Jayamma doesn’t know of IWD – in Bangalore throughout life. She struggles to support her elderly mother and herself – left domestic work to become a stationary street vendor after a crippling fall 24 years ago.
Rihanna (in the middle), a working class, private school teacher adds: Women’s Day symbolises freedom to me. As a girl, I didn’t know of Women’s Day. We encourage Girls and Women to become financially self-reliant and disclose and resist violence anywhere.
Day after day
Many WomIn toil away
With little or no pay
We WomIn must fight
For our right
As silence
May beget violence
(WomIn maybe trans, queer, cis, disabled, Dalit, atheist, Muslim, Christian, Bahujan, Parsi, Buddhist, Indigenous, Black, brown, single, fat, working class, elderly, short, child-free et al)
Kiran says: IWD is for all marginalised women, not merely the powerful and privileged.
The writer is neuroqueer, gender fluid writer, LGBTQIAP+ peer counsellor, co-founder RANG Foundation.
Enjoys camera tricks & penning verse.
