Author(s): J. K. DAS, K. PRADHAN AND R. GHOSAL

Abstract: In West Bengal the three tiers Panchayat Raj system empowers the women to raise their voice towards the human development in general and women development in particular. The present study was conducted with a view to assess the women panchayat leader\'s participation in political activities with the help of some socio-personal and socio political attributes of the women leaders. For this the present study was conducted in the block Barasat I under North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. The District and block were selected purposively. Complete enumeration technique was followed in case of selecting the gram panchayat and the respondents from the selected gram panchayats. The total number of gram panchayats under the selected block was nine and the women gram panchayat leaders were sixty who were altogether selected as the respondents. The women participation in political activities was operationalised and considered as predicted variable and the independent variables like age, education, family type, family size, economic status, democratic mindedness, information use index, political ideology and political efficiency of the women panchayat leaders were operationalised and considered as the predictor variables. The data were collected with the help of structured interview schedule by personal contact method. The collected data was processed into the statistical tools like coefficient of correlation, multiple regression analysis and path analysis for drawing conclusion for the present study. The study had revealed that extent of participation in political activities of elected women leaders of gram panchayat is positively and significantly correlated with their education, economic status, democratic mindedness, information use index, political ideology and political efficiency. Democratic mindedness, information use index and political efficiency of the elected women had positively contributed towards characterising their political activities and their family type had negatively impacted towards characterising their political activities. All predictor variables together had explained 82 percent of total variation embedded with the predicted variable, extent of women participation in political activities. The variable education had exerted highest direct and indirect effect on extent of participation in political activities over other 8 antecedent variables. The variable democratic mindedness had channeled the highest indirect effect of as many as 7 antecedent variables which ultimately proved the importance of democratic mindedness in case of any fare political activity..

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