We’ve always talked about how there’s very little women’s representation in the Indian government. More so since the government is making decisions that affect all of our lives. But it looks like the Odisha government is amping up women’s representation in their government. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has picked women to head 21 out of the 30 Zilla Parishads in the state just days after the Panchayati Raj elections ended in the state. The women chosen by the party will head the districts of Ganjam, Balasore, Bargarh, Boudh, Bolangir, Koraput, Malkangiri, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Rayagada, Angul, Dhenkanal, Puri, Jajpur, Mayurbhanj, Jharsuguda, Khurda and Kendrapara.
The BJD party announced that ‘young, educated and talented’ workers have been picked as Zilla Parishad presidents. Kunti Pradhan, who works as a tailor and trains Self-Help Group members in making pickle and papad, was chosen from the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district. From the Malkangiri area, a 26-year-old housewife, Samari Tangul was chosen to head the Zilla Parishad. From the Rayagada district, Saraswati Majhi, who is a graduate, was picked for the position and Kumudini Nayak was elected from the Sambalpur area.
From February 16 to 24, the three-tier Panchayati Raj polls were held from garm panchayats in the villages to Zilla Parishads in the district. During these elections, BJD won 90 per cent of the 852 Zilla Parishad seats which left BJP and Congress far behind. This helped the party head all the 30 Zilla Parishads in Odisha. Considering the number of women voters across the districts in the country, more women candidates were elected this year in the panchayat polls.
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Ganjam district, which is CM Naveen Patnaik’s home, 40 candidates elected for the Zilla Parishad out of the total 67 zones in the district were women. In 2019, CM Patnaik gave tickets to women for 33 per cent seats in the Lok Sabha Polls. And in 2017, women candidates were elected in 35 zones in the district.