Times of India News Service

February 17, 2000

DEHRADUN:A new generation of rural women was being imparted training before the coming panchayat elections in the Uttarakhand region.

Saharanpur and Hardwar districts near the Doon valley would be having panchayat elections in April or May and the newly-formed institute Pragati (Panchayati Raj and Gender Awareness Training Institute) was concentrating on training programmes for the panchayats where seats were reserved for women pradhans, according to Mrs S. Sengupta, a senior worker in the institute.

Pragati consisted of 25 women working under the umbrella of the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), a non-government organisation (NGO) in the Doon Valley. Though the training institute with all women members had been constituted recently, work in panchayat and gender awareness training had been carrying on in Dehradun and other districts of Garhwal since 1994 under the aegis of the RLEK.

According to Ms Manisha Panwar of Pragati, connecting women groups (self-help groups) to income generating activities through state and Central government sponsored schemes in Panchayati Raj was one of the major objectives of the institute for the women, of the women and by the women in the Doon valley.

Pragati was also working as a support organisation and imparted training to the NGOs working in rural areas besides networking with them. The institute encouraged and facilitated women participation in local self-governance.

Ms Damini Bhargava, another young volunteer of the organisation, said ``we undertake development projects and programmes which improve the socio-economic conditions of the rural poor, especially women".

Women Pradhans of existing panchayats who were earlier trained by those trainers were then being used as resourcepersons by the institute to train women who would contest the coming panchayat elections. Ms Rekha Pundir, one of the most popular trainers of the Panchayati Raj team at the Institute, felt that it would bring about a new confidence in the rural women.

Social forestry, environment protection camps and training in reproductive health were other issues being taken up by Pragati in several villages in and around Dehradun district. ``Micro-planning training is the most important issue on which we are concentrating at the moment", said Ms Sangeeta Prasad who had worked as a Panchayati Raj trainer for several years in that region. (UNI)