Men cant know pain of abuse. Now weve a voice

Profession: Activist

She cant tell a letter from another but Bhagwan Devi has suffered enough to understand why women need reservation in Parliament. Born in Bengal,she was married off at 13. She left her husbands house a few years later following a life of abuse. At 21,she came to Delhi with her four children. It was an experience of pain that led me to join the movement for women empowerment. We want equality, she said as she prepared to march to Parliament with others from the Akhil Bhartiya Janwadi Mahila Sanghatana. I am willing to do anything,to throw stones,even. This (the Womens Bill) has to pass, she said before the passage of the Bill. Only we women understand our pain,our issues. We need women to bring those to the table.

Anuvinda Varkey

Profession: Lawyer,General Secretary of YWCA,Delhi

It was not until she entered college that Anuvinda Varkey learned not to take the issue of womens rights as a given. At home she never had to fight or ask for what others didnt have the freedom of choice. It was exposed to womens issues on campus,where students argued about womens issues. When her 14-year-old daughter asked her husband why only women have to teach at the Sunday school,she knew the questions were still relevant decades later.

She asked my husband why not men and he said yes,why not. The questions are being asked, she said. Varkey joined the YWCA,one of the nine womens groups protesting for the passage of the Womens Reservation Bill,a year ago.

Sudha Sundararaman

Profession: General Secretary of AIDWA

Sitting in her Talkatora Road office,Sudha was busy mobilising women to form yet another protest on Tuesday. Taking to the streets was the only way. Negotiations had achieved little in the 14 years,she said. We have managed to come this far. We cant let it slip, she said. Women have to enter politics and 33 per cent is arrived at scientifically. You need one-third representation to make a difference.

Growing up in Tamil Nadu,Sudha was involved in student politics at college. When she moved to Puducherry with her husband,also an activist,she took up a job as a teacher but remained involved with womens issues. It was one such protest in 1981 where they took out a rally in Puducherry against police repression of women that marked the beginning of her career in womens movement. The protesters were booked for attempt to murder. She went to court,lost her job. Thats when she decided to build up the AIDWA.

Albeena Shakil

Marital status: Married

In 1997,when officials at Jawaharlal Nehru University refused to set up an anti-sexual harassment cell,Albeena Shakil jumped into student politics lobbying hard against the universitys position. Albeena was one of three women and the only Muslim woman to head the students union.

As a Muslim,she said she understands Muslim women need to come to the forefront. But that should not be the condition that should hold the Womens Bill. You cant have three constitutional amendments one for women,for OBC,and for Muslim all at once. This one took 14 years. That would take forever, she said. Other debates can take place later. But let us start the discussion first. What drew her to activism was the lack of political will to bring womens issues into mainstream discussion,she said. It is not about representation. It is about womens issues becoming part of larger political debate, she said.

Chandra Devi

Marital status: Married

Among those who walked up to Parliament to demand the passage of the Bill,Chandra Devi knows it is a long way ahead but says the journey has begun. We are abused,beaten. We know it first hand. Men wont understand. They are the perpetrators of it. Now,we have a voice, she said after the passage of the Bill. She was one of the many women from Rangpuri Pahari,a slum cluster in Delhi,who had been protesting against the opposition to the Bill.