Sirsauda (Raisen), Madhya Pradesh
Kusum Lodhi dropped out of school in class eight, when she got married. After nearly 18 years of marriage, she enrolled for the class 10 examinations along with her daughter, then completed her higher secondary and is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in education (B.Ed), along with her daughter.
And now, the 39-year-old resident of Sirsauda village in Raisen district has been elected unopposed as the sarpanch of Sirsauda panchayat in Sanchi block. Her panchayat also has 17 other elected women panch.
“I am fully aware of how the panchayat works. I know how to keep abreast of new government schemes and follow them up and I also know how to conduct myself with officers,” Lodhi told Gaon Connection. “Do not make the mistake of writing me off as a rubber stamp sarpanch. My work will speak for me,” she declared.
Sarpanch Lodhi is clear in her vision for her panchayat. “I want to strengthen women’s self help groups. We plan to have training capsules for women in tailoring, promote computer literacy amongst them, and open up a community health centre. We will also work towards laying pucca roads connecting the villages in the panchayat,” she said.
Of the 570 sarpanch elected unopposed in the state, 380 are women.
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Pink Panchayat in Madhya Pradesh
Panchayat elections in Madhya Pradesh were announced on May 25, earlier this year. Before the announcement, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, chief minister of the state, had declared that those panchayats that elected women as their sarpanch and panch, entirely unopposed, would be called “Pink Panchayat”. He also sanctioned Rs 15 lakh (Rs 1.5 million) to such ‘pink panchayats’. Of the 570 sarpanch elected unopposed in the state, 380 are women.
Kusum Lodhi is the sarpanch of the Sirsauda Pink Panchayat, which also has 17 other elected women panch.
“I come from a family where both my mother-in-law and father-in-law held the post of the sarpanch, and I have observed how they worked closely,” the 39-year-old sarpanch said.
“Our panchayat has a seat reserved for a woman sarpanch and because Kusum Lodhi is educated, she was best suited for the post. That is the reason the villages unanimously elected her,” Balkrishan Shastry, an elderly inhabitant of Sirsauda village, told Gaon Connection. “We are confident and hopeful that she will be good for our panchayat,” he added.
Also Read: Madhya Pradesh: 142 hectares of bare hills at Patna Tamoli village, Panna, are now home to a forest
Forest villages need an all weather road
Sirsauda panchayat encompasses four villages – Sirsauda, Berkhedi, Ismailpura and Bhiltora. These villages are located near forests and there are no pucca tarred roads. During the monsoon months, the residents of these villages face a lot of difficulties.
Kanta Banjara, the panch of Berkhedi, told Gaon Connection that during the rains her village is cut off from the rest of the world. “The forest department does not allow us to build proper roads and we have to make our way through the muddy pathways in our fields, when we enter or leave our village, sometimes wading through knee-deep slush,” she said. “There are no bridges either that will help us cross swollen streams,” she pointed out.
Lack of roads was a big challenge to the village inhabitants, continued Kanta. “Our menfolk leave home to earn a livelihood. And taking pregnant women and the elderly who may need medical attention to hospitals is a struggle. There is an urgent need in the village for a primary health centre and an anganwadi,” she added. According to Kanta, the ASHA workers and the Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery (ANM) workers can only visit once in a while.
Sarpanch Lodhi wants to strengthen women’s self help groups in the villages.
She also said that the village school was only up till the fifth standard. “I want to at least have classes till the eighth,” Kanta said.
“We women bear the brunt of problems related to health, home and education, and it is up to us to find a way out of them. Being elected unopposed presents us with an opportunity to improve the quality of life in our panchayat and set our villages on the path to progress,” the panch of Berkhedi concluded.
