Rajkot: Taking leaves from popular television soap ‘Balika Vadhu’, one progressive hamlet in Kutch has worked towards village women’s empowerment through Balika Panchayat.
This step is intended to overcome problems around teenage girls – from girls, by girls, for girls! Kunariya Village, about 18 km from the district headquarters in Bhuj, has a population of around 4,000 people.
Young females from the village, between 10 and 21 years old, will oppose the election.
The “Daughter Only” Board will run parallel with the adult village version, but only address problems related to teenage girls and women in the village.
Polling, scheduled for Monday, is the affair contested carefully.
The whole village has been directed in polling mode with a door-to-door campaign, and the voter meeting.
The result is to be stated on the same day.
Eight candidates competed for Sarpanch’s position, four of them had attracted their nomination.
This contest is now among Bharti Garva, 20, Rubina Node, 19, Trushali Suthar, 20, and Afsana Sumra, 17, each busy convincing 450 strange voters in the village why he must be chosen as a sarput.
Suresh Chhanga, Sarpanch of the Village, said: “Chosen girls will implement a scheme that will discuss the problems of women and women in the village.
The idea is to prepare for future women leaders”.