Linda Waldron, Delhi
The Fourth National Conference of the All India Progressive Women's Association was held in Delhi on November 24-25. The conference opened with two minutes' silence to honour Manju Singh, an AIPWA activist from Bihar gunned down in November 2003 by the local landlord's army. She had been a prominent campaigner against rapists and murderers.
The 350 delegates from 16 states — representing 150,000 members — met to review AIPWA's work over the three years since the last conference, set directions for the next three years, and elect a national leadership.
The national report noted AIPWA's involvement in struggles against globalisation and Hindu fundamentalism. AIPWA has spearheaded campaigns against sexual harassment and assault and rape of working and peasant women. One local campaign involved agitating for a separate women's toilet closer to the village, as women were often raped on the path leading to the village toilet.
Dowry deaths and honour killings have also been a focus of AIPWA's work. One delegate spoke of the problem of women in her state being of witchcraft and burnt to death — their property distributed to the various local temples.
Also present at the conference were delegations from the Women Workers' Helpline of Pakistan and Revolutionary Women's Solidarity of Bangladesh. International guests from Burma, Canada (South-Asian Women's Community Centre) and Australia (the Socialist Alliance) gave greetings to the conference.
AIPWA's incoming general secretary Kumudini Pati told the delegates that, despite its small size, the organisation would continue to seek joint work "with the wide range of progressive and democratic forces of the women's movement in India and beyond, so as to carry forward the struggle in the days to come".
From Green Left Weekly, December 8, 2004.
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