Smt.Kalawati Devi Rawat, a one women army who electrified a remote village, fought the
timber mafia and mange the local panchayat now!!!!!
Smt.Kalawati Devi
Rawat, with no formal education, brought electricity to her remote village in
the hills of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, got married in 1980 and
moved to Bacher Village, which had no electricity.
she took on the timber
mafia in the nearby forests and also campaigned against alcoholism among the
men in her village, which was encouraged by the timber mafia.
She said that
"One morning, I went into the forest along with the other women to fetch
cattle fodder when I saw that all the trees were marked with a chalk to be
felled later".
"We felt that
something needed to be done to save the trees and the Taantri forest - the only
source of sustenance for the hill villages,"
She mobilised the
women and they clung to the trees to prevent them from being felled and
conducted dharna before the DC office.
"They first
tried to bribe us and when that failed, they threatened us. We also protested
before the district authorities, held sit-in demonstrations and finally the
officials passed an order not to fell the trees," she says.
Soon, Mrs Rawat
formed small groups of village women - known as the Mahila Mangal Dal (Women
Welfare Group) - that patrolled the woods on foot to check the movement of the
timber mafia and have also contested the local panchayat elections and
decisions are taken by them.
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