PRACTICE OF PROXY REPRESENTATIVE
PRACTICE OF PROXY REPRESENTATIVE
The practice of sarpanchpati/pradhanpati highlights the necessity and importance of capacity building of Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) and generating awareness among them. In this regard, besides extensive exercise of capacity building of Elected Representatives, including EWRs, through the scheme of Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, the Ministry has been engaging with the EWRs through a series of workshops, conferences, committees and expert groups on the issues of women empowerment and women leadership. Based on the experiences of best practices gained from the interaction during these workshops and interaction as well as recommendations given by various committees and expert groups the Ministry has been issuing advisories to States from time to time.
Accordingly, this Ministry has issued advisories to States to facilitate holding of separate Ward Sabha and Mahila Sabha meetings prior to Gram Sabha meetings. Advisories have also been issued to States for enhancing the presence and participation of women in Gram Sabha and Panchayat meetings, allocation of Panchayat funds for women-centric activities, combating the evil of women trafficking, female foeticide, child marriage etc.
In addition, this Ministry focuses on developing the capacity of EWRs of Panchayats to enable them to function effectively in Gram Panchayats and properly discharge their leadership roles. The Ministry has also been encouraging increased involvement of women in the functioning of Panchayats through active participation in the Gram Sabha meetings for preparation of Gram Panchayat Development Plans and various schemes being implemented by the Panchayats.
The number of women sarpanches in respect of 28 States/UTs including Jharkhand is as under:-
S.No.
State/ Union Territory Name
Count
1
Andhra Pradesh
7514
2
Arunachal Pradesh
183
3
Assam
1205
4
Bihar
4433
5
Chhattisgarh
5585
6
Goa
65
7
Gujarat
6322
8
Haryana
2875
9
Himachal Pradesh
1942
10
Jammu And Kashmir (UT)
473
11
Jharkhand
1462
12
Karnataka
3640
13
Kerala
597
14
Ladakh (UT)
15
15
Madhya Pradesh
5075
16
Maharashtra
15744
17
Manipur
2
18
Mizoram
24
19
Odisha
3990
20
Punjab
4627
21
Rajasthan
5221
22
Sikkim
35
23
Tamil Nadu
6977
24
Telangana
7098
25
Tripura
315
26
Uttarakhand
3735
27
Uttar Pradesh
25932
28
West Bengal
2180
Total
117266
[Source: Information furnished by States/UTs on eGramSwaraj
Portal (https://egramswaraj.gov.in) as on 29.1.2024]
This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj, Shri Kapil Moreshwar Patil in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
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