Thursday, February 4, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Vijaypura village gets Dalit woman sarpanch

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Vijaypura-village-gets-Dalit-woman-sarpanch/articleshow/5532680.cms

Vijaypura village gets Dalit woman sarpanch
Anindo Dey, TNN, 4 February 2010, 12:57am IST
JAIPUR: Having crafted many a first to its name, it continues to be a
journey of triumph for Vijaypura, a non-descript village in Rajsamand
district along the Ajmer-Udaipur stretch of the Delhi-Mumbai national
highway 8.

At a time when the lure of the lucre seems to be fast taking over the
democratic process even in the ongoing panchayat polls in the state,
this village has done it again by thrusting forward a Dalit woman in a
open seat as its sarpanch. And that too when she spent just Rs 2,000
as campaign expenses.

"We were totally unprepared for it," explains her husband Kalu Ram

who himself had got elected to this general seat having spent just Rs
800 in last panchayat election. The gram panchayat, consisting of 10
villages, has a Dalit population of 35% with the rest being OBC.

"It was just a few days ahead of the polls that people from the
village came to me urging that I should put up my wife as a sarpanch
candidate," he says. But a journey that started by foot so late soon
caught on to a large fan following and the result of a victory by a
margin of 150 votes was indicative enough that Vijaypura was not
willing to pass on its legacy to any and sundry.

Though uneducated but having worked for the Mazdoor Kishan Shakti
Sanghatan (MKSS), the organisation that has spearheaded the
grassroots' mobilisation for a comprehensive Right to Information Act
and then the NREGS, she knows the way ahead.

"It is honesty and good governance of my husband that has triumphed. I
am going to walk on the same lines and take his work ahead," she says.

But the going was not easy for Rukmini. For with nine other candidates
against her and slander campaign by them of Kalu Ram's move of
introducing a Dalit woman to supply drinking water at NREGS sites in
rotation with women from other caste, the odds looked stacked against
her.

"But all fell by the way side. In fact, this had become the single
most point for campaigning against my wife. Her rivals recalled days
when they preferred to remain thirsty than drink water from a Dalit
woman but in the end all came to a naught," says Kalu Ram.

"It is a victory of good governance against the buying of seats that
became so apparent during this panchayat polls. Vijaypura is a model
panchayat for NREGS. In fact, a wall in Vijaypura, with details of job
card holder, the days they worked, the money given, has become an
example for the state with chief minister Ashok Gehlot ordering that
it be copied at all NREGS sites. One just hopes that with time even
this election model' get copies by the state," says Shankar Singh, an
MKSS activist.

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