Kanpur Dehat scripts empowerment tale with all-women team of 18 officials
Apart from the 18 women officers, the district has two women MLAs — Pratibha Shukla and Nirmala Sankhwar — out of the total four legislators in the district.
An all-women team of 18 officers working in various capacities holds the reins of governance in Kanpur Dehat, perhaps the highest number anywhere, turning the district in central Uttar Pradesh into a shining symbol of women empowerment.
Kanpur Dehat district, 40 km west of Kanpur, was created in 1982 after “bandit queen” Phoolan Devi and her gang gunned down 22 Thakurs in Behmai village in 1981. The district is primarily rural and borders four other districts.
Last week, Suniti (who goes by one name only) joined as superintendent of police, completing the all-women chain controlling Kanpur Dehat.
Before her, the only male in this set-up was Swapnil Mamgain. He was transferred and Suniti was posted in his place.
Apart from the 18 women officers, the district has two women MLAs — Pratibha Shukla and Nirmala Sankhwar — out of the total four legislators.
Neha Jain is the Kanpur Dehat district magistrate. Saumya Pandey is chief development officer, Suniti is SP, Garima Singh is the additional district magistrate and Vandana Singh is the chief medical superintendent of the district hospital.
Besides, Anjali Varma is the district employment officer, Riddhi Pandey the basic shiksha Adhikari, Archita Ojha the regional tourism officer, Mallika Saxena the district supply officer, Namita Sharan the district probationary officer and Rekha Sachan is the drug inspector.
Poonam Gautam, Bhumika Yadav and Sakshi Sharma are the sub-divisional magistrates. Purnima Singh is tehsildar. Som Lata is ARTO (assistant regional transport officer). Namita S is the district panchayat officer, Mahima Vidyarathi block block development officer and Tanu Upadhyaya the deputy superintendent of police.
“After Suniti joined, I realised we have an all- women set-up here. It is really pleasant working with so many women officers. We have a better bonding and communication. It makes many things a lot easier to plan and execute,” said Neha Jain, the district magistrate.
Suniti agreed that if women worked together on key positions, the coordination naturally became good.
“DM and I have discussed several times how we can contribute to betterment of the district and yield positive results. People, too, have high expectations of us,” she said.
CDO Saumya Pandey sees this as an important phase of the learning curve for her.
“I am lucky to be part of this team. My superior is a woman officer and I am much more at ease. We are encouraging the self-help groups of the women at present. We want to see change in lives of rural women,” she said.
“It is really pleasant to see the women are leading from the front in this district.”
Before Kanpur Dehat, Unnao, which also borders Kanpur, had 12 women officers on all the key positions in the district in 2016 during the Samajwadi Party regime. But Kanpur Dehat has surpassed Unnao now.
