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By Ashok Gopal A large Pre-Election Voter Awareness Campaign (PEVAC) has had a positive impact on the recent UP panchayat elections. Hundreds of candidates selected by community organisations got the people's mandate; several women and dalits got elected from unreserved seats
“We faced lots of threats but we refused to be cowed down,” says Koyla Devi, a newly elected panchayat member of Jharvaliya village, Nichalaul block, Maharajganj district in eastern Uttar Pradesh. She is one of several women from the block who, for the first time, dared to contest the panchayat elections held in the state in August 2005. “We told those who opposed us, ‘We’ll meet your might with our might’,” she says proudly. “We threatened those who threatened us.” Koyla Devi’s confidence and the support she got from her community is the result of a large Pre-Election Voter Awareness Campaign (PEVAC) involving over 300 large and small civil society organisations (CSOs). PEVAC was initiated under the Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme, a civil society initiative to reduce poverty by empowering people through sustainable livelihoods. The PACS Programme is focused in 108 of India’s poorest districts, spread over six states. PEVAC covered 48 of UP’s 70 districts. As part of PEVAC: - Over 60,000 copies of seven educational publications on panchayat elections were printed and distributed
- Over 2,000 workshops were held at the block level to discuss how participation of women, dalits and youth could be increased
- Nearly 30,000 village-level meetings were held to ensure greater and more meaningful participation of voters
- A variety of awareness-building campaigns were undertaken by various CSOs
- Regular interaction with many media representatives and government officials was maintained
- A telephone helpline was started to guide candidates and alert authorities about malpractices.
The involvement of CSOs, spearheaded by well-established organisations like Sahbhagi Shikshan Kendra (SSK) and People’s Action for National Integration (PANI), was recognised by the government. The State Election Commissioner directed magistrates of all 70 districts to provide necessary support to PEVAC CSOs. At the district level, passes were issued to CSOs so that they could visit polling booths on polling day. The focus of the entire effort was on increasing the participation of women, dalits and other marginalised communities in a political process largely dominated by ‘paisa’ and ‘pratishta’ (money and feudal claims to status). In the area covered by PEVAC, several hundred candidates supported by community based organisations (CBOs) were elected from reserved seats. At least 85 women and over 170 dalits were elected from unreserved seats—that is, with the support of males and upper-caste people. In UP’s highly patriarchal and caste-dominated society, this is a significant change. In areas where they have a well-established presence, CSOs that made concerted efforts over a period of months managed to mobilise communities to select and support candidates with such strength that over half these candidates got elected. For instance, in the 84 gram panchayats of Maharajganj and Siddharthnagar districts covered under the PACS Programme by the Purvanchal Gramin Seva Samiti (PGSS), Gorakhpur, and its four network partners (Vikalp, Maharajgang; Purvanchal Seva Sansthan, Deoria; Yuva Chetna Kendra, Maharajganj; Bharatiya Jan Kalyan Evam Prashikshan Sansthan, Ghazipur), CBOs selected and supported around 550 candidates for the post of ward members and as many as 325 of them were elected. Around 80% of those elected were women. In addition, around 30 women selected and supported by CBOs were elected to the post of pradhan. This remarkable achievement was the result of a long-drawn-out effort that had many stages and facets. Sustained and multi-pronged effort Father Gibi Jose, director of PGSS, explains that the election of over 350 public-spirited women and men to panchayat posts was the result of a one-year campaign involving self-help groups, youth clubs and other CBOs initiated by the organisation and its partners. “But we have been working in this area for 15 years,” he says. “We cannot say the results were achieved overnight.” The main effort was to motivate people to take greater interest in panchayat elections and make them aware of the roles and responsibilities of elected members. Apart from holding village-level meetings, PGSS and its partners used wall paintings, cycle rallies, puppet shows and PGSS’s three nukkad troupes trained in Varanasi to capture attention and spread awareness. Voters were told that they had a right to expect at least four things from their panchayat: - Regular gram sabha meetings
- Monthly meetings in wards
- Public selection of beneficiaries of various social welfare programmes
- Public discussion on the panchayat budget.
Existing panchayat members were also trained in their responsibilities in two phases: a one-day training programme at the village level followed by a three-day programme at the cluster level. Once the election schedule was announced, the CBOs were encouraged to select and support ‘good’ candidates from amongst themselves. Stresses Vinod Kumari Tiwari, the PACS Programme coordinator of PGSS partner Vikalp, “We did not recommend any candidate.” The CSOs then organised public interviews of candidates. Says Tiwari, “All candidates were asked one simple question: ` What changes do you promise in the village after the elections?’. Many women candidates who were contesting for their husbands did not come for these interviews.” The entry of CBOs was hotly opposed in many places by existing political interests. Reveals Sister Stella, who is in charge of PGSS’s PACS Progamme project in the Nichalaul block, “There were many attempts to break women’s groups by offering money and saris, and some of these attempts were successful.” In many villages, dabangs (powerful people who freely use violence) were successful in discouraging candidates put up by the CBOs. Despite such opposition and much smirking among some of the men, many women stood for the elections and started campaigning. In a number of cases, the women were actively supported or even promoted by their husbands who paid for the election expenses. However, some candidates took loans from SHGs to fund their campaign. As the women did not distribute saris, liquor and cash to garner votes, their expenses were relatively low. Around half the women standing from reserved seats were elected unopposed and had to bear expenses only during the nomination process. The others appear to have spent around Rs 1,500-3,000. (At least one successful CBO-supported woman candidate confesses that she plied some of her voters with liquor as “they are drunkards and swore they wouldn’t otherwise vote for me”!). As the election date came closer office-bearers of various CBOs as well as field workers of PGSS and its partners were given an orientation on the conduct of panchayat elections. Demonstrations were held in villages to show people how to vote—many people were voting for the first time and in any case, with a plethora of candidates, the number of miscast votes in panchayat elections is high. Says Vinod Kumar Tiwari, “We hired a magician to give this demonstration. Every show attracted 1,500 to 3,000 people.” Updating voter lists was the next major responsibility. However, due to bureaucratic lethargy and delays, the lists were not received on time, and were not read out in gram panchayats. CSOs and candidates had to run from pillar to post to get the lists from the block level. Despite efforts to weed out bogus or invalid names, the lists could not be satisfactorily updated. There were more problems when the elections were successfully challenged in the UP High Court on alleged grounds of irregularities in reservation of seats. Scheduled to be held in the third week of July, the elections were postponed. After a court order, a new schedule was set in motion in a great hurry and there was confusion at all levels. In this confusion, camps held for candidates by CSOs and CBO volunteers outside nomination booths played an important role. Says Vinod Kumar Tiwari, “We helped anyone who approached us file nomination papers properly. Many forms were incorrectly filled—for example, the candidate and his proposer were from different wards, or the form for a reserved seat was not accompanied by notarised affidavits.” Notaries had a field day, charging a few hundred rupees to affix one stamp, and at some centres candidates had to stand in a queue till nightfall to file their forms. After all this avoidable chaos, the elections went off peacefully. There were less than 250 reported incidents of violence in UP (which has over 52,000 gram panchayats). The challenge ahead
The challenge for PEVAC partners now is to focus on the newly elected members, especially those that have been supported by CBOs and have a clear desire to work for the benefit of their village. As panchayats in UP have traditionally been run with little transparency and accountability, the newly elected members’ knowledge of panchayati affairs is terribly limited. Most members do not even know how much money was received and spent by their panchayat in previous years. Another problem is that UP panchayats anyway have limited powers. However, even within their limited scope of functioning, they can make a big difference; for instance, by running the midday meal programme properly or selecting the right beneficiaries under various social welfare programmes. The task before PEVAC partners is to train newly elected members in utilising these opportunities to make long-term differences in their communities. Many newly elected members are eagerly waiting for such inputs and have a fair idea of how much they have yet to learn. Says Phulmati Devi, elected pradhan of Basantpur village of Laxmipur block, Maharajganj, with 280 out of 956 valid votes: “Winning the election is only the beginning. We have a long way to go.” InfoChange News & Features, November 2005
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