 Hello and welcome to New Slick. We wish you a very happy New Year. 2018 was a year of resistance. With hundreds of protests taking place across the country, we try to bring you a glimpse of some of these movements through the show. In this segment too, we bring you a round up of various such protests and movements that have taken place across the country over the past few weeks. Women in Kerala have rung in the New Year with a grand gesture that upheld gender equality and have scripted history twice within 24 hours. On January 1st, 35 lakh women from across the state of Kerala formed a 620 kilometre long human chain demanding equal rights for women in all the spares in a government-backed initiative. The wall saw participation from women of different age, religions and included trans women, athletes, homemakers and different disabled women. A large number of political and cultural leaders, artists, writers, sports personalities, spiritual leaders participated in the women's wall and addressed the gatherings organised simultaneously at various parts of the state. Not so shockingly, showing extreme apathy to the women's demands and their assertions, the BJP state leadership dubbed the wall a total failure and waste of government funds and machinery. Even as the human chain was formed, right-wing organisations did not leave any stone unturned to create hurdles. In Vekal in Kasargod district, there were attempts of hurling stones at the women participants. The teachers of Delhi University have been fighting for a year on the issue of regularisation, pension, promotion and reservation. Hundreds of teachers under the banner of Delhi University Teachers Association or more popularly known as Duta have been at loggerheads with the DU administration. On 2 January, teachers in large numbers went on a strike and protested at the vice-chancellor's office as the academic council meeting commenced. Furious with the VC's apathy towards the condition of the teachers, they demanded that either the VC should act or he should leave. Teachers demanded permanent positions, regularisation, pensions and maternity leave for ad hoc teachers. Every segment of the teaching community at the moment is facing a crisis of livelihood. You have 5000 teachers who are looking for a permanent job, who have raised legitimate demands that because they have put in so many years of service, they should be regularised in their respective posts. Transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming persons from across the country gathered in large numbers at Chantamantar on 28 December. The demonstration was held against Government of India's Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Bill 2018 and trafficking of persons prevention, protection and rehabilitation Bill 2018. Protests were organised all over the country as the transgender community was furious that the bills were drafted without any consultation from the community and none of the amendments suggested by them were taken into consideration. According to the transgender bill, a person needs approval of a screening committee to be identified as a transgender person. The community has for long been arguing that the process of proving one's gender in front of a committee violates multiple fundamental rights and is utterly humiliating. The transgender bill criminalises begging and sex work just as trafficking bill does. It's a reality, however, that a large chunk of the trans community depends on begging and sex work for livelihood. Thus, by criminalising the very source of income and shutting doors of affirmative action, it seems like the government wants to lock up the persons who do not conform to the gender assigned at birth. The bill is not subtle at all about the plan of the government as it mandates transgender people to reside with their birth family. It is a fact that birth families are often the first sight of violence. If trans people are aided by other trans community members in escaping such conditions at home, the community members can be imprisoned for up to four years. Over 30,000 farmers and agricultural labourers from six North Bengal districts held a long march at Siliguri in North Bengal on December 27th. Retesting against the anti-farmer policies of the Modi-led union government and the Mamta-led state government. It was organised by the All India Kisan Sabha and the All India Agricultural Workers Union. Participating farmers accused the government of encouraging middlemen to practically take control of the government-run Kisan Mandis, coercing the farmers to sell their produce at a very low price. Siliguri city area residents, mostly from urban working class background, joined hands with their present brothers, providing over 1 lakh proteins for the marching people, many of whom had come from the far-flung mountainous belts or distant rural areas in the Bengal Assam or Bengal Bangladesh border. Later, a delegation led by AKS leader Kagan Murmu went to the North Bengal secretariat and submitted a 13-point demand charter which included loan waiver, increased minimum support price for agricultural produce like paddy and implementation of the TISA Barrage Project which was started by the left-front government but currently in a limbo. The UPSA aspirants have been forced to take to the streets after being turned down by several politicians they tried to approach. The student voiced their complaint on December 26th against the TISA paper that has created a wide gap between the students that hail from an urban background and those who belong to a rural setting and skewed the selection ratio in civil services examination to 80-20 in favour of the former category. One of their main demands is a compensatory attempt of the examination for the students who were badly affected by the sudden and constant changes made to the exam by the government in the last four years. Since 2011, C-SAT was introduced in UPSC and in 2015, it was qualified. So from 2011 to 2015, the time we spent in that was the best year. Nothing drives us more than standing in solidarity with the people's movements. Our teams are on the ground covering these movements extensively and hoping to bring out a change. So that's all for this week. To follow detailed reports on these protestant movements please visit our website and our Facebook page. Thank you.