Nanded Zila Parishad CEO Minal Karanwal with a group of girls.
The gram panchayat of Yergi in drought-hit Marathwada region’s Nanded district, says that their village has seen a significant decline in alcoholism recently. It attributes this achievement to the efforts of a group of girls, aged between 12 and 18, whose door-to-door campaigns in the village have spread awareness about the evils of alcohol abuse.
The mobilising force behind this group and its success is the Balika Panchayat initiative, which aims to organise young girls in villages into mock “panchayats,” to target and address local social issues. The Balika Panchayat in Yergi has also stopped two child marriages, spread awareness about elephantiasis and led a Swachhta Abhiyan in their village with around 2,200 residents.
First introduced in Bhuj, Gujarat, the concept was brought to Nanded district’s 60 villages by its Zila Parishad CEO Minal Karanwal, an IAS officer of the 2019 batch.
“It has been done before, but I was inspired by a few videos where the girls from Bhuj were talking like leaders. One video, where a girl was interacting with the then Union Minister Smriti Irani, was especially memorable,” Ms. Karanwal said, explaining why she set up a Balika Panchayat in Nanded.
Structurally, a Balika Panchayat closely mimics a regular gram panchayat, with five officeholders. One of the five is chosen to act as a sarpanch (village head). In the first phase of this project, which began in February this year, the girls were tasked with familiarising themselves with the workings of the Panchayati Raj system and organising campaigns centred around key social issues, such as alcoholism and domestic abuse.
The sarpanch of Yergi’s Balika Panchayat, Mahadevi Danevar, 18, says that she has seen an improvement in the prospects young and adolescent girls in the village have access to as a direct consequence of the initiative. She says that while there has been some pushback, the community has been largely supportive of their projects.
In the second phase of the project, which began recently, the members are writing, voting on, and enacting resolutions, much like a real gram panchayat. Ms. Danevar’s Panchayat in Yergi has recently passed a resolution that ensures that every girl in the village will have access to higher education.
Female representation in rural governance has long been an issue in villages across the country. Female sarpanches too, can be undermined by their husbands, commonly known as sarpanch-patis, who often accrue significant influence and decision-making power. By championing participation among young girls, this initiative hopes to make them informed, vocal and confident participants of local bodies.
Although initiatives started by bureaucrats tend to be short-lived and individual-centric, Ms. Karanwal expresses hope that this initiative will continue on beyond her tenure in the district. “Given that we are also going to have a reservation for women starting from 2029, why not? Why not have these girls train beforehand to know about, if not participate in, local governance?” she said.
–Madhav Kejariwal