145 awareness drives held for women sarpanches, HC told

Cuttack: State government informed the Orissa high court on Wednesday that 145 capacity building and awareness programmes for women sarpanches have been conducted since June 2022.In an affidavit, principal secretary, panchayati raj department, Sushil Kumar Lohani, said in these programmes, 3,802 women sarpanches have been imparted induction training to enable them to understand their roles and responsibilities as well as the various schemes implemented by the panchayati raj institutions (PRIs).The affidavit was filed in pursuance of a direction which the high court issued while expressing concern over proxy sarpanches or husbands calling the shots in place of their wives who are the actual sarpanches. The court was then considering a petition filed by a gaon saathi of Chhapria gram panchayat in Kalahandi district alleging high-handedness of the husband of a woman sarpanch.Lohani said the induction programmes of the sarpanches were conducted at the district level at the district panchayat resources centre.He said the State Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj (SIRD&PR) is mandated to undertake the capacity building and training activities for all PRI members with financial support from central government’s Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan.The SIRD&PR had conducted training programmes entitled — She is a change maker and Promoting women leadership — for women sarpanches.“The training programmes by SIRD&PR have empowered the women Sarpanches in taking up various developmental activities within their jurisdiction including infrastructural development, effective implementation of various schemes, and organising awareness programmes,” Lohani said in the affidavit.