New Delhi: Remember Raghubir Yadav’s character ‘Pradhan Ji’ in popular comedy web series ‘Panchayat’? To check the prevalence of ‘sarpanch pati’ like Yadav in real life, the Centre plans special training programmes for elected women representatives in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) to help them in decision making and develop leadership qualities, ThePrint has learnt.
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj is also preparing focused training courses for women pradhans, who are not educated or have limited education, to simplify the functioning of PRIs, financial and governance related issues, use of technology among others, according to senior ministry officials.
This comes after a study—commissioned by the ministry to examine the extent and prevalence of “sarpanch pati system” and recommend measures to eliminate the trend—highlighted serious capacity gaps that pose hurdles in women sarpanchs being effective in imparting their duties.
It highlighted that lack of knowledge about the functioning of PRIs among women representatives, reluctance to independently take financial decisions, their limited education as some of the major issues, according to sources in the ministry.
The study was done by Kudumbashree, the Kerala government’s poverty eradication and women empowerment programme, and the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR), under the ministry, in 18 states, including Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Karnataka among others.
It recommended a nationwide initiative to address the skill and knowledge gap among elected women representatives (EWR).
It also recommended special focus on functional training for non-literate EWRs, setting up of a state-level help desk for EWRs, pushing states to promote associations or federation of EWRs, make gram panchayat offices women friendly among others, according to the information available on the ministry’s portal.
“We plan to conduct focused training of elected women representatives to help them in decision making. We have recently commissioned a few organisations to carry out training of elected women representatives,” Vivek Bharadwaj, secretary, panchayati raj ministry, told ThePrint.
Senior ministry officials say that there are a lot of women representatives, who are uneducated or have limited educational qualifications. They lack understanding of financial matters, governance issues among others. The ministry plans to design specific training courses for such elected women representatives.
“We will soon have training courses designed specifically for women (especially those who are not well-educated) to simplify things for them and help them independently take important financial and other decisions,” said Bharadwaj.
Sajith Sukumaran, director state programmes with Janaagraha, and a former chief operating officer of Kudumbshree, said, “A lot of elected women representatives are not educated, but even those who are well-educated are often reluctant to take financial decisions. They are not very comfortable dealing with it. They are dependent on their husbands or male family members to make critical decisions, guidance, facilitation and even transport. There is a need for focused training for women depending on their knowledge about the PRI functioning.”
Meanwhile, the 10-member advisory committee constituted last year by the ministry to examine the issue of women pradhans being represented by the male members of their families is expected to submit its report in December. The panel, headed by former secretary of mines Sushil Kumar, was constituted on the direction of the Supreme Court following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).
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Calls for multi-pronged approach
There are over 2.5 lakh gram panchayats in India of which there are around 1.17 lakh women sarpanchs in 28 states, according to the ministry’s response to a parliamentary question in February.
While there is 50 percent reservation for women in PRIs, ministry officials say, elected women representatives, especially at gram panchayat level, being used as proxies by husbands or other male members is a serious concern.
Apart from lack of knowledge, awareness about the governance system, there are other factors, including the patriarchal setup in villages, caste dynamics, electoral process, legal issues, which play a significant role in the prevalence of ‘sarpanch pati’ system, according to public policy experts.
Retired civil servant Sunil Kumar, a former secretary of panchayati raj ministry, said that the issue of ‘sarpanch pati’ is a complex problem and required a multi-pronged approach.
He said that there is a need to relook at the provision of the current electoral process under which there is a provision for rotation of reserved seats every five years, said Kumar. “This also contributes to women being used as proxies by male members of their families. By the time an elected woman representative begins to find her moorings, it is time for the next election and they often don’t get a chance to contest again. There is a need to relook at this provision.”
Elected women representatives often face issues while deciding on financial matters due to which they often rely on their husbands or male family members.
Kumar said that to encourage women to take decisions independently, there is a need to put in place a system which supports them.
Currently, the sarpanch signs the cheque so the entire responsibility to ensure that the rules are followed lies with him/her.
“There is a need to make changes in the Panchayati Raj Act. The decision making system should be similar to the one followed at the Centre- and state-level. The system should be such that the decisions are taken by the sarpanch, but the onus of ensuring rules and procedures are followed lies on the panchayat secretary,” Kumar suggested.
Sukumaran said that women who have been part of Self Help Groups perform well at PRIs, as they have exposure of how things function at the grassroot level. “It is seen that women in their second term as sarpanch are more confident. In so many states such as Bihar, Kerala, Jharkhand, Rajasthan among others, women have contested elections on general seats and won. Therefore, if women get the right kind of training, it will be easier for them to be more effective.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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