Young panchayat women step up to the challenge

Annu Anand, July30,2016, The Hindu Businessline

In Rajasthan villages, toilet construction gets an added fillip

Chandni Meena walks fast as she enters house after house to show us their recently constructed toilets. Every kuccha and big house alike in her village, Nangal Sustavataan, in Amber block of Rajasthan, today boasts a toilet. Chandni is no ordinary woman. At 22 she is the sarpanch of a panchayat overseeing five villages. She is also preparing for her BEd examination, and yet working day and night for the past two months to make her village open defecation free, by helping construct 1,632 toilets.
She admits that it was an uphill task all the way — first, motivating the people to build toilets and then running from pillar to post to complete all formalities before getting the Rs. 15,000 grant for each toilet. She however believes that these difficulties are nothing compared to the ones faced every day by women and children who are forced to defecate in the open. All her efforts have now paid off — following a formal inspection, the village is all set to be declared open defecation free.
Khoda Meena panchayat member Seema Meena is just 23 years old and studying in second year of BCom. This mother of a seven-month-old daughter is managing all three fronts — home, panchayat and college studies — efficiently. She wants every girl in her panchayat to become educated.
Like Chandni and Seema, several college-going girls in rural Rajasthan have become panch or sarpanch, thanks to the newly mandated educational qualification for contesting local body elections.
These newly-minted panchayat leaders are concentrating more on women-centric issues such as drinking water supply, sanitation and education, as compared to their male counterparts. Their major concerns include construction of toilets, cleanliness and hygiene of villages, education for women and the problem of alcoholism.
In Jaipur district, women panchayat representatives point out that many girls drop out of schools and colleges in the absence of toilet facilities. After puberty especially, the young women acutely feel the need for toilets and privacy during their menstrual cycle, and everyday bathing.
Vinita Rajawat has been elected sarpanch of Daulatpura for the second time on a general seat. The former anganwadi worker is well aware of the advantages of clean and healthy surroundings. “We women can’t tolerate mess in our house, so how can we allow garbage and dirt in our village, which becomes like our house when we represent it as a panchayat member,” she says.
According to Amnesty International, millions of women have to walk 300 metres daily to use a toilet facility. Increased construction activity in villages have led to loss of open spaces, further inconveniencing women and children.
Women in Vinita’s village told her recently that they are forced to send their children before five in the morning to defecate near the highway, as there is no open space left in the village. They are often chased away by the local people and threatened. They now request the Sarpanch to help them build toilets in their houses.
Lack of access to toilets also makes women more vulnerable to rape and other sexual violence
Sunit Kumar Aggarwal, professor at the Indira Gandhi Panchayati Raj and Gramin Vikas Sansthan (IGPGVS), says his organisation trains panchayat members on ways to end open defecation. They learn how flies sitting on excreta can contaminate drinking water and food. The representatives, in turn, educate fellow villagers against open defecation. Chandni had even ordered the local public distribution outlet to stop ration supply for two months to families that have no toilet at home.


The writer is a Delhi-based journalist

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Amenities elude Sardar Sarovar evictees

Annu Anand March 22, 2013 12:13 IST  HINDU

Updated: March

Displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Dam project, hundreds living on the hills lining the Narmada banks are denied basic amenities

A satisfied smile flashes across Chuna’s face. At least for few months, she won’t have to worry about feeding her children. Leaving behind all the day’s work, 35-year-old Sarla was also rushing to the village outskirts. She didn’t want to let this opportunity go.
Just like Chuna and Sarla, all men and women were running towards the village end, near the bank of the river, where in the name of a ration shop, wheat, sugar and salt were scattered on the ground. The village was getting PDS grains after a gap of six months. Running towards this makeshift ration shop, the villagers were simultaneously worried by the thought that the PDS shopkeeper may leave before they reach and their children may have to face hunger and starvation again.
This was the scene in Bhitada village in Madhya Pradesh’s Alirajpur district — one of the villages that have been affected by the Sardar Sarovar Dam project. One can reach this village only after travelling 44 km by road followed by a one-hour travel boat ride and a three-km-long walk. The whole village has been divided into five clusters or falias and these clusters are inhabited by about 350 families. Each cluster is at a distance of about two km.
According to the draft Food Security Bill, it is the responsibility of the State government to ensure that each family below the poverty line gets subsidised ration from the PDS shops. But families living on the bank of Narmada — affected by the Sardar Sarovar project and inadequate rehabilitation — are forced to live on the mercy of government officials for their day-to-day sustenance. They get rations after months on end and that too for only a few hours. By the time the news of ration arriving spreads in their scattered homes in the village, the makeshift PDS shop gets dismantled. Nandla Bhai who came to deliver PDS ration was selling the salt costing Re. one a packet for Rs. 5 to the villagers. He justifies his action saying, “Transporting the ration over such a distance increases the cost of the goods.” But transport charges are being paid by the government! Nandla didn’t have any answer.
There are 15 villages in the Alirajpur district that are surrounded by the Narmada due to the dam project. As the dam’s height kept on increasing, these villages got submerged leading to loss of land and homes. Improper rehabilitation has led these villagers to struggle for their basic needs like food, health and livelihood. Government schemes like PDS, mid-day meal, MGNREGA and anganwadi are implemented in these villages in the official records but because of inaccessibility, their scattered nature and inefficiency and corruption on the part of the government, most of these schemes remain exist only on paper.
Around 13 years ago, these villages were filled with lush green fields. There was a road to reach the village. But beginning from 1996, these villages started getting affected. By 2000, their farms and houses were completely submerged. In this situation, many villagers had to seek shelter in the hills that line the bank of Narmada. The rocky nature of these hills makes it difficult for the villagers to even find a place to set up their homes.
Anjanwada is one such village. The health, school facilities and nutrition for children here remain a challenge. The population of this village is around 360. The government has started a primary school for the children in the village but for most of the children, the school is only accessible by an arduous boat ride or an hour long walk through the rocky terrain. The school and the anganwadi are situated at the same place. The anganwadi is unable to provide nutrition to needy children since it is difficult for them to cross the river or cover the long distance daily. There is no health centre in the village. Electricity and roads still seem like a distant dream for these villagers.
Khajan Singh of Anjanwada lost his 12-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son three years ago as he couldn’t provide them timely treatment. The nearest health sub centre is located in Kakrana, 12 km away and can only be reached by a two-hour-long boat ride from Anjanwada.
The Madhya Pradesh government claims that all 45,000 displaced in the Sardar Sarovar Project have been given adequate compensation. Meera Kumari of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), however, says, “ Nearly 3,300 families have been given the first instalment of cash component. But due to the Fake Registry Scam, they have been unable to buy the land. As of now, the matter is in High Court.”