Demonstration marks Women’s Day event in Ballari

KALABURAGI

Activists associated with All India Mahila Samskritik Sanghatan (AIMSS) and All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC) celebrated International Women’s Day in a unique manner by staging a demonstration outside the office of the Deputy Commissioner in Ballari on Friday.

The activists held placards that read “put an end to gender discrimination and exploitation against women” and “stop the commercialisation of education and healthcare”.

“March 8 is celebrated as International Women’s Day worldwide to mark the historical agitation of women in the readymade garment industry in New York on the same day in 1908. Their agitation was against the exploitation and oppression by factory owners and for better working conditions, working hours and equal wages for equal work. It is unfortunate that even after a century of the historic 13-week agitation of the women that demands are not met,” State vice-president of the AIMSS M.N. Manjula said at the agitation site calling upon working women to continue their sustained fight for the realisation of the demands.

Pointing to the importance of the agitation, she said that the historic struggle encouraged women’s emancipation movements worldwide and forced the governments across the globe to introduce some of the demands fully or partially.

“In India, the BJP government at the Centre, which is keen on serving the corporate class, is doing everything and anything to suppress the working class so that the corporate class can make more profits. Women workers are at the receiving end. The BJP government in the State has passed a Bill that allows employers to depute women on night shift. Crimes against women are already on the rise across the country. Instead of strengthening the protective measures, the government is pushing women into more risks by passing this Bill,” Ms. Manjula said.

District vice-president of the AIUTUC Shantha threw light on the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities and stressed how women are at the receiving end of the consequences. She also drew attention to how women workers in unorganised sectors are being deprived of their rights of getting minimum wages and better working conditions.

“The pro-corporate policies of the successive governments are constantly pushing the working population, especially women workers, out of the frying pan into the fire. Large sections of workers in many sectors, particularly the Accredited Social Health Activists, anganwadi workers, midday meal workers, are not getting even legally assured minimum wages,” she said, calling upon the women to continue their uncompromised struggle for a monthly wage of ₹25,000.