Historic Mandate! Bihar's Gaya Elects Former Manual Scavenger As Its Deputy Mayor

In the recently concluded civic body elections in Bihar, women have scripted history by winning 16 of the total 17 Mayor posts, and 11 deputy mayor posts. Of these wins, one stands out the most – that of Chinta Devi.

Chinta Devi, who worked as a manual scavenger for the last four decades, was elected as the deputy mayor of Gaya city in the historic mandate.

Breaking Stereotypes

The results and the voting pattern during this election are much more significant as citizens were allowed to vote directly to elect Mayors and deputy Mayors along with ward councillors. Earlier, only elected ward councillors could elect the Mayors and deputy Mayors.

Thus, Chinta Devi's win points at citizens of Gaya wanting to break stereotypes and choose worthy candidates to be a part of the administration. Gaya's Mayor-elect Ganesh Paswan hailed the decision of the voters saying, "The people here have set an example, probably for the entire world, by electing Chinta Devi who used to carry human faeces on her head as a sanitation staff when there were few toilets here. This is historic", reported The Free Press Journal.

While speaking with the press after winning the polls, Chinta Devi stated that she will endeavour to make the town beautiful and the whole world will see it. She used to earlier work as a sanitation worker and a vegetable seller. She gained the trust of the people while campaigning for the elections as she could relate to several problems people faced with the administration.

Former Deputy Mayor Mohan Srivastava, while supporting Chinta Devi, said, "The people of the city support the downtrodden, and work to take them forward in society."

Not A First For Gaya

Time and again, Gaya has shown that women are no less than men when it comes to policy and administration. During the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, the citizens of Gaya elected Bhagwati Devi, a member of the highly and widely marginalised musahar community who worked as a stone crusher. Bhagwati Devi had contested the elections from Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (U) party.

In the recent elections too, while only nine seats of the 17 Mayor posts are reserved for women, a total of sixteen seats were won by women. The remaining seat of Gaya went to Ganesh Paswan. Women Mayors were elected in Patna, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Ara, Sasaram, Darbhanga, Chhapra, Purnia, Bettiah, Kaithar Motihari, Begusarai, Biharsharief, Sitamarhi, and Munger. Women Deputy Mayors won in Patna, Sasaram, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Gaya, Ara, , Purnia, Begusarai, Chhapra, Biharsharief and Bettiah.

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