“Children are often deprived of education as there are no government schools in this village. To attend school, they have to travel almost 5 km to Pandariya village,” rues Bhairon Singh Jatav, a farmer who owns a 1.25 acre farm.
Jatav isn’t the only one to be irked by the lack of a government school in Adampur Chhawani, Phanda Janpad of the Bhopal district.
Ballobai, a labourer, says, “Our village suffers from lack of good roads, electricity and drainage facilities. But these problems are small as compared to the lack of educational facilities here that affect the future of our children.”
“There is no school or anganwadi centre here. Ten years ago, an anganwadi was set up in a rented accommodation. The structure is lying in a shambles today. For the last five years, it is being used as a shelter for animals,” Ballobai laments. She believes it to be wiser to elect women to the gram panchayat as they “might take the access to educational facilities more seriously compared to previous male representatives”.
The sarpanch along with 20 panchayat members of this all-woman panchayat were elected unopposed this year. The panchayat members elected by this village of 3,842 people are a heterogeneous lot comprising graduates, those who are contesting elections for the first time, and also those who have only studied up to fifth grade.
Interestingly, although the sarpanch’s seat was reserved for a Backward Caste (OBC) candidate without specific gender priority, 22-year-old housewife Krishna Rawat has been elected as the sarpanch. The previous panchayat was though led by a woman, Shakun Neemnarayan, the rest of the members were male.
A resident, Misribai, told IANS: “Besides education, roads, and drainage, the garbage dump in Adampur is a big issue. The stench and leachate from this dump have contaminated the waters of Adampur and Haripur villages too. We sincerely hope that our women-only panchayat tackles this issue.”
Earlier this month, IANS had covered the landfill disaster impacting almost 200 families of Adampur Chhawani Gram Panchayat, which seems to be the piping issue this election.