Panavoor, a panchayat located in Nedumangad taluk, is taking rapid strides towards becoming a women-friendly panchayat.
Kudumbashree, the women empowerment and poverty eradication mission, is lending its support to the panchayat in implementing a host of projects for women, including gender-friendly infrastructure, awareness programmes, and self-employment ventures. Kudumbashree has opened a gender resource centre in a room in the panchayat office, and it is here that activities for making the panchayat women-friendly take shape.
This year, Kudumbashree has joined hands with the library council to get members of all 246 active neighbourhood groups in the panchayat to take library membership. Another programme is self-defence training for women. Initially, a group of 30 women were trained by the women police personnel earlier.
The services of the Snehitha gender help desk of Kudumbashree will be made available in all schools in the panchayat.
Kudumbashree has allocated ₹1 lakh for the women-friendly panchayat project in its Plan this year, while the Panavoor panchayat has earmarked ₹2 lakh for it from its Plan funds. Kudumbashree had sanctioned ₹5,000 for the gender resource centre too, Swathy S., district programme manager, Kudumbashree District Mission, said.
One of the 28 gender resource persons in the district under Kudumbashree will visit the centre two days a week for honorarium. The resource person called community counselling educator will intervene in grassroot-level issues affecting women and children. Ward-level classes are planned to create awareness of this service. Five to 10 members of the jagratha samithi (vigilance committees) will be roped in to inform the resource person of any problems faced by women.
Sunitha S., chairperson of the community development society of Kudumbashree in Panavoor, said the women-friendly panchayat project was launched the last financial year. Initially, an overhaul of the panchayat office saw a separate toilet for women come up, as also seating facilities for them and a room for them to breastfeed their babies. The functioning of Jagratha Samithis at the ward and panchayat level is being intensified.
They plan to set up a toilet for women near the panchayat junction and make the primary health centre and other institutions women-friendly this year. Legal awareness classes are also planned. Yoga classes for women will take off soon.
A survey of places in the panchayat that were unsafe for women and children would also be held, she said.