With a vision to realise the leadership of women in politics, PRIA organised capacity building training programmes for potential women politicians, young women and grassroots women in the various districts of Chhattisgarh.

The programmes were organised under PRIA’s Women’ Political Empowerment and Leadership (WPEL) project, which aims to empower women to take on leadership roles in their families, communities and societies in order to realise their own visions of a better future. Leadership skills enable women to participate fully in public life, shaping processes of social change and democratic development. Participants were oriented on governance, the Constitution of India, structures and functioning of governance from national to local levels, etc. The programmes were an effort to develop understanding on the roles and responsibilities of women as political leaders in local governance and to motivate them to actively take part in politics. The sessions focused on the Panchayati Raj system in Chhattisgarh. Participants were oriented on the provision of the 73rd Amendment, roles and responsibilities of Sarpanch, Ward Panch and Panchayat Secretary. They were also oriented on differences between gender and sex, socialisation process, status of women in the society, sexual harassment, leadership and various roles, campaigning, communication and public speaking, etc. through various group exercises. Movies on issues related to gender were also shown, which depicted how women are coming forward to opt for new jobs that were never done before by them.

Organised in partnership with Lokshakti Samiti (Raigarh), Mahila Mahasangh (Jashpur) and Srijan Kendra, Dabhra, the capacity building training workshops at Jashpur and Raigarh districts were held on 15 September and at Janjgir-Champa on 22 September.