The amendment in the law making it compulsory for onethird of the Gram Panchayat representatives to be women is not received favourably by the ruling Sarpanch of the village Thakur Ratan Singh Although he puts up a front of being in favour of the idea along with his son Inder Singh he conspires to field wives of friends whom he hopes he can control through their husbands and through the caste network Vidya wife of Bhanwar Singh who is indebted to the Thakur is one of the newly elected women Panchayat members Vidya who is educated notices that the political empowerment of women is only on paper and in reality decisionmaking still continues to be with the manipulative old guard Vidya decides it is time for a change
