Padwoman Maya Vishwakarma has been elected unopposed as sarpanch [village council head] of Saikheda, Narsinghpur district. She left her job in America to work toward educating women about menstruation.

America returnee Maya Vishwakarma needs no introduction. She is already well known in India as Padwoman or Pad-Jiji [elder sister]. It is being said that due to her efforts and work for the development and well-being of the villagers, she has been elected unopposed as sarpanch in the recently held elections for sarpanches and councilors in Madhya Pradesh. The municipal corporation elections had two phases. Whereas the panchayat elections were conducted in three phases. The first counting of votes for the municipal elections took place on July 18. The second counting of votes will take place on July 20. But this time, the most interesting part of these elections is the unopposed election of sarpanches. In the three-stage panchayat elections, 570 sarpanches have been elected unopposed, of whom 380 are women. Among these women, sarpanches are a 21-year-old woman as well as a 79-year-old older woman. At 79years, Ram Rani is the oldest woman sarpanch. All of them have been elected unopposed. Among these women is also a woman sarpanch who after studying in America came back here.

Maya Vishwakarma has a PhD from America

Maya Vishwakarma has been elected unopposed as sarpanch in Saikheda Tehsil of Narsinghpur, Madhya Pradesh. Her parents were agricultural labourers. But they wanted to provide a good education for their daughter. That is why they encouraged Maya a lotto study. Maya Vishwakarma completed her post-graduation in Biotechnology from a university in Jabalpur. She also spent time doing research at AIIMS [All India Institute of Medical Sciences] in Delhi and subsequently went to America. There, she conducted research on blood cancer at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2008 she completed her PhD. After this, Maya Vishwakarma gave up the good life in America and returned to her homeland. After coming back, she started doing social work with women.

Leaving an American job to enter politics

After returning from abroad, Maya Vishwakarma started working among the poor people. To do this, she also gave up her job in America. After coming here, she entered into politics. The biggest reason for this was her conviction that by entering politics, she would be able to do something good for society. Which she was constantly striving to do. After stepping into politics, she stood for the first time in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from the Narmadapuram Lok Sabha constituency (Narsinghpur-Hoshangabad parliamentary constituency) on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket. But in the midst of the Modi wave, Maya Vishwakarma faced defeat here. But she did not leave politics. And in this year's panchayat elections in Madhya Pradesh, she has been elected sarpanch unopposed.

Why is Maya famously known as Padwoman?

Maya Vishwakarma is also well known as "Pad-jiji" and "Padwoman". Through the Sukarma Foundation, Maya has been an active social worker, and she works to educate women regarding menstruation, female hygiene, and menstrual health. In this, she has been working consistently to educate women in villages and towns about problems related to menstruation (periods). She is also seen distributing pads to women in many places. She has been contributing constantly to social work by educating women about ailments that can happen when pads are not used during menstruation. Along with this, she is also involved in setting up units to make pads.

यहाँ हिन्दी में भी पढ़ें: मध्यप्रदेश की पैडवुमेन माया विश्वकर्मा, अमेरिका में नौकरी छोड़ महिलाओं को मासिक धर्म के प्रति कर रही हैं जागरुक

[Story Translated By Lotika Singha]