• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

Is this woman power?

Rasheeda Bhagat

Launched on the model of gram panchayats, bal panchayats too have a reservation for women.

ONE of the agitations launched by bal panchayats goes by the lofty title of nashakmukti andolan (freedom from addiction). This includes de-addicting the child from both tobacco chewing and alcohol intake.

O.P. Mathur, Project Officer of AAES points out that in some communities of Rajasthan it is difficult to find men who do not consume locally brewed alcohol daily. In course of time the children get addicted too and this is considered no big deal by the a dults.

But not the children of the bal panchayats. The bal panch members of Kesarpura were enraged that a very popular liquor shop that blatantly patronised child customers too was very close to their school. Said Sayar Singh, Secretary of this bal panchayat, ` `Lots of people get drunk and as it is on the main road, two people have already died why trying to cross the road when they were drunk. We decided that if any of our children get addicted, his life will be destroyed, and also the life of the woman he m arries!''

``So we went with Anita Madam and met the collector Usha Madam (Usha Sharma of Ajmer) and she has promised to visit our village and do something about the liquor shop.''

So did she visit them?

``No at present she is very busy. But we'll send a smaran patra (reminder)'', says the unfazed youngster.

Says Anita Upadhyay with a broad smile, ``They will not leave her in peace till she does something about this shop.

These children are so active that they keep calling our office all the time. Last time Sayar Singh talked to me for such a long time that he had to pay Rs 20. When I chided him later and asked him why he had to spend so much money he said: Madam, the iss ue (liquor) was so important that we had to properly plan our strategy! They call me at home too and say today we passed this proposal, tomorrow we're going to clean the water tank, and so on.''

Adds Mathur, ``In Pagara (50 km from Ajmer) the bal panchayat has passed a resolution that any liquor shop which sells liquor to children will be fined Rs 11,000. Even in Kesarpura the children have taken a written undertaking from the sarpanch ki shara b ka theka bandh karengey (close the liquor shop). The sarpanch, Madan Singh, adds sheepishly, ``In the beginning I was reluctant to sign such a proposal because it will not be taken kindly by the men in the village, but these children convinced me that for the good of the village, it should be done.''

Though the children take their role in grassroots politics quite seriously, it is interesting to note that hardly any of them nurture any ambition of making it to the village panchayat and later to the state legislature. While inquires with the girls res ult in a chorus of `Madam' (school teacher), the boys want to become either doctors, work in government offices or join the Indian army.

Launched on the model of the adult panchayats, children's panchayats too follow the one third reservation norm for girls. This really fired my imagination and I could hardly wait to visit panchayats headed by girls.

At Tabizi, about 15 km. from Ajmer, 16 year old Priyanka Jain shocks us by turning up in jeans. The room where they meet is decorated with festoons and streamers to celebrate our visit and we are treated like VIPs, with garlands and really huge kumkum ti kas. With great gusto she and her colleagues, Renu, Meenakshi and other girls start explaining how they've put children in schools, stopped child marriages, started a library, fought tobacco addiction, and the like.

But as the girls speak, under the benign gaze of the panchayat president Sumitra Jain, and one is just beginning to get a little elated about this panchayat oozing woman power, one notices the male members of the panchayat just sitting in the room and ha rdly adding to the conversation. Unlike the girls, who have turned out not only in colourful but relatively expensive clothes, the boys are wearing faded and frayed clothes. They obviously come from poorer families.

Suddenly the penny drops and one registers the similar family name of the chiefs of the bal and the adult panchayats. One has guessed it right; Priyanka is but Sumitra's daughter and she and her friends obviously belong to a different social order.

The next day, at Govindgarh, about 33 km. from Ajmer, we visit another panchayat reserved for women and there too the story is the same. Pushpa Rathore is the bal panchayat chief and her mother Onkar Kanwar Rathore heads the adult panchayat. Though this does not in any way diminish the good work done by Pushpa and her bal panchayat members -- eight girls an 13 boys -- particularly in holding adult literacy classes, it saddens you to note that dynasty politics are getting into the picture even in the imp lementation of such an innovative programme.

Returning to Tabizi, the girls in this bal panchayat are much more articulate and confident than the boys. Their family background and upbringing has obviously contributed to this. And so it is not surprising to hear Renu give a spirited account of how t he bal panchayat has fought the menace of child marriage.

To the question on her own marriage, the teenager stumps you by saying, ``I am never going to get married and I have told my parents so.''

But why?

``Shaadi karney se tau sirf jan sankhya badhti hei, aur kya fayda hai shaadi ka? (Marriages only add to the population growth. What else?)

The objective of the bal panchayat concept is lofty enough; that children should be aware of their rights and responsibilities and learn about democracy and how it functions at the grassroots.

As Wadhwa points out, ``Till now these children have done very well in placing their agenda on the panchayat's priority list. But the test will come in expanding it to all the panchayats in the district. UNICEF could have established bal panchayats in al l the 300 panchayats of Ajmer but

we should provide only the model and the government should take it up from there.''

Time will tell whether this happens or not. But for the moment the zilla pramukh has an excellent way of finding out which of his panchayat chiefs are corrupt or inactive. ``When I get letters on the bal panchayat letterheads, I take them very seriously , as it gives me an idea of how my own panchayats are functioning,'' he says.

Pic.: Pushpa Rathore, the bal panchayat president of Govindgarh village helps a woman at a literacy class.

Picture by Rasheeda Bhagat