Excerpted with permission from The First Responders, by the Reliance Foundation and the Observer Research Foundation, this article shares the story of Ponna Swapna. The 42-year-old is the Sarpanch of Thimmajiwdi, Telangana has dedicated her life to be of service to her constituents. This excerpt focuses on Swapna’s work, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ponna was born in Domakonda, a village in the southern state of Telangana, to a family of marginal farmers. She got married at 19 to an agriculturist, and soon moved to Thimmajiwadi, a medium-sized village about 141 km from Hyderabad. It was here that her journey to becoming the Sarpanch began. She came across Saakshar Bharat, a nationwide literacy scheme launched in 2009 by the Ministry of Education to promote and 116 strengthen adult learning. The programme's aim was to reach out to those women, especially in the rural areas, who had missed out on the opportunity to access or complete their formal education.
Ponna completed class ten, and went to college for one month. At that time, she was thinking of becoming a nurse. 'But my parents stopped me in the first year of college and got me married.' There are many women around her who would have similar stories to tell. Telangana currently has a literacy rate of only 66.54 percent, which drops to less 117 than 58 percent for women. In Ponna's village of Thimmajiwadi, the female literacy rate stands at only 29.13 118 percent, as compared to the national female literacy rate 119 of 65.46 percent.
Ponna resolved to do her part in making life better for the women in her community-beginning with giving them opportunities to complete their education. As part of the Saakshar Bharat programme, two coordinators were selected from every village to teach basic skills to the villagers. And Ponna was one of them. 'Our village is very tiny and there was nobody who had passed the tenth class, except for me. So they chose me.'
After receiving training, Ponna taught basic literacy to five adult women in her village. She taught them how to write their names. 'Our duty was to teach them alphabets and writing. Ponna's most memorable recollection from the seven years that she worked as coordinator of the adult literacy programme was of teaching some 200 people how to sign their names. It was a big step, for people who, all their adult life have had to use their thumb impression as a substitute for their signature. But Ponna was unaware of how much of an impact she was making on the community. And in January 2019, Thimmajiwadi, home to 150 families and 724 people, elected her as their Sarpanch. 'It happened so suddenly.' There were four candidates, initially, but two withdrew their nominations. 'Her name was also Swapna. I won with a majority of 14 votes.'
Today she believes that they chose her as village head because she had served them. After being elected Sarpanch, she had every intention of continuing to do the same. To understand her role and responsibilities better, she attended training programs organised by Reliance Foundation for Panchayat members. She learned about the basic functions of the Gram Panchayat, the government schemes to which her community was entitled, principles of women's leadership and community participation, and also how funds are planned and allocated.
Ponna then quickly set out to do her job. 'Our first aim was to do good for the people.' First on her agenda were provision of clean drinking water, stopping the practice of open defecation, eliminating breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes, and setting up drainage lines. She also led the Panchayat in fixing the street lights, building a compost shed, and streamlining the disposal of household waste. They have purchased a tractor and several drums for collecting garbage, they provide bins to every house for dry and wet waste, collect them separately, and take them to the compost shed.
Ponna and her team also got a Vaikuntadhamam or a crematorium built. Before that, when someone in the village died, the body was cremated either in the land where their house stands, or was taken to some other place. She and the Panchayat worked on creating a community park of about one acre, and planted trees along the roads. They managed to plant 400 trees for every one kilometre. They also acquired tanks for watering the plants. In all, they have planted some 20,000 trees across their village.
The ward members then set up a vegetable market for the farmers to sell their produce once every week. Earlier, people from the village used to go to another village for the market which cost them Rs 20. These days, nothing less than 50 vendors from six villages around them come to Thimmajiwadi to sell their produce; around 300 people from these places come to buy. Next on her agenda was to ensure that her community could access government welfare schemes. Her team worked to get the villagers acquainted with the Aasara pension for the elderly, the widows, and 122 those with physical disabilities, as well as the Arogya Lakshmi scheme, a nutritional program to support pregnant and lactating women. She also provided insurance to farmers and started distributing rations.
A year into her tenure, the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, and the people of Thimmajiwadi were filled with anxiety like the whole world was. It was her biggest challenge since being elected Sarpanch. She and her ward reached out to the community to create awareness about wearing masks and washing their hands frequently, and provided them medicines. The Gram Panchayat also provided food to the Anganwadi teachers and staff, even when the centre was closed. They provided loans of Rs 5,000 each to the families in the village to meet household consumption needs during the lockdown.
She was fully aware that the pandemic-and the government responses including the lockdowns-could end up reversing all the development efforts that she and her team have undertaken in the village. But Ponna was not one to lose faith.
By May 2021, as the vaccine rollout widened, vaccine hesitancy took deep roots in many parts of the country, including in the rural districts. In August, it was estimated that 1.35 crore people in Telangana were yet to take their 124 first dose. 'The villagers were very scared of getting vaccinated. No one came forward at first,' Ponna recalls. She, along with ASHA workers, had to go to every single house to convince the families to get inoculated. They explained to the people how the vaccine prevents severe infections and deaths. 'People are dying outside,' they reminded the community. Eventually, they came forward for the vaccine. Today the entire village have received at least their first dose, and a majority have also received their second.
(Written by Anahita Khanna. For more on Swapna and the other women heroes from around the country, read: Jayashree B, Sunaina Kumar, Anirban Sarma, Vanita Sharma, and Shoba Suri, Eds., The First Responders: Women Who Led India Through the Pandemic.)