Pressure Did the Trick

Ramsar Panchayat of Barmer district is habited by 150 families of dalit community. This panchayat of Barmer block is dominated by Rajput community, and hence whenever the developmental works in the area were done, dalits were ignored. The people in the village never raised their voice, whether works in the panchayat were done or not, for the simple reason that the sarpanch was alway from among the Rajputs.

Works under Employment Guarantee Schemes were being done in every panchayat of Rajasthan state. Ramsar Panchayat area was also among the villages under the scheme but no works were being carried out. Panch of the ward, Khatu Devi came to the meeting organised in Ramsar. The villagers also participated in the meeting and informed her and the MMBA workers that no works had been done under the Employment Guarantee Scheme in the village. This made Khatu Devi and the workers of the organisation to activate the members of local groups like SHGs, Dalit Vikas Samiti, Akal Sangharsh Samiti, etc. and through whom they created pressure on the panchayat. The people from the organisation demanded that if works of the scheme were not started in their village, they will complain about it to the higher authorities. In this way the panchayat accepted their demand and the digging work in the village got started with 100 people from the village getting the employment.

In addition to it Khatu Devi has also performed many other appreciable works – pension scheme, antyodaya scheme, gravel road making, helping the poor, etc. She says that she wants to work for others in every manner.