THOUSANDS of women rallied at Jantar Mantar near India’s Parliament in Delhi today, calling out the Narendra Modi government’s attacks on welfare and women’s rights.

The rally organised by the All India Democratic Women’s Association (Aidwa) was denied permission to march on Parliament but saw over 10,000 women from 25 states gather to hear speeches from Aidwa general secretary Mariam Dhawale and many regional woman leaders. 

It followed a month of regional rallies including big protests in Mumbai and Kolkata, all under the slogan “Down with BJP-RSS” (the latter being the ruling party’s street-fighter wing), “save women, save the country.”

Aidwa said women had the most to lose if Mr Modi’s vision of a “Hindu rashtra” or nation replacing India as a secular republic came to pass: “A Hindu rashtra by its very nature is based on hierarchies and exclusion. It strengthens upper caste hegemony and patriarchy... we are at the threshold where all Indians, especially women, have a lot at stake.”

Already BJP rule had overseen a 26 per cent rise in crimes against women between 2016 and 2021, it pointed out. “A crime against women is committed every three minutes. Women are raped every 29 minutes and dowry deaths [the murder or forced suicide of a woman due to disputes over a dowry] occur every 77 minutes.” It pointed the finger straight at the Hindu chauvinist BJP, arguing that “the politics of hatred has resulted in increasing brutality and violence against minorities, dalits, adivasis [indigenous tribes] and women.”

Women also condemned Mr Modi’s attacks on social security, pointing to steep budget cuts in the public distribution system (which supplies subsidised food to the poorest households) and to the National Rural Employment Guarantee, in which households which sign up to carry out manual labour are guaranteed 100 days’ work for one family member a year. 

While Indian states are still required to implement the scheme, central government funding cuts meant it was falling apart, Aidwa charged. India, already the country with “the largest number of hungry people in the world,” was slipping down global rankings now ranking 107th of 121 in the World Hunger Index.