Leaders in Making

The constitution in its Seventy Third and Seventy Fourth Amendments at the fag end of the last century revolutionized the Indian administrative system. The Indian Union bestowed with federal structure consisting of Union and States established another set of federation within state. Thus the Indian union has got two sets of federation –one between Union and State and the other between States and Local Government. The local government units thus have been placed as a government at third level. These historical enactments have established democratic decentralization. They mandate the obligatory reservation of seats to the tune of one third for women and proportionate to their population to the members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. A scope is there for reserving the seats for OBCs as well, and most of the states have gone for that also. Thus leadership has been imposed on politically amateur and locally vulnerable sections of the society. In countryside this imposed leadership has opened a fiesta for proxy decision making at local level. A decade is not sufficient to bring change in social mind set, but it is quite adequate to indicate the setting of tone of the society. The volume presents a galaxy of experiences from across the country. It analyses the situation arisen due to imposed leadership role on women at local level. The conflicts arising out of the dual role of women as people’s representatives and house manager, between imposed role and traditional role, add flavor. This maiden effort would act as a policy indicator for formulating strategy for empowering the women at grassroot level.