The government may have given 50 per cent reservation to women at the panchayat level, but their empowerment is still far from real in most cases. For, local MPs (read Mukhia Patis) still hold the reins and don’t want their wives to be educated under the special scheme for such women.
As per government’s own study, nearly 30 per cent of the woman public representatives at the lowest level of governance are illiterate. In case of men, it is around 7-10 per cent. Bihar ranks amongst the bottom-placed States along with Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh when it comes to literacy among public representatives at the lowest rung.
“With so much stress on decentralization of power, this is a big impediment. The public representatives need to be aware to make optimal use of various schemes like Indira Awas, marriage of girls, insurance of BPL families, and most importantly, educational programmes,” said a senior official of the Human Resource Development Department official.
To make the public representatives literate, the Mass Education Department has launched an ambitious literacy programme.
Under the scheme, each district was sanctioned Rs 1.24 lakh in 2009-10 for boosting literacy among public representatives at the panchayat level. This comes to around Rs 45 lakh in the State. So far, bulk of the money has remained unspent. “In case of women, the husbands don’t want them to be educated. Perhaps, it suits their interest to wield power by proxy,” said the official. What is worse, there is no intention to turn a new leaf, either. The statistics is discouraging in most parts of the State, especially with regard to women, barring a few exceptions like Siwan, Begusarai, Bhojpur and a few others.
{{/usCountry}}Under the scheme, each district was sanctioned Rs 1.24 lakh in 2009-10 for boosting literacy among public representatives at the panchayat level. This comes to around Rs 45 lakh in the State. So far, bulk of the money has remained unspent. “In case of women, the husbands don’t want them to be educated. Perhaps, it suits their interest to wield power by proxy,” said the official. What is worse, there is no intention to turn a new leaf, either. The statistics is discouraging in most parts of the State, especially with regard to women, barring a few exceptions like Siwan, Begusarai, Bhojpur and a few others.
{{/usCountry}}But the government is not ready to give up. Bihar was the first State, which visualised the problem at the grassroots level and worked out a mechanism. Now, we are holding 10-day residential camps at the district level, with free food and stay, for basic literacy training to public representatives,” said Director, Mass Education, Vinodanand Jha. Jha said that scheme also had an added incentive for the public representatives. “The teachers are attached with the representatives for a month to help them further in discharge of their duties. They are like Private assistants to the representatives for the period. If they have any difficulty, they can seek help,” he added.