From balika panchayats, boosting tourism to making money – what zila parishad leaders learnt at IIM

First batch of panchayat representatives & functionaries, including 30 women, undergoes 5-day leadership & management development training at premier institute.

Day 3 of Panchayat at IIM Ahmedabad | X (formerly Twitter) /@mopr_goi

New Delhi: Zila Parishad chairperson of Chamba, Neelam Kumari, 30, has been planning to promote tourism in her area for quite some time now. She just did know how to go about it.

But after attending a five-day leadership and management development training at Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, — organised by the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj — Neelam is confident she can put Chamba on the tourist map.

Neelam is a first-time elected representative who has a doctorate degree in mental health of women in rural areas.

She said her vision for Chamba was now imbued with clarity. “The training has given us a new perspective to look at issues and find solutions. For instance, there are just three to four homestays in our area as of now. There are so many unexplored locations, temples etc which can be developed as tourist destinations.”

The Himachal Pradesh resident was part of the first batch of 60 elected representatives and functionaries of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI), including 30 women, mostly first-timers, to undergo training at the premier institute.

The first-of-its-kind programme, a part of the ministry’s Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan initiative, is aimed at bringing about a transformative change at the grassroots level. In the first batch, all elected representatives and functionaries were from district and block panchayats.

From lessons on decision making, conflict resolution, effective communication to exploring new revenue models to boost income and innovation, they were taught how to effectively address local issues.

Monika Yadav, president, Farrukhabad district council, said the focus on innovative ways to generate revenue was one of the key takeaways from the IIM training.

A first-time elected representative, Monika is the daughter of former Samajwadi Party leader Narendra Singh Yadav, who joined the BJP last year.

She said: “District panchayats need to work on new ways to generate revenue. We can look for ways to earn revenue from the buildings or properties owned by district panchayats. Another important aspect was innovative ways to address local problems and also provide employment opportunities to people.”

Monika said she had been working on a plan to process cow dung into paint, diyas, logs etc. “There are a lot of gaushalas (cow sheds) in my area. We need to think of innovative ideas to develop sustainable models and make the gaushalas self-sustaining. This will provide employment to a lot of people. We can make arrangements for them to sell their products so that they don’t have to go to markets.”

At the training, ministry officials said, there was a session where model village development initiatives were discussed at length, giving the elected representatives and functionaries the opportunity to explore out-of-the-box initiatives to address local issues and develop sustainable revenue models. There was also focus on integration of all three tiers of PRIs – district, block and village.

As the training was attended by district- and block-level officials and chairpersons, they were told to focus on integration and plan projects in such a way that there was no duplication of work or projects.

Another important aspect was decision making and conflict resolution, as most of the elected representatives were first-timers.

Pooja Thakur, zila parishad chairperson of Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir, said that it takes time to understand the system. Thakur, a first-time elected representative, said, “The focus was on how to take important decisions and resolve conflicts. For women elected representatives, it is important to make decisions on their own.”

Empowering women at grassroots level

The ‘balika panchayat’ initiative taken by Kunariya gram panchayat in Kutch, Gujarat, struck a chord with all participants. The initiative was discussed by village sarpanch Suresh Chhanga with his colleagues.

In 2021, Chhanga started a ‘balika panchayat’ to empower village girls and also address issues faced by women. Many women elected representatives ThePrint spoke to said they planned to do something similar.

“It is by the girls and for girls. It is an interesting concept that gives space for women to discuss their issues freely,” said Sharda Singh, 38, zila parishad chairperson of Dhanbad in Jharkhand.

Sharda, a first-timer, said many women in rural villages were reluctant to share their problems with male sarpanches. “This kind of an initiative will help women come forward with their problems. Through this we can also encourage them to get involved in self-help groups and get a regular source of income.”

While they learnt about the various aspects of leadership and management, the elected representatives have formed a WhatApp group ‘IIM friends’ to stay in touch and exchange ideas, said Madhu Chauhan, zila parishad chairperson of Dehradun.

(Edited by Tikli Basu)