Jayati Godhawat
IWB Blogger
23 Y.O. Woman Sarpanch Has Transformed The Face Of This Rajasthan Village
- IWB Post
- January 25, 2017
Meet Pratibha Choudhary, a 23-year-old woman sarpanch who is changing the scenario of a Rajasthan village.
In her first year of governance, Pratibha, the head of Pachhmata gram panchayat in Rajsamand, Rajasthan, has done remarkable progress and has improved the lives of people living in the village.
From providing the firewood and other necessities required to perform last rites of the deceased to the poor families, to setting up E-Mitra kiosks to make government schemes accessible to the villagers, Pratibha is identifying and eliminating not only the bigger issues but smaller loopholes, too.
“Earlier, I had seen poor families and also those from the lower castes struggle to collect enough funds to buy wood to cremate their deceased. Being able to perform the funeral rites for a beloved family member as per the rituals is the most basic requirement,” she reportedly told The Better India.
“So when I took over as the sarpanch, my team and I scouted around for standing dead or dying trees and converted them into firewood for this purpose. Now anyone who needs to use them can approach the Gram Panchayat office where we always have a ready stack available.”
Pratibha also doesn’t shy away from accepting the fact that her family who has been in the politics for the longest of time, and some of whom have been the Sarpanch of the village, prior to her, haven’t done anything substantial.
“During his (her uncle) two terms he had not undertaken any development work in the village, so I thought that if I could get elected I would work hard to make a real difference. The people deserved no less.”
“They were so well-connected politically and could have done so much for their native place but they didn’t. Would you believe it, when I joined office, I found five-year-old pension application forms that had been signed by my uncle but they were never submitted. Everyone eligible under this scheme was under the impression that they weren’t entitled to the benefit,” she added.
In just one year, she has transformed the face of the village by improving its infrastructure considerably.
Well-built roads, full-functioning street lights, mending of boundary walls, installing water tanks and a pipeline for potable water, are just some of the many things she has done in the past year.
Pratibha’s determination to improve the lives of the people at the grassroot level is exemplary and inspirational. JWB lauds Pratibha’s efforts and wishes her all the luck in her future endeavors.
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