‘We have to find our own voice’: Women protestors of Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh to Ravish Kumar
‘The citizenship law and NRC are an attack on the Constitution.’
A recent episode of NDTV India journalist Ravish Kumar’s prime time show was based on the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act led by women in New Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh area.
Women and other protestors in Shaheen Bagh have been staging a sit-in since December 15. The protest is organised primarily by the residents of the Muslim-dominated neighbourhood, who fear that the Citizenship Amendment Act and a proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens will threaten their status as citizens.
Many women that Kumar spoke to said that this was their first time attending a protest. “Politicians have divisive strategies,” one protestor told the journalist. “We have to find our own voice. Leaders don’t care if there is unemployment, people are sitting in cold or whether there is enough food or not. They only care when it serves some purpose for them.”
The women also explained the changes they had to make to their daily routines to fit the protest in their schedule.