She's single, has an MA, is a sarpanch in UP

She's single, has an MA, is a sarpanch in UP
SUNETRA CHOUDHURY

MUHPHAR VILLAGE (DHANKAUR, UP) JULY 4: Blink and you'll probably miss the board that announces the name of the village. But it seems to have earned its place on the map. For, it was a simple woman from here who convinced the public to elect her as a member of the Gautam Buddh Nagar district panchayat by a majority of 3,800 votes. Her tools her MA degree and her single status.

Twenty-three-year-old Pushpa Nagar has probably given all campaigners for women's reservation a cause to celebrate. For she cannot be accused of being a proxy candidate for her male relatives. In fact, if she is lending her voice to someone, it is to her four sisters and as she says,"to the women of the villages. "Two of my sisters are MA degree holders and my eldest sister was a social worker who wanted to join politics," she said. Unfortunately, her sister got married at that time and so a political career was out of the question. That's where Pushpa got her inspiration.

Muhphar is like any other village of rural India with a population of less than 400. There is a pick of problems to choose from bad roads, no electricity, lack of employment. And yet, the jubilant mood of the villagers is palpable even before entering the village. Most of the village elders have parked themselves in her courtyard which fits the rustic picture perfectly with the tubewell and four buffaloes. Pushpa stands amidst them posing for photographers, proud of her surroundings, distinguished in her new status.

The male members of Pushpa's family, her father and brother are quite satisfied at assisting her and the latter even admits sheepishly that unlike the sisters, he is only "Class X fail".

"My parents always treated us girls as their sons, and I guess that is the reason why I turned out like this," she said. Although she may have convinced her parents, telling the villagers that politics can be a woman's domain wasn't that easy.

"My opponents spread the word that one shouldn't vote for me as I would get married and leave," she said. Pushpa just laughed it off and said,"I assured them that I was not interested, at least not for the next five years. And just in case I did, I would still be in this area."

It is significant as the villagers cannot forgive Pushpa's predecessor Ayesha Begum. According to many villagers, the fact that she was married held her back from working for the area. An elder, Sripal from Darin village said,"She took the money and just sat at home, she did not visit her area even once" Sripal said that he had no doubts that Pushpa would be different."That girl is good, she is not like the others.''

There were of course other small hiccups along the way. Pushpa claims that she would have got much more than 7,811 votes (total electorate was of around 50,000) if it wasn't for the simplicity of the village folks."You know most of these people are not very educated, so they were told to vote for the symbol related to tea," she said. Her symbol was a kettle while her main opponent Dulari's was a cup and saucer. This resulted in the confusion. "Otherwise, I would have got more votes," she said.

One and a half months of campaigning and many blisters on her feet later, she has finally achieved her goal. What the former teacher has now set her mind on is to tackle the problems."Somebody told me that the girls in our village do not get married as we have bad roads." Whether it is the problem of bad roads or just empowering women, Pushpa thinks she can handle it all. She also believes that she would have won even if that seat wasn't reserved for women. ``The sky is the limit here,'' she said.