Nothing is Tough for Women: Policy-makers at ‘Rising India - She Shakti’ Event

No journey is easy, but everything is possible for women with hard work and determination, said women policy-makers at Network18’s ‘Rising India – She Shakti’ event in New Delhi on Friday.

Panellists at the Niti Shakti discussion were Pranjal Patil, first visually impaired IAS officer in the country and district magistrate for Shahdara district of New Delhi; Babita, Sarpanch, Laddu, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K); Sanyogita Singh Chauhan, Sarpanch, Uttar Pradesh’s Atari Gram Panchayat, an MBA; and Shamika Ravi, Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.

For all these women, their journeys began with the idea of bringing about a change. Patil said, “I was always inclined towards social studies. After my masters and MPhil, I started working towards it.” “I am from Pulwama. We are displaced people. Lord Ram’s exile ended in 14 years, ours hasn’t ended yet. I thought of taking the risk and fighting the elections and I won…Working without threats is not possible in Pulwama…But for Nari Shakti, nothing is difficult,” said Babita.

Chauhan said, “After doing my MBA, within six months of a job, I got married. I was always interested in rural development. My in-laws were zamindars. I thought of becoming a sarpanch to promote education. It was an untapped area. Usually, in UP, even when a woman wins, it is the man who carries out the duties. I wanted to change this…So we organised an open congregation for women. We took women’s views on what they wanted, to understand their issues and designed our programme for a year. Whatever they wanted, we completed in two years. We worked on all issues, be it infrastructure, panchayat bhavan, water connections under Jal Jeevan Mission, security, health and wellness centre, water harvesting and conservation, self-help groups…I became the head of sarpanches of 200-300 villages in the area.”

Ravi elaborated, “The two sarpanches are political entrepreneurs. You need such people on the ground to bring about the change. I am an economics professor, who teaches and does research. When I came back to India in 2004-05, I realized gender does emerge as an issue…When you empower women financially, there are societal impacts… We did a research 15 years ago called silent revolution. Without a push, more and more women voters are coming out to vote. So no political party can ignore women. When there is a surge of women voters, policies begin to respond. Resurgence of women voters drive the development agenda. It is an exciting time to be involved in the policy making.”

Chauhan agreed to being called political entrepreneurs. “The country’s progress can begin from villages…We want developed villages, we don’t want to become cities. We can get the schemes on ground.”

Babita added: “Being in power or politics is important. I was a ground-level worker. Our aim is to make women self-reliant. Many of them are widowed, handicapped or very poor. We want the schemes to reach them. My husband took voluntary retirement to support me. Behind every successful woman is a man.”

Patil said, “Getting to work at a district level is a great learning opportunity. You directly see the results for your efforts. Young girls don’t get as many vocational opportunities as their brothers. We tried to give them that training…In my district, we started ‘Kala Shakti – My Art, My Empowerment’. Two months ago, our girls performed with accomplished performers. We are working on drugs, promoting sports. This brings immense satisfaction to us.”