Taluk Federations

The Taluk Federations are the backbone of SUGRAMA. Any incumbent Elected Woman Representative is eligible to be a member of the Taluk Federation. The President of the taluk federation automatically holds a seat in the SUGRAMA General Body. The office bearers are elected through a secret ballot system and all members who are incumbent EWRs are eligible to contest for positions of the Taluk Federation Executive Committee which has tenure of 5 years.

The process of establishing SUGRAMA has been participatory, democratic and based on the principles of inclusion. Over a period of 18 months starting 2008, an interim steering committee of 7 EWRs representing 8 districts put in place the building blocks that would help form a practical, impactful and sustainable state association. The members themselves formed rules related to issues of membership, elections, structure, reservation and fee collection. It was around this time that the state federation was formed and named SUGRAMA – Grama Panchayat Chunayita Mahila Sangha Karnataka. Until then it was known as FEDEW (Federation of Elected Women). SUGRAMA was official launched on May 27, 2009 in the first ‘Samavesha’ (akin to an annual general body meeting) was held in Bengaluru on 27 May 2009 and brought together 609 office bearers from 87 taluks of 21 districts.