Riot-hit women walk
Express News Service
Posted online: Friday , June 13, 2008 at 10:49:07
Ahmedabad, June 12 On a Thursday when the sky was taking turns being cloudy and sunny alternately, over 200 women walked together from Juhapura to the Collectorate on Ashram Road to submit their memorandum of demands to the Collector. The motley group of women, who had been displaced following the post-Godhra riots, are yet to receive any aid from the state government.
Wearing black headbands, they gathered under the umbrella of the Mahila Patchwork Co-operative Society (MPS) to demand the assistance all riot victims are entitled to.
MPS programme co-ordinator Rumki Mukherjee said, "We have a list of 630 families displaced by the Godhra riots. Many of them have lost their homes and family members. But since they were not living in any of the relief colonies or shelter camps, their names do not figure in the list of victims prepared either by the state government or the NHRC."
With their names missing from the list, these women have also not received any aid from the government and are battling poverty. Many of them have submitted numerous applications to the government asking to be considered as 'riot victims', but to no avail.
Mukherjee said, "All these women had given individual applications to the state government. This time, we decided to launch a collective protest.”
The memorandum submitted to the collector spells out their demands in terms of food security and financial aid. It states that all women should be given Antodaya Cards to ensure that they get the minimum subsistence ration and also that they be considered for financial assistance that other riot victims are eligible for.
A woman, who was part of the rally said, "All of us who took part in the rally today had suffered huge losses in the riots. We had then taken shelter in the houses of our relatives and acquaintances. Now, we have nothing to fall back on. Our condition is the same as that of any other riot victim, only that we have not even got the help we are entitled to."
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