DYFI 4th All India Women's Convention held in Mumbai

The Democratic Youth Federation of India held its 4th All India Young Women’s Convention in Mumbai on 25th and 26th of May. Apart from Central Executive Committee members of the organisation, 94 delegates from various states assembled for the convention at Lakshmi Sehgal Nagar (Aarsh Vidyalaya Campus, Chembur). 

The convention began with DYFI national president M B Rajesh hoisting the flag at the convention venue on 25th morning. Renowed economist Prof. Utsa Patnaik inaugurated the convention. In her inaugural address Prof.Utsa reminded the youth movement that a comprehensive fight against atrocities on women inseparable from the fight against neo-liberal economic regime which is causing immense distress and gunger in our country. The advent of neo-liberal economic policies has pulled back hunger and malnutrition levels to those of colonial times. Women are the worst sufferes of this. Instead of reversing the policies which are causing misery to the people, the ruling establishment is displaying pathetic intellctual dishonesty in claiming that hunger and poverty levels are coming down. She explained the ridiculous nature of poverty line announced by officialdom. Acute poverty is compounded by rising unemployment of which women are the worst affected. Employment opportunities for women are becoming nearly absent in rural India. She drew attention to the structural changes taking place in the workforce of the nation as a result of neo-liberal economics. Decline of organised labour has meant weakening of the social agency that stood for an alternate ‘moral universe’ opposed to capitalism’s culture of objectifying women. This along with ‘lumpenisation’ not only of sections of working class but also of fractions of bourgeosie haver connection to the growing level of atrocities against women.
 

Eminent social activist Teest Setalvad also spoke at the seeion which was chaired by MB Rajesh. CITU leader K L Bajaj and CPI(M) state secretary Ashok Dhawale were also present.

Several eminent women activists, writers and TU leaders like Teesta Setalwad, Sandhya Nare Pawar, Tapati Mukhopadhyaya, Madhu Paranjape, Armaity Irani, Shubha Shamim, Sonya Gill and Mariam Dhawale were felicitated at the inaugural session.

Satara "honour" killing: AIDWA demands separate law

This is the text of a press release by AIDWA Maharashtra unit, released by Kiran Moghe (State President) and Sonya Gill (State Secretary).

The Maharashtra unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Janwadi Mahila Sanghatana expresses its deep shock and anger at the cold-blooded murder of Asha Shinde by her own father two days ago. Asha, a 25 year trained social worker working in a local hospital at Pune was a trained social worker. She was killed by her father apparently for defying his mandate to marry within their caste, and for having taken a decision to enter into a marriage of their own choice.

This is one more in a long list of crimes that are being committed against young women and men in the name of “honour”. It is unfortunate that the district of Satara, which happens to be the birth-place of the revolutionary social reformer Savitibai Phule, and which is known for its progressive traditions of women’s education, is fast becoming a centre for such caste related atrocities. Only recently a Dalit woman was severely beaten up because her son eloped with a girl from the upper caste community. 

JMS demands the strictest of punishments to the father and any family members who might have colluded in this heinous crime. Given the increasing number of such crimes it is high time that the Government formulates a separate law to address killings and crimes being committed in the name of “honour” in our country.
 

However, it is a matter of concern that a law on such a crucial matter is being delayed, despite an assurance having been given on the floor of Parliament as far back as July 2009, when this issue was raised by AIDWA Patron Brinda Karat in the Rajya Sabha. At that time, MPs cutting across party lines had underscored the gravity of the situation. The then Home Minister, Shri Chidambaram, had given an assurance that appropriate action would be taken.
 

Unfortunately, this has not happened. The Ministerial committee set up in this regard has not come forth with any concrete proposals. AIDWA has also submitted a draft Bill titled “The Prevention of Crimes in the Name of ‘Honour’ & Tradition Bill” to the Law Minister in August 2010, but no action has been taken. Meanwhile, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of “honour” related killings and crimes. A variety of accompanying violations of democratic rights have led to distress and humiliation for the affected families. Even where courts have ordered protection for couples and their families, in several cases, the police themselves do not take such crimes seriously. Thus, the multiple dimensions of the crime need to be addressed comprehensively in a separate law. We appeal to the government to take up this matter with the utmost urgency and legislate without any further delay. 

AIDWA is conducting a signature campaign across the country including in different parts of Maharashtra to press for the law. We appeal to all citizens to support this democratic demand.

(Contact Kiran Moghe at 94223-17212 and Sonya Gill at 98692-50126.)

Mumbai Youth in Politics

Preethy Sekhar

(This is the text of the presentation made at a panel discussion organized by ‘Akshara centre’ at Dadar on 10th of February, 2012. Preethy Sekhar is President, Mumbai Committee, Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI))

At the outset, I would like to register our organisation’s sincere gratitude to the ‘Akshara Centre’ for giving us an opportunity to participate in this panel discussion on the theme ‘Youth in Politics’.

For the convenience of presenting my views, I shall divide youth involvement in politics in our city into three categories. 1) Sectarian mobilization of youth around religious and other identities; I would include the Sangh parivar, ShivSena, MNS, Jamaat-E-Islami, SIO etc. in this category. 2) Youth cadre of mainstream secular political parties whose motivation is not ideology but monetary and personal benefits. 3) Radical secular youth associated with Left parties and social organizations working for women’s equality, social justice, sustainable development etc.

Before proceeding further, let me add a clarification:  I consider these three categories neither as homogeneous entities nor differentiated from each other as water-tight compartments. These are broad streams which have many shades within each of them but also, in varying degrees, overlap with and ideologically influence one another in the actual world of our social lives and ideological upbringing.

Today, I would like to focus my attention on what is happening in the site where I come from, i.e. the radical secular youth stream in Mumbai city and its suburbs. Youth from two broad trajectories assemble here. Firstly, there is the youth from slums and low-income neighborhoods who organize around the issues of day to day survival and basic amenities. Secondly, there is the petty-bourgeois youth who are attracted to leftwing ideas due to a variety of influences.

The major feature of Mumbai’s human condition is huge disparity in income and living standards. Much of the employment has shifted to ‘un-unionized’ sector; millions are working in highly exploitative conditions with long working hours at low wage levels. There is large scale unemployment and disguised unemployment. Nearly half of the people live in slums. Social infrastructure like drinking water facilities, sanitation facilities, public hospitals, public education, roads and public transport are thoroughly inadequate.  The quest for decent living conditions and employment avenues in this subhuman setting takes the forms of democratic struggles in several instances. This is the primary site where political mobilization of youth along secular radical lines takes place. For example, most of my organization’s activities and activists emerge from such struggles. But let me admit that we are quite weak at present. Lot of socially active youth harbor many illusions, they volunteer to become foot soldiers of elite politicians with clear-cut anti-poor agendas! Many get attracted to sectarian platforms.

Such weakness is compounded by low level of involvement in Left politics from the side of radical youth from petty-bourgeois backgrounds.  This aspect of not having middle class youth in radical secular politics has much to do with the present international situation and concomitant weakening of anti-imperialism among petty-bourgeois youth in countries like India.

The imperialist bloc led by USA is trying to further strengthen its economic, political and military hegemony over the entire globe. Mass media and entertainment industry are so deployed as to establish imperialism’s ideological hegemony. The western Academic world and its imitations in backward countries are also at the disposal of imperialist interests.

The military actions in the name of combating Jihadists and the American discourse on terrorism are informed by nothing else but the imperialist project of establishing total global domination trampling upon sovereignty of poor nations. Imperialists are intervening in the situation in various Arab nations with varied strategies. In Syria, as it did in Libya, USA wants to use the current unrest to install its puppet regime but in other nations the attempt is to salvage current regimes with some superficial changes. The overall objective in the Arab world is to arrest the tide of democracy and retain control of that region in collaboration with the local elite classes.

But imperialism is being actively challenged too. Occupy Wall Street movement, the continuing struggle in Egypt against US backed military regime and massive protests in Europe are very fresh instances. South America’s reputation as a continent challenging US hegemony is very much intact. If we observe closely African nations’ response to NATO aggression in Libya, we can judge that anti-imperialist sentiment is growing in that continent also.

A big struggle developed in India under the leadership of Left parties against the Indo-US nuclear deal which was designed to lock India as a junior strategic partner of US imperialism.  Revelations by ‘Wiki leaks’ have now exposed the nature of US imperialism’s penetration in India against which the Left parties organized a valiant resistance.   The alliance of India’s ruling class and US imperialism succeeded in defeating Left parties inside the Parliament and in the 2009 LokSabha election. But the battle against nuclear deal advanced democratic forces’ sustained confrontation with imperialism’s political and economic interests in India. 

The ordinary people are at the receiving end of the ill-effects of imperialist penetration in India, mostly in the form of economic hardships. The situation demands greater efforts at rallying the youth against imperialist interests in our country.  At the same time we will have to caution the youth against Islamist movements and pseudo radical NGOs whose efforts result in blunting anti-imperialist politics.

In Mumbai, our emphasis will be on taking up, with renewed vigor, issues of livelihood and employment of youth in slum areas. The struggle against social backwardness including caste inequalities, gender discrimination, communalist exclusion and intimidation of migrants will also be intensified.  We will continue the propaganda against use of money power in elections and corruption.

All this will be done in the context of a consistent ideological campaign to rally more and more youth in the world-wide anti-imperialist platform. Anti-imperialism is the key to radicalization of youth. And that is what we are determined to pursue. Mumbai cannot remain alien to the ideas of Bhagat Singh and Che Guevara.