In this booklet, published on occasion of the 10th Conference of All India Democratic Women’s Association, we pay our homage to some of the pioneers of the women’s movement in India who also laid the foundations of our Association. The leaders whose lives and activities are commemorated in these few pages are Jyoti Chakraborty from West Bengal, Janaki Ammal from Tamil Nadu, Manikonda Suryavathi from Andhra Pradesh, Devaki Warrier from Kerala, Niruben Patel from Gujarat and Sukhamati Debbarma from Tripura. Apart from the last-mentioned, the rest are no more with us. But at a time when our Association is engaged in grim struggles against the present neo-liberal regime in our country, which also presides over the unleashing anew of forces of social reaction like communalism, casteism and aggravated gender violence, it is necessary for us to recall the fighting tradition represented by these women that is our glorious heritage. As Manikonda Suryavathi said in 1993 in the last public meeting attended by her, “We have no other way but to start another struggle for Independence!”
Orissa has long been a site of Hindutva violence against minority groups. From anti-Christian violence in Rourkela in 1964, to the brutal murder of the Australian missionary Graham Staines and his…
The first central executive committee (CEC) meeting of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) after the 11th All India conference at Bhopal was held on March 21-23, 2017 in Delhi. It…
For over three decades now, neoliberal policies have resulted in the abandonment of the developmental, welfarist and protective role of the State. This happened through three mutually reinforcing…
The experience of one year of Modi Sarkar has made it very clear that women, especially poor women and women belonging to minority, dalit and adivasi communities, are its special targets, bearing the…
