Empower elected women to weed out ‘sarpanch patis’: Panel

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary panel in its report calls for focus on empowering women elected representatives (ERs) in panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) through training and capacity building to curb prevalent concepts like "Sarpanch Pati" or "Pradhan Pati" (husbands trying to act as the proxy for elected women sarpanches).

The 31-member parliamentary standing committee on rural development and panchayati raj chaired by Lok Sabha MP from DMK Kanimozhi Karunanidhi is of the view that though there is provision for reservation of women in the PRIs, for real empowerment of women representatives at panchayat level there is need to strengthen and financially empower the women to facilitate them in taking independent decisions. “To curb the prevalent concepts such as Sarpanch/Pradhan Pati (husband of woman Sarpanch) in Panchayati Raj Institutions, the Committee strongly recommend that the Ministry should take concerted efforts for increasing capacity building and training of women representatives of PRIs so that they can function independently without influence and help of others,” it is stated in the report.

To enable this, the committee has recommended that a fixed percentage of participation must be reserved for women ERs in all the capacity building programmes. The committee in the report on demands for grants for 2023-24 for the ministry of panchayati raj tabled in Parliament in the budget session in its observations and recommendations called for focus on women’s training under the Rastriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA). In this regard, the ministry informed the committee that as on January 21 this over 15.11 lakh ERs, panchayat functionaries and other stakeholders had been trained for the financial year 2022-23. The ministry of panchayati rj, during the course of evidence submitted that “starting from this year, there is a special thrust on institutionalising Mahila Sabhas and Bal Sabhas.”

The recently released government report, Women and Men in India 2022, shows as per data from the panchayati raj ministry, as of last year of the over 31.88 lakh elected representatives nearly 46% (over 14.54 lakh) were women. The report highlights that since the early 1990’s, the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution, necessitates 33% reservation for women in rural and urban local bodies which has made it possible for lakhs of women to enter in the political decision making process in the country.

There are 21 states and two UTs that have made provision for 50% reservation for women in PRIs in their respective state panchayati raj acts, as per the response of the ministry of panchayati raj to a question in Lok Sabha in the winter session of Parliament in December.