Several measures undertaken to address 'Sarpanch Pati' practice: Govt

The Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj is undertaking several measures, including the use of community radio, to spread awareness against the "Sarpanch Pati" system, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The "Sarpanch Pati" system is a practice in which the husband of an elected woman sarpanch wields the actual power.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj SP Singh Baghel said various modes of information, education and communication activities, media engagement, conferences, seminars, training programmes, screening of public service awareness films, broadcasting of programmes through community radio were being done to spread awareness on issues such as the "Sarpanch Pati" system.

Programmes such as "Jan Jan Tak Jankari" are being broadcast through 15 community radio stations in Bihar, Karnataka and Maharashtra on a pilot basis to create awareness about the practice of proxy-sarpanch, Baghel said.

The ministry is also using these modes of communication to popularise schemes such as SVAMITVA for digital mapping of villages, applications and portals of the ministry such as e-GramSwaraj, Meri Panchayat, Panchayat Nirnay, and AuditOnline, he added.