The beginning of my sarpanch life

In 2011, I was going to the Gram Panchayat (village council) office on the midday. The office is at the farthest corner of our village. Along my way, I saw there was a big gathering of men and women. I pulled over my car and asked a woman, what was happening? The answer shocked me: a man was beating his wife with a belt, in full public view. 

I walked over to the man, caught his belt and angrily asked, 'why are you beating her?' The man was also hurling insults and expletives at the woman. I shouted, \"why are you using such language?\"

He shouted back, \"who are you?\"

I said, \"I am the sarpanch of the village\"

He fell quiet. 

\"Why are you beating her on the street?\" I demanded to know.

The woman now spoke: the man - her husband, wanted 20 rupees (less than a penny) from her. When she could not give him that, he started to beat her.

I walked out of the venue and the whole scene was still playing in my head. For two days, I could not sleep. I felt restless. Again and again, one question kept coming to my head \"how can I stop such incidents of violence?\"

I then decided to start an NGO. Once I did that, I also  a vocational training center and started to offer training opportunities.

The women who got trained, started to get work. And I now want to keep supporting women like this, helping them to become economically empowered.