People's Democracy

Sickle Wielding Women Hold Up Traffic Across The State

ON September 8, the call for support to the agitating farmers in Jaipur received an unprecedented response from peasant women who emerged from their houses and their purdahs to blockade the roads of many towns and villages of Rajasthan. In Sikar and Jhunjhunnu, thousands of women waving sickles and jelis – the tools of their trade – congregated on the major link roads and blocked the traffic. Similar scenes were witnessed in Nagore and Jodhpur, in Bikaner and Churu, in Hanumangarh and Ganganagar. In many small villages, women came out on to the roads in expression of their support for the demands, even though there was no traffic to block! Along major highways, women were unfazed by the police efforts to stop them, they came out in such multitudes, exhibiting such militancy that the police and officials alike were taken aback. Traffic snarls all along the highway and in many of the towns were evidence of the tremendous success achieved by the massive participation of women. Indeed, in this saga of mini revolt, the farmers siege of the government headquaters in Jaipur was extended beyond these boundaries by the militant upsurge of peasant women who once again demonstrated that when the call for action comes, women will never remain silent, and by their joining forces, the success of the struggle becomes that much more certain.