Women activists come together to ensure Modi govt’s defeat by reclaiming the Constitution

If you walked into this large room of spirited and animated women, you would feel the josh. The josh for ensuring the defeat of the Modi government through the power of democracy.

“There is a need for coming together. Currently, the 2019 polls are just around the corner. If this government comes back to power, then the Constitution is nothing but a piece of paper. We must think about both short-term and long-term problems and their solutions,” said Kavita Srivastava of PUCL at the “Women Reclaiming the Constitution” conference in the Capital on Tuesday, February 12.

There has been a consistent silencing of voices of those who dissent. The media blacks out several issues of human rights violations. “What should be news is not made news. The real news never comes out. The debate is always decided. Where do we find the news of women? There is a lot of censorship today. It is important to speak of this. Today’s media is owned by businessmen and political parties and that results in a different kind of journalism. We must highlight this because issues of people never reach the citizens of the country,” highlights independent journalist Geeta Seshu.

Highlighting the discrimination with and amongst women in journalism, Seshu says that while the Modi sarkar goes on talking about digital India, there is no access to media or news to a large number of women. Access is limited to women. Few women who have access, face a lot of death threats.

“In the last year, women have had to file FIRs against the trolling faced by them. Women are resisting. It is shocking, but all women anchors do not get the same salaries. They are discriminated against because of their skin colour – the fairer skin person gets better paid than the darker skin person,” highlighted Seshu.

Noorjehan, an activist from Gujarat, says, “There is little or no media coverage of continuing atrocities in Gujarat. The ganga-jamuna tehzeeb is being destroyed by the RSS and women are facing the brunt of it.

Talking about the rights given to by virtue of being born as an India, Srivastava said, “We are a country which has adopted the Constitution, which gives all of us equal rights. But, do we have those rights? Are the voices of women heard in a family or in schools? There is no identity card which gives prominence to women other than the ration card. Nowhere else is the name of a woman highlighted.”

Underlining the recent Oxfam report which highlighted the inequalities in our country where the wealth of 9% of the richest Indians is equivalent to the wealth of 50% of the population, Srivastava said there is a need to fight such forces and governments. “There has to be decentralisation of power, where the interests of those affected must be kept in mind,” added Srivastava.

“We need to be vigilant. All the citizens in a civilized society must be aware of their rights which are being snatched away from us. If we need to have a future, this government has to go. There must be affordable and good education available to every citizen,” emphasised development economist Jayati Ghosh.

When there is a demand for services even as basic as universal health care, food and jobs, the government always states that there are no funds. They always ask “Where will the money come from”. Hardly any of the elected leaders say provision must be made for such basic welfare because it is important for the citizens. “It’s not that once the present government is removed, all the problems will go away. The universal Right to Work –must be enforced across the country as must universal basic pension,” says Ghosh

“Seeing the force in the room, I feel that we will win,” says independent researcher Kalyani Menon Sen. Emphasising the need for women from across organizations and causes together come together, Menon-Sen says unless we connect all these causes together, the voice of women would not be heard or even considered.

Women have dedicated their lives to bring about several changes including right to food, right to education and right to work. “There is no other movement apart from the feminist movement which brings all the people together. It connects people. This power that we have must be used for political agitations and other causes. If we don’t connect or speak up, our rights will be snatched away. The most important thing is to remove this government,” asserted Menon-Sen.

Talking about the threats she faces, Adivasi activist and Aam Aadmi Party member Soni Sori says, “I'm told my bail can be cancelled if I continue to speak out but the state is destroying Constitutional values and I believe it is important to tell people the reality even if I have to go again to jail for it.”

“People’s power is democracy. We need to engage with it whatever is happening in this country as that is the only way we can ensure that the rights are in our favour,” says RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj.

“Whenever there is a communal government, they work in ways to take away our rights. They use the policy of dividing us. The organisations and people who raise their voices are under scanner. Whoever dissents, the law is being used to subjugate them. Such governments also interfere in the functioning of organisations or collectives which work for the betterment of people. There is state-sponsored lynching; the police files cases against the complainants, instead of the accused,” insists Bhardwaj.