Samras Panchayat restricts role of women in Panchayat

:- Suniti Sharma 

Samras Pachayat takes place when all the village members elect the Panchayat with consensus. In this case voting does not take place. The Gram Panchayats which build their Panchayat using this method of consensus receive a monetary reward from the state government as a form of appreciation. 

As stated by Kannu Bhai from Jaspuriya panchayat, “Samras Panchayat is conducted in order to maintain peace in the village and to avoid unneeded expenditures, and conflicts.” Where as Madhu points out that in such Panchayats, only men of the village become the sarpanch while women never receive any opportunity to become the sarpanch or panch unless the seat is reserved for their category.

Selection of women for sarpanch’s post is only due to two reasons i.e. either if the seat is reserved for women or if they intent of receiving greater grant from government by forming a consensus. Madhu’s husband Kannu Bhai is of the opinion that open seats are meant for men. Women cannot take such seats the same way men cannot be selected for seats reserved for women. Kannu Bhai and countless people like him believe that open seats are only for men and women can only contest elections on reserved seats.

The following three stories from Samras Panchayats reflect upon the challenges women have to face when they dare to participate in elections and work independently. To elect women on reserved seats is only a compulsion and village’s influential men do not wish to let go of the power from their hands.

For this, they use unwilling women from their households to contest the elections while the men of the house retain authority continuing to rule. In such cases, the desire of the policy makers to empower women and help them attain equal opportunities and status fails miserably. Women who are aware and come forward on their own to work for the development of their village are pushed back by the influential people who do not leave any stone unturned to throw women out of power. 

Geeta’s Story 

This story is of Piprala Gram Panchayat located in Bhavnagar. This Gram Panchayat saw elections for the first time in 2010 post-independence only because Geeta an ASHA worker from the village wanted to contest elections following the due electoral process. Being a people’s worker, Geeta is popular among the villagers.  

During 2010 elections, the post was an open seat and Geeta decided to advocate for proper voting process rather than following the consensus based Samras Panchayat. Geeta participated in the elections but got defeated by Chandu Bhai Joshi who had already received consensus through the Samras system.

In the village, only a handful of influential people always came together to form the panchayat with consensus. But in 2010, when Geeta came to know that the same process was going to followed again to form the Panchayat, she shared her willingness to contest elections with the villagers. Many recommended her not to do so but Geeta refused to bow down. 

She states that Samras Panchayat consists of only those people who are selected by the influential male strata in the village. These men pay no heed to whether the person is willing to hold the post or not, or if he/she possess the capabilities to perform the tasks. As for women, they only receive the opportunity to hold the post of sarpanch in Samras Panchayats if the seat is reserved for them. But in this case too, the opportunity is limited to women who agree to work in accordance with the will of village head or husband. 

Geeta is a well aware and rational woman. She is associated with a local women organisation in the village and has ample knowledge about the procedures and tasks involved in the working of the panchayat. She realised that since independence no women has held the post of sarpanch in her village and traced the roots of this problem to the absence of elections and that none of woman candidates are presented in Samras Panchayat. She decided to break this tradition by contesting the elections. The consequence of going against the traditional procedure was faced by Geeta not only that year but her consequent win was also affected by the same. She was given a motion of no-confidence within six months of her win and she was forced to leave the post.

Madhuba’s Story 

Mehsana district is located 80 kilometres from Gujarat’s capital Gandhinagar. According to 2011 census, the village has a cumulative population of 1.84 lakh people. Gram Panchayat Jaspuriya is located in this district’s Satlasan taluka. Jaspuriya Panchayat is a Samaras Panchayat. It consists of three villages i.e. Vasaijut One, Vasaijut Two and Jaspuriya village. Madhuba is a resident of this panchayat and is the first woman to be elected for the post of sarpanch in past 20 years though only because the seat was reserved for women in 2017.   She belongs to Parmar community which is considered as a Scheduled Caste in Gujarat. She has only received education till class 8th and has two children. Whereas her husband, Kannu Bhai, is a graduate and is responsible for distribution of mid-day meal in the village. The household’s income is approximately Rs. 10,000.

 Madhuba’s husband is known for helping villagers whenever required.  Madhuba does not belong to any political background and was least interested in participating the elections but she only agreed to participate in the election process as Kannu Bhai asked her to. As a result of this, her husband continues to perform all her duties and tasks of a Sarpanch. 

Though Madhuba does perform her duties through her husband, yet, in her term she has been able to get R.C.C. road constructed in Vasaijut One and Two, street lights were repaired, commission the construction of R.C.C boundary walls in several colonies in Jaspuriya as well as conducted a cricket tournament for children of Satlasana taluka. Further, in addition to her other tasks, she is currently concentrating on getting houses constructed for 30 families spread over these 3 villages under Indira Awas Yojana.

Varsha Baa’s (Alias) Story 

The third story is from a panchayat named Lajpat Nagar (alias) located in Shihor Taluka in Bhavnagar. Elections for the panchayat here have only been conducted three times since independence. But unfortunately, even in these three elections women never received the opportunity to either contest the elections or hold the post of sarpanch. Lajpat Nagar Panchayat consists of 890 people of which approximately 425 are women i.e. almost half the population yet they have always been deprived of holding the highest post in Gram Panchayat.  

In 2018, a woman finally became the sarpanch of panchayat, though only because the seat was reserved for their category in the given year. Currently, Varsha Baa is the sarpanch and in addition to that, all the 8 panchs (members of the panchayat) are also women and have been selected through consensus. Of these 8 women, only 3 are literate. 

Varsha Baa is 52 years old and has only received education till class 8th. Her family owns 3 acres of farm land of which they earn approximately Rs. 7,000 to Rs. 8,000 per month.  She belongs to Kshatriya community and as the village is dominated by the members of this community, most Sarpanch too have been Kshatriya. 

It is only by co-incidence that Varsha Baa got elected as the sarpanch of this panchayat. In actuality, her brother-in-law, Praveen Singh (alias), was preparing his wife Bhanumati Gohil (alias) to contest for elections. But she failed to be eligible for elections as she has three children. He then decided to put forward Varsha Baa’s name for candidature and discussed it with the elders of the village. Being childless, Varsha Baa was eligible for the post of sarpanch. Praveen Singh did try to strategically again advocate for Samras Gram Panchayat in the village as he had little faith in election results and was doubtful of her sister-in-law’s, Varsha Baa, chances of winning. In addition, he looked forward to receiving extra grants for Samras Panchayats from the government.

Though, both Varsha Baa and Madhu Baa did get selected for the post of sarpanch through consensus, yet most of the responsibilities are taken care of by their brother-in-law and husband, respectively. Varsha Baa only took the post of sarpanch because her family members wanted her to do so. She states that in her community women are not allowed to go for work outside their houses and in accordance with this tradition, she conducts all her duties and manages the work from her residence itself. The tasks which require for her to step out of the house are taken care by the men of her house. Such situations demand to question the status of women in Panchayats. Policy makers are promoting participation of women in Panchayat but are they receiving any opportunity to work independently? On the other hand, there are women like Geeta fighting the tradition using the opportunities provided by the government but are pushed back by the influential men and system like Samras Panchayat that cannot let a woman hold power positions.