Panchayti Raj and Dalit women sarpanches
Panchayati Raj with special reference to Dalit women sarpanches portrays the issues faced by the Dalit women before, during and after they are elected to office.
THE AIM of the 73rd and 74th Amendments was to empower the local governing bodies and to give them autonomy to deal with the issues falling in their domain, this included giving autonomy for the delivery of the services at the local level along with the accountability for the same. 
There is a wide gap in the theory and implementation in another provision of reservation for the minority community including SC, ST and women. In many of the cases the political power in the village lies in the hands of the upper caste and male community. Proxy-politics is the biggest factor plaguing dalit elected representatives. In a survey carried out by Navsarjan Trust, Gujrat, around 85 per cent of dalit women said they were pushed into panchayat politics by members of the dominant caste or their husbands, the former mostly working through the women's husbands.
Constitution provides for 33 per cent reservation for women in Panchayats. With Bihar having increased the reservation to 50per cent, the provision of reservation has helped in empowerment of rural women, especially Dalit women who further get the reservation of 33 per cent in women quota. Though we get to hear encouraging stories of dalit women empowerment like the recent case of Mirchpur in Hisar — where two dalits were burnt alive in caste violence, hardly 40 km away, a Jat-dominated Serhada village unanimously elected a dalit woman as its sarpanch. But these are the rarities only and we find that women empowerment through political participation has a long way to go.
In a study by Navsarjan Trust, Gujarat and Evidence, Tamil Nadu onDalit Women’s Right to Political Participation in Rural Panchayati Raj reveals the reality.Only a minority, just one-third women dalit sarpanches, said they were able to act with independence to win panchayat elections.
Reservation does not prove to be the end of woes of all the dalit women and complete empowerment of these women, in fact there is another kind of power struggle that they go through. It is not just the struggle about contesting the election, they have to fight with a lot more. They face opposition dominant people in the village who at first make it a hell lot of difficult to even stand in the election and even if they stand and win their struggle is endless.
Proxy Candidature
Due to their disadvantaged social position, the political participation of Dalit women in panchayats seems only a mockery of the constitutional provisions. The elections are controlled by the upper caste men and the elected women representatives act as their puppets only. Male dominates the political scene, be it the upper caste man of the village or the Husbands of Dalit women sarpanches, at times the upper caste uses them as their aide in controlling the power of the sarpanches
Participation and decision making
Even after being elected the power that is given to her is a sham. She is not given the right to effectively take decisions. In the above mentioned studies it is reported that only one-third of 119 Dalit women presidents were able to discharge their official responsibilities with freedom and independence. Taking three basic presidential roles, only 35.3 per cent of women called panchayat meetings, 31.9 per cent chaired them, and 27.7 per cent voluntarily signed resolutions. Only 26.1 per cent of women voluntarily authorized panchayat payments (or monitored the panchayat administration and supervised the work of the BDOs/TDOs or DDOs as per their role at taluka/union or district levels). Similarly, only 23.5 per cent of women approved contracts for panchayats.
Caste based discrimination
Assuming the constitutional office does not mean the end of discrimination. Upper caste men do not like to be ruled by a woman and that too by one who belongs to a lower caste. Recently The Hindu reported that two Dalit women sarpanches of the Bundelkhand region were forced to move out of their villages due to constant threats and oppression from people of upper castes. Also a Dalit woman sarpanch was not allowed to hoist the Indian flag in Nasik.
The survey by Navsarjan and evidence has revealed nearly 65 per cent dalit sarpanches report they have separate cups to drink tea, water in their own office! At least 40 per cent are not allowed to sit in chairs and are forced to seat themselves on a sack on the floor.
Discrimination in Redressal Mechanisms:
Most of the Dalit women do not go seeking justices for the attempts to curb their exercise of power or obstructions in the election process. This is due to their experience of apathy of the state redressal mechanism to provide them justice. In Navsarjan’s survey it was reported that majority of Dalit women kept silent in 71.3 per cent of instances of obstructions: most felt unable to oppose caste-class-gender norms and discrimination (32.5 per cent), or feared dominant caste reaction (16.3 per cent), or felt it futile to raise protest (14.7 per cent), or ignored or tried to resolve the problem with the support of their families (11.8 per cent). Even after all these roadblocks those who seek justice are denied the same by the state authorities.
The issue in political participation of Dalit women emanates from a web of related issues of socio- cultural practices and ineffective implementation of protective measures. The solution will also come from an all inclusive approach with focus on specificities of implementation.
Empowerment through education is the most important step to begin with. With education comes the awareness and strength to stand up and demand one’s rights. Education here should not be confused with literacy. It has a deep rooted aim of empowerment of the human being which lead to worldview building and development of self and is the force behind all revolutions and reformations.
Creating supportive environment to ensure greater political participation of women is the prerequisite to make the system of Panchayati Raj more participative and ensure holistic representation.
Special provisions to ensure smooth and fair election process of Dalit women to panchayats need to be implemented. This could be done by appointing a special officer to look into the matters relating to the same.
Granting more decisive power to the local bodies is a step further in the empowerment of Dalit women sarpanches. The bureaucratic structures should function as an aide to the Gram Panchayats.
Civil society organizations can help in empowering the women by educating them directly and being an ally in representing their cause to state authorities.
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