National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) joins the ‘One Billion Rising’ campaign on 14 February, 2013 in protest against growing violence against women. The street vendors’ body has called upon the women street vendors of different cities and towns to join the campaign and voice their protest against increasing harassment, torture and violence of police and municipal authorities.
In the national capital on 14 February, a large number of women street vendors would join the public action at Parliament Street with their slogans “Violence brutalizes all, Be it the Elites, the Middle Class or the Working Poor/Stop It Now” and “In Every Case of Sexual Violence on Street, Police Machinery gets Exposed”.
The public action being held at a close distance from Parliament would witness numerous activities including flash demonstrations, sit in, street plays, dance, songs, skits by community women and special performance by renowned musicians and bands.
For NASVI, violence against women is all- pervasive. It transcends class and caste. It affects and brutalizes all, be it the elites, the middle class or the working poor women. However, it is ironic that the violence taking place against middle class women and girls sparks off protests and makes splash in media, but when a working poor woman like a street vendor or a domestic worker gets harassed, tortured and physically abused, silence descends. NASVI fights out this irony and is committed to unite all against abuse, terror and violence.
