{"id":12169,"date":"2012-02-01T04:02:19","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T04:02:19","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-02-01T04:02:19","modified_gmt":"2012-02-01T04:02:19","slug":"Child-Politicians-Bring-Change-to-Rural-India","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=12169","title":{"rendered":"Child Politicians Bring Change to Rural India"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pooja Gujjar is the consummate politician. She\u2019s quick-witted and outspoken, and, as her every-ready, dimpled smile suggests, always up for a challenge. She has, admittedly, a girlish streak. The first time she stood for election she chose as her symbol a flower. And although she lost, to a boy, she\u2019s proud that all the girls voted for her. Pooja is the deputy \u201csarpanch\u201d \u2013 Hindi for leader \u2013 of her school\u2019s Bal Panchayat in the village of Chaudhula, Viratnagar, Rajasthan, and she\u2019s 11 years old. The Bal, or \u201cchildren\u2019s\u201d Panchayat, is promoted by non-profit organizations across India to encourage children in rural areas to improve their own lives. It is meant to mirror and also work with the Gram Panchayat, a governing institution at the village level, which was created to foster grass-roots democracy. The Gram Panchayat \u2014 Panchayat means \u201cAssembly of Five\u201d\u2014includes a leader (sarpanch) and his deputy. All members are elected directly by the villagers, and their responsibilities include overseeing developmental works in the areas of sanitation, water and electricity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Bal Panchayat isn\u2019t meant as a mere extra-curricular activity. At its best, it familiarizes children with the political process, and makes them comfortable with the idea of not just voting, but of standing for election themselves. It was conceived, in short, to create a generation of proactive, politically aware young men and women who could be the change they sought. \u201cBefore the Bal Panchayat the other students would take their complaints to the headmaster,\u201d Pooja says. \u201cBut now they come directly to me.\u201d After Pooja decided to run for Panchayat she had to choose an electoral symbol, draw up a list of campaign promises, and give speeches. She promised to bring more children into school. \u201cChildren should study,\u201d she told her peers. \u201cNot graze sheep.\u201d Although students in urban areas are familiar with electoral process, having become used to electing class monitors, for Gujjar and the 129 other students of the rural, Government Upper Primary Sanskriti School situated amidst green fields several hours outside the state capital of Jaipur, the idea was a novelty. Except for four men, all the adults in the village are illiterate. They are of low-caste, and earn their living through agriculture \u2014 growing millet, corn, sorghum, and vegetables like tomatoes and peas. Those without land rear buffaloes, goats, and sheep, and also, as is common in this desert region, camels. The women stay at home. Never mind a Bal Panchayat, even the village school was, at its onset, considered new and strange. After the votes were counted, the candidate with the largest number of votes, in this case a 12-year-old boy called Raju Gujjar, was appointed sarpanch. Pooja, with 10 votes, just two behind Raju, became deputy sarpanch. (The number of votes cast was small, said school headmaster Roop Kishore Sharma, because the elections were held during the summer holidays). Sharma had been introduced to the idea of a Bal Panchayat by members of the local branch of the Delhi-based N.G.O., Bachpan Bachao Andolan (B.B.A.). Even before it approached Sharma, however, the B.B.A. spoke with Sarpanch Hardev Gujjar (no relation), asking whether he would, as the village head, give cognizance to the Bal Panchayat\u2019s suggestions. If he hadn\u2019t agreed, says the B.B.A., they wouldn\u2019t have started a Bal Panchayat \u2014 on their own, the children have no power to implement real change. The sarpanch said he would, and, what\u2019s more, agreed to allow the Bal Panchayat to sit in on meetings of the Gram Panchayat. It was a huge opportunity, and the children took it. \u201cOur midday meal used to be cooked in the open,\u201d says Pooja. \u201cInsects and leaves would fall into it, and we were afraid pesticides would make us sick.\u201d After several rounds of discussion on how to proceed, Pooja, Raju, and the other members of the Bal Panchayat, drafted a petition requesting the Gram Panchayat for funds to build a kitchen for the school. All the school children signed. They submitted the petition to the Gram Panchayat, which approved of their request, and a month later, their two-room school became a three-room school.<\/p>\n

It was a huge achievement for the children, and gave them the confidence to plot other changes. \u201cWe want more classrooms,\u201d says Gujjar, firmly. \u201cThere are eight classes in this school so we should have at least eight, not just two classrooms. And we need lights. And fans. It gets very hot in summer!\u201d Pooja\u2019s experience in the Bal Panchayat holds real potential. The 73rd Amendment, which was implemented in 1993 to give constitutional mandate to the Panchayat system, requires that no less than one-third of all seats be reserved for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and women. The amendment has given women, in particular lower caste women, the impetus and government support to seek power in a patriarchal society, where women have historically played a subservient role, not least of all in politics. This is particularly true of Rajasthan, where the gender ratio, according to the 2011 census, is 926 females for every 1,000 males, and where far fewer women are literate and work professionally than men. But Pooja isn\u2019t sure that politics is for her. \u201cI want to be a teacher,\u201d she says, decidedly. \u201cOr a doctor.\u201d She pauses, \u201cNo, wait, a policewoman!\u201d
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

SOURCE<\/a>
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