Pooja Gujjar, deputy sarpanch, bal panchayat, Government Upper Primary Sanskrit School, Chaudhula village, Rajasthan.
By Naomi S. Hernandez
Pooja Gujjar, an 11 year-old girl from the village of Chaudhula, Viratnagar, Rajastan, in India, holds the position of deputy leader in her school’s Bal Panchayat, which is an initiative across rural India supported by various non-profit organizations that encourages children to form groups that follow a parliamentary system that improve their lives. The Bal Panchayat is modeled after the Gram Panchayat, which is a local governing institution in the villages. The initiative fosters the practice of democracy and encourages the children to draft demands and seek change in their environment and actively engage in the political process. “Before the Bal Panchayat the other students would take their complaints to the headmaster,” Pooja says. “But now they come directly to me.” The Bal Panchayat sits in meetings with the Gram Panchayat in Chaudhula, and the concerns and petitions of the children are taken into consideration.
As a candidate, Pooja had to create a political campaign to get support and identify issues that were important to her. One of her campaign promises was to get more children into schools. She has also taken up the cause of building a kitchen in her school because the conditions under which the school children’s meals were cooked were unsanitary. She, along with the other members of the children’s Panchayat, were able to get the measure passed by the Gam Panchayat and soon their school had a brand-new and safe kitchen. Pooja, within her role as deputy leader, is able to generate real change that affects those in her community and particularly the children of Chaudhula and is an influential member actively participating in the political system.
Read more about Pooja at: http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/indias-child-politicians-bring-change-to-rural-villages/