New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) Former Lt Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi on Wednesday urged the government to start a scheme to give “scooties” to women representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions.
Addressing an event in the national capital attended by around 400 women representatives and elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), who are here as special guests to attend the Independence Day celebration at Red Fort, Bedi said electric scooties will provide women representatives the much required mobility.
At a National Workshop on Women’s Leadership in Panchayats being held in the national capital, the issue of the practice of “Sarpanch-Pati” at the grassroots level came up.
Bedi pointed out that lack of mobility forced women to depend on male relatives for transport.
“Women Panchayat representatives, who step out in their area for Panchayat work, should be given a scooty, or it should be given to them on subsidy, so that they don’t have to depend on others for mobility,” Bedi said.
“If a woman lacks mobility, depends on her husband or son for transport, she cannot be totally independent. The real problem is that our women have neither mobility, nor visibility,” Bedi said.
She, however, added that many women do not know how to ride bicycles, and should start with learning that.
The former police officer, who was the first woman to join the Indian Police Service, said her NGO Navjyoti Foundation has been working in rural areas for a long time and Panchayats are close to her heart.
Secretary for Panchayati Raj, Vivek Bharadwaj, meanwhile said there is a need for a separate training for women Panchayat representatives, and the Ministry will look into it.
The secretary mentioned the web series ‘Panchayat’, and recounted how he was told that it depicts the reality.
“Some days back, the chairman and managing director of a company came to meet me. They asked me if I have seen the Panchayat web series … Another person who heads a consultancy told me that he took a day off to watch the whole Panchayat series…” Bharadwaj said.
“They may have thought I would be happy, but I felt very bad. Because the web series shows that a woman is the Sarpanch but it’s the husband who’s running the show,” he said. Calling upon the Panchayati Raj Representatives there, he said, “It is your responsibility to end this custom of ‘Pradhan Pati’. We are with you in this effort.”
The secretary said that 46 per cent of the 32 lakh Panchayati Raj Representatives are women, but wondered how many were able to fulfil their responsibilities themselves.
“We conduct GPDP training, but there is no separate training for women, what a woman needs to be an efficient Sarpanch … There is no training on that. It’s our shortcoming, we will address this soon,” he said.
“The biggest difference between China and India is that women have very high participation there. If 20-30 per cent women don’t work at all, the society can’t develop,” he said.
“The biggest difference between China and India is that women have very high participation there. If 20-30 per cent women don’t work at all, the society can’t develop,” he said.
