Every protest has a poster, and the image of Rhiya Ahir, a 27-year-old model, stopping a police truck in Mumbai with one hand, has become the poster of the ongoing student protests across the country.
Protests around the country, and women at the forefront
It is not just the Cockroach Janta Party-ignited student protests that have women at the forefront. Tribal women in the Dhodan region of Chhatarpur district, Madhya Pradesh, have been leading protests – Jal Satyagrah and Chita and Faansi Andolan – against the Ken-Betwa Link project. In fact, 24-year-old Divya is one of the leaders at the forefront of the movement. They are protesting against displacement, unfair compensation, and the loss of forest and land. Protestors have been standing waist-deep in water and wearing symbolic nooses around their necks on the banks of the Barana River. Moreover, several tribal women were also on hunger strike with activist Amit Bhatnagar, who had suspended his 18-day fast on July 23.
In Uttarakhand, citizens have been protesting against government-approved felling of over 4,000 trees to widen the Bhaniyawala-Rishikesh highway, and women have been at the forefront of these protests, too. Protestors raised their voice against the damage it would do to the Shivalik forests by reviving the Chipko movement. Following this, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami temporarily halted the tree-felling and ordered a review of the project.
In Punjab, sanitation workers, including women, have launched a protest demanding regularisation of their jobs, better service conditions, welfare benefits, and restoration of the old pension scheme. They have been on strike since July 8, and have decided to go on a statewide strike from July 26 onwards if the state government fails to address their demands by then.
This is not the first time women have joined a protest in India. India’s rich history shows that there have been many instances where women have led movements or become the face of them. Take the Chipko Movement, for instance. In 1973, a group of peasant women led a protest in a Himalayan village to prevent trees from being felled.
Then, in 1984, women took to the streets to seek justice for themselves and their families after the Bhopal Disaster. Later, in 1985, women led the longest non-violent movement in the history of the world, the Narmada Bachao Andolan, raising issues affecting the livelihoods and right to shelter of 32,000 people who were displaced.
History has not been kind to women, but women have always been at the centre of change.
Team Analysis
A woman stood in front of a police van detaining students as heavy rain poured in Mumbai. Another girl in Delhi faced lathi charge from the police and did not budge as she shielded the men trying to escape and find shelter. A female student questioned the government, demanding accountability during the protests at Jantar Mantar. AISA national president Neha Bora held a 23-day hunger strike alongside Sonam Wangchuk, which she ended on July 20. Aafreen, an MBA graduate from Bengaluru, left her stable job to join CJP as their spokesperson and advocate for student rights.
Girls are coming to Jantar Mantar with their mothers, mothers are bringing their toddlers to the protests, and mothers are protecting kids from being lathi-charged. Girls are standing in front of barricades to stop police from using lathis on protestors. Young girls are cleaning up the protest site and collecting garbage to dispose it off properly. Women are bringing sanitary pads and medicine kits to distribute among protestors.
These are only a few examples of women who have come forward in support of students demanding educational reforms, and there are many more who are showing up. And the pattern is hard to miss. It is clear that women are becoming a symbol of students’ resilience all over the country.
Women from across the country – including students, mothers, teachers, doctors, and professionals – have joined demonstrations to support students and demand a fair, transparent, and accountable education system.
Businesses led by women – Chef Radhika Khandelwal-owned Kona – have been making efforts to provide free food at the protest sites. In fact, Kona has distributed over 2,000 sandwiches since they began their initiative a few days ago.
Led by Gen-Z, this was never just another protest. The internet is flooded with cheeky edits made by students showing the reality behind a protest led by the young generation of this country. To express their frustration – a generation raised in the age of the internet – they have found memes and edits to be the best medium. And women being at the front has also been documented heavily by them. “Women empowerment is going well,” one influencer, Prem Khatode, wrote and shared an edit featuring women at the protests, saying, “I never saw Raani Laxmibai and Savitribai Phule. Meanwhile, Gen Z women.”
Another Instagram user posted an Instagram Reel edit, with the caption, “My fav genre? Women with spine.”
