ON August 23-24, 2025, more than 500 women from across India gathered at Surjeet Bhawan in New Delhi to tell their stories of debt, despair, and defiance. The ‘National Public Hearing on Women’s Rising Indebtedness and Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) Loot’, organised by the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), became a platform where the silent burden of loans, harassment by MFIs, and the failure of public banks erupted into a collective cry for justice. It was not just another programme.

THE All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), in a statement issued on May 14, has  strongly condemned the highly irresponsible, despicable and communal remarks made by Madhya Pradesh Tribal Affairs Minister Vijay Shah against a senior army officer, Colonel Sophia Qureshi, whose family prides itself on a three-generation history of service in the army.Shah's utterly prejudiced statement against a prominent face of Operation Sindoor, is not only shameful but also an insult to both, the army and women.

IN Bihar, the grandparents took the micro finance institution (MFI) loan for the marriage expenses of their granddaughter. They did not have the capacity to repay it. They jumped before a train and died by suicide. In Maharashtra, a mother told her 6-year-old daughter to lock her in a trunk and let her out after the MFI agent has gone. The child went out to play and forgot to unlock the trunk. The mother died due to suffocation. In Haryana, a husband told the MFI agent to take his wife in lieu of the instalment as they could not pay it.

THE All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), in a statement issued on March 4, has expressed deep concern about a judgement from the Chhattisgarh High Court which exonerated a man against his conviction under Sections 377 (unnatural sex), 376 (rape), and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). The victim in the case was the man’s wife who had clearly stated that he had sexually assaulted her against her will by inserting his hand in her anus. The injury caused to the victim was so severe that she died in the hospital a few days later.

THE All India Coordination Committee of Working Women (AICCWW), the women's sub-committee of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), in a statement issued on August 26, welcomed the release of the Hema Committee report and the assurances given by the LDF government of Kerala to implement many of its recommendations to improve the working conditions, particularly for women, in the Kerala film industry.