28th May, Guwahati: After having driven nearly 4000 kilometers, Guwahati makes it seem worth every second. The meeting with local women’s groups as well as some progressive men has been very heartening.

The North East Network, Assam Mahila Society and the Progressive Women’s Magazine played hosts to an engaging interaction with members of the civil society and press. Junu Baruah, Monisha Behal and Geeta Bhattacharya raised some vital points and emphasized why the struggle for the passage of the Bill is so crucial.

Twenty women from different parts of Assam had traveled to Guwahati to present their reasons for supporting the Bill. These shared familiar-but-distressing stories of domestic violence, rising alcoholism, lack of land rights, social exclusion and some misogynist customs (such as witch-hunting) that ensure that women remain second-class citizens. There were representatives of tea-garden workers, tribals, women and even men who supported the Bill in its current form.

It is voices like these that strengthen our resolve to get women the social status they deserve as fellow human beings. Guwahati, on the bank of the only so-called male river in India, the Brahmaputra, concurs.

Did we say that it was beautiful there? The gentle drizzle added to its undulating charms.