 We are having this convention on 8th December, basically it's because the entire atmosphere of violence against women has increased tremendously. Women are being denied their basic citizenship rights. You find moral policing going on, honour killings are increasing, there are killings in the name of religion and caste, inter-caste or inter-religious marriages are being targeted and the entire laws which are giving protection to women are also being sought to be changed. The 498A and the rape laws, marital rape is not yet included in the laws against violence against women and because of that we are finding that an all-round agitation and all-round resistance has to be developed and that is why we are organizing this convention. There will be Junaid's mother, there will be Akhlaq's daughter, then there are certain couples who have been targeted, who have had inter-religious marriages, there are victims who have been denied grains because of linkage to Adhaar and we have found that there have been starvation deaths in Jharkhand, there will be people from their family, people who have been denied Manrega wages, there will be young girls who have been targeted, who have been trolled, who have been stalked from the Banaras Hindu University or the Jawaharlal Nehru University or the Marthya's daughter Gurmeher. So we are having a large number of people participating as speakers and we are having women also coming from all over the country to in this convention. From this convention we are going to give a call to build an all-India movement. All women's organizations, progressive, democratic and secular organizations and people come together because the title is Save India Convention. As India stands today a secular democratic country it has to exist, there are values enshrined in our constitution which are being targeted and we cannot allow this entire onslaught which is going on our citizenship rights. If you look at the NCRB data, the National Crime Records Bureau data, then you will find that in the last few years and particularly in the last one year it has been said that crimes of violence have increased and in particular crimes of violence against women. So we are worried about this. 8 December falls within the fortnight against violence on women. But we don't want this convention to remain a mere formality, not just a gathering of people but we want to give a call, particularly we want to give a call to young people, those who are there in colleges and schools and universities because we find what is happening there is also a very stark illustration of this kind of violence. For instance what happened to that young lad, Najib, we don't yet know what happens to his family, his mother, his sister, we all remember Jawaharlal Nehru University as probably first among universities which set up a cell against the sexual harassment of women on campus. We all learnt from that GS cash document. Now what is happening is that cases of harassment are increasing on the campus but efforts are being made by the authorities to water down GS cash, water down these harassment cells. Look at what happened in BHU, Banaras Hindu University, girls were harassed, they wanted justice and instead of having justice they are beaten up by the police. Look at the most inappropriately named anti-Romeo squads which are beating up young people if a boy and a girl happen to sit together. The Mandrega works are all government works, government public works actually but with migrant wages these Mandrega workers are working. Even then when they are not getting proper wages how can we say that this is a democratic government, how can we say that this is a gender sense to government. What as Edwa we feel that denial of right to work and livelihood and denial of the payment of wages that itself is a threat to right to life and with dignity. Agriculture share in GDP is going down but still majority more than 50 percent of our population, rural population are depending on the agriculture. Even if we go through the statistics with our own personal experience and knowledge also 70 to 80 percent of the agricultural operations are being done by women, more than 90 percent of this food production and food processing etc. are being done by women but at the same time the same women they were denied to have a proper food, proper health care etc. Majority of the women are still suffering with anemia particularly in the drought zone areas. The ICDS itself is the major relief for the poor women and children that is also denied everywhere this government is encouraging mechanization in agriculture. If you look at Punjab and Haryana so because of this mechanization not only men, women are also not getting proper work. Since BJP came to power yes but wherever they have also tried to you know communalize the situation even where they are not in power etc. Yes while they are in power also they have been doing for many many years but for example the misconception of what they call love jihad I mean they are making a mockery of two adults right to choose their partners in the name of religion and they are arousing communal passions to stop that that is unconstitutional that is an attack on the rights of citizenship rights and harassing hadia in such a way even though she has got partial kind of reprieve and she is now in her college it does leave a bad taste and it does leave a very intimidating message to other people who are on about to marry this way or who intend to marry this way or intend to choose their partners from another religion. So the other aspect is communalizing the question of triple talaq the question of triple talaq does not have it is not unidimensional it has many dimensions particularly for indigent women it has many dimensions the question of her own rehabilitation the question of her children their maintenance their upkeep etc. and the pressures in the society now for example there is this case of ishrat jahain west pengal who has helped her after she contested she was brave enough to have contested the triple talaq pronounced on her by her husband but who has helped her not the TMC government and not the central government if anybody has helped her it is our organization in west pengal. So I think just arousing passions in the form of slogans is not what is required. Another aspect is the violence unleashed on women during communal violence. We have seen it in gujrat, in muzaffar nagar, everywhere we have gone and met the affected women and we find how the whole situation is used to violate women with the advent of the RSS BJP government at the center and the kind of gagging of the media of free expression. I think voices need to be raised all over and say we are part of the struggle against this kind of ethos as it were and this is one of the messages we would like to give from this convention.