Village Square: You have been drawing attention to the issue of sarpanch pati in the panchayati raj institutions (PRI) for a while. Can you tell us what that means?
Dolly: The 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution of India promise one-third reservation for women in the seats in gram panchayat and municipal corporation elections. In fact, more than 15 states have reserved 50 percent seats for women. The main goal of the amendments was to increase active participation of women in grassroots politics.
However, in most cases this has not materialised. Wherever a male member earlier contested elections, a woman from the family is now made a candidate. In reality, all decisions and day-to-day functions are carried out by the male member who may be the elected sarpanch’s husband, son or any other man.
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.
We have to realise that the provision for women reservation in PRI elections is not for their presence as ‘rubber stamps’. There is a social angle too. Women’s representation in politics is also supposed to make the society realise that women can be leaders. That they can hold political office of importance, make important decisions and shape the society we live in.
Village Square: Have you been at the receiving end of this patriarchal practice?
Dolly: Social attitudes haven’t evolved regarding perception of women as leaders. I have experienced this attitude too. It took some time for the people of Shadipur to get used to me and accept me as a sarpanch.
Earlier sometimes when people would come to my office, they would ask, “Sarpanch saheb kahan hai (where is sarpanch sir)?” Even when I would tell them that I am the sarpanch, they would insist that I call my husband or brother-in-law to address their issue.
These incidents happened quite regularly when I had started. However, slowly as they started realising that I was doing good work and making decisions on my own, their attitude towards me started to change. Especially that of the youth, I would say. They are surely more accepting.
The older, more patriarchal men still find it difficult to accept me, a woman, as a sarpanch. But of course I am also very persistent.
Sometimes even the government officials can exhibit patriarchal, dismissive attitudes. Constables at times have asked me where my husband is when I have approached them for work-related meetings. They too are not able to accept a woman as a decision maker.
Village Square: Tell us about the petition that you have initiated to address the issue of sarpanch pati?
Dolly: 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 penalised.
This is about creating accountability through a tough law. There has to be something which can materialise our constitutional dream so that the promise doesn’t stay just in the books.
In addition, there has to be some hand-holding and support for the elected women representatives. A lot of the elected women sarpanch in Bihar for example are not literate. They need structural and family support to lead independently and powerfully.
Village Square: How can we empower women leaders?
Dolly: There is a huge dearth of capacity building of elected panchayat representatives. It would be useful if the government created a robust support system, organising training and development for newly elected representatives. It would give the women leaders confidence.
In Bihar, the previous panchayati raj elections happened in December 2021. It was only last month that we were part of a two-day training for the first time. It was not really very effective. The scope of a sarpanch’s work is extremely vast. A small two-day training cannot achieve much. It feels very limited.
I interacted with other women leaders during this training to know more about their work. One of them said that she only signs documents while it is her husband who does all the actual work. When I asked her the reason, she replied that she doesn’t get time from cooking and other household work.
I encouraged her to slowly allocate some time during the week to learn and take up responsibility. There is no one to encourage the women in their family. There are very few people who ask them to take the work head on.
Additionally, the public should hold some responsibility too. They should ask questions and take issues to the actual sarpanch and not their husbands. After all it’s the women they have voted to power.
These changes will not happen overnight, I know. Some of these attitude related changes will take time of course.
The lead image shows sarpanch Dolly in Gaya, Bihar (Photo courtesy Dolly)
