International Women’s Day Celebrated

On the occasion of the International Women’s Day on 8 March, AIPWA organised protests and rallies in various states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and other parts of the country. In Delhi, AIPWA and several women’s organisations held a massive joint march from the Rajiv Chowk metro station to Jantar Mantar. Thousands of working class women from different parts of Delhi as well as students participated in this march, which culminated in a public meeting and dharna at Jantar Mantar. Representatives from various women’s organisations addressed the meeting – highlighting the Modi government’s assaults on women’s rights, autonomy and freedom for women. Several speakers pointed out that the Modi government, which came to power on the slogan of ‘Bahut ho gaya naari pe vaar, abki baar Modi sarkar’, was now systematically cutting down on budgets and the Central government’s spending on women. The number of the proposed and much needed rape crisis centres had been reduced from 660 to a mere 36. At the same time, Hindutva groups were mounting an even more aggressive assault on women’s autonomy and freedom of choice. Addressing the dharna, Comrade AIPWA national joint secretary Kavita Krishnan talked of how the Kiss of Love protests by young men and women across the country had emerged as a challenge to the patriarchal moral police brigade of the ABVP, RSS, Bajrang Dal and Hindu Mahasabha. She also pointed out how the Modi government’s much-touted ‘Make in India’ campaign was a huge assault on the rights of women workers. Not just are women workers bearing the brunt of pathetic working conditions and an exploitative work atmosphere, they are also having to deal with feudal and patriarchal control over their lives by industrial managements. She also pointed out that women’s ‘protection’ was now being aggressively used as an excuse by communal fascist forces to unleash a dangerous campaign of threats and intimidation as well as violence and hate-mongering against Muslims – the love-jihad and the VHP’s ‘Beti Bachao, Bahu Bachao’ campaign in UP being a case in point. AIPWA also held joint protests and programmes with other women’s groups in Lucknow, Kanpur, Patna, Bhilai and elsewhere.

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