In a rare initiative, 100 village sarpanches of the region have come together and joined hands with social scientists from Guru Nanak Dev University and the Amritsar district administration to eradicate social evils and dogmas. Known as the ‘Group-100’, the team has drug-addiction, female foeticide and the problem of casteism on top of its agenda. They will hold their first meeting at Circuit House here on Saturday to chalk out a plan.

With ideas from Amritsar Deputy Commissioner K S Pannu, the group will hold periodic meetings where the social scientists would assess the progress, based on social and economic indicators.

“During my routine meetings, I found that not even one panchayat was aware of the sex ratio in its village, or how big the drug addiction problem is. This alarmed me and I wanted an interactive group formed to address these issues. GNDU’s Economics Department was involved in a scientific study of the social indicators in these villages, the results of which would be made available to the sarpanches tomorrow,” said Pannu adding that experts from GNDU would help them understand the scenario better.

GNDU Registrar Dr R S Bawa termed the step as “exemplary”.

“I feel the role of panchayats is more than just to mobilise people for political rallies. They can play a major role in bringing social revolution. And with the district administration and social scientists with them, the group is very well poised,” he added.