THE 10TH state conference of AIDWA resolved to build a stronger movement of the women in the state of Madhya Pradesh. This conference was held on July 16-18 in Kanha Resort in Morena city of MP. The city was named after late Comrade Leela Srivastava, who was treasurer of the organisation. The stage was named after Comrade Shanti Patel, who was the founder of AIDWA in Gwalior.

The conference was conducted by a presidium comprising Vidya Sagar, Sandhya Shelly and Santosh Prajapati and was attended by 106 delegates. Mariad Dhawale, general secretary of AIDWA was present all the three days. After the condolence resolution placed by the presidium, the welcome address was made by Chimman Singh Sikarvaar, senior trade union leader.

Mariam inaugurated the conference. She spoke about the condition of the women in the country and said that the present period is the worst for the women. She called upon the women organisation to face the challenge as the government at the centre has won by communally polarising the atmosphere in the country, and this will have a very negative impact on the democratic polity. She said this government is anti-dalit, anti-women, anti-minority and anti-working class.

The conferece was greeted by many leaders of democratic mass organisations. These include; Ramvilas Goswami-CITU, Ashok Tiwari-AIKS, K J Pippal-DSMM, Kishori Verma from Anganwari Federation and Aakanksha- SFI.. Raghuraj Kansaana, MLA from Morena also greeted the conference. He expressed concern over the decreasing female sex ratio in the Morena district.

After the inauguration, a procession was taken out from Nehru Park to Town Hall. A public meeting was held at the Town Hall; which was chaired by Vidya Khangar. The ward councilor Usha Goswami from Gwalior municipality was also present. Mariam Dhawale addressed the public meeting and spoke about the previous state government of MP which for the last 15 years was under the BJP rule. She said the slogan of “beti bachao, beti padao”(educate the girl child and protect her), given by BJP was a complete farce; a cursory look at the decreasing gender ratio reveals everything. The meeting was also addressed by Neena Sharma and Reena Shakya. They shared the history of Chambal ravines that produced women fighters like Rani Laxmibai, Jhalkari Bai and Phoolan Devi; all of them fought and gave up their lives, none committed Johar(a practice of self immolation).

On July 17, the delegate session began. The state committee report was placed by Sandhya Shelly, general secretary of MP. Twenty six delegates took part in the discussion and later adopted the report unanimously. The delegates demanded that; in every college there should be anti-ragging committee, in which dalit woman and a minority woman must be added. The delegates also gave suggestions over ration, pension, ban on liquor sale, better quality education, health etc. The delegates also emphasised that the girls must be given a choice to choose their partners.

The conference passed the following resolutions; against handing over of the health services to private players; against attacks on democratic rights; against mob lynching; against the anti-women budget of the government.

Two commission papers were also discussed; on dalit issue which was placed by Reena Shakya and on domestic women workers which was placed by Kamarjavin.

The conference elected a 26 member state committee, which elected Shelly Shukla as general secretary and Neena Sharma as president of the organisation. Sandhya Shelly. Kamarjavin and Santosh Prajapati as vice-presidents, Priti Singh, Reena Shakya and Rekha Pachauri as joint secretaries were also elected. Vijya Thakur was elected as the treasurer.

The conference was concluded by Mariam Dhawale; she laid stress on reaching out to a large section of the women who are not under the fold of the democratic movement. Cadres must be given choices of their work, she said.

Shelly Shukla, newly elected general secretary of MP-AIDWA, congratulated the state committee and asked the team to be ready to face the challenges. Neena Sharma spoke in the end and asked the delegates to take the tasks of the conference seriously.