Thousands gather in Nagpur to support feminist meet, oppose RSS "headquarter" of patriarchy, oppression

By A Representative
Thousands of women gathered in Nagpur at Indora Chowk Maidan following a rally in a feminist show of strength on the 120th remembrance day of Savitri Bai Phule, one of the first women’s rights activists of India, who fought against patriarchy.
Celebrating the life and legacy of Phule, who was also India’s first woman teacher, poet and writer, the feminist meet saw singing of songs, dance and theatre performances, and similar other cultural events to highlight how women have been subjected to “growing inequality and intolerance”.
The event started with a bike rally by young girls and boys of Nagpur and adjoining areas. Women and men from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Gujarat, Telengana and Odisha participated.
Speaking on the occasion, Delhi-based human rights activist Shabnam Hashmi, referring to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, said, the main aim of the gathering was to “expose the nexus between the corporate and communal patriarchal forces n Nagpur.”
Gujarat’s Dalit women rights activist Manjula Pradeep said that Hindutva and Brahmanimism were “two pillars of oppression” and to break them into pieces, there was a need for forging unity.
Radhika Vemula, mother of Rohith Vemula, the Dalit scholar who was forced to commit suicide a year ago allegedly because of political pressure, said, she decided to be part of part of the movement because she believed in justice and wanted to ensure that there was no more injustice like that Rohith had to face.

“I have had to face a lot of pressure since Rohith’s suicide, questioning my finances, my Dalit identity, but I am undeterred”, she asserted.
Others talked of “gender oppression” as being “intimately tied up with the structure of caste and transgender people being denied employment” (Bittu), and the need for the feminists to fight fascism (Jaya Sharma).
A resolution passed on the occasion “resolved” to unite in the fight against the oppressive social order created by the nexus of Brahmanism, Hindutva and forces that favour the ancient law giver Manu’s treatise, Manusmriti, which favours violence against “untouchable” castes.
Opposing anti-conversion and cow-protection laws, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), calling them draconian, the resolution resolved to fight against the ideology “which has harmed women on the basis of caste, class, religion, race, community, sexuality, gender.”
“The violence produced by Brahminical hetero-normative patriarchy is glaringly evident from the 20,300 cases of rape reported by Dalit women alone between 2002-2015, rising attacks on the transgender community, moral policing, domestic violence, child abuse, sex-selective abortions, dowry deaths, acid attacks”, the resolution said.
“We stand against the imposition of caste specific occupations such as manual scavenging, coercion into the Devadasi/Jogini/Bedini systems, the denial of work and access to education for women of oppressed castes and transgender people”, the resolution added.
Resolving to work for strengthening the implementation of “laws around caste and gender injustice, such as the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, and those addressing sexual and domestic violence on women and children, the resolution said, “We commit ourselves to striving for legal recognition of the crime of marital rape, and redressal against the horrific practice of witch-hunting.”

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Counterview

Search This Blog