Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 10, 2007
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Online edition of India's National Newspaper Friday, Aug 10, 2007 ePaper |
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Tamil Nadu
Ramya Kannan
INTERACTION: Salma, Chairperson, Tamil Nadu Social Welfare Board (centre), with members of women NGOs in Chennai on Thursday.
CHENNAI: She has been there, done it. Perhaps, that is why poet Salma, recently appointed chairperson of the Social Welfare Board, thinks she has to focus energies and resources on training women panchayat leaders. Training programmes will be launched soon for women panchayat office-bearers, and will continue for two years, Ms.Salma said. She intends to approach the Central Social Welfare Board for funding. A former panchayat leader herself, Ms. Salma thinks that unless some intervention is made at this stage, the women leaders will remain in the background even as their spouses take centre stage. In a chat with The Hindu on Thursday, she said: “I’ve toured 10 districts since I’ve taken charge. I see it in all the reserved (women) constituencies, the woman elected leader hides behind her husband. The husband is the one that is signing even officially!” To her, it seems that history is repeating itself. “The same thing that happened 10 years ago when reservation for women was first implemented in local self-government. The woman panchayat president was just a namesake leader. No power flowed to her, or from her. Her husband was the true force behind the show,” says Ms. Salma whose poetry is an articulation of the characteristic angst of being a woman. Ms. Salma was elected from the Ponnampatti town panchayat in October 2001 and resigned during the May 2006 elections in which she contested as a DMK candidate. During that term, she involved herself with the then emphatic movement to empower women panchayat presidents. She has attended training camps in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. Having benefited from this training, she thinks it fit to impart training to the newly elected women panchayat presidents. “They must know what their rights are, their duties, where the money comes from, how to utilise it and take decisions without the husband’s interference.”
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