Nagpur Dharna for Men's Welfare Ministry- by PIF, Mumbai & SIF

Nagpur Dharna was conducted on 27th July, 2008(11AM to 3 PM), at variety Square, Seetabuldi, Nagpur.


Dharna Coverage: Speakers, Venue, Statistics of misuse of law.


Dharna news reported on Tv, interspersed with Statistics, bitter realities, Opinions and some Music for inspiring the next revolution- Gender-Mafia.... Quit India!

This DHARNA was conducted for the demand of formation of "A MEN WELFARE MINISTRY " & to stop misuse of IPC 498(A), Domestic Violence Act (2006) and other misuse-prone women-protection laws(Dowry Prohibition Act, Sexual Harassment at Work place Act, etc ) by suitably amending them and by rectifying the flaws in their execution by the Police and Judiciary.

Dharna Report

• We distributed around 10,000 pamphlets right at the venue(another 10,000 were distributed in the previous days). Since the venue was a junction of 5 roads(heart of the city) easily around 10,000 people were crossing the venue every hour noticing the banners and even reaching out for the banners from buses, rickshaws, pillions on bikes etc.
  
  With 8 news papers publishing the news in quarter page size(on an average), and local TV channel airing a detailed report, the reach this first time Dharna at Nagpur attained was phenomenal.
  
  While distributing pamphlets at the junction we interacted with a lot of passerby’s who seem to readily acknowledge that dowry based laws are misused a lot.
  
  The only group of pamphlet recipients I had to really brief was a group of 12 year olds, to whom I had to say that they could ask their fathers to know what the pamphlet is about. But they also seemed to know the crux of the matter. Alas I had to leave them at that moment, letting them figure it out for themselves.
  
  As usual in other parts of India, none of the Newspapers seems to have carried the help-line numbers. This is exactly why it becomes very important to print help-line numbers on each and every placard, banner, etc., in big fonts, so that the readers can make out these numbers from the photographs published(I remember Delhi has made this a regular practice, but it somehow skipped my mind at the planning stage).
  
  Nagpur team will be following up the event with mailing the memorandum to authorities of State/Central legislature, Police, Judiciary etc. , these post dharna follow-up activities are very important since these will help in sensitising the system very effectively. Main authorities will be met in person both in Nagpur and Mumbai.
  
  ************** Dharna related news items, Videos, Photos, etc.********
  
  Nagpur Dharna Video - Please "click favourite", "Rate", "Comment", send link of this clip, etc., to promote this video.
• Photo Of Nagpur Protest Against Gender Biased 498A/DV Law and demand for Men Well fare Ministry.
• Memorandum cum Press Release: http://pr498a.blogspot.com/2008/07/nagpur-dharna-memorandum-cum-press.html
• Covering letter(Summary) and Appeal to Government: http://pr498a.blogspot.com/2008/07/nagpur-dharna-memorandum-appeal.html
• 28 July - TOI , Nagpur - Main, meri patni, aur woe!-Nagpur-Cities-The Times of India
• 29 Jul - TOI, Nagpur - When men have to fight law, and wives
• 8 scanned News clippings are uploaded here: http://picasaweb.google.com/virag.v/NagpurCoverage

Let more of this kind be made possible by SIF activists worldwide, only then we will reach out goals faster – the question is not "Whether” we will reach our goals, its just “When!" , lets make it faster!.