33% reservation in the village panchayat

Prabhakaran had been panchayat President, then Murugesan. They were followed by Rajarathinam. Then the Government decided to give women 33% reservation at the Panchayat level. They had failed to do that at the assembly and parliament levels.

So my village was to have a lady as panchayat president and a lady councilor for the Union panchayat. Panchayat raj is Three tier in Tamil Nadu. At the first level is the Panchayat President with her ward members. Then there is the block level Chairman with his Councilors. At the top is the district Panchayat with district councilors.

Indra won the post of president with a margin of only 95 votes. Dhanalakshmi became councilor with a larger margin.

Indra’s husband was earlier Councillor. Then he became the Vice President under Rajarathinam. This time he had wanted to stand. As a woman was needed his wife stood. He did all the talking, canvassing and bribing voters.

Even in Dhanam’s case her husband did all the canvassing. He had stood for councilor elections twice before and lost. First time he lost his deposit. Second time he lost by only 30 votes. This time around his wife won with a good margin.

The councilor election is contested on party lines. Dhanam contested as a DMK candidate and won. One of the reasons for her victory was the free color tv scheme of the Government. Voters wanted her to give them a color tv.

After the elections the councilors elect the Chairman. Dhanam got 1 lac from the chairman to vote for him. He was a party candidate and she had to vote for him. He gave her the money to offset her election expenses. She was so happy that she went and adopted a baby girl.

Murugesapandi is Indra’s husband. He does all the panchayat work. Indra stays at home and looks after her child Soundarya. A particularly beautiful child. Coincidently both the president and the councilor have adopted children.

Indra attends all the grama sabha meetings where Murugesapandi stands guard outside. Indra is a talkative lady but where the panchayat is concerned she is quiet. Wonder why?

Dhanam does not do any work in the village. She attends the monthly meeting of the Union council. She gets bus fare for that. She has not asked for anything from the Union for her village. She is too quiet for that.

All in all it was a foolish idea of giving women reservation. The husbands do all the work anyway. They could have stood and won the elections themselves and do what they are doing now legally.

Sad state of women, and 33% reservation.