Play by Play

I'm sitting at a little place not far from my home in Norblingka, drinking a mango shake and feeding the shop's dog and still sneezing. Today was a good day. A memorable day.

It started at 6:00am, when I woke up, woke up my roomies, ironed my all white indian suit. I was ready for the 33% reservation campaign for women in parliament. Before I go on about the day, I'll give you some background. Less than 10% of the individuals sitting in the Indian parliament are women; many feminist activists and NGOs around the country are supporting a bill to end this inequality in the Indian government, one that demands 33% reservation of seats for women in parliament. The 33% for women campaign includes three caravans that are travelling the North, South, and Centre of India with a mission to spread awareness of the bill, rally support, and put pressure on the government. Today, three NGOs in the area hosted this campaign, Jagori, Nishta, and the Human Rights Law Network. Though I've been specifically working in the realm of healthcare here with Jagori, I had an opportunity to sit in on the rally today and participate in the activities.

We began by decorating the hall with signs of equality, justice for women, etc. and then made our way over the central location where the rally began. Songs rang through the air, women from all over India who organized the campaign on a national level came out, local NGOs were all participating. It was a lot of fun. We then made our way back to the main hall, where speakers, men and women, from all over the country were speaking about the bill and the campaign...and how the day that no one needs to ask for 50% reservation for women, will be the day that true equality will exist.

The day ended off with some festivities. I had a chance/was forced by Jagori staff to dance to classical Himachali music. Some how I ended up incorporating bhangra into the dance- don't ask ;).
So that was a quick play-by-play of my day. I'll check in again soon.

With love, Sheiry.