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INDIA:
Women Leaders Thrive on Reputations For Honesty
By Ranjit Dev Raj
DEHRA DUN
(IPS)
- Nathu Devi Begum has a quarrel with her husband, Maulvi Nazar
Hussein. He insists that she use her clout as ''pradhan''
(elected
village chairperson) to evict encroachers from their land.
''What is the use of
being the pradhan of a gram panchayat (basic administrative
unit)
if you can't even take care of your own land,'' mumbles the
Maulvi
(religious teacher).
But Nathu Begum
thinks
otherwise. ''If I get the encroachers evicted using my influence
people will say that I am misusing my position - there are legal
means to get them out although they are slower.''
Nathu Begum
attributes
her remarkable success and popularity as elected pradhan of the
Enfield Grant village in northern Uttar Pradesh state's Dehra
Dun
district to scrupulous honesty.
Nestling in the
foothills
of the high Himalayas, Dehra Dun's salubrious climate has, in
recent
times, begun to attract well- heeled settlers from New Delhi
- India's
bustling capital barely 200 kms to the south.
With land
increasingly
scarce in Dehra Dun town, which boasts fine schools and
prestigious
central government institutions such as the Indian Military
Academy
(IMA), land sharks have taken to scouring the surrounding
lush farmlands
for quick deals.
That means
''pradhans''
in Enfield Grant and the surrounding villages of Dehra Dun
district
have an additional responsibility to ensure that common lands
are
not alienated and that villagers do not fall for the wiles of
land
sharks.
''As a woman people
see me as less likely to get involved in corrupt deals - and
I intend
to keep it that way,'' Nathu Begum, a 60-year-old
grandmother, said.
Her popularity
encouraged
Nathu Begum to stand for the state assembly elections as an
independent
candidate. ''I lost but I did give the established political
parties
a good fight and I am confident that I will do better next
time,''
she says.
Nathu Begum is
one of
119 women who benefited from a 1993 constitutional amendment
reserving
a third of seats in local self- government for women and was
hailed
at the Beijing Women's Conference as a major piece of
affirmative
legislation.
Like Nathu Begum,
other
women pradhans in Dehra Dun swear by transparent functioning.
''People
have become unused to honesty and transparency,'' says Pushpa
Rana,
''pradhan'' of the neighbouring Attock Farm panchayat.
Rana prevailed on
local
police not to interfere in disputes among people from Attock
Farm
until they first approached the panchayat with the result
that nobody
complains of bribery, arbitrariness or high-handedness any
longer.
A recent assessment
of women panchayat leaders conducted by Prof Susheela Kaushik of
the Delhi University's Women's Studies Centre reports that
corruption
at the local level has lessened considerably because of the
presence
of women pradhans.
Kaushik's study,
which
covered six Indian states including Uttar Pradesh, found that
women
pradhans were generally uncomfortable operating through illegal
means while men were confident of accessing and using illegal
channels
of power.
''It is women rather
than men pradhans who have been demanding better devolution
of power
to the panchayat level - and that is because the men are
confident
of accessing power through parallel channels,'' she said.
Kaushik said she has
come across cases where officials have tried to negotiate
with the
male relatives of a woman pradhan for ''commissions'' an
euphemism
for bribes or a share of development funds.
In Dehra Dun, women
pradhans have had the benefit of a United Nations Development
Programme
(UNDP) funded training programme run by the Rural Litigation and
Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), a prominent non-government
organisation
(NGO).
Said Avdesh Kaushal,
chief of RLEK, ''the training involved not only an understanding
of basic law and grassroots democracy but also how to stand
up to
corrupt and bullying officials.''
At Enfield Grant, a
village of 10,000 people, Nathu Begum points to the well-laid
ribbons
of hard, well-laid concrete roads and drains that criss-cross
the
village. ''All this is possible because none of the money was
diverted,''
she said.
Although the funding
of panchayats and payments for pradhans is a matter yet to be
sorted
out the the Uttar Pradesh government allows pradhans to approve
schemes not exceeding 1,500 dollars on their own and without
reference
to the bureaucracy.
Currently, Nathu
Begum
is busy getting built Enfield Grant's first school and securing
a regular government salary for Meena Sharma, the teacher.
''I myself am nearly
illiterate and so I know the importance of getting children,
particularly
girls, to receive a good primary education,'' Nathu Begum said.
Of Dehra Dun's
119 women
pradhans 34 are illiterate while another 40 never got beyond the
eight grade. Some of them including Nathu Begum now make up for
it through tuitions.
Yet their
achievements
have been notable. According to Kaushik, women pradhans in
the hills
of Uttar Pradesh have been able to bring attention to such
things
as hostels for unwed mothers and alcoholism among their menfolk.
Before she was
elected
as pradhan, three years ago, it was indeed a hard grind for
Nathu
Begum and she recalls times when she has had to work as a
farm hand
in the fields to feed her seven children.
What really
helped her
acquaint herself with the villagers and also supplement her
income
was the fact that she had an understanding of traditional
healing
from her father who was a ''hakim'' (traditional healer).
''I got to know
every
family in Enfield Grant and their problems intimately through
healing
and they encouraged me to become pradhan,'' she said.
When Nathu Begum
first
came to Enfield Grant as a young bride she could not dream of
coming
out of the ''purdah'' (veil worn by Muslim women) but hard times
changed all that. ''You cannot work as a labourer or as a healer
in purdah,'' she explained.
Liberated by
sheer poverty,
Nathu Begum began to take a deeper interest than is expected of
Muslim women in the affairs of the village and the people who
inhabit
it.
Luckily, her husband
never stood in her way. ''It is always a good thing to serve
others
- but I do wish they would pay her the honorarium due to her,''
Maulvi Hussein said.
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