Meet Dolly Sarpanch who is digitising law and order in her remote village in Bihar

Two-time Sarpanch of Shadipur village in Gaya district of Bihar, 32-year-old Dolly refrains from using her surname as she believes in the politics of humanity rather than the politics of caste. 

Sitting on a cane chair in what seems to be the veranda of her home in the village, Dolly shares how a girl who grew up in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, and did an air hostess training course from the Frankfinn Institute in Gurugram ended up becoming a Sarpanch of a remote village in Bihar.  

From air-hostess to sarpanch

“Back in 2007 when Meerut was a fairly conservative society, I remember being fascinated by the aviation and hospitality industry, and so, when all my peers went for more conventional careers in fields of medicine and engineering, I chose airhostess training,” says Dolly. 

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Right after completing the one-year course, she was recruited by the Indian Airlines in backend operations where she was responsible for issuing domestic flight tickets to passengers. After working for a couple of years in the aviation sector, Dolly was married off to a family in Bihar in 2014 and she had to quit her job in Delhi-NCR and move to Patna. 

While she was working, she managed to complete her BSc from Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, through distance learning, and after she got married, she did an MBA in International Business from Symbiosis Institute, Pune.

Political journey

In Dolly’s political journey, she says her mother-in-law has the biggest role to play because she was the first woman to have been elected as a Sarpanch in Shadipur two times in a row in a general election seat. 

After her mother-in-law passed away in 2018, Dolly contested in the mid-term elections in a land she knew nothing about and won the election by 129 votes on the strong goodwill her mother-in-law had left behind.

“People looked at me as a suitable contender for the post after my mother-in-law. I also felt that my work in MNCs in the last 10 years had not been so meaningful. While mentally I was ready to accept the post, transitioning from an urban life and connecting with the culture of rural Bihar took some time. It was challenging and exciting at the same time to meet people and understand their mindset as I had lived in metro cities for a long time. I got to see and experience an India that I was unaware of,” recalls Dolly, who moved to Shadipur permanently in 2018 — a month before she decided to contest in the midterm elections.

While she was an urban dweller and was competing against seven male candidates during her first election, Dolly drove her election campaign on her education and work experience and it clearly worked in her favour.

“Usually, people want their representative to be someone among them, but since I came from the city, I knew I couldn’t compete on the basis of relatability, so I tried to show them how I was different and what I can do differently to benefit them,” Dolly shares.

She managed to deliver the change she promised. Dolly transformed Shadipur village court (gram kachahari) with digitalisation. 

“I brought in systems to ensure that every process is transparent and digitally documented. I wanted to make it easier for people to lodge complaints and so digitalisation helped with that too,” she adds.

After her term ended in 2021, she was re-elected as the village’s Sarpanch by the people twice in a row, and this time, she won by over 1,500 votes.

She also oversaw the constitution of the judicial bench consisting of eight women and five male members recently.

Dolly’s work has been recognised by the Bihar government as she was awarded the title of Empowered Sarpanch by the District Administration of Gaya on this year’s International Women’s Day.

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As Dolly proceeds with her work as the representative of her villages working in order to help people, she does sometimes miss the comfort of having a job and financial support that came with it. From earning Rs 35,000, her job as a Sarpanch only gets her Rs 2,500 per month.  

However, what gives her the satisfaction of being a Sarpanch is her ability to bring an impactful change in her village and be able to help people with their issues and problems.

“When I was working in the corporate sector, I knew I was making money, but it wasn’t as fulfilling for me as being a Sarpanch. It may be an everyday struggle, but I sleep peacefully at night knowing my work may have made a difference in someone’s life,” Dolly signs off.