Meri Panchayat Meri Shakti

I am moving from reservation to participation. My husband is not my proxy anymore and I have my own identity now. I will definitely be able to reach my aim of becoming a self-sufficient Elected Woman Representative. Meri Panchayat | Meri Shakti participant

The Meri Panchayat, Meri Shakti (My Local Governance, My Strength) program fosters community-level feminist leadership in India. Village councils play a key role in addressing community issues and ensuring that residents’ basic needs are met. By law, 33% of all local governance seats must be occupied by women; in reality many Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) are silenced and do not hold actual power.

EWRs face gender stereotyping, inadequate education, lack of financial independence and patriarchal opposition from families, community members and institutional leaders. To support EWRs to fully exercise their rights and build an environment where all women and girls live free of violence, stigma and discrimination, CREA developed a training series under its Meri Panchayat, Meri Shakti program (MPMS).

The series is co-implemented with 11 community-based partner organizations in the Hindi-speaking states of Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. MPMS also builds capacity and knowledge among women collectives, young girls’ groups, their family members, other panchayat members and community-based partner organizations.

An impact study shows that since 2013, the MPMS program has increased the capacity of over 2,000 EWRs and 3,000 members from women collectives.

South-led Women Gaining Ground

In 2021, CREA integrated its MPMS program into its new Global South-led Women Gaining Ground (WGG) consortium, which builds the leadership capacity of young women and girls, and women with disabilities, to fight gender-based violence. This work has led to a deeper integration of disability within the program and helped EWRs lead village conversations on disability and working with women with disabilities.

In recent years, MPMS has:

• Strengthened feminist leadership at the local level
• Created greater awareness among panchayat members of women and girl’s development and empowerment schemes
• Deepened the panchayat’s focus on the rights of structurally excluded persons
• Supported EWRs to negotiate rights and leadership space for themselves