The previous Sarpanch of Pipalia village in Jhabua district proudly showed
me his vast expanse of rose bushes, bamboo plants which he was able to cultivate
with the help of subsidized seeds from the Government’s agricultural
outlet in Jhabua city. He explained the government’s organizational
structure in the village. We know that a Panchayat is the local government
body which comprises of a group of villages. The number of villages under
each Panchayat depends on the distance between them and the population of
the villages. I was very impressed to find that Pipalia had a woman Sarpanch,
only to be disheartened to find that this liberation translates into the
husband running the show and the wife (Sarpanch) only complying to his actions.
Group of Panchayats form a Janpadh. Jhabua district has six Blocks. All
the panchayat proceedings and petitions are handed over to the Janpadh.
An interesting post which is also government recognized is the village Tadvi,
who resolves small disputes in the village. The village Tadvi has a hereditary
right to the post, i.e. the post is not an elected one but is passed on
as a family lineage from one generation to the other. Apart from the government
officials at the village level, there is also
 a Parent Teacher Association
in the village which does not seem to be very active and the reason given
is that the parents themselves are illiterate and cannot make any decisions.
Every school by law has a Village Education Committee (VEC). I found that
this VEC seems rather mysterious. The government primary school principal
informed me that the VEC is a single member who is a part of the Panchayat
and is the education representative in the Panchayat. Some say that VEC
is the same as the Parent Teacher Association. I am yet to unravel the mystery
of the missing VEC.
One observation
which is hard to miss is the busy NGO volunteers in the village. Multiple
NGO’s partnering with each other to provide wooden benches in the
government primary school, running preschools, working on forming self
help groups and if nothing else showing interest to learn about the problems
in the village. My transect walk in the village helped me to understand
the demography and the geography of a tribal village. Stay with me to
understand the village dynamics up-close and personal.
Radhika Iyengar
Doctoral
Student, Teachers College, Columbia University
Consultant, Jan Shikshan Sansthan, Jhabua (www.jssjhabua.net)
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