Woman panches' role negligible

Woman panches' role negligible
from Sushil Manav
FATEHABAD, Most woman members of panchayats in Haryana virtually play a negligible role in their respective panchayats. Personal, social, technical, economic and administrative constraints are in most cases responsible for negating their participation. Most of the women felt frustrated after being elected.
These are the findings of a research on "Participatory role and constraints of women in panchayats" by Ms Deepti Aggarwal, an M.Sc student in the Home Science Extension Education of I.C. College of Home Science, Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar. The research was conducted under the guidance of Dr (Mrs) Indu Grover, Dean, College of Home Science and Extension Education.
Talking to this reporter, Dr Indu Grover and Ms Deepti Aggarwal said the main objective of the research work was to study the profile, participatory role and constraints of women in panchayats. The locale comprised 12 villages drawn from four randomly selected blocks of Hisar district through random sampling. The sample comprised 12 women sarpanches and 48 women panchayat members. The requisite information was collected with the help of structured interview schedule.
Regarding the profile, most women in panchayats belonged to a low age group, were illiterate, belonged to other castes, were married and had a large family, came from joint families or those with a political background besides a majority of them had low scientific outlook, no outside occupation, had small and marginal land holdings and an annual income of less than Rs 50,000.
The analysis of extent of participation was examined under six categories ranging from nil to very high on nine major schedules of panchayats, that is, social, economic, political, educational, public work and civic amenities, agriculture, trade and commerce, sanitation and medical relief and judicial activities. The revelations were interesting but presented a gloomy picture of the success of the panchayati raj system in Haryana. Fifty per cent of women panchayat members never participated in social activities of panchayats, 69.44 p. c. had never taken part in economic activities, 48.05 p. c. had no role in political activities, 64.44 p. c. had no participation in educational activities, 57.22 p. c. had no participation in public work and civic amenities, 70 p. c. had no share in agriculture activities, and 46.60 p. c. of women had no role in sanitation and medical relief activities.
In their personal constraints, the women members felt that the pressure of household work, social and domestic responsibilities and sometimes ill-health of family members came in the way of performing their duties as panchayat members. In their social constraints, the women counted traditional dominance of men in panchayats, desire of their husbands and other male members of the family to work on their behalf and use them (women members) as a mere rubber-stamp. In technical constraints, lack of monitoring and evaluation, lack of knowledge of record maintenance and lack of knowledge of panchayat functions, duties and finances were the main factors according to most women.
In their economic constraints, women felt dependance on their husbands, lack of freedom to spend money on their own and lack of financial resources were the main factors of deterrence in their participation while as regards administrative constraints, lack of seriousness of panchayat meetings, lack of maintenance of records were listed as the main causes of their lack of participation in the panchayat activities.
Ms Aggarwal has suggested decentralisation of powers to the panchayati raj institutions, if the system is to succeed. She also suggested a positive attitude of both men and women in this regard. She has suggested that the women must now try to take up the new role of advocacy and leadership for the success of the panchayati raj system.