Tamil Nadu Federation of Women Presidents of Panchayat Government
State Committee Meeting of Tamil Nadu Federation of Women Panchayat Presidents of Panchayat Government (TNFWPPG) held on 28 Feb 2017 at Chennai. 20 Women panchayat presidents from 8 districts and 15 NGOs participated in this meeting. Mr.M.Jeeva, Convenor, Tamil Nadu NGO Alliance for Empowerment of Panchayat Government (TNNAEPG), Ms.A.Gandhimathi, Ms.Jesurethinam, Ms.N.Chitra, Advisors of TNFWPPG, Ms.Annie Namala, Managing Trustee/Director, HRF, Ms.Annalakshmi, coordinator, Law Trust and Ms.V.Indira, Sr.Coordinator, HRF delivered their views in the meeting.
TNFWPPG is working tirelessly for the past 20 years. So far the Federation has organized five State Level Conventions for the Panchayat Presidents. On several occasions the State Committee members met the leaders of various political parties and members of legislative assembly during the budget session and lobbied to support their demands and also addressed the press.
The Committee members were congratulated for achieving 50% reservation for women in the local body elections. Due to the federation’s continuous efforts illegal sand mining has been contained drastically, land encroachment has been blocked and the number of Women participating in the Grama Sabha meetings has increased. through federation. Women panchayat president were elected 2 to 3 times.
Women panchayat presidents shared their challenges in panchayat administration like district administration giving no objection certificates for polluting companies without consulting panchayats, non – cooperation of revenue officials in reclaiming illegally occupied panchayat common lands and discrimination by dominant caste council members’ political interferences.
The need for restructuring the existing state committee of the federation for more democratic participation of members and for collective leadership to administer the activities of the federation was also discussed. The Executive body has been restructured from individual to collective leadership. The present structure has the Executive Committee, Central Committee and State Committee. The leaders of the Federation urged the Government to take immediate steps to give salary and pension for Panchayat Presidents, and allocate funds for it.
