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Asia-Pacific By Shobha Shukla
(i) For the past 25-30 years Teeja has been on the board of members of the gram panchayat (village council). But when she stood for elections for the first time she faced a tough time—¡°When I went to file my nomination papers I was told that my name was not in the voters¡¯ list. I had been living in the village for so many years and my name was not in the voters¡¯ list! I refused to take this lying low. When the Block Development Officer (BDO) paid no heed to my protestations, I went to the DM¡¯s (district magistrate) office with an application. He was very helpful and got me the Vidhan Sabha elections voters¡¯ list, which obviously had my name. Now the BDO had no option but to accept my papers. But on the election day when I went to cast my vote I was again told that my name was not in the village voters¡¯ list, even though it was on the list given to me by the DM. When I refused to be cowed down, I was advised to go to the Block Pramukh. It was already 4pm but I went by cycle to the Block Pramukh¡¯s office. The guard said it was impossible to get the village voters list that day. I told him that I was going to appeal to the DM. This created some fear in the people who were sitting there with the guard. Even though they made fun of me when I told them that I was a candidate for member of gram panchayat and my election symbol was ¡®chair¡¯, they had to search for the correct voters list, which was eventually found buried under stacks of papers in the room of the BDO. But I knew that by the time I would reach my village it would already be past the voting time of 5 p.m. So I went to the police station and told them my problem. They sent two policemen with me. Accompanied by the policemen I went to the polling booth. The same persons who would not allow me to cast my vote earlier in the day stood up with folded hands and let me do the needful. If that day I had behaved as an illiterate and stupid villager I would have lost the battle. I was elected as a member of the panchayat. After that I stood for elections five times and won every time (a member is elected once every 5 years).¡±(ii) There was a chak road of the gram samaj in her village. The gram pradhan (Village Head) of the village was getting some construction done on this land for the pradhan of a nearby village to whom he had probably sold that government land. When Teeja heard about this illegal construction being done (chak road is a public thoroughfare on government land that cannot be sold or used for any construction), she confronted the pradhan and threatened to go to the police station if construction was not stopped. She was told that the area was not marked as a chak road. She went to the Lekhpal in Rustampur who also reiterated the same thing. With her presence of mind, she then asked him to show her the map, even though she knew she could not read it. But this did the trick—the lekhpal was taken aback. He had not expected this from an illiterate person like Teeja. He had to show her the map and accept that it was indeed a chak road. He had no option but to get the construction stopped. In this way Teeja managed to stop illegal usurping of government land. (iii) ¡°I do have a ration card. But last week we got very poor quality wheat. So I sent a sample of it to the Lekhpal at the tehsil with a written complaint. Although no action has been taken as yet, I will keep on following the case till justice is done.¡±(iv) ¡°As a responsible member of the panchayat, it is my duty to work for the wellbeing of the villagers. Some persons were not getting their pension for physically handicapped. I followed up their case at the tehsil level and got them their rightful dues.¡±(v) ¡°A government tap was lying defunct and nobody seemed interested in getting it repaired. I got an application signed by all the villagers and sent it to the BDO. The tap was mended within a few days and has become functional once again.¡±(vi) ¡°A girl from another village was married to a boy from my village. But after marriage he ill-treated her and would beat her up black and blue. The girl¡¯s parents did not help either. I filed a court case on her behalf. The husband compromised in the court but later threw her out of the house and dragged me to court also. But that did not scare me. I stood my ground. I arranged for a job for the girl as a domestic help. She is now safe and financially secure and is not dependent on others.¡±On women¡¯s education, marriage and family planning Even though she could not go to school beyond class 5, Teeja understands the importance of education. She helped her daughter-in-law complete class 10. She also encouraged her to work and got her the job of an Anganwadi worker. Her granddaughter is a graduate. However, Teeja rightly believes that literacy alone will not help—¡°Women need to have the drive in them to develop their capabilities. Many of them get so involved with housework that they do not want to learn new things. Unless they do things themselves they will not learn to be independent and develop leadership qualities.¡± ¡°I am very much against young girls being married off. No girl should be married before the age of 18 years. I ensured that my granddaughter was married at 23 years of age after completing her graduation.¡± ¡°Families should be small. With shrinking agriculture and less food production, it is becoming impossible to feed more mouths. Even if one earns gold, one has to eat to live. So lesser are the mouths to feed the better it would be for everyone.¡±On woman empowerment According to Teeja, ¡°There has been a lot of change in my life since the time I came to this village as a child bride. 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