Against all odds: Success stories of women Panchayat leaders

This paper is an attempt to explore and understand the positive impact of women's political participation in grassroots governance in Maharashtra. Reservation is seen as an extraordinary act of social and political empowerment that has facilitated the entry of more than five million women in Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs). On the other hand, women are still considered to be back-door entrants who have gained entry because of reservations and therefore not easily accepted as leaders. Similarly, several stereotypes and misconceptions regarding women's leadership still capture mass imagination, making for women's participation a matter of doubt and distrust.

This paper seeks to highlight the challenges women leaders face at the grassroots level and also document the positive experiences and successful experiments by Elected Women Representatives (EWRs). PRIs and women's participation in it is both a site of women's subordination to mass perceptions as well as of their struggles and resistance. The state assumes women to be ‘free agents’, outside the boundaries of caste, class and religion and therefore fails to extend the support women need to exercise their full agency as elected representatives. Also, there are many structural and practical inadequacies that are being addressed through several non-profit organizations and campaigns like ‘Mahila Rajsatta Andolan (MRA)’ that play almost parallel roles to facilitate, strengthen and support EWRs to change the agenda of development, practice inclusive governance, and empower them to go beyond Panchayats.