While it is true that rural women are the torchbearers of socio-economic transformation for New India, they are still confined within the boundaries of the patriarchy.
In the last episode, we learned how women are influenced by male members of society in the decision-making process. In this episode, we will explore more.
The 73rd and the 74th amendments of the Indian Constitution promise one-third reservation for women in municipal corporations and Gram Panchayat elections. Furthermore, fifteen Indian states reserve 50 percent of the seats for women to ensure active participation in grassroots politics.
Despite all these efforts, women are forced to live in the confined spaces of the patriarchy. Furthermore, no fresh faces are seen in the Gram Panchayat. The male member is represented by the female member of the same family during elections. It is noteworthy that the same person cannot run for election back-to-back twice. But, things are very different at the grassroots level.
After a female wins the election, the male member of the family goes about day-to-day activities and making important decisions.
An article published on Village Square mentions the following:
“When a woman is elected as the sarpanch, mukhiya or pradhan, she does not get the required support from her family to carry out the responsibilities. She doesn’t get to be an active leader. Instead it’s the husband who does the work.
It doesn’t stop at this. The husbands also sometimes preside over the official meetings with bureaucrats and others. Though this practice is slowly changing as rules have been made stricter to prohibit such male participation, it is still quite prevalent in my opinion.”
While a lot is being done to change the mindsets of the people, nothing can be achieved overnight.
In an interview published on Village Square, Dolly, Sarpanch of Shadipur Village in Gaya, Bihar, mentions the following:
“My petition essentially is to challenge the patriarchal mindset lying beneath this issue. I know that addressing patriarchy can be a slow, long battle.
Through my petition I have requested the Bihar government to introduce a comprehensive, strict law to tackle the issue of sarpanch pati. First of all, I want no bureaucrat or public official to be able to accept or entertain any proxy male representation for a woman sarpanch. If they violate this basic expectation, the official and the proxy representative should be penalized.
This is about creating accountability through a tough law. There has to be something which can materialize our constitutional dream so that the promise doesn’t stay just in the books.”
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