Two Child Norm

Himachal Pradesh was one of the states to impose the Two Child Norm on panchayat representatives as early as the year 2000. But through a concerted effort by NGOs, among which The Hunger Project played a significant role, it was later removed through amendments to the Himachal Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act 1994.

When this norm was taken up for discussion in the State Assembly, a collaboration of NGOs were able to generate a debate on the negative impact it could have on women and extracted a promise from the then Leader of Opposition that his party would withdraw this norm once it comes to power. Though it took a lot of effort to remind them of this "promise," The Hunger Project was successful in the end. On the day this norm was taken up by the State Assembly for repealing it, The Hunger Project, in collaboration with SUTRA, circulated the data on the amount of money spent by the State Government on women’s empowerment. This data showed how the State had steadily decreased its allocation of resources for women’s empowerment and development programs. This helped to stem the opposition and resulted in the withdrawal of the norm.

Removal of Provision for Direct Elections of Up – Pradhan

Himachal Pradesh was the only state in India where Gram Panchayat Up-Pradhans (deputy Sarpanch/President) were elected by the Gram Sabha instead of the general practice of election amongst ward members. There was in addition no reservation for this post. So, invariably in most Gram Panchayats where the post of Pradhan was reserved under the categories for Women or SC candidates, the Ward Panch from the General category would contest for the post of Up-Pradhan and get elected. The Up-Pradhans would then develop a nexus with the Secretary and make women Pradhans redundant or in the least make their working very difficult by writing complaints to the authorities and getting "inquiries" conducted against them. The number of women in Gram Panchayat meetings would invariably dwindle to roughly 20 to 25 percent.

Taking all this into account, SUTRA in the year 2000, filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) asking for the reservation for the post of Up-Pradhan to be at par with other reservations.  It further asked that if that was not possible, then the provision for direct elections should be removed. Accordingly, in the elections to the panchayats in 2005, the direct election for the post of Gram Panchayat Up-Pradhan was abolished and Up-Pradhans are now elected amongst the ward members by themselves.

Women's Leadership Workshops (WLWs)


Women's Leadership Workshop in progress. 

2006 was the first year after the elections and the focus was to train the Elected Women Representatives as well as strengthen the community groups at the panchayat level. Two hundred and sixteen Panchayat mandalies have been formed in the 31 panchayats with which SUTRA works. One hundred and twenty-seven Elected Women Representatives in these 31 panchayats have been trained through a two-phase training.

SUTRA’s continued emphasis on the declining sex ratio in the area meant that they had to work with the new executive that took over the panchayats. The work, over time, and with the support from the vigilance groups formed at the village level, has started showing a difference with a reduction in the differentials in panchayats. Display boards showing the number of births are put up in panchayats where this differential has reduced. The vigilance groups document the number and sex of children already born and support women in the registration of pregnancy within 12 weeks, timely prenatal check-ups and immunization.

The Women’s Leaderships Workshops were organized under the banner of "Social justice and leadership of women in panchayats" with an objective of achieving gender-just governance. These two-days workshops aimed to develop an understanding of leadership amongst women elected representatives and to enable women leaders to take up issues of social justice.

Some of the expectations of women elected representatives included an understanding of roles and responsibilities as representatives of the panchayat; an understanding on health and especially female foeticide; and information on Nyaya panchayats.

On an average, 20 women leaders participate in each workshop and in addition to the basic structure of the workshop, there are also sessions and discussions on increasing sex-selective abortions in the state, domestic violence, marginalization of single women and other forms of gender based violence.

 
Inauguration of WLW.

Towards the end of each workshop, women elected representatives left feeling confident and able to ask questions, raise issues, discuss concerns relating to single women and other marginalized sections.

Being in the third of the election cycle, The Hunger Project and SUTRA have worked with women ward members to build federations to enable them to continue their journey as leaders of local governance.

Strengthening Women’s Empowerment in Electoral Processes (SWEEP)

The second half of 2005 was used to prepare and strengthen the representatives to face the elections scheduled for December 2005. SUTRA brought out various posters and conducted Nukkad Nataks (street plays) in various Gram Panchayats to make women aware as voters as well as aware contestants. The rigor with which the pre election campaign was conducted has had demonstrable results – as indicated by the level of participation of women leaders in the elections and their victory.

Nahan Development Block

In this block, 38 women contested elections. In the reserved category, three of them won the post of Pradhans (2 SC and 1 General), two won as BDC (2 SC), eleven women leaders won the post of Ward Panch (SC) and one won the post of Up-Pradhan. From the Open General Constituencies three women won the post of Ward Panchs (2 SC and 1 General category) amounting to a total win of 20 women leaders out of 38 women contestants.

Nalagarh Block

In Nalagarh Block in the Ramshara area, a total of 29 women contested in the panchayat elections. Three women Pradhans (2 SC and 1 General) and 15 Ward Panchs (2 unopposed) were elected.

Dharmpur Development Block

There are twelve Gram Panchayats in this block. 13 women contested for the post of Pradhan. Three were successfully elected (2 Sc and 1 General). Thirty-five women contested for the post of Ward Panch and 22 of them won the elections.

Our Partner – SUTRA


Members of SUTRA 

SUTRA is a non-profit organization that started working in the 1970s in the state of Himachal Pradesh. They started their work with an aim of empowering the panchayat and women in the state. In the 1980s they drew the link between panchayats and women’s empowerment. They organized capacity building workshops for women ward members of the panchayat. In the 1990s they organized panchayat mandalis (committees) at the community level and took on the issue of women’s participation and leadership in decision making processes.

When the 73rd CAA was announced it gave SUTRA’s work direction and advanced it to work on gender-just governance. By looking at governance vis-à-vis social justice, SUTRA works on issues such as female foeticide, domestic violence, rights of single women.