People’s Campaigns for Safeguarding Democracy
Anhad has actively worked since its inception to propagate peace, communal harmony, equality and justice political participation of women & gender equality in the country. We have organised huge campaigns and have reached out to lakhs of people through these campaigns in many states and across India. Hundreds of young people have given their free time almost round the clock to work, travel, perform, distribute leaflets, speak and interact with ordinary people across India in small villages, towns and cities. These campaigns have not only reached out to a huge number of people and made an impact but they have also produced wonderful activists by the sheer exposure to the ground realities. About 20 major state and national level campaigns have been organized by Anhad.
Youth Aman Karwan
Youth Aman Karwan was an epic expedition undertaken by students to appeal to the youth of India to spread the message of peace in the country. The Youth Aman Karwan was flagged off in Delhi on April 7,2004 and it covered 15000kms. It passed through Jaipur, Ajmer, Chittorgarh, Udaipur, Ahmedabad, Nadiad, Godhra, Vadodara, Surat, Mumbai, Nagpur, Raipur, Bhubneshwar, Vishakhapatnam, Vijaywada, Hyderabad, Anantpur, Bangalore, Calicut, Chennai, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Katni, Allahabad, Lucknow, Dehradun, Jallandhar, Kathua, Patni Top, Batot, Ramban, Jammu, Udhampur, Srinagar, Mand Gaon, Ludhiana and Kurukshetra. It returned to Delhi on May 7, 2004.
The students between the age group of 14-21 spoke different languages came from different economic and cultural backgrounds. Some came from ordinary families, some from middle, upper middle classes, others were homeless children. They conducted press conferences and public meetings in every city to get their message of peace and harmony across to as many people as possible.
Lokshahi Bachao Andolan, Gujarat, 2007
Anhad , in collaboration with approximately 15 Gujarat based organizations, flagged off three Youth Karwans on June 5th which travelled to 630 villages across Gujarat, covering 25 districts. The young volunteers were given one month training into theatre, songs, public speaking, they read the Indian constitution, India’s Independent struggle, saw many documentary and feature films before embarking on the journey. After reaching a village they first displayed the exhibition which they were carrying, the exhibition had panels on our independence struggle, on the contribution of Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh, and the exhibition had several panels on the Indian Constitution and our composite culture.
The Campaign Reservation Express
The Campaign Reservation Express in 2010 in support of 33% women reservation covered 30,000 kms and 60 cities touching lakhs of people across India. Anhad was able to get over 300 women organizations across India to come on board and organize the campaign in different states and districts. Three women karwans with 20 women each travelled on different routes. The karwans were flagged off from Jhansi and culminated in Delhi. Girls and women from remote Kashmir villages, dalit women from small villages of Rajasthan, women from Kerala, Bengal, Himachal, Andhra, tribal women, women from the minority community and middle class women, filmmakers there was almost everyone, travelling together.
Baatein Aman Ki
September 20—October 13, 2018
A journey across the Nation led by Women for Peace, Non – Violence, Love and Safeguarding the Indian Constitution
Indian constitution enshrines women’s rights to equality, including freedom of voice, movement and rights over their own bodies. We felt the need to evoke the constitutional rights, especially in the context of the spate of violence that has been taking place across the country including gang rapes of women. Civil society and women groups from across India came together to organise a massive pan Indian Campaign ‘Baatein Aman Ki’ (Peace Conversations).
The aim of the ‘Baatein Aman Ki’ campaign was to fight back against the targeted attacks on the Constitutional rights of women in India. With the growth of the overall violence in society there is a deep impact on the lives of women. The mob lynching by the cow vigilantes, honor killings, etc., has become a daily affair. Attacks on Muslims, Dalits and Christians are creating an atmosphere of fear and insecurity. And the worst sufferers of these attacks are women.
Through this campaign, we mobilized women and men to stand together to safeguard the constitutional rights and to connect and bring together many women’s organizations and people’s movements to make a more peaceful, just and non-violent society. Five routes were chalked out, preparatory meetings held in 25 different states followed by formation of coordination committees at city and state levels.
Over 500 programs were organized in 200 cities, towns and villages by hundreds of groups who came together to host the campaign. Between 20-25 women travelled on each route.