With the paradigm shift, the political participation of women has increased at all levels of grassroots institutions.But many impediments and challenges are highlighted over the years in the active participation and decision-making role of women in rural governance. The social structure created over centuries, working against the interests of women, has not allowed women to raise their voices against the wrong happenings in society, thus they were unable to perform many critical functions at the expected scale .There are evidences where their voices remain unheard by male government officials and they often face ill treatments.

Studies undertaken highlight that women often face problems in raising issues concerning them due to the negative attitudes of officials. Officials do not listen to them when women visited their offices alone; and when they meet officials with male members of their family, officials used to talk to the male members and not to the women representatives. Family constraints and limitations are often highlighted by the researchers for which women representatives face a different set of problems. The male members in the family do not allow women to visit different places alone where they need to go , and men feel that women are elected not on their own merit but because of men’s support or due to the constitutional reservation provision. Women leaders are often oriented to believe that they have been elected to the village-level institutions only because of the influence of their husband or other male members of the family. There are also instances where the husband uses women as proxies and he exercises all political power and decisions . The woman’s function remains only to put her signature in the paper.

Panchayati Raj is a system of rural local self-government in India. It has been established in all states of India by the acts of the state legislature to build democracy at the grass root level. Gram Panchayats (village councils) are the basic unit of this local administration.

Collective action of women can solve several problems related to the functioning of village-level institutions and the delivery of the government schemes in the villages; becoming a strong instrument for village development. In this direction, this project initiates a platform – Women Leadership School – where women can train together to become advocates of their own development and the development of their villages. The Women Leadership School initiative empowers women by providing them information about various government programs and welfare schemes, and supporting them to collectively address issues, while developing their leadership qualities and life skills. In addition, women learn about crucial issues, such as food security, health and nutrition, social security programmes, among others. Women are also trained to apply for and claim their entitlements and to appeal to the appropriate government official if their rights are delayed or denied.

Women Leadership School is a capacity building and collective action platform for a cardre of about 25 women in each village, where they can learn about themselves, gender equity, confidence building, participation in local institutions such as gram sabha, gram panchayat, and community monitoring. The learning-by-doing methodology by way of a yearlong training program equips women with information and skills to bridge their knowledge deficit, face the challenges of patriarchy, articulate their development priorities and have a meaningful participation in grassroots governance.