After strides in social welfare, Latur village fingers over baton to all-woman panchayat

NINE years after 50 per cent seats had been reserved for girls in Maharashtra’s gram panchayats, Anandwadi village in Latur’s Nilanga taluka has picked an all-woman panchayat. The six had been elected unopposed within the panchayat polls held lately, their manner paved by the efficiency of two-time sarpanch Bhagyashree Chame, who was one of many three girls elected in 2015, together with Shobha Kasle and Kalpana Sagar.
Given the variety of ‘Anandwadis’ in Nilanga, the village, positioned 25 km from Latur metropolis, is extra generally referred to as Gaur. Home to 635 individuals, largely farmers, Gaur has previously 5 years seen improved cleanliness, a marketing campaign towards superstitions, change in identify plates of all 112 properties to that of their girls occupants, a sanitary serviette dispenser, inclusion of widows in festivities, a drive to encourage organ donation, and a free flour-grinding mill.
Having first grow to be sarpanch in 2005, Chame says she is going to now make manner for a brand new sarpanch, to be chosen from among the many six members. The seventh seat, reserved for STs, will probably be stuffed quickly, with one other lady, she says. “We had a name in mind and the village had agreed to her, but her caste certificate was found invalid by the district administration.”
One of the modifications the village takes nice delight in is the normalisation of the dialog round menstruation, led by ASHA employee Manisha Tangadpalle. “Menstruation is a natural process, but girls hesitate to talk to their mothers about it, though they talk to me freely. The sanitary napkin dispenser we set up in the anganwadi gives three napkins for Rs 5. Soon we will install a machine for safe disposal of napkins too,” Tangadpalle says.
Sangeeta Chame, who runs the mill that grinds flour at no cost, nonetheless remembers the Raksha Bandhan from two years in the past, “in which brothers gifted sanitary napkins to sisters”.
Tangadpalle’s grandfather, who handed away in 2017, was the village’s first organ donor. With his instance prominently displayed on the gram panchayat workplace, 447 villagers have pledged to donate their organs since.
To dispel superstitions about ghosts and spirits, a abandoned village crematorium has been reworked right into a kids’s park. “People used to be scared of the crematorium but now children come on their own to play,” says Bhagyashree’s husband Dyanoba Chame, who has authored a guide in Marathi titled Nirmile Astitva Majhe (Creating My Identity) that tells the story of the transformation of the village.
Nilanga MLA Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar says one other village within the taluka, Dongargaon, had chosen an all-woman panchayat however, in contrast to Gaur, they met with opposition. Gram panchayat polls should not contested on political get together symbols however candidates are sometimes backed by events. In Gaur village, candidates had been chosen by the villagers themselves.
“I often cite this village as an example. The property cards in the village are all in the name of women, they have started their flour mill, women and men work equally hard in their farms,” says Nilangekar, a BJP legislator, including that, importantly, the ladies panchayat members in Gaur should not proxy candidates for the lads of their households.
A authorities official additionally acknowledges that that is what units Gaur aside. “Leadership at the grass-root level takes time to emerge. But giving women power is important.”
The goodwill earned by the members means villagers are able to pitch in with donations, like for renovation of the gram panchayat workplace, to complement the panchayat’s modest annual price range of about Rs 2.5 lakh. One of the schemes the funds have helped organise is the Kanyadaan Yojana, to make sure nobody “thinks of their daughters as a burden”. In the previous 5 years, villagers have shared bills for 5 weddings. A board on the entrance to the panchayat declares that the village doesn’t give or obtain dowry.
Ayodhya Chame, 55, head of Gaur’s Tantamukti Samiti or dispute-resolution committee, says the panel ensures disagreements are resolved earlier than they flip into severe rows. “This is why we could elect our gram panchayat unopposed,” she says.
Ayodhya factors out that having girls in management roles units a superb position mannequin for the youthful technology. As an instance, she says, “Earlier, only fathers would go to children’s school to discuss issues. Now mothers come, and children see them as having a role beyond the home.”
Bhanudas Nagmode, 74, a retired main college instructor, says they’re blissful to concede the success to their girls. “We have had no infectious diseases in the last many years, open drains have been covered, the village is cleaner,” Nagmode lists.
Ganga Chame, 29, among the many six new panchayat members, says the election marks one other milestone. “We came here as daughters-in-law, but our families never discouraged us from participating. They put their faith in us and let us take our own decisions.”
Vishnu Chame, a former member of the panchayat, says it’s not stunning that Gaur was receptive to alter. Home to Marathas, Dhangars, OBCs and STs, Gaur has by no means let caste matter, he says. Whether weddings or funerals, each household within the village participates.