All India Democratic Women’s Association’s (AIDWA) national conference will be held in Thiruvananthapuram between January 6 and January 9. AIDWA is meeting to discuss six commission papers which include ‘women’s right and the question of unity’, ‘employment and women’, and ‘rights of the girl child’. ‘The freedom struggle and women’s movement’, ‘the NEP and its impact on women’, and ‘climate change and women’ are the other three papers which that will be discussed.
‘Struggle in Unity and Equality’ is the slogan of the conference which will also have Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara’s daughter Aleida Guevara greet the audience. The three day conference will see attendance from a total of 850 delegates.
The conference will be attended by noted women dignitaries such as Mallika Sarabhai, Kerala Kalamandalam chancellor; TeestaSeetalwad, social activist; MadhuraSwaminathan, economist, and InduAgnihothri, women’s movement activist will attend the conference.
Speaking about the conference Mariam Dhawale, AIDWA general secretary informed the public, “Mallika Sarabhai will inaugurate the conference on January 6. On January 9, the concluding day, Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan will inaugurate the public meeting which will be attended by around 1 lakh women.”
Women of steel will be felicitated as ‘symbols of resistance’ during the inaugural session. These will include Shakuntala, a leader of the anganwadi struggle from Haryana, Samyukta Shetty, a victim of a microfinance institution fraud who then organized a movement against them in Odisha and Revathi, a survivor of violence from Tamil Nadu. These women will be joined in by Sheela Shetty, a leader of the farmers’ movement in Haryana, and PhuloraMondal, a survivor of TMC violence in West Bengal.
Speaking at a press conference, Mariamhighlighted that the Union government’s policies are affecting women’s lives in the country.“The rate of malnutrition has grown. Rationing system has collapsed. Growing unemployment has reached a point where women are pushed into a low-wage system,” she said.
