Women to spread reservation bill message via pan-India train rides


NEW DELHI: India's grown up on thrilling stories of a 23-year-old queen who made 19th century India sit up in awe of her courage in Madhya Pradesh's Jhansi. Two hundred years on, the young sporty Rani Lakshmi Bai may no longer be on our mind, but Jhansi will once again be the centre of sheer grit, woman-style.

In one of the biggest campaigns ever, Campaign Reservation Express, thousands of women will take off on May 20th on a momentous pan-India journey — three in fact — of creating awareness and mobilization on making the women's reservation bill happen. The three expeditions, spanning 56 cities and towns, will simultaneously commence at Jhansi, and spread out to all parts of India over the next fortnight.

Conceived and initiated by NGO Anhad, leading women's organizations such as AIDWA and a multitude of others, the idea is to create awareness of the need for women's reservation, counter myths, threats and canards spread at local levels among public over the Bill and mobilize India's women at the grassroots level to come forward and be heard.

One set will move towards east India, one will span central and south and the third will cover parts of central, the west and northern states, all culminating in Delhi on June 7. It doesn't get hotter than this.

With more than 50% of participants Muslims and Dalit women, the initiative is clear that women won't allow community-identity politics to tinker with the country's secular credentials. "Under the umbrella of the Women's Reservation Bill, we will talk of every struggle that we live through every day," says Sudha Sundararaman of Aidwa. The platform is secular, and attempts to divide women on false notions of identity-loyalties also need to be countered.

Activists to villagers will be travelling and conducting a series of public meetings, press conferences while local organizations have been roped in for cultural programmes.