Women sarpanchs, especially in Bihar have a new irritant to counter — satires ridiculing their new social role that are finding their way through audio cassettes. Acting on one such complaint by Chandrawati Devi, sarpanch of the Rajai village in Bhojpur district of Bihar, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has launched a search for the cassettes.

Chandrawati’s letter to NCW chairperson Girija Vyas quotes from two Bhojpuri numbers. “On one side, the Nitish Kumar government has given 50 per cent reservation for women in panchayats while on the other hand, these folk singers are subjecting women to ridicule and embarrassment,” she wrote. One song is about how the “daughter-in-law of a family has stepped out of the threshold of her matrimonial home to don the mantle of sarpanch and how the menfolk would have to go hungry since nobody was there to cook.” Another ridicules women who go to towns for higher studies. “When such songs are played in public places through tape recorders, one can understand how much embarrassment and demoralisation it sets on the women who want to move ahead in life,” said Chandrawati.

The Rajai sarpanch sought a ban on such cassettes besides action against singers who had brought out the numbers. Sources said NCW member Malini Bhattacharya would look into the issue in Bhojpur and elsewhere.