Leading women social activists from across the country will attend a two-day State conference of the Progressive Organisation of Women (POW) here from June 25 (Saturday) to chalk out an action plan to fight against the atrocities of a various kinds against women and achieve the goal of “woman as an equal partner of man” in all walks of life.
POW national convener V. Sandhya said Harinder Kaur, president of the women’s wing of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan), of Punjab, who had led the farmers’ Tikri protest on the outskirts of Delhi, would set the tone for a brainstorming session.
Noted social activist and writer from Tamil Nadu Meena Kandasamy, who had penned a poem, ‘Rape Nation’, in response to the rape of a 19-year-old Dalit woman at Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, would deliver the keynote address, highlighting the plight of women in the wake of increasing number of sexual assaults, “honour killings,” and acid attacks by lovelorn people.
Afreen Fatima, a student activist from Delhi, would highlight the concerns of the minority community at Shaheenbagh, Ms. Sandhya said.
‘Fascist government’
The conference would also adopt a resolution on the need to fight against the “fascist Narendra Modi government at the Centre” after discussing the situation arising out of various women-friendly laws enacted by the Union and State governments remaining unenforced.
Ms. Sandhya said the Constitution talked about equality of women. “A few women remaining at the top will not suffice,” she said referring to Droupadi Murmu filing her nomination as NDA’s Presidential nominee.
“Many women live in a deplorable condition. Thousands of tribal women, displaced from their homeland, languish in jails as the corporate mining lobby rule the roost in the absence of an Adivasi-centric development policy. The condition of Dalits has not improved just because a man from their ranks assumed the top post,” she opined.
