Ahmedabad bandh planned for tomorrow

A pregnant Dalit woman sanitation worker was beaten up by the Gujarat police while agitating outside Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) demanding permanency in job on Monday. The victim is said to be seriously injured and has been taken to Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.

This was the post of Jignesh Mevani, one of the most vocal leaders of Dalit protests in Gujarat.

“One more pregnant dalit woman ( sanitation worker) agitating outside Ahmadabad Municipal Corporation for permanency in job is beaten up by Gujarat police. Today under the banner of Jan sangharsh Manch and in Rastriya Dalit Adhikar Manch demonstration was planned for their labour rights. Third time in a week we are detained. In Gujarat there is no place for peaceful demonstration. One police man was reportedly standing on the chest of an aged sanitation worker.”

This incident follows another similar atrocity in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district.

The pregnant woman, Sangeeta Ranuwasia and her family was beaten up on September 23^rd night by upper caste men for refusing to clear a dead carcass. She is now admitted in a civil hospital in Palanapur and the accused are arrested under Prevention of SC/ST Atrocities act.

So many of these unimaginable atrocities occur on an almost daily basis that we have become immune to them.

How do we respond to the present agitation in neighbouring Maharashtra,demanding abolition of the Prevention of SC/ST Atrocities Act?

– UDAAN