In what could be described as `incentive-driven' empowerment of women, as many as 254 villages in Gujarat have entrusted their panchayats entirely to the women; to college-going girls in one case.

All panchayat members including the sarpanch in these villages are women, elected unopposed under the state government's `samras' scheme. The number of such all-women panchayats has risen from 20 in the last elections to 254 this time, said Deputy Rural Development Commissioner, M S Vyas. Elections to 10,405 village panchyats in the state will be held on December 29.

But in 2,147 villages, which have opted for samras scheme, panchayat members have been declared elected unopposed, and 254 of them have all-women panchayats. The objective of samras is to avoid inter-village enmities which the election politics creates.

The government had declared a reward of Rs 3 lakh for all-women panchayats for villages with under-5,000 population, and of Rs 5 lakh for villages with above-5,000 population. Siswa, in Anand district, has opted for samras, and handed over administration to educated young girls for the next five years.

All the twelve members of the panchayat are college-going girls. "Although financial incentive must be a reason for the villagers to empower women in this way, this is a development as women will get training in running the administration. In the long run, they will be ready to handle bigger responsibilities," said rural development and panchayat minister, Narottam Patel.