DELHI: AIDWA Organises Workshop for Young Women
IN the morning on October 16, a Sunday, young women from different parts of Delhi arrived at the premises of the state office of Janwadi Mahila Samiti to take part in a workshop organised by its state committee. JMS in its state conference earlier this year had vowed to take up the task of building organisation amongst young women on an urgent basis. It was noted that to overcome the lack of our presence amongst young women in any significant way, the state committee will undertake systematic steps to approach young women and organise them around their demands. Efforts on this front started six months ago when district committees organised a series of small meetings with young women in their area. Through these meetings, it was possible to take our membership campaign in a few areas, as well as take up small need based initiatives. In Mangolpuri, Shahbad Dairy and Kusumpur Pahadi, JMS was able to sustain its activities amongst young women beyond the initial couple of meetings. In Kusumpur Pahadi, after discussions in the initial meeting it was decided to organise English classes as a method of engaging school going girls. In Mangolpuri, several cases of harassment surfaced while discussing with the girls. After immediate intervention in a few of these cases, a march against harassment of girls on the roads was organised and a delegation submitted a memorandum to the local police station to take up immediate measure to ensure safety of women especially around the schools.

A total of 110 young women participated in this workshop. These women comprised of JMS activists, women’s studies scholars and potential activists that were reached through meetings held at district level. Young women from Jaitpur, Jamia, Nand Nagari, Loni, Sita Puri, Kusumpur Pahadi, Bawana, Shahbad Dairy, Central Delhi, Old Delhi and Ghaziabad were present. A few women from Ambedkar University and JNU also attended the workshop. Most of the women were school going students while some were enrolled in universities. There were a few who could not continue with their education and had dropped out of school.

Sonia Verma, state secretariat member, AIDWA inaugurated the workshop. The proceedings were presided over by Kopal. Rekha presented the work report of the activities amongst young women undertaken in the last six months. This was followed by an interactive talk by Dr Archana Prasad discussing the various issues that confront young women today and the ways we can take up these in local areas. After this, eight groups based on the residential areas were formed. Each group discussed the issues facing them in their areas and the possible means of intervention. This was followed by reporting of group discussions by the representatives from each group. The discussion and reporting both were livened by a whole gamut of emotions from anger to sarcasm, from laughter to trembling rage, from anguish to hope. Girls spontaneously presented songs between the sessions.

Through the discussions and impassioned speeches of the participants it emerged that the foremost concern of young women are the numerous restrictions that we are subjected to round the clock – restrictions on what to wear, how to talk, who to talk to, where to go, when to go and when to come back. There seems to be nothing that a young woman can do which can go without passing through the constant severe scrutiny of everybody. This constant state of surveillance plays an important role in hampering the education of young women. Continuous threats on safety and health play a dissuading role in continuation of education.

Throughout the discussions along with bursts of anger rose the spirit of resilience and defiance. Asha Sharma, secretary, Delhi JMS presented the vote of thanks and underlined the tasks for the next phase of organising of young women. With this, the workshop ended on a high note.