Rashmi Patel

 Women constitute near to half of the total population  Social and political position is still not impressive despite of emerging powerful women personalities  Socio- economic status is also low – suppressed and deprived from their rights to get a fair treatment  Literacy rate - 64%

 One of the pioneering state in the field of panchayati Raj Initiative  Odisha Gram panchayat Act – 1948  Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parisad Act – 1959  First state in India to implements the sound provisions of 73 rd amendment – reservation of 1/3 rd seats for women  In history of independent India first 30% reservation for women in three tier PRI and 33% in Odisha Assembly  1992 – women got elected  2012 – 50% reservation

 Representation has become primarily a number game in the context of women. Their participation is not sincerely pursued  Undermining the capacities of the women, this opportunity in majority case being utilized by male counterparts. In practice, their participation is missing.  Women due to several forms of restrictions lacks skill and courage of asserting their rights as representatives  Provision of quorum with presence of 10% women voters in the pallisabha & Gramsabha meetings doesn’t reflect a healthy trend towards facilitating women’s participation in decision making

 Lots of influence from the political parties kills inherent leadership of women and discourages real participation  The pallisabha and the Gram Sabha are not being held with proper quorum. The voters are least interfered to attend the Gram Shabha which happens to be the Panchayat level assembly and the pallisabha as the village assembly. The provisions that, in case there would be no quorum in the first meeting of Gram sabha, the decisions could be taken for development programmes without a quorum in the second meeting. This has diluted the spirit of democracy in the decision making process and it becomes the decision of the minority. The process is observes to be manipulated by the so called leaders and vested interest  regard to participation of women in the Gram Sabha, the women are not properly communicated and mobilized. Hence, the process is affected without the presence of women which is a manipulative method after the meeting by showing the presence of women

 In case of the panchatat samiti, the powers and function of the samiti members who represents each panchayat are not very explicit.  At the Zilla aprisad level, it is said that there is ambiguity between the powers and function of the district collector and the zilla parisad member. Though DRDAs [District Rural Development Agencies] are supposed to head by Zilla parisad, in reality it is not happening. So the development process is mostly mandate by the District authorities than zilla parisad.

 Creating a conducive environment and emphasizing on participation of women in all spheres of PRI process other than reservation of seats  Allocation of development funds to provide equal opportunity for women and men through gender budgeting  Emphasis on women representatives with special training and capacity building programmes  Steps for attitude behavior change of all section of society  Two child norms should be taken out from guideline

“Leadership and government commitment are major contributing factors to a successful mainstreaming” “mainstreaming is not about joining the polluted stream, but rather finding fresh new streams.”

THANK YOU ALL