Other States - Orissa   

Twin norms put them in a fix

BHUBANESWAR: Arati Meher from Bolangir district has reportedly produced death certificate of one of her daughters who is hale and hearty. She has taken the step apparently to save her post of local sarpanch as Orissa State Panchayat Act does not permit a person having more than two children to contest the election.

Similarly, Upendra Mallik from Kendrapara district allegedly gave away his son simply to contest panchayat elections in 2007. When he became Sarpanch, his opponent filed a case questioning his eligibility on two-child norms.

Last month, Kumkum Dehury, a tribal woman sarpanch from Dhenkanal district, had to give up her post as she was not a literate and could not read even Oriya which was mandatory in the Act.

Several hundreds of people’s representatives in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) of Orissa are now facing biggest challenge of their life to stay eligible on these two norms such as number of children and minimum education level.

A study finds at least 42 representatives in Kalahandi, Bolangir, Kendrapara, Sundargarh and Angul districts have either been suspended from their posts or in process of getting disqualified. Several of them have approached local courts to cling to in their posts.

In most cases, women are the worst sufferers due to the two-child norm. Similarly, during last six months 23 people’s representatives of Dhenkanal district alone have knocked doors of local courts to save their posts after the State Government questioned their education status. Of the 23 people’s representatives, there are 12 women who are facing threat of being disqualified as they are illiterates.

When Raghunath Mohanty, Panchayati Raj Minister, and his deputy Sanjeev Sahoo were listening to representatives on Friday here, they actually felt the angers and frustrations brewing among the representatives. Several speakers at workshop on ‘Devolution of power to panchayat samiti’ raised their voice against these two norms.

Agreed researcher Aradhana Nanda, who works on leadership building programme for women representatives. "Can a woman in Orissa decide how many children her in-laws want? When they are not responsible for having more than two children, why the state government is out to disqualify them?" Ms Nanda questioned. She said when the Government did not even provide education infrastructure to everybody in the state and how come it fixed literacy as a criteria for local representatives.

"When Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who was not proficient in Oriya language could become an able administrator, why the lower rung people’s representatives are forced to pass the test," Ms. Nanda said.

Gauging the anguish, the Minister said the state government was considering to withdraw theguidelines.

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