Raj panchayat leads in creating women leaders

Jaipur: The Women’s Reservation Bill has been approved in both Houses of Parliament. If proof was needed that reservation works for the better of both, the women and their constituents, while creating a new leadership culture, Rajasthan provides many laudable examples.

Quota for women in panchayat and civic elections gave a new platform to candidates with no political background. It enabled them to take their first step in politics and establish themselves.

One such woman is Kavita Joshi who left her profession as a hardware engineer and became a Sarpanch.

In 2015, the Shobhagpura Panchayat seat was reserved for women and it became a rule that in order to contest elections the candidate had to have cleared eighth standard at least. Because of this rule, no one in the families already active in politics in the village could contest the elections.

In such a situation, the people of the village approached Kavita’s family and demanded that Kavita, who was pursuing her PhD after finishing her M.Tech, contest the elections, despite the fact that neither her in-laws nor anyone at her maternal home had anything to do with politics.

As per Kavita, “I was working as a hardware engineer and had no connection whatsoever with politics. But I decided to contest for the sake of the villagers. At the time of campaigning for the election I was nine months pregnant and I delivered just a day before voting day. However, I voted the next day.”

Kavita won and became the first woman Sarpanch of Shobhagpura village. The impact of Kavita’s work and her capabilities led the BJP to give her a senior leadership position. Today she is the district president of the Mahila Morcha of BJP Udaipur.

Another woman of note is Chhavi

Rajawat from Jaipur, who is the country’s first MBA Sarpanch.

Chhavi left her job in a multinational company and was recently invited by Amitabh Bachchan to participate in the game show KBC.