Jabna Chuhan

Womennovator Jabna, who is country’s youngest first woman Pradhan hailing from a small village named Tharjoon, located in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. Presently, 23-year-old Jabna Chauhan has become the youngest Sarpanch of India. The second child of a farmer – Shri Hariya, Jabna was explicitly excellent in her academics. But due to limited income of her father, she left education after she passed the class 12. Eventually, her uncle offered help to continue her education and got her a part-time job in a newspaper to support her expenses. Soon, Jabna began traveling to every nook and corner of Mandi to collect news. Through this experience, she joined a local news channel, ‘Oriental Times’, as a reporter and anchor. Within a year Jabna was a known personality in Mandi, working effectively against gender bias and social atrocities and other women’s issues. In 2016, when it was time for the Panchayat elections, Jabna was requested by the entire village to file her nomination. Jabna, who was just 22 at the time, was not sure about entering politics. However, she soon realized that this was the opportunity to do something for her village. During her work as a reporter, Jabna had been noticing one major hindrance to the growth of the village – alcoholism! Mostly all men snatch the money from their wives, who work rigorously on farms or in MGNREGA projects to buy alcohol. She contacted all five Mahila Mandal groups in the Panchayat and even formed a group of local youths – who were connected through a WhatsApp group. After prolonged discussions between the members of the Tharjoon Gram Panchayat and its residents, the Gram Sabha passed a resolution in February to ban the sale and consumption of liquor and tobacco products from 1 March 2017.