Activists call for a strong civil society to uphold people’s rights

Rally by AIDWA, DYFI, and SFI on International Human Rights Day calls for upholding rights and government accountability.

A rally was taken out under the aegis of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and Students Federation of India (SFI) from Gandhi Statute near the GVMC building to the Gurajada Statue at RTC Complex junction, on the occasion of International Human Rights Day on Tuesday.

The rally concluded in a human chain. Participants raised slogans against the “growing attacks on girls, students and women”. They said that the Indian Constitution provides political, economic and social rights to all citizens. It also enables citizens to wage struggles to achieve their rights. Though there were several laws for the protection of the rights of women, children and minorities, they were not being properly implemented by the government, they said.

This was contributing to an increase in crimes against students and sexual harassment of single women. Youngsters were destroying their future by getting addicted to drugs. They alleged that the governments were promoting social evils like consumption of alcohol with an eye on revenue, ignoring the future of youngsters.

They called for a strong civil society to promote human rights and to make the governments accountable. “Our rights are our future,” they said and called upon students, youths, women and all citizens to strive for upholding rights.

AIDWA State president B. Prabhavathi, district president B. Padma, secretary Y. Satyavathi, CITU district secretary P. Mani, DYGI district president USN Raju and secretary K. Santosh and district leaders K. Kumari, B. Bharathi, K. Anuradha, Venkatalakshmi and B. Mamatha were among those who participated.