Bhopal, Mar 7: Pehle Nee Hot Thi Himmat Gram Sabha Me Jaye Ki. Ab Aane-Jaane Lage Hai. (We never dared to attend Gram Sabha, now we are regularly attending it.)

This encouraging statement comes from tribal women in remote Bhamha village in Bharothi Gram Panchayat, 80 km. from Dindori district headquarters.

The Gram Sabha meetings today witness active participation of tribal women. It was not so a few years back. Basoni Bai informed that women had to keep silence. Nobody was ready to listen to our concerns. Sab Koi Ka Koi Sunat Nahi Hate, she said in a complaining gesture. Describing in detail why voices of women were ignored, Ramkali Bai, a Pancha said Gram Sabha was no so active and was rarely meeting. Once a while, we came to know about Gram Sabha only when an attendence register was circulated amongst us. We had to make either thumb impression or sign it for the sake of formality, she added.

'The situation prevailed until the Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project entered the village and encouraged participation of the poor specially women, informs Durga Bai, who has taken up the task of motivating women to actively take part in Gram Sabha meetings and raise issues. She says that soon every one realized that there should be a special Gram Sabha for debating and discussing women's issues.

'We started mobilizing women to organize an impressive Gram Sabha meeting, informed Basoni Bai. She said regular meetings in hamlets were held in which we motivated women to participate in Gram Sabha meeting. They had great hesitation. The main concern was how they would sit along with male members and spell out their concerns. The primary task, therefore was to dispel deep-rooted fear. Asked about the strategy outlined, Ramkali Bai informed that 'we had a simple strategy. We organized a Gram Sabha in one of the houses having a an open space. We informed every one about agenda. How it would be prepared and how your concerns would be enlisted. This mock exercise dispelled fear to a great extent. The day came when women convened Gram Sabha. As many as 105 women took part in the Gram Sabha while the number of male members was 89.

According to Kadia Bai, it was the biggest ever Gram Sabha in the history of our village. Everyone realized the importance of Gram Sabha when agenda was finalized before us. A total of 12 proposals were put up and after debate eight were passed. The Gram Sabha is still fresh in our memory. Surrounding villages also keep on talking about the event. I am happy that our strength has been acknowledged.'

Asked about the impact of the event, Ramkali Bai informed that ' voices of women are now seriously heard and development initiatives have our participation. Savitri Bai informed - 'we are monitoring the implementation of government-run programmes. Though, we are little ignorant about processes, but we know that results should be visible. Recently we found that our village has 23 widows and now we are consulting village level functionaries whether they could be covered under any scheme.