Ambedkarite Thinkers Hand Over Gender-Equality Blueprint to Ramdas Athawale & D.Raja

New Delhi- A group of Ambedkarite litterateurs, thinkers, activists, and journalists had a courteous meeting with CPI General Secretary D Raja and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale. During the meeting, the group handed over a letter containing 10 proposals centered around gender equality for a democratic society and nation-building to both politicians.

Sanjeev Chandan, the editor of Streekal magazine, stated that these proposals were initially submitted by senior writer Sushila Takbhaure to Jitan Ram Manjhi, the former Chief Minister of Bihar and founder-patron of Hindustan Awam Morcha (Secular), on August 4th. Senior Ambedkarite writer and activist Urmila Pawar also attended the event. These proposals have already been sent to several parties, including Congress, BJP, JDU, and RJD.

Chandan mentioned that this effort is part of an ongoing campaign. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Stree Kaal, an online meeting was held, chaired by renowned Ambedkarite litterateur, thinker, and activist Urmila Pawar, along with Sushil Takbhaure. The meeting celebrated the historic All India Scheduled Caste Women's Conference that took place on July 20, 1942, in Nagpur, with the presence of Babasaheb Ambedkar. The meeting passed resolutions on various topics, including violence in Manipur, political intervention, and national change.

It is noteworthy that the resolutions passed during the Nagpur Conference in 1942, under the chairmanship of Sulochnabai Dongre, continue to hold relevance, and the current proposals align with them.

Following these proposals, Streekal and other women's organizations convened on August 3, 2022, at the Constitution Club in Delhi. This event took place during the centenary year of the implementation of women's suffrage in India. The demands and proposals formulated during this meeting were sent to the Prime Minister of India, accompanied by signatures from numerous proponents. A delegation also handed over these proposals to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.

Key Points of the Proposals:

• Introduce women's reservations with a sub-quota for OBC women.

• Establish a separate Commission for women from OBC and SC/ST backgrounds.

• Implement reservations for SC/ST/OBC and pasmanda women in State and Central Commissions and Academies (cultural-literature and all academies) to ensure their participation.

• Establish a "Dalit Sahitya Akademi" at both the central and state levels.

• Develop a gender-just Common Civil Code for the entire country to ensure equality in social units of men, women, and other classes. This code should be optional for ten years, with the draft open for broader consultation.

• Ensure reservations for Dalit, Tribal, OBC, and Pasmanda women in government economic projects, such as contracting.

• Nationalize health and education and set a 100% target for women's education, in alignment with the 6th proposal from the Nagpur convention. Many communities still have women's literacy levels at 3 to 10%.

• Guarantee nationalization of land.

• Construct and maintain clean public toilets across the country to increase women's participation in public spaces.

• Remove newspaper reports from the collection of Babasaheb Dr. Ambedkar's letters, speeches, articles, and books. Such reports lack authenticity even in parliamentary proceedings. Form a committee of experts to review these proposals.

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