Children146;s show

2,000-odd child panchayats across south Tamil Nadu8217;s villages are busy grooming tomorrow8217;s leaders

Dharani Andavar, the new president of the Vadapudupatti panchayat in Theni, shifts nervously in the rusted iron chair, reserved for the class teacher. On November 18, a classroom in the Muthalamman Hindu Middle School, near the bustling village square, served as the venue for the first panchayat meeting. When all the nine members arrived, equally nervous, taking their seats on the hard wooden benches, she briskly called for order. She had drawn up the agenda well before the meeting 8212; on November 14, when she took charge. Dharani is just ten years old and studies in class V standard in the same school where she had convened her first panchayat meeting.

It was ridiculous that drinking water was released at 9 a.m., after the villagers left for work. Also, conservancy workers had to be stopped from dumping black filth from sewerage drains on to the roads, she says, pleased with the nods of approval from her ward members, all older to her. Back home, her bathroom had only a cloth screen that fluttered in the breeze. It should be replaced by a door. She knew many children in the village suffered the same ignominy.

This is no mock panchayat. Members of the 8216;kuzhandhaigal panchayat8217; or children8217;s panchayat as they called themselves, aren8217;t whiling away time playing or watching television. They are busy looking after village affairs. This unique initiative to groom rural children as future leaders has seen at least 2,000 such panchayats spring up across south Tamil Nadu, all headed by children 17 years of age, or younger, with boys and girls constituting ward members.

THEY are not just familiar with the problems in their hamlets, which they put down in little notebooks bought from the village shop with money collected from the members, but they also petitioned authorities until they responded to their pleas. But their most important role is to keep a hawk eye on the elected panchayats, sniffing out corruption and even staging dharnas if the councillors and ward members failed to act on their demands.

The panchayats were launched on Children8217;s Day and the presidents, mostly girls, were nominated based on their interest in village welfare and leadership qualities. Unlike the regular panchayats, which comprised a minimum of three villages and a maximum of eight or even ten villages, every village constituted a children8217;s panchayat, headed by a president and ward members, both boys and girls, drawn from each street.

A boy could be elected by the panchayat for the post of vice-president. But the president8217;s posts were reserved for the girls.

TO instill confidence in the children, mostly Dalits, and give them new courage to pull up elected 8216;upper caste8217; panchayat presidents and other adult local body functionaries, the Tamil Nadu Women8217;s Collective, a non government organisation, the brain behind the initiative, called for a three-day orientation meet from December 26 at Mahabalipuram near Chennai. The children were enlightened about Panchayati Raj, importance of gram sabhas, how to tackle corporal punishment, notorious in rural schools, and how a useful tool like a petition should be drafted.

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Even before the three-day orientation course, children like S Selvarani,17, had already convened a meeting on December 3 of her Mukkurumbai panchayat members five of them, including three boys in Thuiruvannamalai district. A resolution was passed at the meeting to hand over a petition to the district Superintendent of Police on the killing of a Dalit youth, Venkatesan in the village, allegedly by the Gounders, above Dalits in the caste hierarchy. The children drafted a petition demanding an enquiry into Venkatesan8217;s death and handed it over to a senior police officer in the district.

Fourteen-year-old Amudha Vellaichamy, student in class IX, is the president of the Kosakurichi panchayat in Dindigul district. Undeterred by the fact that she had only three ward members to help her, she is keen on upgrading the primary school in her village. The all-woman Periyaneelankarai panchayat in Kancheepuram district, headed by 15-year-old Rubika Guinaseelan, is gearing up for the January 26 gramsabha. 8216;8217;We are going to petition the panchayat about what they are doing about building new homes for the 50 families affected by the tsunami,8217;8217; she says.

In Karumbakkam panchayat in Kancheepuram district, Deepa Jayamani 14 had already held her first meeting on December 15 with five ward members, including two 17-year-old boys. First on her agenda had been a discussion on how to mobilise some funds, particularly to ensure a steady supply of white sheets of paper to petition authorities on getting child labourers back to schools and to stop child marriages.

8220;Our objective is to equip these children to stand for panchayat elections when they grow up,8217;8217; says Sheelu, state president of the Tamil Nadu Women8217;s Collective. When the outfit first backed 262 women for the local body posts in 1996, only 101 were elected.

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In 2001, the number went up to 262. By 2006, the TNWC had 1,000 of its members in various panchayat posts, including 73 presidents. 8216;8217;The violence and the rigging in the civic polls for the Chennai Corporation were unprecedented. We thought it was high time to educate voters,8217;8217; says Sheelu. The TNWC decided to convert its children8217;s sangams, comprising 10,000 members, in every village into panchayats. Besides preparing them to face the elected panchayats, the children would be groomed to eventually take on the baton from adult leaders.