Kalgachia, a sleepy little village of Barpeta district, 156 kms away from the hub of Guwahati city, with a population of approximately 6,000 inhabitanta predominantly belonging to the Muslim community is the home and heart of sayeda Begum. Till very recently Sayada was managing her household like any normal wife and mother and was also engaged as a school teached to contribute to the family kitty. But the panchayati elections held on 27th December 2001 changed her life forever. When the number 6 Kalgachia Zilla Parishad Constituency under Barpeta Zilla Parisad was made a reserve seat as per the guidelines of the panchayati raj Institutions reserving 33% seats for women, Sayada was encouraged by her peers to contest the elections on a Congress ticket. Sayada won and since then there has been no looking back. Today she proudly says that "as a Zilla parishad member I have been able to do service in my area which normally perhaps I would not have been able to do. I have received Rs. 5,50,000/- under SGRY schemes which I have utilised for construction of roads, culverts, a community hall near the local Nabajyoti College which has greatly benefited the people in my area. I have also implemented the construction of market sheds at Kalgachia market and built additional classrooms for the students of Balarpather Adarsha balika Bidyalaya." Direct involvement of village women in developmental activities of their areas would have remained a distant dream had it not been for the revival of the Panchayati raj Institution and 33% reservation for women in the panchayat election-an initiative

taken by our late Prime Minister Shri Rajib Gandhi. One of the first tasks undertaken by the Congress government in Assam under the chief ministership of Sri Tarun Gogoi was to hold the panchayati raj elections- the implementation of which has thus fulfilled Rajivji's dream of empowering many Sayadas at the grassroot level and ensuring their active participation in the democratic process of governance.
The Barpeta Zilla Parishad together with Sayeda has eight women members. Jayanti Das, aged 45, a schedule caste lady Congress member from the Senga Zilla Parishad constituency has been selected as the Vice-Chairperson of the Barpeta Zilla Parishad. She is unmarried and to use her own words totally devoted to public life. According to her the Panchayati Raj Institutions have empowered women by making them aware of the various schemes and benefits that can be achieved for the welfare of the women in society. The schemes like The Indira Aabas Yojana (IAY) which benefits widows and unmarried women, the National Social assistance Programme (NSAP), which also includes old age pension, family benefit and maternity benefit are greatly beneficial for rural women. As a Zilla Parishad Vice-Chairperson all the women of her area look up to her for guidence and help and being a women it is definitely easier to understand women's problems which she tries to solve effectively.
Given the right kind of opportunities and work environment, women have been known to discharge their duties with greater sincerity than