Page 79 - SocialHarmony

A Harmonious Village: A Journey towards Belonging and Prosperity 83

their village had collectively decided not to have any male
member in the panchayat. I was pleased to see these ladies taking
up the entire responsibility of the village. My conversation with
them is still fresh in my mind as it was very inspiring for me.
They told me that they wanted to free their village from poverty.
In the past, I have seen panchayat members demanding grants
and making applications to the government for building roads
and schools, but the desire of these ladies to remove poverty
from their entire village was a unique one. I instructed the
district officer to support them for the next five years and in
that time, they worked endlessly to give work to every poor
person in the village. These elected ladies had thought of
something that no-one else in India has seriously considered.
We usually consider women to be weaker than men, but I feel
that women are stronger. If I ask a man to go and talk to a group
of ten women, he might hesitate; but if I ask a woman to give a
message to ten men, she will go up to them at once without
becoming nervous or conscious. It is important that women
should have the desire to improve their village and stop wrong
things from happening. I promise all ladies that if they
undertake this task, the State Government will help them in all
ways. I will personally ask the TDO and DDO to help them out
in any task that they plan to carry out, even more than what
they help the men, because women succeeding at this job will
give a new ray of hope to everyone.

Farmers on the Path to Success
There is a village in Kutch by the name of Gorevadi, near

the Pakistan border. The people of this village are always willing
to work on construction sites, be it a five-star hotel or a palatial
house. The village Linchakdi in South Gujarat exports
cashewnuts and mangoes to the tune of ` 200 lakhs every year,
creating financial independence for the natives. I request all
the members of panchayats to create an environment where it
is possible for the youth to find employment. Achievements such
as these are possible if there is a vision and the willingness to
work hard. Gujarat has carried out several projects for water