Just five years after leaving her job at a Delhi-based public school and living a comfortable life with her husband IAS, she received the Champions of the Change of Hands award from Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu for her work in the remote panchayat Raj Singhwahini in the block of Sonbarsa. Sitamarhi District.
Last year, he was among the five Bihar village heads (mukhiyas) selected for the capacity building program for sarpanch and panchayat secretaries in New Delhi by the ministry of panchayati raj, Government of India.
She was also honored with the prestigious Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar (DDUPSP) 2019 by Panchayati Union Minister Raj Narendra Singh Tomar. Of the 2.5 lakh panchayats in the country, 240 were awarded national awards based on various criteria and indicators.
She represented Bihar as one of the speakers at SEE Talks held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and was among the nine panelists selected by the National Institute of Rural Development, Government of India, in the consultation workshop for the integration of the development of the gram panchayat.
She is Ritu Jaiswal, a mukhiya woman, who is now a candidate for the Parihar assembly constituency on the RJD ballot, a party that is often blamed for accommodating the wives of muscular men as representatives and paratroopers candidates.
Ritu has gained fame for her work in the panchayat, a rarity for a state that has often seen women enter politics as representatives of their husbands, which is merely symbolic of the cause of representing women. capable women in politics.
Her husband, Arun Kumar, an IAS officer who voluntarily retired when he was appointed commissioner of the chief oversight commission a few years ago in 2018, is helping her and is happy with her engagement.
Although he never thought of fighting the elections, his visit to the village of his in-laws Narkatiya, under Raj Singhwahini panchayat in 2013, was the trigger for Ritu to take public life. He soon left his job at a Delhi-based public school and decided to work at the grassroots level despite initial discouragement from the villagers, who felt that he could not survive in the harshness of politics. But she continued.
“Later on, people, especially women, wanted me to participate in the mukhiya elections and I won them. Today my panchayat is connected to a road, it has water pumps and solar tanks, it is completely free of open defecation (ODF) and all the homes and even the streets are well lit with lights. During Covid-19, the entire panchayat came together to help me provide aid to those in need, ”he said, adding that he would like the same spirit to continue.
“When I look back, I feel like I made the right decision. Politics needs new meaning and it can happen if more spirited women and men come together. I was preparing as an independent candidate and I am happy that RJD selected me. My approach is to change Parihar, however I have the opportunity, ”he said.
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