It’s 4 pm and Subbulakshmi is busy tending to her cows, which take up one room and the space outside her kuchcha two-room house, built of corrugated iron. Induja S is away in Coimbatore visiting a couple of factories to procure plastic and glass crusher machines.
The elected president and vice-president of the Varaganoor gram panchayat, respectively, are both unaware of the Parliament Session that began on Thursday to debate the three Bills paving the way for the historic implementation of 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.
However, if the House wants evidence of women-led transformation, they can make a start from Varaganoor, a tiny village of three hamlets, some 120 km from Madurai, where six of the eight ward members including Subbulakshmi and Induja are women, and where the panchayat secretary too was a woman till a year ago.
In 2024, at the national panchayat awards, known as the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar, Varaganoor was adjudged among the best women-friendly panchayats in the country.
A photograph of Subbulakshmi receiving the award, from President Droupadi Murmu, hangs on the wall of the Varaganoor panchayat office, located at walking distance from her home. Next to the office is a room – used as a learning or meeting space – built using part of the Rs 50 lakh award money.
A computer operator stationed at the office proudly switches on a large wall-mounted TV set with a WiFi connection in the room, to show the panchayat’s YouTube page. It has eight videos showing the various initiatives and success stories of the panchayat.
The village also has a newly built anganwadi building, yet to be inaugurated due to the model code of conduct in place for the Assembly elections; a renovated middle-school building; a water tank that has come as a relief for the drought-prone village; street lights with solar panels; and CCTV cameras on metal posts.
Induja, 37, who holds B.Sc and B.Ed degrees, says contesting elections was a conscious decision for her. However, Subbulakshmi, 55, belonging to a Scheduled Caste group, who has studied up to Class 5 and used to be a shy housewife, says she did so at the instance of her husband, an auto driver, and other villagers. The Varaganoor sarpanch post is reserved for SCs, and polls to rural bodies were last held in Tamil Nadu in 2021.
“I didn’t know anything. The villagers did everything, it was they who campaigned… I agreed as I thought I should do something for the village,” Subbulakshmi says.
The change five years later is evident, as the 55-year-old talks confidently of the initiatives taken by the Varaganoor panchayat under her, including formation of women self-help groups for self-employment, provision of loans for the groups, household composting and waste segregation, tree plantation, cleanliness efforts, tap water connection for every household, construction of small bridges, tanks, school and anganwadi buildings, and installation of 26 CCTV cameras across the village.
Her college-educated son Sathish Kumar chips in, filling in any details misses.
“Panchayat has become a part of my life,” says Subbulakshmi, adding that it has seeped into her daily routine. “I still sell milk. My cows yield 15-18 litres every day… With this income and my husband’s, we have ensured education for our three children. Both our daughters are married and working.”
Induja, in contrast, comes from a well-off family, with her husband a businessman who was once a ward member himself.
Speaking on the phone from Coimbatore, where she has gone to procure equipment for the panchayat – from the award money the panchayat got – Induja says she ran for the vice-president’s post as she wanted to carve out a space for herself and be involved in community building. The 37-year-old cites involvement of children and the youth in setting up balasabhas and mahila sabhas as among her achievements.
“In 2022, our women clusters stitched nearly 3 lakh national flags and supplied them through the Tenkasi district to mark the 75th anniversary of Independence as part of the Har Ghar tiranga campaign. Our children made one lakh seed balls in 2023 for voter awareness in 2023-24… We hold such activities to involve children and the youth,” Induja says.
She adds that they are committed to trying different things. “We discuss almost every day what to do next… We also get ideas from AI. Our children also give us ideas.”
The balasabhas, for example, are an elaborate set-up, with several departments, president and vice-president, just like how the gram sabha is run, Induja adds. “Last month our balasabha won a green champion award for plastic waste-related awareness activity from the District Collector. They got a cash praise of Rs 1 lakh.”
Of the two male ward members of the panchayat, Induja says they have only got support from them.
About the government’s move to bring in 33% reservation for women at the highest levels of electoral democracy, Induja says it is a welcome initiative. “More and more women should come forward and be given opportunities…it will make a difference.”
