saheli day

Every year in July, an item emerges the agenda of our Wednesday meetings: how would we like to celebrate the beginnings of Saheli this year? August 9, 1981 was the beginning of a journey to raise our voice against women’s oppression, struggling for our rights and moving towards a world free of violence and injustice. To date, this day remains a powerful reminder of the challenges that lie ahead in continuing struggling against different forms of patriarchies especially for a small, non-funded autonomous collective like us. 

Over the years, we have marked the day by organising various kinds of events: Discussions on the Uniform Civil Code, the Saathin’s struggles, the Rise of Right Wing Politics and Impact on Women, Sex Work Debates, Trends and Dilemmas in the Women’s Movement, to name a few. Sometimes we have used the occasion to reach out to college students, or simply got together to celebrate by white-washing the office with friends and supporters, or even launch this website, as we are doing this year (2010). There are no rules of how we can or cannot mark the day. The only objective is to energise our struggles, and affirm our togetherness with co-travellers on this journey… because there are so many reasons to go on.