Where's the Panch in Panchayat?!

18th February, Monday. There was an open discussion on Gram Sabha and Panchayati Raj for the villagers of Rewari District, men, women, youth, anybody, everybody. If they were eligible to cast a vote in the Panchayat elections and were interested in becoming active participants of local democracy, the forum was theirs. Women turned up in large numbers, around 100 of them, mostly SCRIA's sangathan members. Men were about 20 in number and youth just 7-8 of them. We were not surprised at all. It reflected the reality of the villages in which SCRIA advocates for effective Panchayati Raj. Women, the most needy and oppressed, always tend to show more eagerness in gaining information about the local self-governance processes. Men, mostly stubborn and unwilling to admit ignorance on such matters, hardly reciprocate with enthusiasm. The youth either "know-it-all" or are simply indifferent to what they think doesn't concern them. And the truth could never be farther!

The weekend saw incessant rainfall and the temperatures were back to levels typical of December mid. Still the energy and the enthusiasm that these women generated inspired me to no end. They kept posing one question after another:

"sarpanch hamare baatein nahi sunta! Kya karein?"

"Agar BPL card banvana hai toh Gram Sabha mein kisse baat karna hai?"

"Hamare gaon mein Panchayat hi nahi hota toh hum kya karein?"

And their queries came like a volley and we were more than happy to help them with the required information. Joining us, with the same spirit of making Panchayats truly the participatory democracy that the constitution promises, was Shri Prem Singh Yadav from the village Karnawas. He was earlier the Personal Assistant to the City Magistrate, Rewari. Though he worked all his life in the Secretariat, he did not have the complete information on the functioning of a Gram Sabha. He had turned up at the discussion on that foggy morning simply with the objective of gaining clarity about the PR Act. Observing the crowd, its part-cynicism part-optimism about the Gram Panchayats, Yadav decided to address the gathering himself. Seeking 2 minutes' time, he gave probably the most energetic and provoking speech I had heard in the last few months.

"Aap kyon sochte hain ki gram sabha kaam nahi karegi? Kyonki Panch or Sarpanch sahi roop se kaam nahi kar rahe hain?! Kiske jimmedari hai unko theek karana? Mere gaon mein bhi kuch nahi hota hai. Par who toh meri galti hai, kyonki main ek sachet nagrik nahi hoon. Abhi desh ko dekho. Kaise log baitthe hain sansad mein? Agar jantantr ke mandiron mein swachtta nahi hai toh desh kaise surakshit hoga?! Krupya main sabse yeh nivedan karta hoon ki jab bhi vote dalte ho, yeh toh dekho ki vyakti kaisa hai. Sarpanch ho ya MLA humme sirf acche aur immaandar logon ko chunna hai. Gram sabha theek tab hi hoga, desh bhi theek tab hi hoga!"

Prem Singh Yadav giving his best to the participants

When he ended, the silence of two minutes culminated in slow-gathering applause from the present crowd. His words bounded of the walls and pierced us sharp. "If the temples of democracy are not clean, how can we expect the country to be safe?!" Yadav had a simple message, to vote for the right candidate! Be it in Gram Panchayats or Lok Sabha that was our prime duty. However, once elected it is the duty of the leaders to be active participants in the proceedings of the Sabha and the House. The regular and efficient functioning of these "temples" is certainly possible and very much the requisite for a Welfare State. Sadly, our leaders are absent or going missing. Here's the story of two states.

 Haryana: It's raining (only) men!

AC Nielsen ORG MARG surveyed nearly 10.4 lakh Panchayat elected representatives in April 2012 across many states including Chattisgarh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, etc. They most gleefully inferred that the time for sarpanch-pati was over. Women were slowly, but surely, rising up and assuming their responsibilities, it said. A mahila panch or sarpanch  was no longer a pawn in the Panchayat elections, especially in Bihar, where the women candidates have 50% reservation. Sparing 8 states in India, which have over 40% seats reserved for women candidates, every other state has the original 33% reservation.  During our induction training, the Faculty briefing us on Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) narrated an incident where he was actually given a business-card by a man with "SARPANCH PATI" as his designation! I thought he was definitely kidding. Here in Haryana, I am witness to that malaise, far away from the conclusions of the survey.

An elected member in the PRI is automatically addressed as Panch sa'ab or Sarpanch sa'ab. The idea is so ingrained in the society that posts in the PRIs are simply a man's job and the woman (who is the official signatory) is left to stamping her presence only in the cowshed and kitchen. From kitchen to kids to cattle, an Elected Women Representative (EWR) is burdened with all the domestic chores that she is an endangered species in Haryana. She was elected. She is missing.

November 2012, Dhani Santo's Gram Sabha: Only men

Gram Sabha meetings, if and when they do happen, are presided over by the husband, sons, Father-In-Law & Brother-In-Law of the EWR. Sometimes when I question them why the right representative is not at work, I am challenged by the men to get the EWR working. It's scary, the arrogance with which they know that the EWR will not speak at the Gram Sabha. If such an attitude continues, leaving out the weaker sections of the society in decision-making events, the growth is certainly not inclusive and the grassroots democracy is definitely not progressive! The other village women cite the example of the absentee EWRs as an excuse to not attend the Gram Sabha meetings themselves. Nowhere was the development agenda so skewed, nowhere was democracy more violated. Half the audience and conveners of the meeting are absent in every Gram Sabha, simply for the fact that they are women! What the citizens don't realize is that it is simply not women missing in action, it is an opportunity lost for a leader to emerge from within their ranks. While she was busy clearing the dung, an EWR loses a chance to instill faith in other women about good and inclusive governance at the local level.

After I made an impassioned argument, they finally relented to having the EWRs present at the meeting. The women,  however, sat huddled away from  the discussions nor were they given an opportunity to speak.
The other women in the village refused to even peek outside their homes.

Jammu & Kashmir: Quit before fired.

September 2012 witnessed two fortnights of intense unease in the Panchayats of Kashmir. The state, fraught in its own political tensions, had held Panchayat elections after over three decades in 2011. Approximately 34,500 PRI representatives were elected. It firmly shouted out to the world that the Valley was no longer in limbo. It believed in grassroots democracy, it believed in local self-governance. The elections was a beacon of hope in Kashmir, a signal that the Valley could take charge of its own affairs. It was not to be for long.

Militants identified from Jamat-ud-Dawa, killed two chair-persons in one month. They threatened several others to quit their posts as PRI representatives or face the same fate. What was hope a year ago, was a liability now. Gripped in fear over 300 Panch and Sarpanch resigned from their posts and vowed never to contest local elections again. The Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, promised to stop these attrocities and provide adequate security for the PRI members. It took him more than a month to recognize the danger these events had posed to village level governance. It was too late. Again in January 2013, when the militants attacked our soldiers at the border, they also shot down a Sarpanch in the Sopore area of Baramulla district, creating fresh fear amongst others. Earlier many of the chair-persons quitting their posts had put up public notices saying that they were "distancing themselves from the Panchayats".

Sadly, when a little light trickled into the Valley, darker elements shut out democracy. 

These two states are just examples of how democracy is being killed at the village level, it would take reams of paper and more time to shift focus to cities and larger political boundaries. The problem over here is not that the wrong leaders were elected (which too exists), but the fact that the elected leaders were/are never given a chance to assume responsibility. When a leader goes missing or is absent or in the worst case, killed, the hope of the citizenry that elects the leader is crushed. A growing cynicism in the process of electing leaders does not augur well for a democracy. If there are a handful of EWRs in Haryana, and over thousands of PRI members in Baramulla, still functioning with their right to do so, that is a sign for resurrection. It takes immense courage and support to break a social order and assert one's presence, especially as a leader. That is possible only with the conviction in a cause. When the cause is democracy, it is only a matter of time for leaders Missing In Action to become leaders missing inaction.