Punjab Village Breaks Mould, Gets Women Nameplates

Himmatpura in Bathinda is a tiny hamlet notorious for having the fifth lowest sex ratio in the state. However, it has endeavoured to empower women by displaying their names outside their houses.

Around 350 people live in this village. Besides putting up names of women, the gram sabha also come up with a slogan about social awakening.

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Other initiatives

A panchayat member, Roop Singh, contributed Rs 10,000 to prepare 62 nameplates, one for each house in the village.

"Not only by displaying names of females, we also try to promote female education and help our daughters get higher education in various colleges. We want our daughters to be independent.“ – Malkit Kaur, Sarpanch

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Corpus fund for females

The panchayat has also created a corpus fund for females. It decided to give shagun of Rs 5,100 on marriage to all female villagers and Rs 1,100 on the birth of a girl child in the village. Besides this, local girls excelling in any field, especially education or sports, will be honoured.

"Not only by displaying names of females, we also try to promote female education and help our daughters get higher education in various colleges. We want our daughters to be independent," sarpanch, Malkit Kaur said.

The village has another first to its credit as elections have never been held to elect the village panchayat ever since the village was carved out of Mehraj in 1997. On all four occasions, the panchayat has been chosen unanimously — two males and two women have been at the helm of affairs twice each, including the ongoing term," said the sarpanch.

It is heartening to see bucolic areas striving to promote women empowerment by elevating the status of girls and women residing there.

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