Strengthening women in through Panchayats
The 73rd Amendment to the Indian Constitution passed in December 1992 gave formal Constitutional recognition to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) or local self-governance units in rural India. It ensures 50% reservation of women in panchayats in Uttarakhand. This amendment gave a platform to Mahila Haat to advance its aims and objectives. Thus Mahila Haat conducted the following activities for strengthening woman outlook towards development and for providing more understanding and practice of their power as a Woman Gram Pradhan and Ward Member.
Women Leadership Workshops
- FollowUp Workshops
- District Level Workshop
- Media Workshop
- Convention of Elected Women Representatives
- Village Meetings and Village Visits
- Federation Building workshops
- Gram Sabha mobilization programmes
- SWEEP- Strengthening Women's Empowerment
- through Electoral Process
- Micro Planning Trainings
Impact and outcome of workshops:
- Most of the EWRs recognize their identity as political leader.
- There mindset from I cannot is changed to I can.
- Understanding gender disparity has greatly influenced their mindset.
- Increase in the understanding of political and social citizenship.
- Increase in the understanding of their role in local governance.
- A feeling of responsibility towards the community.
- A sense of solaridity can be easily seen.
- Enhancement in skills of effective leadership.
- Understood the importance of the Gtram Sabha and Panchayat meetings.
- Some EWRs had spoken first time in front of others.
So far MH facilitated about 700 EWRs in 3 Districts and 11 blocks of Uttarakhand.
