Salam, Fatima

It's something of a fortuitous coincidence that two days after the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to honour one Indian with th...

It8217;s something of a fortuitous coincidence that two days after the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to honour one Indian with this year8217;s Nobel Prize for Economics, another should be awarded the United Nation8217;s Race Against Poverty8217; Award.

The first is an internationally recognised economist, the other the unknown, Telugu-speaking woman sarpanch of Kalva village, in Andhra Pradesh8217;s Kurnool district. Fatima Bi8217;s work of mobilising marginalised communities into self-help groups is an affirmation of the Sen thesis that social opportunities that help maximise human potential are crucial engines of growth. Fatima Bi8217;s transformation from an uneducated housewife and mother of three from a conservative Muslim family into a community leader in the truest sense of the term also underlines the immense promise of women leaders. The panchayat raj legislation of 1993 was designed to engender precisely such an outcome.

Rural India needs more women and sarpanchs like Fatima Bi. Providing women with 33 percent reservation in local bodies is clearly not enough. Too many women sarpanchs have in recent times faced ridicule and humiliation, been stripped and robbed, for daring to defy local vested interests. So apart from electing them to power they must, if required, be provided with state support and protection to carry out their crucial mission of change. Courage grows with success. As Fatima Bi herself pointed out, she underwent a personal transformation while on the job. Whereas earlier she cowered in a corner, too shy to speak to a man, today she doesn8217;t think twice about berating an errant official. This is what empowerment, at its most meaningful, is all about. There8217;s nothing quite like a real life example to banish lingering doubts and many women leaders at the community level, struggling to achieve their little revolutions in the far-flung villages of this country, would be inspired by Fatima Bi8217;s pioneering work.