Pooja Gujjar is the deputy “sarpanch” – Hindi for leader – of her school’s Bal Panchayat in the village of Chaudhula, Viratnagar, Rajasthan, and she’s 11 years old. The Bal, or “children’s” Panchayat, is promoted by non-profit organizations across India to encourage children in rural areas to improve their own lives, as well as work with the Gram Panchayat to implement their initiatives.

Pooja’s experience in the Bal Panchayat holds real potential. The 73rd Amendment, which was implemented in 1993 to give constitutional mandate to the Panchayat system, requires that no less than one-third of all seats be reserved for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and women. The amendment has given women, in particular lower caste women, the impetus and government support to seek power in a patriarchal society, where women have historically played a subservient role, not least of all in politics.

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) will soon start training women who are actively involved in developmental work with various political parties, but don’t get a chance to be in mainstream politics.

Besides those who are into active politics, the workshops will also target women in developmental work and those in an ‘alternative’ political space. “A primary reason of our involvement here is because we see women in politics as a mode of their empowerment and a tool of social change,” she said. Training will be given in areas like the roles of a municipal body, how to prepare the budget and ways to speak up in meetings. “We will train them in advocacy and ways in which political parties operate in urban spaces. Women who do a lot of work on ground are rarely aware of how to engage themselves in electoral politics or be vocal. We want to change this,” Bhide said.

Under the banner of “No Spring without Women,” a Lebanese feminist organisation has organized a march in Beirut, as part of the 5th New Arab Woman Forum. The slogan of the march is “Sawa Sawa”, which in this context means “Let’s walk together, let’s make it together”, calling for a Spring that includes both men and women. Before getting the invitation to this march, my mind was already preoccupied with the future of Arab women after the revolutions and how women’s status might be impacted in each of the Arab countries. My concern is: can there be Arab union or organisation to sustain Arab women’s status in the post-revolution era?

Women in the Arab world have suffered in the revolutions, but the question now is, what will the outcome of all this suffering and sacrifice be? To date, the revolutions have not resulted in any improvement in women’s status. In Egypt, there are now voices saying that women should leave the revolution to men, and during a demonstration on International Women’s Day in March, men jeered at the women marching, telling them to go home and feed their babies.