support criminals received from the local politicians; at times the criminals themselves posed as political leaders. The government machinery at the local level often supported this lobby of local criminals and politicians. Even the local journalists were controlled by this lobby. Thirty years ago this situation was even worse. The worst sufferers of this were the village women. They lived under colossal fear. To provide some sense of security it was important that women had a role in the local governance. Another justification for the women contesting local elections was to give them a say in the actual implementation of various government schemes. Generally, when such schemes were implemented, women had no say, though they were the ones worst hit by a particular local problem. They were the ones who had to collect the fodder and fetch water. It was therefore decided at Chandwad that only women would contest the local level elections. Shetkari Mahila Aaghadi estimated that five hundred women would contest Zilla Parishad elections and one thousand would contest taluka level panchayat elections. To consider how to train such women candidates, one camp was held at Ambethan from 27 to 30 June 1987. It was a camp for “training the trainers” and was attended by 45 women. Some well-known experts were also invited as speakers. They included Prof. Ram Bapat, Prof. Rajendra Vora, Prof. Suhas Palashikar, Dr Neelam Gorhe and Prof. Aruna Mudholkar. A booklet was compiled by Dr Vidyut Bhagwat, who played an important role in Aghadi, on the theme System of Panchayat Raj and Women’s Participation and it was widely used in training. Hundreds of women received intensive training. Shetkari Mahila Aaghadi won elections in three gram panchayats at Yenora (District Wardha), Metikheda (District Yavatmal) and Vitner (District Jalgaon) and looked after them quite competently for subsequent five years.
Women Power - New Expression
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