This ‘Hockeywali Sarpanch’ is promoting girls’ sports, financial literacy in Rajasthan’s Lambi Ahir
Neeru Yadav came to be known as the Hockeywali Sarpanch after she formed a group of girls to play hockey in Lambi Ahir village, Jhunjhunu district in Rajasthan. She also actively works for environment conservation, financial literacy, and infrastructure development.
As a young girl growing up in Haryana, Neeru Yadav was inclined to take up hockey as a sport. However, her family was insistent that she focus on her education and so, she gave up on her dreams of playing the game.
Many years later, call it serendipity or happenstance, Yadav is now well-known as the ‘Hockeywali' (which loosely translates to a woman of hockey) Sarpanch. She has formed a team of young hockey players who are beating patriarchy, one goal at a time, in Lambi Ahir village in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district.
Neeru Yadav - The Hockeywali sarpanch
Most days, Yadav can be seen on the field with the girls, exhorting them to give their best. She joins them on some days, dribbling or dragging; and the excitement is certainly palpable. These girls are defying stereotypes and traditional conventions to play hockey, and the results are there for all to see.
“We now have a group of 2-25 girls playing hockey regularly. Some of them have gone on to play at the district and state levels and are now training for the national selections,” says Yadav, who took over as the village’s first woman sarpanch in October 202.
Empowerment through sport
When she became a sarpanch in October 2020, Yadav came to know of a few girls’ dreams to play hockey for the country.
Determined to let their dreams die like hers did, she set about convincing their parents to allow them to train.
“There was no ground for the girls to play. We started playing on the ground of a private university nearby. I also decided to donate my salary for forming the team and appointing a coach to train the girls. Finally, we were also able to have a ground of our own in the village,” she adds.
Yadav, who has an MSc degree in Mathematics along with BEd and MEd degrees, is also currently pursuing a PhD. However, she was a homemaker living in Lambi Ahiri when the sarpanch seat was declared for a woman representative. With no prior knowledge of local governance but with an interest in social work and the will to give back to the community, she contested the election and won.
The first initiative was the establishment of a Farmers’ Producers Organisation (FPO) to empower farmers to enhance their practices, negotiate better prices, and access larger markets and improve their livelihoods.
“Farmers were borrowing from moneylenders at exorbitant rates of interest. To buy seeds or fertilisers, they had to travel more than 10 km from the village. With this, they not only had access to these, but also information on how to avail of government schemes,” she says.
Schemes for development and growth
Levelling the playing field: Neeru Yadav (centre) and her hockey team
She launched a skill development program for girls under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) Scheme, offering skills training. Following this, women are now working in different jobs in Jaipur.
“We have also collaborated with the State Bank of India (SBI) to educate women about financial schemes under the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, and how to use UPI on their mobile phones,” she adds.
Yadav has also launched a waste-free wedding programme in her village, by establishing a ‘utensil bank’ to provide stainless steel utensils for community gatherings like weddings, to eliminate the impact of single-use plastics, apart from establishing Self-Help Groups (SHGs) for various projects.
“We have also dug soak pits, started rainwater harvesting and laid roads during this short period,” she says.
As a woman sarpanch, she believes the biggest challenge is to define leadership, in the light of men not taking too kindly to a woman in power and making decisions.
“In villages, there is always this image of a male sarpanch with men involved in the decision-making process. When I took charge, certain egos were hurt, and there was some amount of displeasure, but when they saw the results of the work I was doing, they began accepting me,” Yadav says.
She also adds that the reservation for women in local governance is a step in the right direction. She derides the rule of sarpanchpatis—husbands taking charge of their wives’ panchayats, and believes women can fight for elections, win, and govern on their own.
“If we have women at the ministerial and block levels ruling without the interference of their husbands, then change will happen at the panchayat level too,” she says.
According to her women are efficient at time management, multi-tasking, and have an emotional connect that helps them to be good leaders. She’s happy that more women are attending the gram sabhas and voicing their opinions.
Recently, Yadav made an appearance on Kaun Banega Crorepati, where she shared her story of positive change in Lambi Ahir. She won, Rs 6.70 lakh on the show, which she will use to promote girls’ sports, and for environmental conservation through the Aditri Foundation, an NGO she actively manages.
With two years remaining in her term, Yadav’s vision for Lambi Ahir is far-reaching.
“My dream is to build a stadium in the village. Also, women in the village don’t have a specific place to prepare for competitive exams, and a library will be useful for them. I am also looking forward to the girls playing hockey for the country,” she says, as she signs off.
Edited by Affirunisa Kankudti