RAIPUR: In what is seen as a decisive move towards empowering women, a village ‘Ranai’ of Koriya district in Chhattisgarh, has secured an extraordinary achievement in the recently held 3-tier panchayat polls, where only the women candidates got elected to all positions right from sarpanch to panch from every 15 wards. Ranai gram panchayat is around 350 km north of Raipur.
Interestingly, all the women were elected unopposed and the Ranai village appeared unanimously firm with their decision as a symbolic gesture to politically empower the women while trusting their decision-making capability and preparation of an action plan for development. Earlier, Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992 specified reservation of one-third seats in panchayats for women and later Chhattisgarh got it increased to 50% for women in 2008.
Ranai village, with lush green environment with very fertile soil for agriculture, has a population of around 1900 and located 15 km from the district headquarters.