Husbands of sarpanches call the shots in rural areas

A few kms away from glitzy malls of Gurugram, the quaint village of Mandarka in the Sohna segment is abuzz with political activities.

Children have bunked school and are eagerly waiting for a local candidate to come. It’s a meet-and-greet meeting of panchayat in the chaupal. The village has a young woman sarpanch, 27-year-old Sabila, who is a matriculate.

As the cavalcade enters the village, a group of women clad in bright salwar kameez and veiled faces rushes towards the chaupal headed by an elder woman. A group of men welcome the leader and the campaign panchayat start while this group of women stand hidden in shadow of a nearby tree.

“What will we do there? These meetings are for men and Sabila’s husband Arif is there. He is ‘sarpanch pati’ and with him are ‘panch patis’. They will decide. Sabila is just for signing, the entire work is done by men,” says Sabila’s mother-in-law.

Sabila is not a lone case. While women constitute for around half the voters in Haryana, and Gurugram and Nuh have around 230 women sarpanchs, it’s the sarpanch patis and ‘panch patis’ who are calling shots in this election.

The majority of women voters and sarpanches remain mere rubber stamp in not just backward Mewat but even in rural parts of Millenium City like Pataudi and Sohna.

“This is not GT Road, madam. Our women still stay in veil; politics is not their forte. Family elders deal with candiadtes decide and women are taken to vote,” adds Azharuddin, brother-in-law of Ruksina Sarpanch of Shikarpur village.

In patriarchal Haryana, women constitute 47 per cent of voters with 95.82 lakh women voters. There are over 25,000 women sarpanches. While all political parties harp on women empowerment, when it comes to give political prominenece to them, the majority have failed.