Youth watch over House to get govt's Act right

The spontaneous anger and subsequent protests over the Delhi gang rape had seen an unprecedented coming out of different kinds of people.

It’s strength had been its leaderlessness and coming together of different groups. But when it comes to impacting a change in the country’s gender laws, the diversity of people doesn’t help. As the government overrides the radical suggestions made by the Justice Verma committee with a regressive ordinance, organised groups who had rallied with the movement strategize on how to build pressure to get the Verma committee recommendations implemented.

One of these campaigns led by AIPWA and AISA, the women and students wings of the CPI (ML), organised a protest at Jantar Mantar on the first day of the budget session of Parliament. They believe that the ordinance does not raise questions of safety and freedom of women but mocks them. Termed “People’s watch over Parliament”, it almost turned out to be a usual left protest, if it was not for one small but significant change. As a JNU student shouted a very-oft heard slogan at left rallies “Ladenge (We will fight)”, the response from the other protesters was not the usual “Jeetenge (We will win)”. Clueless about protest slogans, they simply repeated “ladenge”. This was because many of those gathered there were first timers at a left student rally, many who had got involved with the issue in the momentum generated by the protests.

It is this change that gives AIPWA’s Kavita Krishnan hope. “There are so many first timers, they heard of our Bekhauf Azaadi campaign and came to the rally,” she said. “Six buses from Delhi University came to Jantar Mantar,” said AISA member and DU student Amit Kumar. AISA member Sunny added that “where usually about 60 people would turn up, here we had about 200-300 people.”

But there is still doubt because the ‘Raisina Hill moment’ — as one AISA member called the days when huge numbers gathered at the heart of the capital — finds no repeat. And a government which only responds to numbers of a certain kind might not hear till that happens.

“When we had planned our campaign to demand implementation of Verma recommendations, we thought many more people would turn up. But since the government’s ordinance came out, there has been a decline in participation. The Raisina Hill crowd is not responding even though this is a moment where the women’s movement is so close to getting something concrete,” said Sunny. Krishnan is hopeful and said they would find ways of creating pressure. “We must understand the government is under pressure from patriarchal forces who it finds easier to appease. But there are some parts of the ordinance which are indefensible as they are so ridiculous, like 20 years in jail for inappropriate touching or using terms like ‘sexual modesty’. The government will be under pressure to change at least some aspects of the ordinance,” she said.

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