Fight for justice to continue with an eye on livelihood

Kolkata: Citizens, who had come out on the roads in thousands to “reclaim the night” on Aug 14, seeking justice for the RG Kar PGT doctor and demanding safety for women at the workplace, vowed to continue their movement, which completed a month on Saturday. The organisers made it clear that all they wanted was a safe environment for women and that they would ensure no one’s livelihood was hampered owing to their demonstrations.
“We will continue our fight for the justice for the RG Kar victim. We demand punishment for the culprits who committed the crime as well as those who tampered with evidence,” said Satabdi Das, one of the organisers of the ‘Reclaim the Night, Reclaim the Rights’ movement. “We will also hold night meetings in the city, districts and villages, where women and people from the trans and queer communities can share their ordeals. Their demands for safety will be taken to the higher authorities.” Das pointed out the reason for holding such meetings at night was primarily to ensure no one’s livelihood was affected. “If meetimgs are held at night, people’s livelihood will not be affected. Shop and stall owners will not suffer losses owing to the protests,” she said.

Rimjhim Sinha, the first one to call the ‘Reclaim the Night’ movement, also pointed out their protests should go on, but without disrupting people’s livelihood. “Lakhsof working-class people and daily wage earners bank on the festive season for income. Many of them are supporting these protests. But we should not forget that the festive season is an important economic factor for them. At the same time, our fight for justice for the victim and to end the ‘rape culture’ will go on till we find some structural change. We will have to organise local women in groups and discuss their demands,” said Sinha.
Assistant professor at Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata, Anwesha Sengupta said a takeaway from this movement was that the concept of gender rights and gender awareness had entered conversations. “The movement should be kept alive in dynamic ways, like classroom discussions on gender sensitisation and household conversations. Street protests are not sustainable. We should also be sensitive towards those whose livelihood centres around the festive season.”
Braving the inclement weather on Saturday, nearly 500 engineers, scientists and technologists marched from College Square to New Market. Engineer Manas Das said, “Had there been no rain, more people would have joined us.” Artists also held a rally from College Street to Shyambazar on Saturday evening. Photographer Debayan Das said, “We told everyone to carry umbrellas and raincoats because of the rain. In spite of the bad weather, members from music, dance, photography and art fields joined in.”
Soumyajit Hait, an organiser of ‘Rajpothei Canvas’, a graffiti campaign planned from Hatibagan 10 pm on Saturday, said the event had to be called off owing to inclement weather. “We will hold it next week. Protests should go on but livelihood should not be hit. We have to balance both.”