In these times of reviving Gandhigiri (symbolically atleast), a gang of women, the Gulabi Gang (Pink Gang), has chosen the violent ways to protect themselves in a feudalistic, male-dominated, cast-ridden, poverty-struck village of Banda in Uttar Pradesh. Organized by a former government health worker, Sampat Pal Devi, they say they are not just a rowdy gang, but a gang for justice.
The pink gang
Even though they have stormed a police station and attacked a policeman after the police attempt to take in an untouchable man and refused to register a case, it is not just the violent reaction that they have in plan. Their leader seems to have a clear picture of the situation and a vision for the future.
"Village society in India is loaded against women. It refuses to educate them, marries them off too early, barters them for money. Village women need to study and become independent to sort it out themselves," she says. [Via BBC]
I only wish that the state government lay out some plans for this women to educate them, make them self-reliant with jobs, form societies of women for small-scale industries, get the police force to act properly rather than favoring the rich etc, before some Naxal group try to cash-in on the situation.