On 2nd of March 2008 , an enthusiastic public meeting was organized at Worli BDD chawls, by Purogami Mahila Sanghathan (PMS) and Lok Raj Sangathan (LRS) to celebrate International Women’s Day. The representative of PMS, Kusum explained the origin and history of International Women’s Day and said that the problems of women could not be seen in isolation from that of rest of society. She called for building peoples committees in every locality to fight for the solution of the problems of women.
The representative of the Communist Ghadar Party of India hailed the fighting traditions of Indian women. He said the 20th century has shown that wherever the working class established its own rule, it was successful in carrying out far-reaching changes which ensured that the formerly oppressed sections of society including the women were emancipated. He called upon working women to take up the struggle for building of the new socialist society free from all forms of exploitation of persons by persons He called on the people to build non-partisan People’s Committees everywhere, to unite the people and challenge the rule of the big capitalists.
Malan Sonawane, a leader of the Molkarin Kamgar Union, explained that the domestic workers are wage workers like all other sections. They are waging the struggle to force the government to recognize this and to ensure the benefits of minimum wages, leave, PF, Insurance, pension etc. She said all over Mumbai the domestic workers are getting organized and called on the domestic workers of Worli to organize under the banner of LRS. Dr. Sanjeewani, Vice President of Lok Raj Sangathan, explained why her organisation gives such importance to working among women and organising them with the perspective of ending exploitation, oppression and all types of inequality. Lok Raj Sangathan recognizes that the root cause of the problems that our country faces is that people have no political power. LRS has taken up the challenge to build organisations of people that would be capable of wielding power.
Earlier in the morning a medical camp was organized for the women of Worli BDD from 11 am to 2 pm at the same venue by Lok Raj Sangathan in collaboration with KEM Hospital, Parel. During the camp it became evident that the majority of women were malnourished and suffering from acute vitamin deficiency. This is a glaring example of the government completely abdicating its responsibilities to ensure the welfare of the people.
In a moving cultural program, young girls from Worli BDD sang songs on women’s emancipation. This was followed by songs from Youth of Joy and Agaaz group of Jogeshwari. Youth from Maharashtra Yuva Parishad sang songs on superstition as well as on caste oppression. Comrades from Parivartan Sanskrutik Manch from Ulhas Nagar sang songs on the emancipation of women.
