NGO holds training camps for rural women for panchayat polls

A leading city based NGO held five training camps in Jaunpur block of Tehri district to sensitise women voters in rural areas about their rights in view of the forthcoming Panchayat elections in Uttarakhand to be held in March.
About 1350 rural women benefited directly from the camps whose objective was to educate them about their right to franchise, how to exercise it and how to make their voices heard in Panhayati Raj Institutions, said noted rights activist Padmashree Avdhash Kaushal whose NGO called RLEK held the camps from January 19-23 in Jaunpur block.
These camps are basically aimed at ushering in decentralisation of power at the grassroots in the real sense of the term through empowerment of women, Kaushal said.

Supported by Canadian Fund for Local Initiative (CFLI) the camps are organised to create awareness among people at the village level with special focus on women as elected leaders and responsive citizens.
The importance and relevance of exercising the right to franchise, procedure for casting votes and the significance of secret ballot were also taught to participants at the camps, Kaushal said.
"RLEK is going to establish 5 Women-help desk in each block for facilitation of first time women candidates for filing nominations for the upcoming elections in Dehradun and Tehri districts and conduct trainings on leadership development, gender and advance training of elected women representatives.

Panchayat polls in Uttarakhand are scheduled to be held from March 8 to 14 in three phases.