New Delhi, July 4: “I will not marry for the next five years— that is until I complete my term as the Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat. If I get married and go to my in-laws’ place, who will look after my village? People will say the Panchayat is suffering as they elected a woman,” said 21-year-old Sukhwinder Kaur Sukhi, the newly-elected Sarpanch of Phull village in Jalandher district, Punjab.

Sukhwinder was the youngest among all women representatives who were in the Capital to attend the release of a study on Elected Woman Representatives (EWR) in Panchayati Raj Institutions initiated by the Panchayati Raj Ministry.

Elected under the SC reservation seat, Sukhwinder said her priority was to improve the educational facilities in the village, as she could not study beyond her Class XII. “Education is the key to success. I want all children in my village to have a bright future,” she said.

Sukwinder is not the only one to be part of the gender revolution sweeping the most discriminated parts of the country. A study carried out by AC Nielsen ORG MARG has cited several instances similar to Sukhwinder among the 1,039,058 EWRs.

According to the study, reservation has played a significant role as four-fifths of the EWRs were found elected from reserved seats.

While reservation facilitated the first-time entry of 83 per cent EWRs into politics, the study also found that 39 per cent women chose not to contest the polls owing to withdrawal of reservation.

“Those who oppose Women’s Bill have been saying that the elite would corner the benefits of reservation. The study, on the contrary, has found that Scheduled Castes constitute 26 per cent of the total EWRs and STs constitute 13 per cent,” said Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Iyer.

According to the study, 41 per cent of the EWRs belong to the under-35 category and a large number of them are from the more disadvantaged sections of society.

The study also found that while 24 per cent EWRs were illiterate, only 6 per cent of the Elected Male Representatives (EMR) were so. Unlike the case of EMRs, most of the EWRs had no prior association with any form of politics and the act of contesting the first election signalled their entry into active politics. Husbands (30 per cent) and other family members (12 per cent) were reported to be playing an important role in motivating women representatives. However, a good number of their male counterparts — 40 per cent —- were found to be self-motivated.

Higher performers among EWRs, according to the survey, were from Kerala, followed by Karnataka, Tripura, Maharshtra, Sikkim and West Bengal. The performance score was on the lower side in Orrissa, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Empowering women

• 4/5ths of EWRs were found elected from reserved seats

• Reservation facilitated first-time entry of 83% EWRs into politics

• 39% women chose not to contest polls owing to withdrawal of reservation

• SCs constitute 26% of total EWRs and STs constitute 13%

• 24% EWRs were illiterate as compared to 6% of EMR

• Higher performers among EWRs were from Kerala, followed by Karnataka, Tripura, Maharshtra, Sikkim and West Bengal