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Fifty-five women from 12 states left home for 20 days to hit the streets through 20,000km in this scorching heat across 60 towns to push the  Women's Reservation Bill  
Shaweta Anand Aligarh

Twelve Innovas were transformed into railway coaches of 'Reservation Express' that whistled through three routes by road, covering a gigantic distance of over 20,000km through the north-west, north-east and southern parts of India. The campaign was flagged off by, among others, 84-year-old Qamar Azad Hashmi, one of the oldest activists supporting the cause, on May 20 from Jhansi - land of the legendary queen of Jhansi, Jhansi ki rani. 

The campaign culminated on June 6 at Delhi's Constitution Club where the karwans (caravans) converged with women activists from across the country celebrating a massive spectacle of dance, music and spirited slogans. They communicated their experiences to a happy Congress president Sonia Gandhi the next day, who backed this protracted struggle. Activists handed over 10,000 signed postcards to her backing the Women's Reservation Bill.

"Each karwan had several Muslim and Dalit women who campaigned tirelessly for promoting 33 per cent reservation for all women, irrespective of their caste, class, religion and ethnicity," Shabnam Hashmi of Anhad told Hardnews. Hashmi is the brain behind this national-level campaign. The campaign generated support from 200 rights-based organisations, feminists, intellectuals, activists and students across the Indian landscape. 

Said Sultana Sheikh, stoic survivor of the Gujarat carnage of 2002, "Drunk Hindu fanatics put a sword through my raped body to see if I was dead or alive before leaving me at the river bank. My infant child kept howling while I was tortured. What could he do? What could I do? There was no one to stop them. This happened when we were trying to escape after hundreds of armed men smashed, maimed and burnt members of our families in front of our eyes."  

"That is why I am a part of this campaign so that I can talk to women about their rights, especially their political rights. By getting the Women's Reservation Bill passed, we will be able to activate women power in this country and protect our rights in a violent, male-dominated world," she said. 

Sheikh was part of the karwan that covered 'route number two'. They traveled to Jabalpur, Raipur, Balangir, Bhubaneshwar, Vishakhapatnam, Vijaywada, Chennai, Kanchipuram, Madurai, Cochin, Calicut, Bangalore, Anantapur and Hyderabad before converging with other karwan members in Delhi two weeks later. It was led by Sania Hashmi, a documentary filmmaker, and activist Manisha Trivedi.

Also on the same route was Mohini Jatav, a Dalit activist from Jaipur, Rajasthan. Her husband's legs were mutilated by Gujjar panchayat members as punishment because he refused to work for them. His legs had to be amputated to save his life. "I am here so that I can travel far and wide while connecting with more women like me; so that we can heal our wounds together and fight for our right for representation in politics," said Jatav.

"I appeal to every women of every village to join us in demanding passage of this law. Why is it that I still haven't got justice even though I have been running around in courts for 15 years? If more women were in power, they would have ensured women like me got timely justice," roared Bhanwari Devi.