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Women sarpanchs in Raj to undergo training

In the biggest ever programme of its kind, the Central government will start a training programme for grassroots women politicians by mid-March this year.

The National Commission of Women (NCW) will train women sarpanchs in Rajasthan, as a test run for this programme. The primary focus of the five-day training programme will be on educating these women leaders regarding their powers and responsibilities, which are mostly usurped by the men in the family.

The content and details of the course will be available on the website of National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD) by next month.

A senior official from the Ministry of Women and Child Development explained, “The training module especially designed for woman sarpanchs, will start from mid-March when Parliament goes into recess (expectedly after March 17, 2016). The pilot run will be conducted in Rajasthan and if that works well we will go everywhere.

“The training schedule is an intense 5-day workshop. After the course concludes in Rajasthan, we will train master trainers from each state and then in turn will go back and guide the people at field level.”

Giving details of the special training programme for elected women representatives at the grassroots levels, the official said,“Training would be imparted on how to utilize funds, the administrative structure of village panchayats and zilla parishads, and the rights and responsibilities of a village pradhan. “The content of the course has been discussed in great detail and it will focus on informing them about key issues such as how a panchayat functions, how should she get a project sanctioned, how the execution should be monitored and so on. Probably from next month the details of the course will be made available on the website of NIPCCD.”

“We getting all the states to translate the content of the course into local languages so that it can be easily accessible by all. It is not going to be an esoteric course. We are also trying to making it interactive in nature. The first course is essentially for master trainers, who will then go back and train other women as well. Once uploaded the training module can be viewed by all and also customized as per ones needs,” said the official.

Explaining the functionality and aim of this unique programme focused on the empowering women politicians at the grassroots level, Union Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi said, “This is the first programme of its kind. The idea is to promote the entry of women into the political process right from the grassroot level and train them in handling issues of the village. These women politicians, who will be trained by the NCW, will be empowered to deal with and manage financial matters of the area as well.

“Through this endeavour we will see women’s active involvement in the political process right from the ground level. My dream is to have these women as trained responsible sarpanchs.”
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