In the spirit of International Women’s Day, hundreds of women and LGBTQI activists marched on Sunday under the banner of “Women+ march for dignity, education, choice, plurality and peace.”
Organised by Concerned Women+ of Karnataka, the march was taken out to “uphold the fundamental rights of all women, including their rights to education, dignity and choice,” a release said.
“The penetration of Hindutva ideology into the mindscapes of young people must warn us all that the slow but gradual progression in women’s rights achieved over centuries is being rapidly eroded, as caste and religion-based exclusions have again started gaining widespread acceptance. Women are at the receiving end of these cruel, sometimes brutal, exclusions. It must be noted that forms of fundamentalism have been historically rejected by the women’s right movements,” the release said.
The organisers said the march took inspiration from the lives and work of India’s foremost educationists Savithribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh, who pioneered the movement to educate young girls in India in the late 19th century.
