The Sashakt Panchayat-Netri Abhiyaan is bringing structured training to women representatives . Mentorship structures formalise knowledge transfer between experienced and newer sarpanches 3 min read May 11, 2026 06:15 AM IST First published on: May 11, 2026 at 06:15 AM IST Puspanjali Bhuyan, a woman sarpanch, had a plan. Before the gram sabha, the village assembly, met in Namanguda, a village of nearly 5,000 people in Odisha, she gathered the women together. In that earlier meeting of the mahila sabha, they discussed what concerned them most: Violence women faced behind closed doors and in public spaces that felt unsafe, girls who had stopped going to school, and women shut out of economic opportunity. By the time the larger village council convened, the women arrived with a unified voice and a deliberated agenda. The gram sabha passed a resolution declaring zero tolerance for violence. A women’s help desk was established. A village conversation became an act of governance.…