Dear Readers

To work on an issue dedicated to women in panchayat has been daunting to say the least—each entity is an intense area of study. The hand that writes often does not agree with the hand that wields, resulting in dichotomies. Women, of every creed and kind, young and old were propped up to fulfill the criteria of reservation as mandated by a Constitutional amendment. The idea was great— as a woman tastes success she would automatically champion the cause of her kind. Regretfully, the divide is too deep and hundreds of years of cultural bias too severe to make a substantive difference without any groundwork at the outset. A build up was necessary for the devolution of power, specifically for women. Our articles point toward what has worked at ground zero. They focus on entry point activities that are able to align women at the grass root, organise them and hear them out. The biggest equaliser seems to be education. Not only a thirst for literacy, but the all-pervasive nature of knowledge has increased its appeal in rural India. There is hardly any dispute over educating children; the quality and duration of it (usually till 5th or 6th  for the girl child) is however a separate area of research. The Mahila Samakhya Programme, which align women to educate them, seem to have experienced success. A mahila sabha preceding a gram sabha seems to have made a perceptible change in mindsets of women and consequently men. Success rates have soared in areas where not-for-profit organisations have shown unrelenting work in the hand holding of women leaders. Not only have women leaders run for second terms, but they have also catapulted into importance—in the village as well as in governmental circles, grasping every scheme that came their way for the betterment of fellow citizens.

Opposed to this, is a small section on green buildings—another sector that needs to be ‘believed in’ for it to succeed.