Jan Sanskriti Manch organized a week of cultural programmes from 23 March (martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru) and 31 March (martyrdom day of CPI (ML) and JNUSU leader Chandrashekhar Prasad. Various student, youth, cultural and workers’ organizations took out a rally and staged cultural programmes.
From 24-30 March the street play ‘Baagon mein Bahaar Hai’ was staged in different bastis and hutments of sanitation workers in Mumbai. The play was divided into two sections, the first dealing with sanitation workers’ issues and dalit dignity; the second raising a voice of protest against encroachment of hutments in Mumbai. This was performed by JSM team consisting of Sachin, Rishabh, Shahnawaz, Alok, Aditi, Dhananjay, and others. They got a very good response from the people for this initiative who not only supported it but also expressed a desire to take part in it. It was decided to hold a workshop and prepare a new play in these bastis at the end of April.
The martyrdom week concluded on 31 March at the YWCA open air theatre in Andheri with the staging of ‘Hum Honge Azad Ek Din’ by RS Vakil and his team ‘Virat Kalodbhav’. Many young as well as senior poets recited their poems in the programme which concluded with a song by a joint ‘Morche par Kavi’ and JSM team (‘Morche par Kavi’ is a cultural programme presented on the last Saturday of every month in Mumbai).
