BEIJING, April 8 (APP)::Just a few days before elections in India, various civil societies, organizations, and unions took to the streets last week under the banner “Women March for Change” to demand a change in the country’s direction.
Women in 20 states simultaneously came out to reject the current environment of hate and violence, according to a report of China Global Television Network (CGTN).
Shabnam Hashmi, a social activist and one of the event’s organizers, said that “in the last five years the women have suffered the most. All the democratic structures have been attacked. They have not delivered on anything, whether it is economic and we are saying we do not want a fascist government in India.”
The slogans and the banners opposed the direction the country has taken towards destruction, divisiveness, misogyny, casteism and communal politics. Thousands of women in about 135 locations marched chanting slogans related to women’s rights, freedom of speech and equality.
They also raised the issue of shrinking democratic spaces and crackdown on dissent, an atmosphere which has gripped India in the last five years.
One of the 15 million first-time voters, Vardha said, “We have to make a wise choice and an informed choice. It is time that we try to save our democracy before it is too late.”
The whole idea was to vote for their constitutional rights as citizens of a democratic republic.
As the political party campaigns are heating up, campaigns representing the spectrum of social and people’s movements are also picking up in India. The attempt was aimed to sensitize women across the country to use their vote to change the future for the better.
A feminist taking part in the march, Dipta Bhog, asserted, “We no longer trust the present regime and we demand a political formation which will protect the rights of women.”
The march was followed by a program which opened with songs of protest for equality.
Students groups and even children performed and spoke on issues that plague the nation.
Pavel, a transgender activist, ended the program on with, “We have been spoken about in history, we are present in our history, our culture and yet in 2019 we still aren’t treated equally.
We know ourselves better than anyone else. Why does the government refuse to sit with us, communicate with us and then form bills and laws. We will not be spoken about; we will speak for ourselves. ”
Thousands of women belonging to rural India, urban cities, universities and ordinary women of the country marched in solidarity to make a change.
