Addressing the mass meeting at Jantar Mantar, AIPWA National President Srilata Swaminathan said that the Government has shamefully delayed the Womens Reservation Bill yet again. UPA Govt.s first Budget in its new tenure had betrayed women. Womens health and education have been neglected completely, while measures to roll back price hikes and ensure food security have been woefully inadequate. Drinking water is scarce in villages but liquor is being encouraged by government policies. She also said that the principle of equal pay for equal work for women was being violated even in NREGA work.
Addressing the mass gathering AIPWA General Secretary Meena Tiwari said this Government, in spite enjoying a full majority in the House, is dilly-dallying when it comes to passing the Womens Bill, backtracking from the promise spelt out in the Presidents address that the Bill would be passed in the first 100 days. Very few days remain for the first 100 days of the Governments tenure to be up, yet there is no sign of any plans to Table the Bill in the Lok Sabha or pass it. She said the Congress is playing a double game wanting to woo women by espousing the Bill, while using the opposition by JD(U), SP, RJD etc as a pretext to delay the Bill. In the last 13 years, she said, innumerable Bills have been passed in spite of massive opposition yet in the case of the Womens Bill, the plea of consensus is being invoked.
AIPWA National Secretary Kavita Krishnan demanded that men in uniform who are guilty of state repression and rapes of women in Kashmir, Lalgarh, Bastar must be punished. She demanded a law to punish Khaap Panchayats, other institutions as well as families who attempt to curb the right of women to choose partners of their own choice, and to guarantee the safety of couples who defied caste and community boundaries. AIPWA National Vice President Saroj Chaube demanded homestead plots for women and job guarantee for urban women.
Addressing the mass meeting, Comrade Jasbir Kaur Nat, who had recently been released after over two months in jail in Punjab, spoke of the struggle of women in Punjab for homestead plots, defying repression and illegal arrest.
During the mass meeting, women also raised spirited slogans against the BJPs agenda of attacking womens freedom in the name of protecting Indian culture.
The mass meeting was also addressed by AIPWA leaders from Punjab, Jasbir Kaur Nat and Iqbal Kaur Udasi, Surajrekha from MP, Premlata Pande, UP State Secretary, Bhanwari Bai from Rajasthan, Shashi Yadav, National Secretary and Sangita Singh, National Council member from Bihar, Anjali Upadhyay, National Secretary from Karbi Anglong, and others. After the demonstration, a memorandum was submitted to the PMOs office.
