Women vent their anger, pain

"People kill each other if there is a couple found loving each other outside their caste, or religion. And bodies are not even touched to be cremated. They just lie there, near our homes."

Women spoke courageously on Saturday on a public platform organised by Act Now for Harmony And Democracy (ANHAD), for women of Gujarat, urban and rural, to come out and voice their concerns.

"Over 1,000 women across 20 districts talked about issues still plaguing their districts and villages. While some spoke about  brutal violence others described problems related to water and electricity, the basic amenities," managing trustee, ANHAD, Shabnam Hashmi said.

"To bring out new voices and cases that existed but were never spoken about we decided to conduct a training for our activists," she added. Two women, Manisha Trivedi and Noorjahan Diwan, were selected to visit various villages of Gujarat and listen to women.  

Diwan said, "Since two months we have been meeting different women and have been listening to their problems - unemployment, education, water, electricity and the like. It was a shame to have witnessed untouchability in Gandhi's land and that too with the CM, Narendra Modi's claims of Vibrant Gujarat."

Dr Mehrunnisa Desai, president of Association of Muslim Women's Associations (AMWA) said, "Women continue to be in an extremely bad situation. In Navratri 2011 alone, 11 girls in the age group of 12-21 years have vanished and police have no clue about them."