Delhi Confidential | ‘Say no to proxy sarpanch’: Campaign against practice of ‘pradhan pati’ on International Women’s day

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated two Delhi Metro corridors and government housing projects in the national capital on Sunday, which was the International Women’s Day, he interacted with beneficiaries as well as officers involved in these infrastructure works. What stood out was that most of those he met were women. Apart from the Minister and Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs, all other officials who could be seen walking the PM through the projects and briefing him on the details were women.

Anti-Proxy Campaign

The Panchayati Raj ministry led by Rajiv Ranjan Singh ‘Lalan’ has launched a campaign ‘Say No to Proxy Sarpanch’. The campaign, launched on Sunday on the occasion of International Women’s Day, will run until March 18. The campaign seeks to address the practice of proxy representations in gram panchayats, wherein elected women sarpanches are sidelined while their male family members – commonly referred to as ‘sarpanch pati’ or ‘pradhan pati’ – exercise authority in their name, said an official.

Monetary Literacy

New NCERT textbooks being developed for high school students will now include chapters on personal finance and entrepreneurship. According to Sanjeev Sanyal, who is a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, and also in the  committee involved in developing the textbooks, these aspects need to be taught formally as part of the curriculum, since people — “particularly true for women, but also true for men” — may not know basics like how to run their bank accounts. The chapters will be included in the books for Class 9 or 10, Sanyal said at a discussion organised by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to mark Women’s Day on  Sunday.