[dropcap]A[/dropcap] group of Muslim women’s rights organisations has demanded a law against mob lynching, support for Muslim student through reviving scholarships, protection of gender justice and constitutional rights, criminalisation of female genital mutilation, and an ordinance to scrap the ordinance criminalising instant triple talaq.
Muslim women who gathered in Delhi from across 10 states, demanded urgent action from political parties in the run up to the general elections.
Bebaak Collective, along with other grassroots groups that work on Muslim women’s rights, released a 39-point manifesto for 2019 general election, at a press conference organised in New Delhi on March 27, 2019, with the aim of bringing issues pertaining to the Muslim community, particularly women, into the public domain.
Muslim women who gathered in Delhi from across 10 states, demanded urgent action from political parties in the run up to the general elections. In their manifesto, they demanded:
- Support for Muslims students through reviving and proper implementation of scholarships – Maulana Azad Education Foundation and Pre and Post Matric Scholarship, which are not functional for the past few years efficiently.
- Implementation of the Sachar Committee report on the socio-economic and education of the Muslim community
- Regulation of disproportionate policing in Muslim areas as the community was being stigmatised by the heavy policing in the locality.
- Repeal of restrictions on the slaughter and sale of cows as this had drastically affected the livelihood of Muslim and Dalit communities. Due to heightened surveillance, the two communities were now forced to live in constant fear for their lives.
- Extend the period of filing complaints under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 in light of #MeToo campaign, through a statutory amendment.
- Ensure gender justice and the protection of the constitutional rights of Muslim women.
- To scrap the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Ordinance, 2019, criminalising instant triple-talaq
- Government support in the criminalisation of female genital mutilation
- Abolition of the Death Penalty
- Scrap anti-conversion laws
- Increase the budgetary allocation for the development of minorities.
This is the first time that grassroots level groups and activists have come together on a national platform to present their demands centering on issues relating to Muslim women. There were activists from, among others, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
This is the first time that grassroots level groups and activists have come together on a national platform to present their demands, centring on issues relating to Muslim women. There were activists from, among others, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
[Bebaak Collective is a campaign and advocacy group work for ensuring gender equality, right to education and livelihood, and promoting civil liberties and dignity, within the framework of the Indian Constitution, especially for religious minorities and other socio-economically marginalised sections.]
Read the Manifesto.
[pdfviewer]https://cdn.theleaflet.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/29040940/National-Manifestofinal15319-1.pdf[/pdfviewer]
