A NEW state committee of AIDWA for the newly formed state of Uttarakhand was elected at the founding conference held on June 16, in Dehra Dun. 84 delegates from 6 districts of the state - Dehra Dun, Almora, Tehri, Chamoli, Rudraprayag and Hardwar, attended the conference. After the flag-hoisting and offering of homage to martyrs, the conference was inaugurated by Subhashini Ali, working president of AIDWA, UP state committee. After the inauguration, Indu Naudiyal placed a short report of work done in the districts over the last 3 years. The discussion that followed was extremely lively and informative. Thirty two delegates participated in the discussion. All of them emphasised the fact that while it was the hill women who had fought and sacrificed much for the formation of the new state, they were already experiencing a sense of betrayal because of the policies being followed by the new state government. During the struggle, women had felt that the extreme hardship of their everyday lives would be alleviated by a sympathetic government of their ‘own’ leaders. One of the main slogans of the movement, as far as the women were concerned was, "give us water not liquor" and now they felt extremely cheated. Whenever the new ministers were grilled by the women about handpumps and tubewells, they had only one answer "we have no money". Adding insult to injury, the new government introduced an extremely liberal liquor policy resulting in its free availability through out the state. Even in areas where there had been prohibition earlier, liquor was not only flowing more freely than water but, in fact, only liquor and no water was flowing! This had resulted not only in great economic deprivation for poor families but had increased domestic violence and ‘goondagardi’. Delegates from 2 districts, Deepa Bisht from Chamoli and Madhu Sharma from Dehra Dun threw light about the anti-liquor campaigns that they were involved with. While in Chamoli, the local unit was agitating against crimes resulting from drunkenness, Madhu along with many women from her area of Malsi had been carrying out an indefinite dharna for three months against an illegal liquor vend in their neighbourhood. The local BJP leaders and police were in cahoots with the liquor contractor but the women were determined to get rid of the vend and they had finally succeeded in getting the district administration to lock it up.

The question of untouchability and anti-dalit measures adopted by the administration were also discussed in the conference. Uma Naudiyal from Rudraprayag said that a bypass road was constructed in such a way that the patta land distributed to dalits was acquired without payment of any compensation. From the same district, Dhanna Devi, a dalit herself, gave a graphic account of the way in which the entire administration tortured her entire family when they attempted to build a house on their own land. It was only because the local AIDWA members launched a determined protest movement that they could be saved from arrests and false cases and had succeeded in starting the construction. Ramkali from Dehra Dun said that while access to water was a general problem in the hills, for the dalits it was made more acute by the fact that they were prevented from using what were often the only source of water in a particular village. Often they were beaten or humiliated. Prembala from a village in Dehra Dun said that, after the construction of a bridge, land in their village had become very valuable and dalits were being deprived of the land they had been given through pattas. She also said that, even in government schools, dalit children were seated separately from the others. Sunita Pandey from Almora said that if a dalit wedding party was coming on a road where there was a shrine or a temple, they had to go downhill and then come back on the road because they were not permitted to walk ‘above’ a holy place.

Uma Naudiyal, Amra and Bachi Devi from Rudraprayag and Chamoli which had been badly affected by the earthquake said that poor people were still living in unsafe houses whose roofs and walls had large cracks because they had not received any compensation. They said that there had been a lot of injustice in the distribution of compensation: BJP supporters received the most and dalits and poor people received the least. Uma said that a government school in Rudraprayag which was not damaged was forcibly vacated by the administration who then handed it over to a Saraswati Shishu Mandir run by the RSS. The local people had fought many battles for getting a government school and they were most unhappy at the turn of events. Now it is being run in the open air. On the other hand the local MP had contributed Rupees 25 lakh from his MP-fund to the Saraswati Shishu Mandir and, in fact, this had prompted the chief minister to announce that all the Uttarakhand MPs would be giving a similar amount from their funds to the same ‘cause’. It was also reported that poor people who built huts were being fined even though they were often forced to do this because their dwelling-places had been destroyed or badly damaged by the earthquake.

Goga Devi from Tehri said that AIDWA units had, along with many others, always supported the construction of the Tehri Dam because they wanted electricity, jobs and development. At the same time, people like her were now living in a state of complete insecurity because, while their land was going to be totally submerged, the government was not allocating any alternative land to them Thousands of people were suffering similarly. She said that a big movement for rehabilitation and compensation was developing in the area.

Many women spoke about the increasing atrocities against women. While dowry had not been prevalent in the hills earlier, it had become a serious problem in recent years. The incidence of dowry deaths was increasing while many cases of rape and murder were also taking place. Many examples of such cases were given along with reports of protests and agitations which had resulted in the criminals being arrested.

Sunita Pandey spoke about the large number of abandoned women living in the hill areas. Traditionally, men from the area have gone to the plains in search of work and many of them marry a second time and abandon their wives and children in their villages. This is a serious problem that has not received much attention.

After the discussion, several resolutions were adopted. Mobilising public opinion against liquor vends, joint pattas to be issued in Tehri to those receiving compensation and alternate land, special pensions for abandoned wives were some of the demands raised in the resolutions.

At the end of the conference, after unanimous acceptance of the amended report, a new state committee was elected with Jagdeshwari Pundir as president and Indu Naudiyal as general secretary.