(From left) Chandarmani Negi, Lakhuni Kambar, Rina Debbarma and Veena Devi at the convention on Thursday. Picture by Rajesh Kumar

New Delhi, April 24: Lakhuni K. Kambar has a smile for everyone.

Decked in silver, the 50-year-old in a pink lehenga could easily be mistaken for just another ordinary village woman.

Only, nothing about her is now ordinary.

Head of the panchayat in Saundatti, Karnataka, she was one of four women village heads who shared the dais with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and central coalition chairperson Sonia Gandhi on the final day of the national convention of panchayati raj.

Kambar, who cannot speak a word of either Hindi or English, had indeed come a long way.

For Veena Devi, the journey hasn’t been “easy”.

“I have been elected president (mukhiya) of my panchayat twice in a row, both times contesting a general seat. I got married when I was 12 and was widowed when I was 16. I had to struggle hard to come this far,” said the 35-year-old.

“When I first contested, the men in my village rebuked me, saying ‘Who do you think you are? Indira Gandhi?’” the resident of Loharpura, in Bihar’s Nawada district, added.

The men in her village may have looked askance, but neither Singh nor Sonia was surprised that there were women representatives from every part of the country at the three-day conclave.

In fact, Kambar, Veena Devi and the two others who shared the stage with the Congress big two form just a fraction of the 1.2 million elected women who play a part in local governance in rural India.

“Our great success in this field has been the number of women representatives that outnumber the sum total of elected women representatives all over the world. Political and social empowerment of Indian women is the greatest success of panchayati raj,” the Prime Minister said. “It is unique in world history and in the modern era.”

Chandarmani Negi, chairperson of the Kinnaur district council in Himachal Pradesh for the past one-and-a-half years, has campaigned against social evils like harassment for dowry.

“During my tenure, I have built the Panchayat Bhavan and am now making the Zilla Parishad Bhavan in Kinnaur. I have initiated a cleanliness drive in my area and ensured that work on making permanent roads continue,” said the 59-year-old grandmother. Her three grandchildren, she claimed, were proud of her achievements.

“When I first decided to contest, people told me that women can’t do anything, but I wasn’t demoralised. Now, I have showed them.”

It is the support of their families that has kept these women going.

If for Negi it is her grandchildren, for Veena, her 18-year-old son has been a pillar of strength. And for Rina Debbarma, chairman of the village council in Purba Dinabandhunagar, Tripura, it has been her husband.

“One achievement I am proud of is the National Old Age Pension scheme,” said the 27-year-old. “We were successful in identifying and providing pension to most people above 60.”