I met Sanjukta in September 2019, where she had participated in a two-and-half day learning lab organized by ‘She Creates Change’ initiative. Later, during the lockdown, when ‘Political Shakti’ group was discussing how women politicians are handling COVID-19 challenges, I just remembered her. We spoke for more than an hour and over for a few days tried to understand how she was managing the lockdown challenges in her Gram Panchayat.
Her day starts at 7 in the morning. She goes around in the village to see if people are breaking physical distance norms. Morning time is an important hour for the rural folks, unlike in the urban settings. Villagers get up early to feed their domestic animals and clean their houses, cattle sheds and streets outside their homes where they tie animals. Her role as Sarpanch (head of the Panchayat) is leading from the front and starts with the task to ensure people do their work while maintaining safe distances from each other.
The Gram Panchayat, R.Udaigiri, in nature is semi-rural; a small town with many shops and a weekly mandi can be found there. She checks if shops with essentials items as per the governments listing are open and not others. She has prepared a list of shops at safe distances that can be opened alternatively. It helps as people do not have to travel far to shop for essential items.
She comes back home for breakfast between 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and goes back to the Panchayat office before 11 a.m. She, along with her team, distributes cash to construction workers, pension holders; distributes ration to those who aren’t registered yet, like migrant workers, etc. They also attend different training sessions by district collectors/B.D.Os, Chief Minister’s Office and the health department through video conference.
Recently, Sarpanchs have been given the same authority as the District Magistrate to make decisions on different matters. Now that the government has allowed migrants to return to their respective states by maintaining law and order situation in villages to prevent community spread of corona, it has to be channelized through Sarapanchs — the lowest level of democratic processes (I would say the first level actually).
These video conferences with the state COVID team and district level officers help them understand their decision-making power and the consequences. They learn, get trained and go out to implement everything to protect their community from this dreadful disease. She returns home late in the evening.
She is grateful that her daughter has come back home, who is pursuing an undergraduate course and has now taken the responsibility of cooking and other household chores. Her spouse, who works in a local court, also helps his daughter in with the chores. Sanjukta feels blessed to have them in this situation with her as it allows her to focus on her work wholeheartedly.
There are two teams led by the Sarpanch and Gram Sevak to tackle the current situation. Each team has two ASHA workers, two Anganwadi teachers, one primary school teacher and G.R.S (Gram Rojgar Sevak).
At her Gram Panchayat, there are 40 migrant workers from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal who work as hawkers and rickshaw pullers and are now stranded and jobless. They couldn’t go back to their native places. There are also a few families in the group.
The Panchayat office has started a community kitchen for such communities: migrants and destitute. The families are given ration to cook. Sanjukta has also distributed sanitary pads for women in these families.
Apart from migrants, people with mental illness and elderly people whose children aren’t staying with them get cooked food from the community kitchen. The team also gives special attention to ensure they are safe. A total of 104 people get cooked food every day from the community kitchen.
She is also vigilant about children and their rights. Teachers have started distributing books of the upcoming academic years. Anganwadi teachers have already distributed the food items like chatua, chuda ladu, chana ladu, and eggs (monthly) as per the directions of the ICDS program.
Students from grades 1–3 have received 9kg rice and students from grades 4–8 have received 13kg rice as part of the mid-day meal program.
All BPL cardholders have received ration for three months as per government directives. Elderly people were given a pension for three months. All registered construction workers received a total of ₹2500 (₹1500 from GOI, ₹1000 from the state government) and ration.
She has distributed 200 masks to the people in her Panchayat. An SHG group called Mahalakshmi group has been given an order to make another 400 masks for future use under Mission Shakti program.
Many unexpected problems arose like the malfunctioning of water supply system where she had to talk to the authorities to get a pass for the technician to go to the market, 70km from the Panchayat town, to get the material for repairs. She had to face the people’s agony due to water scarcity. But somehow she remained cool and resolved the problem.
Undoubtedly, she is one of the very few Sarpanchs who got recognized for her work on the International Women’s Day, March 8, in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, by NAWO (National Alliance of Women).
She has taken up a few issues, not only as a Sarpanch but as a woman and a daughter. It’s not hidden that most people in Odisha (including ministers, doctors, teachers, and public servants) chew paan/tobacco. Lack of tobacco products became a severe issue for elderly people who are addicted to it. They were hyper and crazy these days. Many of them would come and ask for tobacco, not food.
Sanjukta shares how an old woman would come to her house and cry for tobacco. She would request not to give food, but tobacco only. Finally, she had to get it from some shops and distribute it to them (only senior citizens who were very cranky these days) at her own expense.
But her biggest worry is the return of the migrants. Currently, the isolation ward has 16 beds; one four-member family who returned from a red zone district called Bhadrak is being kept in quarantine. A total of 166 people are staying outside of Odisha in cities like Surat, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, and in some cities in Kerala, etc. 88 people have registered to come back.
They are working towards converting a girl’s hostel of a local college into an isolation centre. But she worries if intra-state migrants come back, it will become difficult to accommodate everyone. She is hopeful of getting it resolved with help from the DM office and the CM office as they are in direct contact with her.
She spoke to some migrant workers from her Gram Panchayat. She feels disheartened that her brothers and sisters aren’t getting any help from their respective state governments. She feels sad that she isn’t able to help them, but she has ensured that their families in her area aren’t deprived of food. They are taken care of through the PDS (Public Distribution System).
She has requested the authorities to generate more jobs through MGNREGA to help villagers. But before that, she wants BDOs and other officers to ensure weekly payments to the workers. As people don’t get paid on time, and contractors get paid after months, people prefer to migrate than working in MGNREGA schemes. She wants to focus on this after the lockdown to ensure a sustainable livelihood for her people.
A Sarpanch receives ₹1880 as a monthly incentive and ₹180 per meeting (two meetings in a month), hence I wonder how they keep themselves inspired to work from morning to late evening, sometimes till mid-night!
Their health insurance isn’t covered. All health workers, including ASHA didi, Anganwadi teachers, police, and journalists, are covered. She is, in all manners, a COVID warrior. Why Sarpanchs and ward/council members’ health insurance isn’t covered?
When I asked Sanjukta about the challenges of being a woman Sarpanch, she shared that,
“People think women Sarapanchs are less effective. People don’t take us seriously compared to male Sarapanchs. But in reality, we are more productive. We are more concerned about people and their well-being. We want all needy people to get all the benefits. We don’t want to make money. We work day and night. I hope that people will recognize our efforts and respect us.“
Sanjukta is hopeful that her work and dedication will help her become an MLA. I am also looking forward to it to happen as women are still under-represented in our state assembly. Current Odisha Legislative assembly has just 15 women members out of 147. Women representation in our state assembly is just 10%.
This is the status of a state that was praised by the United Nations for passing an ordinance to give 33% reservation to women in the State Assembly and Parliament. Let’s hope for more Sanjuktas to join politics and get elected to the state assembly because they deserve to be there.
The article was first published here.