Hitting out at the patriarchal mindset of the society which opposed the women entry at the Shani Shingnapur temple, prominent women’s rights activist Trupti Desai proudly claimed of breaking the 400-year-old tradition in four months by entering inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Shani Shingnapur temple.
She was speaking at day two of the three-day event titled ‘Indian Students parliament’ (ISP) organised by MIT world peace university in the city on Saturday.
Attributing the success of her protest to all the women who supported the entry inside the temples, Desai said, “We entered the Shani Shingnapur temple in four months by breaking the 400-year-old tradition. This is the power of women which the patriarchal society now needs to understand and appreciate.”
Women have achieved the pinnacle of success in every field, however, it is unfortunate that we have to now fight for the right to pray which is given to us by the constitution itself, she added.
Linking the issue of women’s rights, security and safety to the struggle of democracy, former Rajya Sabha MP and senior leader of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Brinda Karat said, “The constitution has granted rights and liberties to women. But if women are subjected to injustice on the basis of religion or tradition, the democracy of that country would never progress.”
She added, “You cannot talk about democracy in this country unless you ensure civil liberties of every single girl child. Only 18.5 per cent rape cases in this country receive justice. We have an increasing emergency of sexual crimes in India. If anyone speaks about sexual harassment, they get blamed for the perpetration of violence.”
{{/usCountry}}She added, “You cannot talk about democracy in this country unless you ensure civil liberties of every single girl child. Only 18.5 per cent rape cases in this country receive justice. We have an increasing emergency of sexual crimes in India. If anyone speaks about sexual harassment, they get blamed for the perpetration of violence.”
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