Haryana rural polls: Govt fixes education qualification, strategic marriages save the day

KULERI (Hisar): With the new Haryana Panchayati Raj Act mandating minimum educational qualifications for aspirants, many villages in the state are facing the problem of finding educated women candidates.
Rajender Singh Mitharwal, outgoing sarpanch of Kuleri village in Hisar district, found a novel solution to this difficulty. He got his son, Vikram Singh, married to Manisha, a BA second-year student from the nearby Baijalpur village, on July 26.
Thirty-three per cent seats are reserved for women in panchayati raj institutions of Haryana, a state infamous for its skewed sex ratio (879:1,000) and not very impressive literacy rate (65.94%) among women.
Forty-five-year-old Rajender, who got an award from by the PM in February 2013 for the developmental works carried out in the village, was desperate to keep the sarpanch’s post in the family. Coming to know before the elections were declared that the sarpanch’s post in his village was reserved for women, he chose to field his wife, Raj Bala, who is uneducated.
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But the government changed the norms, making Class VIII education mandatory for women aspirants — it is Class X for men. As soon as he came to know about the government move, Rajender made his son, who is also a BA second-year student, tie the knot with Manisha and decided to field her in the elections.
A snub from his rivals also nudged Rajender to take this decision. His opponents had distributed sweets in the village when the government reserved the post for women and that too with a minimum education of Class VIII, virtually making it impossible for any of his family member to contest.
“It was then I decided to get my son married to an educated girl,” said Rajender, a matriculate. He even completed all other formalities such as adding Manisha’s name in the ration card, making her Aadhaar card with the new address and transferring her vote to the village. Before the declaration of panchayat polls, Manisha was the last person whose name was transferred to the in-laws’ place in the voters’ list of Hisar district.
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Manisha, 21, said she has even applied for leave from college so she can campaign for the elections. She supported the government move, saying it will give educated women an opportunity to contest polls. She will file her nomination papers on Thursday. Kanta Devi, a close relative of Haryana BJP president Subhash Barala, is likely to be her rival in the polls.
Kuleri, with a population of around 11,000 and around 6,000 registered voters, will go to polls on October 11 in the second round of the three-phased elections in the state. The first phase is on October 4 and the final round on October 18.
The problem of meeting the minimum educational qualification requirement is more severe in villages where seats are reserved for scheduled caste women. According to reports, Begpur village in Kaithal district doesn’t have a single SC woman who fulfils the mandatory education criterion. For them, the SC’s order staying the new Act came as a relief.
According to the state election commission data, more than 50% of sarpanchs and 70.2% panchs elected in 2010 Haryana had not competed Class X.