Date –25th September, 2018
Theme - Lynching
Resource Person - Shujayathulla, ISI

On September 25, 2018 around 25 women gathered at the Surya MahilaSeva Sangha, Mico Layout for a Marmara to discuss the prevalent issue of lynching. After a brief introduction of the members from Vimochana and Mr. Shujayathulla, the resource person from Indian Social Institute, the women were given an overview of Marmara, an initiative by Vimochana. They were also introduced to ‘BateinAman Ki’, a campaign planned between September 22 and October 13, 2018, to galvanize women and men across India to rise to propagate peace, harmony, love and safeguard constitutional values. They were invited for the event on September 27 at Freedom Park.

As Shujayathulla started to talk about lynching, the women got into a serious discussion on this ghastly act hounding our Country in recent times. He narrated various incidents of lynching resulting in the deaths of 79 people since 2014. He also emphasized that the reason for these acts were petty and were mostly targeted at Muslims, Dalits and other minority groups.

As the discussion progressed, the women expressed their opinion that during incidents like these, their voice would not be heard and nobody would be willing to listen to them if they stood with the victim and they also feared that they might get into problems. They were also very disturbed with the reaction of the government to these acts. They were advised that Marmara could be a medium where they can be heard collectively and it will be more effective to gather in groups and show solidarity to fight against such social crimes.

As most of them were domestic workers they also wanted to know more about what facilities/benefits they could avail from the Government. They were assured that another awareness program will be held in the coming days to give them more details on the same.

 

Photos of the Marmara