The 'first husband' of Maheshpur

As long as we keep implementing gender-based reservations without working on attitude change, gender equality will continue to seem as distant as Maheshpur is from the rest of India

Arecent visit to Maheshpur village in Mirzapur turned out to be an eye-opener. Just off National Highway 135 to Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, Maheshpur is in one of Mirzapur’s most backward blocks. It is estimated that not even 40 per cent of the women there are literate. The few who are forced to work because of straitened finances, work as labourers. In order to empower women and bring more of them into the political arena, the government reserved a couple of gram pradhan seats here for women. It’s a good idea, at least on paper. However, a recent encounter with