THE 14th AIDWA-Delhi state conference held between March 12-13, 2022, concluded successfully at Delhi’s Harkishan Singh Surjeet Bhawan with 128 delegates participating from across Delhi NCR. The conference discussed and reviewed three years of work and the state of the organisation and the accounts of the organisation, after the general secretary placed the conference report. 31 delegates participated in the delegates’ session discussion.

The discussion also focused on a range of important issues on gender, caste and class along with a thorough reflection on the conjuncture and the challenges. Women passionately discussed their work in the last three years – from interventions in the public distribution system to altercations with the police to file FIRs in cases of violence against women to local civic amenities, the pandemic caused distress, the problem of unemployment, and the impact of the Hindutva politics on women. The post-election corporate media narrative that set women voters by the side of Hindutva right-wing BJP has been a key point of discussion. The leaders/delegates identified that such faulty narratives need a strong counter from the women of this country.

At a time when we are threatened everyday by the toxic combination of the capitalists and the Hindutva forces, AIDWA has a greater responsibility to take, particularly to defend and advance the issues of women of India. The delegates spoke of the need for strengthening the organisation by escalating ground level work and regular public outreach. The conference remembered those who have left us in these three years, and it passed several resolutions.

The two-day conference elected a 47-member state committee with 13-member state secretariat.  Maimoona Mollah and Asha Sharma have been re-elected as the president and the general secretary of the state committee respectively. Srabani Chakraborty was newly elected to the post of the treasurer. Besides, six members were elected as vice- presidents, and three members for the post of joint secretaries.

The conference began with revolutionary songs by comrades of the Banga Mancha. The conference was greeted by a range of leaders from the fraternal organisations of the workers, youth and students, the dalit forum, the progressive cultural front and other women organisations. CITU Delhi general secretary Anurag Saxena, DYFI state secretary Aman Saini, SFI state joint secretary Yashika, Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch leader Rampal, cultural activist and member of Jana Natya Manch, Sania Hashmi, women's organisation leaders Deepti Bharati of the NFIW and Sucharita Kasturi and Renu Nayak of the Purogami Mahila Sangathan greeted the conference.

The all-India president of AIDWA, Malini Bhattacharjee inaugurated the conference. Talking about the aggressive campaign by the Hindutva forces and the corporate media narrative which credited the women voters for the victory of the BJP, Malini Bhattacharjee said, “Our organisation needs to take this question up and try our best to intervene through our politics.” She indicated that this campaign was run to serve a certain purpose of the ruling class, which, we must identify and work to defeat them.

Brinda Karat, AIDWA patron also addressed the conference and reminded the delegates that throughout its existence, AIDWA has been a significant force fighting on various women’s issues. She mentioned that all this time, the fight has been waged standing with the principles of democracy, equality, and freedom for women. The meaning of politics is not just to have a political organisation, but, the meaning of politics, according to us is to ensure a politics that can ensure elimination of inequality in all fronts, such as, in political, economic, social, and cultural fronts. There are several challenges today for the women. However, she advised the delegates “don’t take those challenges as the weakness; instead take them as your opportunity to work and fight towards defeating the forces who are posing those challenges for women of our country.” In this context, all steps that are challenging women of this country, in turn shall decide what course the women are going to take and hence, we must decide our politics very carefully.

The all-India general secretary of AIDWA, Mariam Dhawale placed her observations in the concluding speech. In her address, she stressed about the recent election results in five states, and the PM Modi’s remarks that the BJP had won due to the support of women. The ruling party used identities: caste, religion etc to spread hatred, and the class position of the masses were being ignored which is very much integrated to the caste and religious identities of people coming from the disadvantaged socio-economic background.  She mentioned that the politics of hate is on rule today, so a clear roadmap is needed to stand against the regressive politics which is targeting the women of this country. She called for an urgent and deep assessment of BJP’s hate propaganda as well as economic assaults on India’s downtrodden people. This can only be defeated by renewed and increased resistance on the streets so that the true character of the BJP-RSS is exposed before the people.

CREDENTIALS REPORT

Conference delegates were a mixture of young as well as experienced activists. The youngest member who attended the conference was a 14-year-old girl, and the oldest being a 70-year-old comrade.

We also identified that while the union government had farcically brought up the issue to increase women’s marriageable age to 21, the reality of India’s poor and downtrodden women remains unchanged where child marriage is still a harsh reality of our country. This needs careful attention and sincere efforts instead of taking steps to curtail women’s freedom to choose partners at the age of 18 by advancing the hidden political agenda of the BJP.

The conference was attended by members who have walked long with AIDWA since its inception till today when women became members in 2022. AIDWA-Delhi had walked long to work for the working class, and socially disadvantaged caste groups. This is reflected in the participation of delegates as more than 30 members were from the Scheduled Castes, 23 members were from the OBCs, 27 members were from the Muslim community, two members were from the Sikh community, and one member was from the Buddhist community. The class composition of the delegates was: 67 members were from the working-class, six from the peasantry, and 38 members were from the middle class.

The revolutionary women are the strength of AIDWA, and this too is reflected through the credentials of our women where almost all our comrades have faced police detention multiple times including some women comrades who have been jailed for several days.

For equality, for justice, and for social transformation our struggle shall continue.