“I was prevented from hoisting the national flag....” was what a first-time woman panchayat president in Athukaraipatti panchayat in Tamil Nadu said, noted A. Kathir, executive director Evidence, an NGO, which works for the upliftment of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, here on Thursday.
Addressing a press conference, he said that for the first-time, a study was conducted comprising 17 enumerators across the State interviewing 114 elected Panchayat presidents from the SC community.
Clarifying that the interviews were not aimed at accusing any government and that it was carried out with broad objectives, he said the eight-page questionnaire were answered by the respondents and their signatures were obtained. Some of the respondents had filed their response in separate sheets as well, he said and added that the average age of the panchayat presidents were from 28 to 77 years.
The study comprised 114 Dalit panchayat presidents. The enumeration suggested that all the panchayat presidents, who were interviewed, claimed that in some way or the other, they experienced untouchability. The most shocking was that 12 among the 114 panchayat presidents said that they were told not to unfurl the tri-colour flag during the R-Day and I-Day celebrations.
Sharing a few of the response, Mr Kathir said, across 19 districts in the State, one panchayat president Narasimha Murthy (46) in Krishnagiri district was murdered by an armed gang in August 2022, seven panchayat presidents responded that they were subjected to sexual abuses., in Madurai district’s Pazhayur panchayat, president Geetha had alleged that miscreants had mixed faecal matter and cow dung in the panchayat overhead tank and at her office, in Oothumalai of Tenkasi district, panchayat president Valarmathi said that she was harassed by a gang for the simple reason that she had emerged victorious defeating a candidate from a dominant community.
Despite threats and ill-treatment meted out, many of the elected panchayat presidents in districts like Virudhunagar, Ramanathapuram, Coimbatore, Dindigul, Madurai and others have performed well by providing infrastructural facilities to the people, the study showed.
Recommendations
From the response of the 114 panchayat presidents, the enumerators were of the opinion that even after a change in the government, the elected SCs representatives in rural panchayat administration had not got the due respect accorded to the post. On the contrary, threats and verbal abuses continued.
The State government should identify 10 best performing panchayats and hand over ₹25 lakh each as reward. The panchayat presidents should be imparted regular training from the first year onwards on a rotational basis as such training would give them exposure to administration, finance management, eradication of untouchability and crimes against women, the study observed.
In fact, some of the panchayat presidents, who faced threats from the villagers and others should be given protection by the State with a gunman, Mr. Kathir pointed out.
