Women’s groups protest on the beach, say ‘No More Gujarats’

(Mumbai Newsline
March 01, 2007)


Women’s groups protest on the beach, say ‘No More Gujarats’
‘The action is intended to send out a message that communal riots and massacres affect women very deeply, physically and emotionally’

Georgina Maddox

Mumbai, February 28: Women’s groups gathered on Chowpatty Beach on Wednesday afternoon to stage a silent protest against violence. Dressed in black, the colour of mourning, they lay down on the sand to spell out the words, “No More Gujarats”.

“The action is intended to send out a message that communal riots and massacres, whether it was the Sabarmati Express or the post-Godhra riots, affect women very deeply, physically and emotionally as well as in the context of livelihood,” said Nadita Gandhi and Nandita Shah of Akshara and Forum Against Oppression of Women (FAOW) in their joint statement.

Other women’s groups like Awaaz-E-Niswaan, LABIA, Women’s Centre, Sahet Janwadi Mahila Sanghtan, Stri Mukti Sanghtan and Special Cell for Women and Children also issued a joint statement against what they called “state sponsored violence”.

The statement said: “Five years after the carnage in Gujarat in 2002, it bears repeating that this was a massacre unprecedented in Independent India, openly led by the State against its own citizens. It left over 2,000 dead and lakhs displaced, terrorised and scarred. At a conservative estimate, over 300 women were sexually brutalised-raped and killed in full public view.”

The women who had gathered at the beach also point out that the Gujarat government returned Rs 19.1 crore to the government saying that there were no more refugee camps, while over thousands of Muslims still living in makeshift camps around the state are unable to return to their homes.

They hope this action of theirs in Mumbai will bring some attention to the issue and not allow people to forget about the homeless victims in Gujarat.