Punjab bans sarpanch proxies: ‘Male kin of women can’t attend meetings’

“I have been getting reports that most of the women sarpanches do not attend meetings that take place at the district headquarters. They do not even attend meetings at the block and village level. What is the purpose of reservation for women if this happens?” Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal told The Indian Express.

The AAP government has now directed Deputy Commissioners and other district officials to ensure that women sarpanches attend all official meetings personally. “Not just meetings, their male relatives also handle the work in villages. I have directed the officers today to ensure that the practice is stopped,” Dhaliwal said.

According to the Minister, he had asked officials to ensure the presence of women sarpanches at meetings earlier, too. “Now, I am passing written instructions. They have to ensure that male representatives are not even allowed inside meeting venues. This is the only way to ensure that elected representatives are empowered,” he said.

The previous Congress government in Punjab had implemented 50 per cent reservation for women in Panchayati Raj institutions. When contacted, Congress leader and former Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa said, “We can keep enhancing reservations. But the situation does not change on the ground. More than 80 per cent of women sarpanches are proxy sarpanches even today.”

There are a total of 13,276 panchayats in Punjab. And while the latest order has been endorsed by several women sarpanches The Indian Express spoke to, there were voices of dissent from the male family members of some others.

Seshandeep Kaur (26), the sarpanch of Manak Khana village in Bathinda, welcomed the government move. “The government will have to take such measures if it wants reservation for women to actually empower them. During training sessions, I have come across many women who did not want to be at the forefront. There were others who were driven by male relatives. If they have to leave the work to their men, they should leave the seat for other deserving women,” she said.

“In my block, 42 of 80 sarpanches are women…only 5-6 are actually sarpanches. The rest are all dummies,” said Pallavi Thakur from Hara village in Pathankot, who had become the youngest sarpanch in the state at the age of 21 in the panchayat polls of December 2018. “I have argued with their husbands to allow them to work but they say their wives cannot travel,” she said.

However, Harjinder Singh, whose wife Rachpal Kaur is the sarpanch of Chhanna village in Malerkotla, said, “If they won’t allow me, we will not attend any meeting. How do you expect a woman to travel around and attend meetings every day?”

The problem is not unique to Punjab.

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Earlier this month, the Panchayat Raj department of Madhya Pradesh had issued an order directing district collectors to take action against officers who administered the oath of office to unelected people.

The order was issued after it came to light that husbands, brothers-in-law and fathers-in-law of elected women representatives were administered the official oath in at least three panchayats.